Change Up Page 14

  18

  Kristin

  The sun was peeking through the blinds in the bedroom and it was just enough to rouse me from my sleep. I looked over and saw I was laying close to Wes, who was breathing lightly as he slept. A smile crept across my face as I realized how happy I was here.

  I certainly wasn’t accustomed to sleeping with someone after knowing them for such a short time. In fact, I wasn’t much accustomed to having sex with anyone, let alone spending the night with them. There had been a couple of boyfriends in college that I had been with, but that was pretty much it for me. I was only out of school a short time before I moved to Chandler, and there had been no one else before Wes came along. He had come in and swept me off my feet, quite literally, in a short amount of time, and I was glad about it.

  Since Wes was still sleeping soundly, I thought I would get up and make us some coffee and maybe breakfast as a nice surprise. I got out of bed without a stitch of clothing on. I saw my clothes tossed about the room and didn’t really feel like putting everything back on. I grabbed my panties off the floor and slid them up my legs. I then walked over to Wes’ closet and quietly opened the door. I was bowled over by the immense walk-in closet that was before me and saw it was filled with suits, pants, shirts, shoes and the like. I slowly walked through, touching different things, until I decided to grab one of his light blue dress shirts hanging there. I slid the shirt on, lifting the collar up to my face and getting the faint smell of him on it. Wes was much bigger than I was, so the shirt was easily like wearing a nightshirt for me, coming down pretty far on me to give me coverage. I rolled up the sleeves a bit and slipped out of the bedroom, leaving the door open just a crack.

  I stepped out into the kitchen and saw the coffeemaker and poured some water into it. It took me a little bit to track down when the coffee and filters were, but I managed to find everything and got the coffee brewing. As the coffee brewed, I found some bagels in a bag on the counter and thought I would put them in the toaster for us. That was all easy enough to put together for me. As the bagels toasted, I went looking for a couple of coffee mugs.

  I found the mugs on a shelf in one of the cabinets above the counter and was stretching to reach them. I could feel the shirt I was wearing riding up a bit in the back as I reached, standing on my tiptoes to grab a mug. I had just gotten the mug around one of my fingers and was pulling it down when I was startled.

  “What are you doing here?” the voice said.

  I felt the mug slip out of my hand and crash to the counter, shattering it into pieces as I gasped. I turned around and saw Isabelle standing there, obviously surprised to see me in the kitchen wearing her father’s shirt and not much else.

  “Isabelle,” I answered, feeling startled as I tried to gather up the broken pieces of the ceramic mug carefully. “You scared me.”

  Isabelle walked closer to me, looking confused, hurt, and a little bit upset.

  “Why are you here in the morning, and wearing one of my dad’s shirts?” she asked in a raised voice.

  “Isabelle, please, let me explain,” I said to her, trying to think of how I was going to phrase everything to her. I was sure she had a million thoughts running through her head, and none of them were likely very flattering towards me at the moment.

  “I don’t think there’s too much to explain,” Isabelle said to me as she was standing in front of me now. She was taller than me under normal circumstances, but with her in her sneakers and me barefoot, it was even more pronounced. I could see that her face was getting a little red as she glared at me. “It’s pretty obvious what happened.”

  I was feeling flustered and had trouble coming up with any way to defend myself right now.

  “I know how this must look to you, and I’m sorry for that but…” I said to her.

  “But what?” Isabelle shouted.

  “What’s going on out here?” I looked behind Isabelle and saw Wes standing there in a white bathrobe he had thrown on. Isabelle turned around and saw her father standing there. “Izzy, what are you doing here? I thought I was picking you up at Amy’s this morning.”

  “I guess you didn’t read the text I sent you late last night,” she said angrily. “I told you Amy’s mom was going to drop me off here this morning so we could… spend the day together…” her voice trailed off, sounding as though it had a mix of anger and tears in it, and she turned and looked back at me.

  “Izzy,” Wes said as he walked towards her, “I’m sorry I didn’t see your text.”

  “Why?” she yelled. “So you could sneak her out early before I got back here?”

  “Hey,” Wes answered, “that’s not fair.”

  “Really? That’s what you would have done, isn’t it? So I wouldn’t have to walk into the house in the morning to see her strutting around in your shirt?” Isabelle turned and looked at me again. “Are you happy now?” she yelled at me. “You got the chance to fuck a famous rich guy, and now you can brag to your friends about it.”

  I felt about two inches tall and could feel my own tears welling up inside me. I wanted to fight back, but I thought that would make things worse.

  “WHOA!” Wes yelled, coming up to Isabelle and spinning her around to face him. “Don’t talk to Kristin that way; don’t talk to anyone that way! I don’t know what has gotten into you, but I can tell you I don’t like it. Now apologize to Kristin and then we can sit down and talk about this.”

  “I don’t think so,” Isabelle said to him, wrestling her arm free from Wes. She stormed off, running down the hall.

  “Izzy!” Wes yelled at her and followed her, but I heard the front door slam. It opened again quickly, and I could hear Wes yelling again.

  I went into the bedroom to quickly gather my things. I grabbed my jeans off the floor and pulled them on quickly. I searched the room for my bra and tank top and tracked them down. I took off Wes’ shirt and threw it on the floor as I put my bra on and then pulled the tank top over my head. I sat on the bed, putting my sneakers on as Wes walked in and came over to me.

  “Kristin, I am so sorry,” he said to me, putting his arms out to me.

  “I should go, Wes,” I said through my tears. “Maybe this was a mistake.” I slipped my other sneaker on and began to look frantically for my jacket. I tried to control my tears, but I was not doing a very good job.

  “Kristin, hold on,” Wes said to me, trying to stop me. By then I had found my jacket and my purse and was walking out the door. I wasn’t even sure what I was going to do. The walk back to my apartment wasn’t all that far, and I figured I could make it on my own.

  “Wait!” Wes yelled as he got a hold of my arm. I started sobbing harder as he brought me close to him.

  “Wes, you need to go talk to Isabelle,” I said to him, trying to be rational about everything. “She… she obviously is not ready for you to start seeing someone; certainly not me at least.”

  “She barely knows you, Kristin,” Wes said as he looked down at me. “It’s just her gut reaction. She doesn’t understand things like this.”

  “I’m beginning to think I don’t either,” I said to Wes. I turned and began my walk down the road, away from the house and Wes. I cried with each step, trying to figure out what I did wrong. Wes kept calling out to me, but I picked up my pace and moved faster until I had gone past his parent’s house and towards the end of the road.

  I raced over onto Route 5 and began my trek back towards Main Street. A moment later I saw a blue pickup truck go by me and then stop about ten feet in front of me. The passenger side door bounced open, and as I slowly walked up to it, I peered inside. There was Wes’ father, Wyatt, sitting in the driver’s seat.

  “Hop in,” he said to me gently. “I’ll give you a ride home if that’s what you want.”

  I got into the truck and closed the passenger door. Wyatt merged back onto the road and headed into town. We didn’t say anything to each other at first, and within moments I found myself crying into my hands. I cried until Wyatt pulled int
o the parking lot at my apartment.

  “Kristin,” Wyatt said to me, “Wes was at my house trying to talk to Izzy when I left to find you. You have to know you didn’t do anything wrong. I think the whole thing just caught Izzy off guard. She’s used to being the only one in Wes’ life. I think seeing you at the house just put her on the defensive.”

  I sniffled a bit from the tears before Wyatt handed me a white handkerchief. I took it wiped my face with it.

  “Thank you, Wyatt,” I said to him. “I appreciate the hanky, and the ride, and your words. Perhaps things were just moving too fast anyway. We barely know each other, really; I can see why she would be upset. The last thing I want is to come between the two of them.”

  “Let the two of them hash this out with each other,” Wyatt said to me calmly. “They both need time to understand a little more about each other, especially if they are going to be around each other more. Don’t jump to any conclusions.”

  “I’ll try not to, but given the circumstances, it’s a little difficult,” I told Wyatt.

  “I know it looks that way,” Wyatt said, “but I can tell you one thing for certain. Even though you two have only known each other for a few days, I have never seen Wes like this with anyone. I know you are special to him, and that’s not an easy thing to be with him. He doesn’t let people in like that. Goodness knows, he needs someone like you in his life.”

  I tried to crack a small smile at Wyatt as he attempted to make me feel better. I went to hand back the hanky to Wyatt.

  “You keep it,” he said to me, holding his hand up. “You can give it back to me the next time you see me.”

  I climbed out of the truck and closed the door, and made my way slowly up the stairs to my apartment door. Wyatt stayed in the parking lot until he saw me open my door and then he pulled away. I got inside the apartment and closed the door, breaking out into tears again. I felt my purse vibrate and opened it and pulled my phone out. There were two missed calls from Wes and then a text message from him:

  I’m worried about you. I hope you’re okay. Just let me know you’re okay.

  I sent him a text message back:

  I’m home. Your father gave me a ride. I’m okay.

  Wes replied immediately:

  Okay. Can I call you? Can we talk about this?

  I thought about it for a moment and then sent him a reply:

  Not now. Talk to Isabelle. She needs you before you can talk to me.

  I then turned my phone off so I wouldn’t have to deal with more messages. I walked into my bedroom, tossed my purse and phone onto my nightstand, and crawled into my bed, wishing I could roll things back a few hours, or even a day, and do things differently.

  19

  Wes

  Everything took a turn for the worse so quickly it was almost difficult for me to react to it. I was sleeping comfortably in bed when I heard the shouting and ruckus develop in the kitchen. At first, it didn’t dawn on me just who it was who was fighting, but once I heard the two distinct voices of Kristin and Izzy, I knew something was very wrong. Izzy had apparently come to the house early, seen Kristin there, and had a reaction. I leaped out of bed and grabbed my robe, but by the time I got out there, Izzy was already on a tirade like I had never seen her in before.

  I did my best to try to calm the situation, but I think no matter what I said at the moment was going to have little effect. When Izzy said what she said and stormed out, I immediately went after her to stop her. It felt like the right thing for me to do at the time, even if Kristin wasn’t going to see it that way. By the time I got to the front door, she was already halfway down the hill to my parent’s house, and I thought it was better to let her go and deal with Kristin and then go after Izzy.

  I tried to reason with Kristin, to apologize to her and work to figure out what was going on, but she was much too upset to deal with it at the moment. She was down the hill just as quickly as Izzy was before I could try to convince her to stay and talk or at least get in my car with me. I was left standing at the front door in my robe trying to figure out the calamity of the moment.

  I raced into the house and put on the first clothing I could find, threw my sneakers on, and hopped in my car. My first stop was going to have to be my parent’s house to see what was going on with Izzy. I was down the hill in seconds and swerved into the driveway, kicking up dust and dirt along the way.

  When I got inside, my father was standing there with a bewildered look on his face. I could hear my mother trying to talk to Izzy through the door of her bedroom in as calm a manner as possible. I started to walk towards the bedroom, feeling more angry and upset with each passing second. My father grabbed my arm as I was walking by him to stop me.

  “Hold on a second, Wes,” he said to me as he held me tightly. He began to slowly back me up towards the front door.

  “Dad, just let me go to talk to Izzy,” I said to him, trying to control myself.

  “Barreling in there and yelling at her is not going to help things any right now,” Dad told me calmly. “What the hell happened?”

  I took a deep breath and exhaled. “I guess Izzy got dropped off at the house this morning, came in, and saw Kristin in the kitchen. She started yelling and screaming, and the next thing I know, she is swearing at Kristin and tearing out of the house. I couldn’t stop her from running down here to you guys.”

  “Okay, well that helps to start to explain things,” Dad said to me. “How’s Kristin? Where is she?”

  “She was upset and left too,” I said, my mind racing now. “She got out of the house and down the hill before I could stop her. I got dressed and came here first.”

  Dad sighed and rubbed his lightly grizzled and gray chin. “You go talk to Izzy,” he said to me. “I’ll go pick up Kristin, so she’s not walking on Route 5.” Dad walked to the door and grabbed his keys and headed out while I made my way down the hall to Izzy’s room.

  Mom was standing by her door, trying to talk through it and soothe Izzy to get her to open the door for her. When I got over there, Mom had a look on her face and shrugged her shoulders. She pulled me lightly to the side.

  “I don’t know what happened,” Mom said to me, “but I’ve never seen her so upset where she won’t even talk to me about it.”

  I banged on the door loudly. “Isabelle, open the door!” I yelled.

  “No!” she shouted back. “Go back home and leave me here!”

  I pushed hard on the door with my shoulder, feeling the door was locked.

  “Why do you let her have a lock on the door?” I asked Mom in frustration. “Isabelle, open the damn door, or I’m kicking it in!”

  “Not the solution, Wesley,” my mother said to me sternly. She walked into her bedroom and came back out carrying a small screwdriver and handed it to me. I took the screwdriver and worked it into the doorknob, easily turning the lock and opening the door, so I could go in. I shut the door behind me firmly. I could see Izzy staring up at me as she was laying on her bed, her eyes red and puffy from crying.

  “I didn’t say you could come in,” she said angrily, shocked I would come in uninvited.

  “You gave up the right to decency when you started shouting obscenities before,” I said to her, trying to contain myself a little.

  “What did you expect, Dad? That I run over to her and give her a hug for spending the night with you?” Izzy turned her face away from me.

  “Hey, what is going on with you? I don’t know where all this is coming from, and if you don’t talk to me about it, we can’t do anything but keep shouting at each other.” I sat down on the edge of her bed near her head and went to touch her hair. She quickly shifted her head away from me.

  “If you weren’t ready for me to date someone Izzy, you should have said something to me two days ago when it first came up,” I said to her.

  Izzy turned and looked at me with tears.

  “I have no problem with you going out on dates,” Izzy said, trying to regain her composure. “It’s a
little different when I walk in and see someone half-dressed in our kitchen. I came home looking to spend the day with you, just us, like we talked about. Instead, I see her in there.”

  I wasn’t sure what I should say to Izzy at this point. I could certainly see why she would be upset, but how was I supposed to change what had already happened?

  “Look, Izzy,” I said quietly, “I’m sorry that is what happened, and it upset you. I… I don’t really know what to say about it.”

  “There’s nothing for you to say, Dad,” Izzy replied. “I can’t believe you would let yourself be taken in that way. You hardly know her. She’s just looking to use you.”

  I rose from the bed, feeling anger welling in me again.

  “How dare you say that,” I told Izzy. “You don’t know anything about her; you just jumped to conclusions right away. You haven’t learned enough about life yet Izzy to say that. And do you honestly think I would do that, or act that way? Just bring someone home and sleep with them just so I could do it? I would hope that you know me better than that to think that was true.”