Hell on Earth

Chapter Forty - The Next Chapter

"So, how are you holding up?" Nancy asked as she sat down across from Cynthia. She slid Cynthia's coffee to her.

"As well as I can," Cynthia grabbed the cup with both hands, but didn't drink. She trained her eyes on the coffee. "It's weird not be able to go back to my house."

"Has your mom tried to contact you?" Nancy asked. "It's been two weeks since your guy's fight, and she doesn't even know where you're staying."

"Well, she has no idea where Eddie lives or his number," Cynthia said. "But, she knows where I work, so if she wanted to make amends, she could find find me." She looked up at Nancy. "Has she called your house."

"Just once," Nancy told her. "It was a day or two after you left the house. I didn't tell her where you were."

"Thanks," Cynthia said. She took a sip of her coffee.

"Are you going to try and talk to her?" Nancy asked

"I wasn't the one who started the fight," Cynthia sighed. "And, I'm not apologizing because I wasn't wrong about anything that night. What she said to me... that was horrible."

"I'm sorry she said those things," Nancy told her. "You didn't deserve any of that."

"Thanks," Cynthia took a breath. "I'm just glad I was able to pick up my things."

"How did you manage to pull that off?" Nancy asked.

"You guys give me too much credit," Cynthia chuckled. "It was so easy. Eddie and I went over to my house when she was at work, I used the spare key. We got in, got the rest of my shit, and left. I left her a note." Cynthia looked down at her lap. "She probably just threw it away."

"What did it say?" Nancy asked.

Cynthia bit the inside of her cheek, "That I won't apologize for what I said, and I won't come home until she does."

"Do you think she'll apologize?"

"I hope so, but probably not. I just don't know what I'm going to tell Dustin. He's coming home tomorrow, and I have to explain why I'm no longer living at the house."

"Is your mom picking him up from camp?"

"Yeah," Cynthia took another sip of her coffee. "That was always the plan, so we didn't have to talk about that. It's still going to be an awkward conversation."

"Do you have any idea what you're going to say?"

"I'm going to be honest. I'm just going to tell him Mom and I had a fight. At least I'll be in neutral territory."

"What is this trip that Eddie is going on?"

"Some type of family reunion. Eddie isn't too thrilled about going, but his uncle is making him go." She looked up at Nancy. "I'm still good to come over to your house tomorrow, right?" Cynthia asked. "And your family is all right with me spending the week there while Eddie and his uncle are out of town."

"I've told you a million times that it's all right," Nancy laughed at her. "It's going to be a week long sleepover."

"Yeah, when you're not busy sleeping over at Jonathan's," Cynthia teased. "Though, I don't think there's much sleeping happening."

Nancy couldn't help but drop her jaw as she laughed, "You have no room to talk Miss "I live with my boyfriend'."

"That's different," Cynthia tried to defend herself. "We haven't had sex yet."

"Of course," Nancy couldn't help but mess with her. "You just do everything else but that."

"A girl's got to draw a line somewhere," Cynthia held up her hands.