Consequences

sixteen

"Aiden is fine. All he cared about was getting back on the soccer field but I'm letting him rest for the week then he'll get back to it next week," Demi said, balancing her phone between her ear and her shoulder as she cleaned the marble counters in the kitchen.

"Little man is a star, of course he can't wait to get back on the field," Drake said as Demi chuckled a little bit.

"I guess. But he's okay. I just have to make sure he's not wheezing or anything but besides that, the asthma isn't too severe," Demi continued as she dropped the dirty rag in the sink before hopping on top of the counter.

"Well, I'm finishing up a few things for my album and then I'll be back in town," Drake said as Demi played with her chipped nails. A manicure definitely needed to be put on her schedule.

"Don't rush back..." Demi trailed off. She didn't want it to come off mean but she didn't want him hurrying to finish his work to get back to California to be with her either.

"Demi," he sighed out as she sat up a little straighter and held the phone to her ear. "Don't do this shit."

"What?"

"You're pushing me away because you feel guilty that you were with me in a different country when Aiden had an asthma attack", Drake deadpanned as Demi shook her head.

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are. I've been so patient with you, the least you could do is be upfront with me when you're about to pull that annoying ass shit again," Drake stated as Demi pulled her bottom lip in between her teeth.

"I'm not trying to push you away. Trey's lawyer presented new evidence so the custody trial got moved up to this weekend. I'm not pushing you away. There's just a lot for me to focus on right now," Demi tried to explain, but he wasn't having it.

"And what, me being there would be a distraction?"

"You know what, Aubrey? Yes, it would. Any type of relationship for me right now is a distraction but it's a good distraction. I'm not trying to push you away or anything, I'm just trying to make sure that my son is okay and that I get to keep him. Come home, don't come home...whatever. I'm just not about to do this back and forth with you," Demi ranted as Drake sighed again, and Demi knew that he was pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Sorry."

"It's fine. But I already got you. I do feel bad about being with you instead of my son but I don't regret it. I love you. We've come too far for me to push you away so soon. At least give me another month before I start trying to get rid of you," Demi joked to lighten the mood.

"Whatever, shortstack. I'll call you tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay. I love you," Demi said. Drake said it back before Demi hung up the phone and placed it by her side.

It wasn't that Drake was wrong about her pushing him away, because she had been, and she didn't even realize that she was doing it until he called her out on it. The only thing she cared about in the entire world right now was making sure that she kept custody of Aiden and Trey was out of their lives completely. That's all that she wanted.

By some stroke of bad luck, the custody trial got moved up to Aiden's birthday. Having the domestic violence trial and then the custody trial was supposed to work in Demi's favor because they could use the outcome from the first trial as evidence for the custody trial, but now that the custody trial was going first, Demi didn't have a solid conviction to back up the pictures of all of the bruises and marks that Trey had left on her body. She just had her word. And because she wasn't letting Aiden testify, she had to believe that her word combined with those pictures would be enough.