Behind The Church

LVIII

Audrey

"You better be back soon." I point my finger at Eleanor. It's New Years Day, Christina will be coming back in three days and Eleanor is leaving so that she won't catch her.

"We'll see." Eleanor smiled. She gave me one last hug before turning around, literally walking into Adrianna who had just came out of nowhere.

"Whoa, my bad." Adrianna said, catching Eleanor before she head butts her.

"It's okay. I'm going now. I'll miss you, big sis." Eleanor said before hugging Adrianna.

"I'll miss you too. Drive safe, Husky." Adrianna said. We watch Eleanor's absolute unit of a car pull out of my driveway.

"Should we go in?" I ask my older sister. She nodded and I let her in the house, "So, what brings you here?"

"Eden and I broke up." Adrianna stated, her voice shook slightly and when she looked at me, she had tears in her eyes.

"Oh, Adie. I'm so sorry. What happened?" I say as I lead her to my couch. Ruth and Zoey were upstairs with Khrystyna so I wasn't too worried about them.

"She started hitting me. About a year ago, after we'd moved out of Christina's place. And I thought I could take it. Because I've been through it all before but everything just came flooding back in and I couldn't do it. So I broke it off. Suddenly she was sorry but I just couldn't do it." she explained.

"She was hitting you? And where's Sarah in all of this?"

"She didn't hit me when Sarah was around. So I found myself becoming very dependent on her. Eden didn't like that and she called me all sorts of names. All paedophilia related. And so she would constantly uh, forcefully have her way with me and hit me. But I told her that if she even thought about laying a single finger on Sarah, I'd kill her. " Adrianna said.

"So I'm assuming you want a place to stay?"

"Only until Christina is back. If it's not too much on an issue."

"Adie, you're not an issue. Sure, you have an issue, but it won't stop me from giving you a place to stay. Even when Tina comes back. And I think Sarah should stay here too."

"Eden said that if Sarah went with me, she'd have me arrested." Adie said quietly.

"For fucks sake." I cursed.

It was then that Adrianna's phone rang. I looked over and saw that it was Sarah.

"Hey, Sar." she put it on speaker phone.

"Mom just told me that you broke up. Why? What was wrong?" I heard her voice and she sounded hurt.

"Sar-"

"Was it me? Did I do something? Was I too clingy? I just really enjoy being around you and I love you! I'm sorry! Please come back!" Sarah cried.

"Sweetheart, it wasn't you. I'll tell you everything but not over the phone, okay?"

"Okay, I'll come to you. Where are you?"

"I'm at Audrey's."

"Okay. I'll be there in like, ten minutes."

"Okay, sweetheart."

And then they hung up. I brought Adie into my arms and held her while she cried. I squeezed her as she shook and kissed her head every so often.

"I'll take the kids and Khrystyna out. You guys have some time alone. We'll come back with McDonald's and we'll sort everything. Okay?"

"Okay." she nodded and sobbed.

"I'm so sorry, Adie."

"Auntie Adrianna? What's wrong?!" Zoey's little voice called to my sister. It's cute how she cares.

"Come here, Bach." Adie said to Zoey. She ran into Adrianna and held her tight. I saw Zoey's little hand smoothing Adie's hair and she kissed her Auntie's head every so often.

"I'm here for you, Auntie Adrianna." she said to her.

"Thank you, sweetheart."

"Mama will be home soon and she'll make everything all good. Don't you worry."

"That's what I'm hoping." Aode said, pulling away to look at Zoey, "You're just like her, you know?"

"Am I?" Zoey questioned.

"Yes. You're like the carbon copy of her. It's cute."

"Well, I'll take that as a compliment because my Mama is awesome." she smiled a little.

"She is. Zoey, how about you go get dressed so we can go to the park while Auntie Adrianna sorts some things out, yeah?" I chip in.

"Okay! Shall I tell Ruth and Auntie Khrystyna?"

"Yes, please." I nod.

"Okay. Bye, Auntie Adrianna." she gave Adie one last hug before running upstairs.

"Thank you." my sister said.

"Just tryna help you out." I shrug.