Hearts Afar

...35...

...35...

Six Months Later

It has been a rough six months for us. After the kids found out that Brent was home and Clay was not, we started having a lot of problems with them, especially with Mikey. He started disappearing on me and would not listen to me for anything. He would listen to Brent a little bit better but it took a lot to get through to him. Instead of Hannah acting out, she just withdrew herself from everything. The once happy nine year old I had, was now this little girl who was more gloomy than anything. She use to talk about Clay all the time but now, we are lucky if we get complete sentences from her.

As soon as Brent was released from the hospital, he did not hesitate to move right into the house with me. I talked to the kids and they agreed that they would be okay with him setting a room up in what was Caroline's room. He promised that he would not change anything and everything would remain the same until they were uncomfortable with it. Brent really surprised me though because as much as I thought that he would not be able to fall into a fatherly figure, he did.

Today was my birthday and I was in my last year of being a teenager and two weeks ago was Clay's twenty-third birthday, we even had a little thing for him.

"Happy birthday, Legs," Brent said, coming into the kitchen and giving me a big hug. Just than, the back door opens and Mikey walks in.

"Yeah right," he mumbled under his breath.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"You have done nothing but lied to us."

"Mikey," Brent said.

"What? She tells us everyday that she loves Clay, only wants to be with Clay. I walk in and she's rubbing all over you."

"Mikey, I came in to give her a hug. It's her birthday," Brent said.

"Whatever," he said and then looked me in the eye. "You're a bitch."

"Michael Redden, get your ass upstairs. Now!" Brent yelled and Mikey listened to him.

I just looked after him, feeling the worst smack in the face than I ever experienced from Jessica in high school. I have been nothing but faithful to Clay on every matter. Sure, I give Brent hugs but I did even while they were here. Clay never thought that I would stray away from him and no matter what, I wasn't going to. After Brent got out of the hospital and moved in with us, we sat down almost every night and talked about Clay. The more we talked, the more I felt his presence. I really now believed that when two people loved each other as much as Clay and I did, we could feel each other no matter the distance.

"He didn't mean that, Claire."

"Yes, he did."

"Claire..."

"It's okay, Brent. He wants to hate both of us but he can't hate you because you've always been a part of his life. He's got a lot of anger bottled up and I'm just an easy target," I said, trying to take up for him.

"It doesn't give him a right to call you a bitch. He needs to realize what would have happened to him if you had not taken them," he said.

"I need to go for a walk," I said and left through the kitchen to the front door.

I just needed the air. While I was in the house, I felt like I was suffocating. I knew that the kids would eventually turn on me but in all honesty, I never expected it to happen so soon. Mikey bottled up his feelings except when it came to telling me off and Hannah just would not talk about anything. There was a very noticeable weight change in her and it started making people wonder if I was cable of taking proper care of the Redden kids. If the state came in and took them away from me, I would not know how to act. They were my kids now and I would be lost without them.