Something True (5 page)

“And now they live there again?”

“Yeah, they moved back when Aleix and I branched out on our own.”

I don't even know why I'm telling her any of this. I don't ever really talk about this stuff. Maybe to Reid and Christen, but I've known the pair of them since middle school and they lived through that shit with me. But Ibbie. . .I just
want
her to know this. It's the first time we've ever really been alone together and I find myself spilling everything because. . .because I guess I hope that if I do then maybe she'll understand me. Maybe she'll understand why I can be a dick sometimes.
 

Okay, a lot of the times.

And. . .and I just want her to
know
me. That's all.
 

“That's so sad,” she breathes. This time I don't look at her. I can't. “Your mom and dad, I mean. They suck. They suck so bad. It's okay for me to say that, right? I don't care, I'm saying it anyway. They're the king and queen of Suckville. But your grandparents sound super sweet.”

Sweet isn't exactly the word to describe my Grandma. She
looks
sweet on the outside, but she's tough as nails, that woman. The kind of woman even a guy like me wouldn't dare to disrespect. “They are.”

“Are they on your mom or your dad's side of the family?”

“Mom's. My dad's folks are from Mexico. Never met 'em.”

“Huh.”

I wiggle my eyebrows at her. “See, aren't you glad you came? Now you get to hear all these fun little facts to rip into me for later.”

“Yes,” she replies solemnly. “To be honest, this is the bestest sadventire I've ever been on.”

“Hey, there's nothing sad about it. Did I mention the pot pie?”

+++

GRANDMA OPENS THE front door before I've even turned off the car engine. I open Ibbie's car door for her, and she stares at me in surprise as she climbs out. If I could take back time, this would be how I treated her from the minute I met her. I hate that it's too late to change her opinion of me now.

I lead her down the pathway, turning back to watch her smile at all the garden ornaments my Grandpops has been obsessed with collecting ever since I can remember. They range from tiny little gnomes and faeries and woodland creatures, to larger water features and dragons and life sized animals, to bigger than life statues of humans and mythical beings. Ibbie grins in particular at huge stone centaur saluting her as she passes by. When Aleix and I were kids, we'd get lost in this garden for hours and hours. It's a kid's paradise.

The second we reach the front door Grandma reaches up and pinches my cheeks, yanking me down for a kiss. “Walt,” she greets lovingly, as if it's been months since she last saw me and not merely a week. She looks back and forth between Ibbie and I with a barely contained glee, and I can practically see the cogs whirring in her mind.

Honestly, I'm not sure why I was so determined to bring Ibbie down here. She was right, I could have just come myself and made Aleix call her, or found out what he had to say and told Ibbie myself. But I just. . .wanted her in my space. I wanted her around my family, around the part of my life I don't share with many other people. I don't know, I guess I just had this overwhelming urge to introduce her to Grandma and Grandpops, and once the idea clawed its way inside my head it was stuck there and I couldn't shake it.

I don't know what the hell my deal is. The girl's dating my brother, for fuck's sake.

“And who is this fine peach?” Grandma asks.

“This is Ibbie.” Suddenly a shot of nerves swamps me as I introduce them. I want them to like each other.
I
need
them to like each other. “She's-”
 

“Grandma, was that the door? Is it Walt?” a voice calls from behind her, and then Aleix appears by her shoulder. When he spots Ibbie standing next to me, his face pales. The reason for this becomes apparent when I see who's holding his hand.

“Fauna,” I exclaim, glancing between her and my brother. As I see the two of them standing there, very clearly
together
, I begin to understand why Aleix has gone and screwed Ibbie over.
 

“Hey, Walt,” Fauna says with a sweet smile. She brushes her long, dark hair back from her face and leans forward to kiss my cheek. “Long time, no see.”

I nod. “It's good to see you.”

An intense urge to protect Ibbie wells up inside me and I take a step back, my hand searching hers out. It's small and soft and warm wrapped up in mine. She doesn't pull away. I risk a glance back at her to see her taking in the happy couple in front of us with round eyes.

“Fauna is Aleix's ex fiancee,” I tell her quietly.

“Actually, we're back together again,” Aleix informs us. He's managed to successfully hide his earlier panic at the sight of Ibbie, and now has that big smile back out. Fauna gazes up at him lovingly.

“Isn't it wonderful,” Grandma gushes. She always did love Fauna, but so does everyone. She's one of the nicest women I've ever met. It's why I always thought she and Aleix were so great together – they were both awesome, goodhearted people. When they broke up six months ago it came as a shock, but Aleix said that he'd been working so much they'd just grown apart. It happens.

“Who's your friend, Walt?” Aleix asks pointedly.

My mouth drops open and I just shake my head at him in disbelief. He's going to pretend he's never even
met
Ibbie?

For the first time in my entire life, I've lost some of the respect I've always had for my big brother.

“What are we all doing on the doorstep?” Grandma demands, ushering Ibbie and I inside. “Poor Ibbie must be freezing in that beautiful dress. Come on inside, honey pie, and we can have introductions in the nice warm kitchen.”

I've got a feeling that Ibbie wants to hop in the car and drive straight back to the city, but there's no way we can do that without raising some red flags. Not knowing what else to do, I follow everyone else, tugging Ibbie along by the hand. I look back at her, desperately trying to convey with my eyes that I had no idea about this, about Aleix and Fauna. Because I never would have brought her here if I'd known that's what she'd be walking into. I'm not that much of a heartless bastard.

We move into the kitchen, my favorite room in this house. The yellow wallpaper is peeling at the edges, the worn wooden kitchen table is scratched and the pictures on the walls faded, but this is the room all my happy childhood memories are in; learning how to play cards with Grandpops, watching Grandma make dinner, doing my homework with Aleix on Friday nights. This place is home to me.

I greet Grandpops distractedly, then take Ibbie's hand again and lean back against one of the kitchen counters. She's doing a real good job of hiding it, but I've known Ibbie over a year now and I can tell she's crushed. It pokes at the fury flaming away inside my chest, because she doesn't deserve any of this. How the hell could my brother do something like this to her? To Fauna? The fucker must have gotten back together with Fauna while he was still dating Ibbie, and that's why he bailed on her without a word.

“I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name.” Fauna smiles welcomingly at Ibbie. Clearly she knows nothing about Ibbie and Aleix. I'd once thought he and Fauna were perfect for one another, but now I'm starting to think the sleaze bag doesn't deserve her. He sure as fuck never deserved Ibbie. I should have done more to stop him from ever starting anything with her in the first place.  

Ibbie clears her throat uncomfortably. Her hand squeezes mine. “I'm Ibbie. I'm. . .” She looks pleadingly at me, at a loss for words for the first time since we've met.

“She's my friend,” I fill in, not knowing what else to say.

“Nice to meet you, Ibbie,” Aleix says jovially. I want to break something, preferably his face.

Ibbie just nods politely. Most girls in her position probably would have scratched his eyeballs out by now. I imagine what would have happened if it had been Fábia standing here instead of Ibbie –  Aleix sure as hell wouldn't be standing upright, that's for damned sure.

“It's so nice to meet you, dear,” Grandma says, moving over to the stove while she checks on dinner. “Why don't you tell us a little about yourself?”

Ibbie seems to shrink into herself at the attention. The girl I'm used to is usually only happy when she's the center of it. This isn't her.

I can't stand this. Aleix shouldn't be able to hurt Ibbie and lie to his fiancee and just be able to get away with it. “Actually,” I start, releasing Ibbie's hand and stepping forward. I stare at my brother coldly. “Ibbie-”

Her hand tugs lightly on the back of my shirt to stop me. When I glance back at her, she gives me a small, almost indiscernible shake of the head. It isn't until her eyes flicker to Fauna for the briefest of seconds that I realize she's trying to spare Fauna's feelings. After how Aleix treated her, she still wants to save his fiancee the heartbreak. She's so fucking awesome that it makes me want to kill my brother all over again.

“Ibbie what?” Aleix wants to know, throwing an arm around Fauna's shoulders like everything is hunky fucking dory. I love my brother and I always will, but I don't think I'll be able to look at him in the same way again after this. No longer is he a hero in my eyes, he's just a. . .man.

“Uh. . .” I stumble over what to say next.

But Grandma already seems to have come to her own conclusions. Turning away from the stove, she smiles deviously at the two of us, her eyes positively lighting up with glee and sheer mischief. “Our Walt has never brought a girl home to meet us before,” she tells Ibbie conspiratorially. Shuffling forwards, she takes Ibbie's hands in hers. “How lovely it is to meet you.”

“Thank you for having me, Mrs-”

“Oh no, honey, call me Grandma. I insist.”

Grandpops comes over and slaps me on the back. “She's a pretty one, son.”

“You guys, don't be getting any ideas,” I insert warningly before they can make this any more awkward for Ibbie than it already is. “Ibbie's just a friend. It isn't like that.”

But then, for just a moment, I allow myself to imagine that it
is
like that. That Ibbie doesn't hate me, and that I haven't spent the last year encouraging just that. That I wasn't so chicken shit that I could never tell her how I felt about her, and that I actually brought her here tonight as my date to introduce her to some of the most important people in my life instead of on a mission to find my brother. She'd charm my grandparents in minutes and we'd have dinner together and they'd fall in love with her, just like I did. I like the thought of that so much it makes something inside me ache.
 

“A friend you brought home for dinner,” Grandma muses smugly. “Dinner with your family.”

I purse my lips, because there's not much else I can say to that unless I want to tell them the truth. And I would in a heartbeat, if I didn't know that it would just upset Ibbie even more. She's been through enough.

It occurs to me that I need to get her alone, let her know that I had no idea about any of this. I'm used to her thinking badly of me, but I don't want her to feel like I set her up tonight. I may be an ass, but I'd never pull a stunt like this on purpose.

“I don't want to impose,” Ibbie says, obviously desperate to get away. “And I have to be up early tom-”

“Nonsense,” Grandma interrupts sternly. “As I said, my Walt has never brought a girl home to meet me before. I'm eager to find out more about you – you must be a special one.”

I shrug helplessly when Ibbie catches my eye, because Grandma is a force of fucking nature and there's no telling her otherwise when she gets an idea in that head of hers. She may look all sweet and innocent in that tiny little old lady body with all that silver candyfloss hair and those frail hands, but I know better than to mess with her.

“You should stay, Ibbie,” Fauna encourages. Next to her, Aleix smiles and bobs his head up and down like a nodding fucking dog. “It would be nice not to have the men outnumbering us for once.”

Backed into a corner, Ibbie eventually agrees, forcing out a smile. “Of course I'll stay. There's nowhere I'd rather be.”

IBBIE IS THE quietest I've ever seen her over dinner, yet she still somehow manages to charm Grandma and Grandpops. Grandma makes her tell story after story about acting on stage, and has already vowed to travel to the city to see one of her performances. She'll do it, too. Even if she never meets Ibbie again she'll still go watch a show and she'll be the loudest cheerer in the audience at the end of the night. But Ibbie is absent that effervescence and that bubbly pep that drove me bat shit crazy when I first met her, and now I miss it so much my heart hurts. All I want to do is take care of her.  

After dinner my grandparents and the girls move to the living room while Aleix and I take care of the dishes, just like we've done every dinner together since we were kids. Aleix washes, I dry. We do our thing in tense silence for almost two minutes before I can no longer hold my tongue.

“You're a son of a bitch, you know that?”

The plate he'd been washing drops from his hands into the soapy water, and he brings his damp fists to rest against the edge of the sink like he'd been waiting for exactly this. “You don't understand.”

“I don't understand what? That you fucked Ibbie over? 'Cause I think I understand that. Or that you lied to your fiancee? Yep, understand that one too.”

He sighs, shaking his head like I'm an exasperating little boy. “Look, Fauna and I have been back in contact this past month. We've been talking, testing the waters, but nothing was certain. I met Ibbie and she was gorgeous and a lot of fun, but the second Fauna and I decided to make things official again I knew I couldn't see her anymore.”

“Wait a second.” I toss the kitchen towel aside and turn to face him fully. “Are you telling me that you were talking to Fauna about getting back together the
entire fucking time
you were with Ibbie?”
 

“Will you keep your voice down?!” he hisses, eyeing the door that leads towards the living room. “What do you even care? You can't stand Ibbie, you said so a hundred times.”