Everything & More (Book 1 in the E.C.N Series)

Chapter 9-Ryan

"What the fuck happened?" Lori said next me looking baffled. We were standing in the middle of Martha's living room, both of us staring down at a sleeping Martha on the couch. The baffling part was that she was passed out drunk, unable to pick up Paige...again.

I rolled my eyes at Lori's dramatics, "What do you think happened?"

She scoffed immediately, "Don't get smart with me alright."

I shook my head and went to the kitchen, I heard Lori's footsteps treading lightly behind mine. "She called me a few hours ago saying that she couldn't pick up Paige and that she wasn't feeling well. She sounded fine so I went, picked up Paige and brought her back here. When I walked through the door, I found her passed out on the couch...again." I explained.

"Where's Paige? And what do you mean by... again?" She inquired as we sat down at the kitchen table.

"I put her to bed about an hour ago. And this isn't the first time Martha needed me to pick up Paige when she was drunk."

"What?! Why didn't you do anything?"

"Because it was right after she kicked Jonathan out and on top of that she seemed to have a really crappy day at work that day. So I let it go, but it happened again so I called you."

"That work day might have been my fault," I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, Lori huffed and continued. "I forced her to confess to Jonathan cheating last week by shoving her into the work showers. She's been avoiding me ever since."

"You did what?"

Lori put her hands up in defense, "I didn't do it on purpose, she wasn't talking to me, dodging my calls, she didn't really leave me much of a choice." I continued to shake my head at her as I left the kitchen without another word.

~~~~~~

I stood at the entrance frame of the living room watching Martha sleep. The past week was playing in my mind over and over again. Something started vibrating under the couch beneath her. I crouched down to see her cellphone and slowly dragged it out. The screen lit up again flashing:

8 missed calls from Jonathan

Seeing that Jonathan was constantly calling, pissed me off. I clicked on the notification and was met with the password screen. Without hesitation I typed in Paige's birthday and the screen opened. The voicemail section was filled, I chose one of the most recent ones and placed the phone to my ear.

"Martha, baby she didn't mean anything, I miss you and Paige. I want to see you both please. I won't come to the house until you ask me to. I know you need space, just know that I love you baby." I ended the voicemail and placed the phone onto the side table. I knew what she was going through was taking a toll on her but I didn't know it was this bad.

The sound of rustling brought me out of my thoughts. I went back to the kitchen to find Lori rummaging through cabinets with the trash can beside her.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Lori was holding cabinet doors open, "I am cleaning her out." Suddenly she reached up and grabbed two bottles of empty scotch, throwing them into the trash bin. I saw her go up and grab a full bottle of Jameson. She began unscrewing the cap and walked over to the sink. I immediately rushed over grabbing the bottle out of her hands. "What the fuck Ryan?!"

"Shhhh," I looked back, paranoid that Martha had woken up, "You shouldn't be doing this."

"Like hell I shouldn't." She leaped to grab it from my hand but I held it practically over my head. "Are you fucking kidding me? You know you're built like a damn tree."

"Lori this has to be her decision we can't make it for her. If we do, we'll never know if she actually wants help." Lori stood with her hands on her hips looking very pissed off. When she realized that I wasn't letting up, her demeanor changed.

"Fine," she turned to lean back against the counter and I slowly brought the bottle back down, "how do we do that?".

"Let's just start with a different approach, alright? And then if it still doesn't work we can go your way."

"Deal." I put the bottle of Jameson back into the cabinet. "You want some coffee?" I looked to find Lori already at the coffee pot. I nodded in response and continued putting the kitchen back to looking as normal as possible. When I was done I sat down as she made her way to me with two mugs in hand.

After a few minutes of sitting in silence, I felt eyes on me and confirmed it when I saw Lori glancing away, "What?"

She held her gaze for a few seconds before clearing her throat, "You know, she never told me why you guys ever stopped talking," she said, placing her mug down. I stiffened at her question, it wasn't something that I wanted to talk about.

Hell, I still haven't spoken to Martha about it.

"So, what happened?"

"Umm...look, growing up, when Martha and I fought it was never big. It would be petty fights, nothing we couldn't get past. Even when we had big fights, we would fix it immediately. I mean we couldn't go 10 minutes without talking to one another. Then Martha turned 15 and the fights got worse."

"Why?"

I let out a humorless laugh, "Him. It was always about him. Martha and I didn't go to school together so when she brought Jonathan over claiming this guy to be her boyfriend you could imagine my surprise. After that the fights became about how I didn't like him or how I didn't approve and wasn't being a supportive best friend. Honestly at the end of the day Martha was just caught in the middle of how much Jonathan and I hated each other."

"I don't see why you both always hated each other so much."

That was something I wasn't getting into with Lori. I shrugged, getting up and walking back to the living room, "It settled eventually, I mean she married the guy."

"So what was the fight two years ago?"

"Just...a misunderstanding." Movement on the couch brought our attention back to a rustling Martha. "I'm gonna put her to bed." I said as I stood and walked toward Martha bending down to pick her up. I carried bridal style around the couch toward the stairs.

"Ryan," Lori called me as I reached the bottom of the steps, "This can't happen again."

I turned slightly so I was able to see her, "I know."