Capricorn Season - Jimmy Page

Chapter 31

"Um, okay, go on," I said, my voice quivering with uncertainty. 

Her hands fidgeted against each other as she pursed her lips. She looked as if she were searching for the words. 

Worry struck me.

I waited for her to speak, watching her features quiver in search of words. 

"The night me, Bonzo, and Robert went to see Sabbath something happened."

I didn't say anything.  

More worry.

She spoke with taut tension. Her pursed lips relaxed into a grimace as she preapred to speak.

"Robert slept with Tiffany."

Icy pain ran through my bones. 

I didn't believe her on instinct, didn't want to, but the look she wore told me she was serious. 

"Are you sure?" I asked. 

All the air shot from my lungs in one blow. 

"Yeah, um, then Bonzo took her back to the hotel. Robert told us not to tell you." 

She stood in the doorway still, casting a shadow down the hall. 

"He did?" 

Another stab.

Why didn't she protect me?

"Yeah." She stood with her hands clasped, the threat of tears haunting her. "Please don't be mad that I didn't tell you, or that I did tell you. I was just trying to do what was best."

I couldn't breathe. Bricks sat heavy on my chest. A thick lump made a home in my larynax. It languished on my vocal chords. I struggled to find the right words as I looked at her pained expression. 

"No, it's okay," I spoke through my pain, "I-I understand." I said, the lump choking me as I spoke. Cold hands twisted around my neck leaving behind a trail of bruised fingerprints. 

I slid down to the floor next to the thin door, Gwen following suit. "I'm sorry, Lore," she hugged me as I began to cry. 

Of course this was the truth. This was the inevitable, the twisting of the knife. I don't know whom I was trying to fool more, myself or everyone else. He didn't love me. 

Torrents of heat wracked my body as I let out a sob, falling harshly and heavy as fat rain. The tide rolled back as my body inflated with an inhale, the waves crashing back as I wailed with an exhale. 

I was shocked that Tiffany was the one who made it all come crashing down. I knew it had to end, but I thought it would be his wife. I always imagined the idea of him having children, something I tried to ignore, but I knew he had a wife. It was a subject both of us avoided like the plauge. 

If we didn't bring her up, she didn't exist. She was like an apperition waiting to appear at the foot of my bed at nightfall. She lingered around corner, threatening to topple it all. She was something I never wanted to think about always ended up on my mind. 

I spent the next fifteen minutes like this. I cried so hard my stomach muscles ached and my head throbbed. She held me the entire time, smoothing my hair down and telling me it was going to be okay. I listened to her and allowed her words to soothe my now exhausted body. 

But she was wrong. It wouldn't be okay. Everything would be different now. Robert had slept with someone else. 

"Gwen?"