The Peters

Breathing Underwater

[Taissa's POV]

Tessa wouldn't leave her room, and barely spoke if you came to visit her. I brought her food and it never would it all be gone, sometimes it wouldn't even be touched. Evan was so stressed out about everything, I mean I was too but he was really having a hard time trying to get over the fact that she was pregnant. "Mommy?" Olivia said, wandering into the room her tongue in between her lips. She sat down on the foot stool in front of the chair, crossing her legs. She looked nervous.

"What?" I asked, sounding kind of annoyed. I had a long day. Yesterday Tessa had the appointment that told us she definitely was 100% pregnant. A baby was in my daughters stomach. The baby's father is the guy that I had cheated on Evan with. It's all my fault.

"Tessa is having a baby?" She asked, her forehead creased with tiny signs of worry. I pulled a hand over my forehead, feeling a wave of sickness.

"I don't know!" I bit my lip afterwards cluing in that my tone was too mean. Olivia pouted at me, upset. "Sorry." I mumbled, she furrowed her blonde eyebrows angrily and then stomped away. "Evan, where the fuck are you?" I whispered to myself. He left in the car, angry because I kept telling him that we cannot tell Tessa that she has to have an abortion and that she can choose for herself. He took another 20 minutes to come home. Walking in wordlessly. "Where were you?!"

"Cooling off." He said, scratching the stumble on his chin. I stood up, gritting my teeth. "Tai," He said gently, his voice soft.

"Don't "Tai" me." I growled, crossing my arms. "You can't just get up and leave when there's to much shit going on."

"Seriously. Taissa calm down or I'm going to flip out again." He said, face getting red with anger. I wanted to push him to him flipping out again. I needed to vent so badly that it was like I had no self control.

"You can't just get up and leave!" I yelled again, clenching my fists.

"Why were you allowed get up and leave 13 years ago?" He retorted. I froze for a minute, surprised that he would even dare saying that.

"That was different." I mumbled now, unsure wether I wanted to yell or cry.

"Ya, it was. You know why? I left for maybe an hour, for a drive. You left for half the night to go fuck another man. And that man made our little girl pregnant Taissa. So thank you!" He screamed a tear falling from his eye. There was no doubt everyone could hear in the house. My face grew red. The only person that would know a little bit about the story would be Quinton because he was the only one old enough at the time. The anger boiled inside of me until I lurched forward, both fists flying. I heard a tiny loud cry from my right. I didn't manage to hit Evan, he caught both of my wrists. "Taissa!?" He screamed, dropping my wrists immediately. I brought my hands up to my face, crying and stumbling back a little. "Come here. It's okay." I heard, and immediately I assumed Evan was talking to me but when I went to look he was sitting on the flood next to Olivia who had herself rolled in a small ball hyperventilating. My tears dried as I watched them. She couldn't get herself calmed down at all.

"I can't breath." I heard her gasp.

"Olive?" I mumbled, but Evan just glanced at me with a dirty look. My heart beat started to increase when Olivia wouldn't stop gasping for air. "What's happening Evan?" I whined, watching our 10 year old shaking in his arms letting out small breathless cries now and again.

"I don't know." He said, picking her up. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pushing her face deep into his chest. Evans free hand touched her skin under her jaw. "I think she's having a panic attack." I hugged myself feeling sick. She saw me try and hit Evan. So caused the panic attack to start with.

"What do we do?!" I asked, hopping in spot a little anxiously.

"Shit." He cursed looking at me. He looked hurt but he tried to mask it with anger. "Call a nurse or something. I don't know it's not urgent enough for an ambulance."

So I called a nurse, one answering immediately. "Hello, what can I help you with?"

"I think my daughter is having a panic attack?" I blurted, my heart beating fast.

"How can you tell?"

"She is hyperventilating and her pulse is really fast." I told her.

"Get her to do a breathing pattern. And try and put her in a quiet room."

"Breathing patterns." I said to Evan and he started talking to Olivia quietly.

"Just be as patient as possible." The nurse said. "When it's over I recommending calling a doctor and explaining. Then he'll probably tell you to come if it happens again for treatment." then I hung up thanking her.  Evan was doing deep breathing, trying to coax Olivia into doing it. She seemed to be trying but she couldn't keep concentrated. I sat on the arm of the armchair, holding a hand over my face, keeping the water from spilling from my eyes.

I'm fucking up everything