A New Life: Action

Once he heard the knock on the outside doors of the gym, Brad slowly sat up from where he'd been laying on the bleachers. It was almost the end of the work week, there had been nothing going on at school that day, so there really wasn't anything for him to do except count down the hours until 10:30.

So he'd called Mia and told her to come over, and added in that she needed to stop by 7-11 on the way and get him a Slurpee.

He slowly made his way across the gym, wondering if he had actually fallen asleep while laying on the bleachers, and then pressed down on the latch of the door. He pulled it open just a crack, only the side of his face visible to Mia, and eyed her sternly.

"Did you make the Slurpee right?" he asked her. He had a specific way he liked his Slurpees, about two-thirds Coke and one-third cherry, and she knew it.

Mia opened her bedroom door, exhausted from work. All she wanted was to grab her pjs and curl up and go to sleep. She walked over to her dresser to grab her night clothes when she spotted an envelope on top. Her mom left a post-it note on top of the envelope. The little note read, “This came in the mail today. You may wish to read it when you are alone.” Mia pulled off the post-it note and looked at the name on the return address.

“Dad,” she whispered. She threw the envelope back on her dresser and grabbed the rest of her pjs. She wasn’t going to read it. She hadn’t heard from him since the impersonal happy graduation card she received a month after graduation. She wasn’t interested in anything that her biological sperm donor had to say to her. Nelson was her father now. She didn’t need to see anything from that man.

As she turned off her lights and pulled the blankets around her, Mia couldn’t push that thought from her mind. What did he have to say after all this time? What stupidity would he impart to her now? Kicking off the blankets and turning on the lights, Mia grabbed the letter and ripped it open.

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Tara was hopping around the living room, wearing a pair of bunny ears.

"Mia! Mia!" she cried, running to her stepsister, "Where are your ears?" Mia took a deep breath. Tara always got so hyper on holidays. Or any day, really. At least Sara was doing some quiet activity with Aaron. Now, anyway, all three of them were insanely hyper this morning.

"They are downstairs," Mia said, "Brad's going to be here any second, so I'm going to wait for him outside. Then I'll find the ears, okay?" Tara's eyes lit up.

"Yay! Brad's coming! Oh! Oh! Do you think he'll wear the ears?" she asked.

"You'll have to ask him," Mia replied, stepping out on the front porch, shutting the door behind her. She flopped down on the stairs, covering her face. She felt so tired right now. Maybe she could have a little nap while she waited.

Mia took a sip of her beer, feeling a bit nervous. She did want Jace and Brad to meet because things felt really serious with Jace and she wanted slowly introduce him more into her life. If he passed the Brad test, then maybe soon she would be okay with introducing him to Aaron. Maybe.

"He should be here soon," Mia said to Jace, setting the bottle on the table. Jace nudged Mia's shoulder with his own.

"Yes, you said that. And you picked a booth front and centre enough for him not to miss us," Jace said, "You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were nervous." Mia frowned.

"I'm not," she answered.

"You sure? Because you keep playing with that coaster and you are fidgeting..." Jace trailed off, smirking.

"Shut up," Mia snapped.

"Going to make me?" Mia grinned at him, leaning closer.

"Maybe," she said as she kissed him.

Brad sat in his car, staring across the street at Mia's house.

He'd just come back from New York and when he drove away from the train station, somehow without even thinking, he'd driven to Mia's rather than to his own place.

He wanted to make up. It had sucked the past few weeks not seeing her and Aaron, and his brother was getting sick of his complaining, and Erica was getting sick of him being in a bad mood, and he was sick of being bored, and he just wanted it over.

He stuck a cigarette in his mouth, lit it, and took a long drag of it as he slowly got out of the car and made his way across the street and up to her front door.

After finishing the cigarette and tossing the butt into the garden, hoping that no one would notice it there, helet out a deep groan, then knocked on the door.

"Tell me I'm right," Mia said, getting straight to the point. She decided to take her day off and go to New York City to see her friend to try to get some perspective on the Brad's-an-asshole thing.

"I need to know that I'm not being too harsh on him or whatever. I'm starting to doubt myself and I don't want to. All I want to do is kick him until he cries," Mia said as she flopped herself down on Mari's couch.

For someone who hated high school, I've been back in this building too many times, Mia thought as she walked down the hall at Stoneybrook High School. Well, she was doing this for Aaron because otherwise she did not want to be in this school and to be in this school to see him.

Still she knew she could not approach this conversation with that attitude. Why do I have to be the bigger person here? she thought as she spotted Brad by the gym entrance.

"Brad," she called out, wondering exactly how to start this conversation, "Hi."

“Mommy?” Aaron’s sleepy voice asked as he climbed into Mia’s bed. She shuffled over to make room for him. She wrapped her arm around him.

“What’s up, little man?” Mia asked, trying not to yawn.

“Mommy, I can’t sleep,” Aaron said, snuggling against his mother.

“How come? Did you have a bad dream?”Aaron shook his head, “Did something happen at school?” he shook his head again, “Did your aunts make up a scary story for you?”

“Mommy, I miss Brad,” Aaron said, with a slight whine, “When can I see him again?” Mia took a deep breath.

“Brad and I are just having a disagreement,” Mia said, stroking his hair, “and we aren’t talking right now.”

“Why aren’t you working it out? Whenever I get upset with Tara or Sara, you tell me to work it out with them,” he asked. We aren’t working it out because Brad is a stubborn ass and it would be like talking to a wall.

“When you broke your wrist, I got really scared,” Mia said, trying to choose her words carefully, “I thought Brad should have been more careful.”

“Brad was super careful!” Aaron piped up. Mia frowned, not wanting to get into the argument with Aaron. She knew it wasn’t right to have Aaron in the middle like this. Brad had been there his entire life. Just because she did not want to see Brad didn’t mean that Aaron should suffer. But the whole problem was that she wanted to make sure Aaron was safe around Brad.

“I’ll talk to him, okay?” Mia said.

“Can I see him again soon?” Aaron asked.

“We’ll see, okay?” she answered, “You know that your safety is always first for me. I love you, Peanut.”

“I love you too, mommy,” Aaron said, “And I love Brad too.” Mia squeezed him tight.

“I know, Peanut,” Mia said. I hate that this is affecting you but I’d hate it more to put you in a dangerous situation.

“I hate him,” Mia said as soon as Jace opened the door. Jace looked a little surprised.

“What?” he asked, letting her in.

“Brad,” Mia replied, “I hate him.” Mia had called Jace Saturday night to cancel their plans on Sunday. She had told him what happened then. Mia had wanted to stay home with Aaron, even if she felt sick to her stomach every time she saw that cast. Jace invited her to come over when Aaron was in school, just to get a breather from the situation. Jace pulled her close and kissed her.

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Brad laid back on his futon, reading the music section of the local paper to see oncert listings. He was babysitting Aaron that day, and the kid was happy to just sit in front of the tv watching the Winter Olympics while playing with Transformers, so his job that day was pretty easy.

However, he was getting kind of bored. There wasn't really anything good in the paper, and while snowboarding was on which was one of the pretty good Olympic sports, he just wasn't feeling like sitting around watching tv. He'd asked Aaron if he wanted to go out and do something, but all he wanted to do was watch tv.
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“Hey there, sexy momma,” a voice called out, startling Mia as she wiped down the last table. Mia looked up, prepared to tell the person off when she realised it was Jace.

“What are you doing here?” she asked. He shrugged.

“Waiting for your shift to end,” he said, “I thought I would pick you up and take you out for an early supper.”

“Oh really now?” Mia asked, turning her back on him so she could finish cleaning the table. Jace smirked and shook his head.

“You never make anything easy,” he said. Mia smiled, trying to hiding it from Jace. He saw it anyway.

“Then things wouldn’t be any fun,” she replied, “Give me five minutes and I’ll be out, smelling like lemon cleaner.”

“My favourite,” he answered, smirking back at her.

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Video games felt kind of useless with no sound.

But since Brad had lost his headphones, and Aaron was asleep in a Transformers sleeping bag on the floor, that was how he was stuck playing Call of Duty.

He looked up as he heard the door to his apartment open and saw Mia walking in, then paused the game. "Kid's asleep," he told her. "I took him sledding and to McDonald's and then we did Wii boxing, he passed out about an hour ago.

Mia hated working as a server and it would just figured that was the job she was assigned to do more than anything else. Mia stepped out into the reception hall. There was still about forty five minutes before the people came. Her boss liked her staff early in case people came early. Mia walked around, looking at the layout of the tables.

“Hey, Mia,” Jace called from the stage area. Mia nodded in his direction, not saying anything, “You have a minute? I could use a hand.” Mia walked up towards her stage. Every time she took the first step towards the stage, even after all this time, she could practically her hear mother’s wedding and Tommy’s smooth words.

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Mia held up a plastic bag, which held the leftovers from the prevous night's dinner, to Mari, when she answered the door.

"I made too much last night," Mia explained, "So I thought I would share. Also I made some brownies." Okay, I am bribing my friend to have girl talk? Or at least warming her up since I don't do this girl thing very often.

Aaron was in his pjs, playing with a truck he got for Christmas. He drove the truck right into his mother's feet.

"Aaah!" he cried, "It's a giant! The people from truck town will all flee in horror!" Mia rolled her eyes. Using her foot, she turned the truck around and pushed it back to her son.

"It's getting close to bedtime," Mia said, "Why not put your truck away and go get a book? I'll read it to you." Aaron shook his head, preparing the truck to zoom again.

"I heard you say Uncle Brad was coming over," he said, "I wanna stay up to see him and tell him all about New Years Eve!" He pushed the truck towards his mother again. Bedtime wasn't techincally until eight and Mia knew Aaron would want to see Brad and probably wouldn't calm down until he did.

"Okay," Mia said, "Go put the truck away and go get Teddy. I'm sure Brad doesn't want to be a victim of the rolling truck." Aaron jumped to his feet and went downstairs. Mia walked to the front door and opened it just as Brad walked up on the step.