All Of Me

Chapter 38

(All Of Me has a Facebook fan page now! Here's the link :) https://www.facebook.com/pages/All-Of-Me/1463455380602116. Also, the song for this chapter is in the sidebar.)

Tripp's POV

The pounding of my head woke me up, and I was greeted with an overwhelming nausea that had me scurrying from the bed to the bathroom without waking the sleeping Brooke beside me.

As I finished spilling the contents of my stomach into the toilet, I rested my forehead on my arm, and caught my breath. It hit me how pathetic I was as bits and pieces of the night before flooded my mind. I remembered Brooke coming to pick me up, and I remembered calling her. I don't remember anything that happened after she took me home, so waking up beside her was quite the surprise.

It hurt seeing her with him, a lot. I loved Brooke. I realized that now, but I was sure I had loved her longer than just a few months.

I stood and flushed the toilet, using the sink to support my weight as I splashed hand-fulls of water onto my face. I examined my face in the mirror and realized that I couldn't force Brooke to want something she was hell bent on refusing, no matter how many times I tried to change her mind.

I needed to get it together, especially since Brooke would always be around, Luke was my son. I shivered at the thought and left the bathroom, walking back to the bedroom. She was awake and looked up at me with sleepy blue eyes. A small smile pulled at the corner of her mouth, revealing the tiny dimple that resided on her right cheek as she rested her hand over her belly.

"How'd you sleep?" I gave her a small smile back and began gathering some clothes off the floor and throwing them toward the hamper in front of the closet. She shrugged and slipped on her white sneakers.

It dawned on me that my truck was still at Josh's, and I hoped none of his druggie friends had trashed it or stolen any of my stuff. As if reading my mind, Brooke spoke, "I'll drive you back to get your truck."

As eager as I was to say yes, I shook my head. It wasn't a good idea. "You go on to work, I'll get my mom to take me." She looked at me confused for a moment, then, as if it registered, she looked down at her feet and nodded.

I wanted so badly to reach out and touch her, to feel her, but I couldn't. It needed to stop; the back and forth. It wasn't good for either of us.

She quickly walked past me, and I rubbed both hands over my face. I was too hungover for this right now.

"Brooke," I called and jogged after her. I heard the screen door slam and ran out it behind her. "Brooke, listen to me," I grabbed her wrist, but she snatched it away. The fog was still settled in around the neighborhood, and the sun was just barely up. Too darn early to be arguing with her.

"What are we doing?" She was on the verge of tears, but holding them back, I could see her bottom lip quivering. "I was going to stay away from you because it hurts. All of this hurts." She gestured between us. "Luke deserves two parents that are in love and want whats best for him. That's not you and I. We didn't even know what we were doing when he was conceived." She threw her small arms into the air.

She waited for my response, and shook her head when it didn't come, snatching the door to the little green car open. Who's car is that? Clint comes to mind and I finally spoke. "No one made you come last night. You could've hung up and let me sleep it off there. Not the first time that's happened."

She slammed her door closed and took two steps toward me. "If you hadn't made me go to that stupid party, I wouldn't be pregnant. Not saying I regret my son, just saying it's not al my fault. I'd never drank before, you should have taken me home when I passed out drunk! I came because you asked me to, and you're my best friend." I laughed at her words and shook my head, "No, you came because you love me. You know you do. You remember those kisses, how it felt. You're trying to morph the situation into your ideal circumstances, and it's not going to happen, Brooke!" I ran my hands through my hair, pulling at the roots in frustration. "You're not going to be able to make it the perfect little married couple, with a dog, waiting for the bouncing baby to arrive. We screwed up, Brooke. And it's not all about you. He's my son too, I'm just as much of a father as you are a mother." I tried to yell some reason into her head but she began crying and I cursed.

"So what do you want, Tripp? Are you going to marry me? Give Luke a family with both of his parents?" Her words threw me back and I immediately shook my head. She laughed sarcastically. "I didn't think so." She got into the car and sped away.

Marry her? Why can't she just chill out and see where things go? Why does she have to be do difficult? Did she think a man that lied to her face would make any better of a father for Luke than I would?

I began to feel queasy again and walked back into the house. Hungover or not, I had to go to work. I took an advil for my head, tried to ignore how frustrating Brooke was being, and got ready for work. The neighbors just got to watch me argue with my Baby Mama in my driveway in my boxers. Real nice. I rolled my eyes.

I finally arrived at work, an hour late, but there nonetheless.

I knocked on my boss's door and opened it when she said I could come in, my eyes fell on the girl already standing in front of Mrs Robinson's desk. She was short, even in heels. Her hair was a mixture of dark blonde and brown, and bangs fell just above her green eyes. She smiled sweetly at me and I tried to smile back. "Ah, Tripp, good morning. This is Charlotte, she'll be writing the news column now since Chuck quit. You'll be working with her. She asked for our best photographer." Mrs Robinson beamed.

Charlotte gave me a small awkward wave, and I readjusted my camera strap on my shoulder as I offered her a handshake. She shook it, and Mrs. Robinson sent us on our way out of her office.

"If you want to walk to my office, I'll show you what my first story will be about. Maybe you can give me some ideas." Her voice was soft as she tucked some lose hairs behind her ear that missed her messy ponytail. I nodded and let her lead the way.

She showed me the rough draft for an article about the old mill they were planning to tear down. "Could yu take some pictures of it for me, maybe?" She asked shyly, barely making eye contact. I nodded and laughed a little. "You don't have to ask, just tell me what to do, boss lady." She laughed and her smile was so sweet. She reminded me of the Brooke before all of this mess.

I turned to leave and she cleared her throat, "Mr. Sparks? Can I come with you?" She finally kept eye contact for more than a few seconds, and I nodded. She followed me. She grabbed her black blazer and put it on over her black and white stripped shirt. Jeans and blazers were usually a pet peeve of mine, but it didn't look so bad on her.

We walked to my truck, and I opened my door for her. I wasn't sure why I felt some guilt, I had no reason to. Brooke was probably off with Clint right now.

As I pulled out onto the road, she examined my camera in her lap. "This is a lovely camera. You're very good with it. Mrs. Robinson showed me some of your work."

"Thank you. It's been a hobby of mine since I was in highschool."

She laughed a little, "That couldn't have been too long ago. How old are you?" "I'm 18, thank you." I laughed and she snorted out a laugh. I laughed again, and the cycle continued until we both finally stopped. "Mrs. Robinson didn't mention that you were part pig." I teased her and she giggled again as we pulled up on the bridge where the mill sat, out of order for years, but still a very historical part of Gracetown.

It was built on the side of a small hill, where a large river ran. We got out of the truck, and walked across the bridge that had been out of use for as long as the mill had. She watched as I snapped differen't pictures of the old mill, and asked timidly if I could get different angles.

Once I finished, we got back into the truck and grabbed my camera to flip thrugh the pictures, but I quickly took it from her, causing her to jump. "No ma'am. Not until they're edited. You'll see." I winked and she poked her lip out.

I offered her lunch, and she accepted.