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Chapter 101

“I’m glad you all could make it here tonight,” Bob smiled at the five pairs of eyes staring at him.

Nick groaned inwardly, it hadn’t been easy that was for sure. Aaron and him had spent a half an hour convincing BJ to come, Leslie and Angel hadn’t been quite so difficult. Hell, it’d been difficult for him, but he knew he had to do something, make some kind of effort before it was too late.

“Well we really wanted to be here dad,” Aaron replied softly, looking away.

“There’s two things I wanted to tell you all. First off, I’m going to be moving in with Linda.”

“Linda? You mean…” Leslie started, looking over at BJ then at Nick.

“Yeah, my girlfriend. We’ve been dating for awhile now and we wanted to wait until…well anyway, the time is right now,” Bob explained.

Nick, Aaron, Angel and Leslie all stared at him in shock.

BJ rolled her eyes, “Why don’t you just say it dad? You wanted to wait til everything was done with mom right?”

“Well yes, it wouldn’t have been right to any sooner.”

“Oh, but you had no problem being with her before the divorce was final did you?” She muttered coldly.

“BJ, c’mon,” Nick sighed.

She looked over at him then away quickly, her face cold and hard.

Bob sighed heavily before turning to look at Aaron and Angel, “We want you two to come live with us, we’re gonna move a week from tomorrow. Leslie, BJ, I’ve already talked to your mom and you’re gonna stay with her, we don’t want to change things too much.”

Angel rubbed at her face, avoiding her dad’s gaze.

“So what, you don’t wanna be bothered with us?” BJ spat.

“Bobby Jean stop that, you know that’s not true.”

“Well c’mon dad, you’ve gotta know what that sounds like,” Nick reasoned.

“That’s not what it means though, we just don’t wanna change the way things are right now, this is going to be hard enough on you all without fighting over who stays with whom.”

“Did it ever occur to you dad that maybe me and Les would like to stay with you sometime? We hardly see you as is,” BJ frowned.

“I know I’m sorry about that honey, I mean it. All of this you guys, I know it’s hard, what happened between your mother and me. It’s gonna be rough, but we’ll work through it ok?” Bob said, giving them a small smile.

Leslie wiped at her eyes, staring hard at the table.

Nick looked at his brother and sisters and then over at his dad, “So that’s it then?”

“Nick…”

“No no, let me get this straight ok? Aaron and Angel are gonna live with you and your new girlfriend, you’ll see BJ and Leslie whenever and maybe me sometimes too huh?” He stated. He couldn’t help it, it was trying to be mature about it, but it hurt, it still hurt. He was twenty five, he should be able to handle this, but for some reason he felt like a little kid, a little kid whose parents had once again let him down.

“I told you it’s not like that. Look, you all are going to have to be patient, make changes. We’re all still trying to figure this out, get things smoothed over and then we can try to figure out visitation. You’re all of age, so we really don’t need to go court over custody or anything like that, we’re gonna all sit down in a few weeks and decide how we want to do this amongst ourselves. I’d like for you all to be there, Nick that means you too.”

Nick stared at his father, a harsh chuckle escaping his lips, “Yeah, sure dad.”

“Nickolas…”

“Yeah yeah, ok.”

“Whatever, I’m gonna get an apartment with a friend and then I can get away from everyone,” BJ sniffled.

“BJ, maybe it won’t be so bad…”Angel started.

“Shut up Angel ok? I don’t want to hear it,” BJ snapped.

“Don’t get nasty with your sister BJ,” Bob warned.

Nick stood suddenly, “C’mon guys, let‘s go. Look dad we’re gonna get going ok? I’ve gotta go home and start packing, I leave in a few days.”

Aaron, Angel, Leslie and BJ all stood, making their way towards the door.

“Thanks for coming over BJ, Leslie and Nick, I know how busy you all are,” Bob smiled.

Nick looked over at his dad sighing heavily, following his brother and sisters out. “Hey guys, what do ya say we go get something to eat? My treat. Aaron, Angel, go tell dad.”

There were mumbles of agreement as they headed over to Nick’s truck, and Aaron headed in to tell their dad.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

She zipped her bag closed and set it down next to the bed. Veronica had never been so glad for a day to be over as she did then. She couldn’t wait to get home, not that she didn’t enjoy being with her brother, but she wanted things to go back to normal. Bryan had let her have the bed and she slid onto it, grabbing her phone and flipping it open. She checked her voicemail and found two messages, one from Lynne and one from Nick. She listened to them, sighing heavily before deleting them both. She just wasn’t ready, just couldn’t seem to face anyone right now.

Tomorrow she’d be on a flight back home, back to her life and back to reality. It all seemed so far away and so foreign. She kept trying to imagine life without her father, without the phone calls and the worries and she couldn’t. Veronica had told herself repeatedly that she could definitely do without his badgering and constant need to tell her what he thought she should be doing. Now she wanted it, longed for it. It was funny how you always want what you could no longer have.

Sighing, she pulled the covers back and slipped under, reaching out to turn the light off.