Boys and Girls, Part IV: Why I Love to Hate You

Chapter 14 – Ex-Girlfriend

“I’m going to the store again, Jacy. I forgot some things I needed for dinner tonight.”

Jacy turned back from the game of football that the Carter men were engaged in. Her jaw dropped at Cynthia’s words. After the huge breakfast that Tristan’s mother had single-handedly tended to, she had fixed an even bigger lunch. Jacy was still feeling the effects of it. Apparently, the surprised look on Jacy’s face was noticeable.

“Is something wrong, dear?” Cynthia asked, with a concerned look on her face.

Jacy instinctively shook her head. “No.”

Cynthia regarded the game of football wearily. “Are they still playing?”

Jacy looked at Cynthia sympathetically. “This is your life twenty-four/seven, right?”

Cynthia slowly nodded, but she was still smiling. “This is every Texas housewife and mother’s life, twenty-four/seven, Jacy.”

Jacy admired Cynthia’s determination to please those who mattered so much to her. Still, the woman had probably never done anything that wasn’t for one of her boys. Jacy stood up and dusted her hands on her jeans. “Let’s go shopping together…if you don’t mind.”

Cynthia looked as if Jacy had just told her she had won the lottery. “Of course I wouldn’t mind.”

****

For such an urbanized area, Jacy was surprised to find that the volume of stores around Trinity Falls wasn’t very high. There were only one or two grocery stores in the entire town, leading Jacy to believe that Trinity Falls was still on the rise.

As soon as Cynthia and Jacy walked past the double doors with their cart, Cynthia had met a familiar face and ran over for hellos. Jacy didn’t really want to meet a lot of new faces, but with Cynthia being the social butterfly that she was, Jacy knew it would be necessary to put away her fears.

To Jacy’s surprise, Cynthia didn’t force her to engage in any pleasantries with the strangers of Trinity Falls. Once Cynthia had finished talking with her neighbors, she made her way back over to Jacy.

“Sorry about that,” she apologized, “but I haven’t seen Becca Calder since we were in high school.”

Jacy nodded in understanding. Every so often, Cynthia deserted Jacy to chat it up with someone she hadn’t seen forever. Geez, Jacy thought to herself, even Tristan’s mother is popular. Jacy wasn’t mad at all. She was happy to see that everyone in this town seemed so friendly with one another.

Finally, Cynthia had told Jacy to look around and put whatever she wanted to eat in the cart. Jacy had been distracted by a strawberry torte in the bakery and hadn’t really been paying attention. When she turned around, Cynthia had disappeared again, so Jacy decided to make her rounds anyway. As she pushed the cart up and down the aisles, her thoughts drifted back to Tristan.

How could a boy who had grown up in such an All-American, seemingly non-dysfunctional family end up being such an arrogant prick? Sure, he was reformed for the better now, but he had been such a jerk upon his arrival to North Mission. Something must have made him that way because Jacy couldn’t believe that such an individual could stem from such a nurturing family.

Jacy had reached the cereal aisle and stopped to add a box of Cocoa Puffs to the cart, when out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that she was being watched. Jacy glanced to her right and caught a woman about the same height as her quickly turning her eyes back to the cereal.

The girl had long, black hair knotted into a braid that fell over her left shoulder. She was wearing a fitted white tank top that highlighted her complete lack of curves. But that wasn’t completely fair; few girls possessed the curves that Jacy possessed. Her blue jeans hugged her small butt and her slightly shorter legs. She wore white flip-flops on her feet. The girl’s eyes slowly lifted back to Jacy. They were a sharp green color.

“H-hello,” Jacy greeted awkwardly.

The girl blinked. “Hi.” Her small voice belied her intense features. The girl shyly tucked a strand of her black hair behind her ear. “I’m s-sorry. I didn’t mean to –

“That’s okay,” Jacy reassured.

There was an awkward silence before either one of them spoke. “I’m Cassie,” she said, extending her hand.

Jacy shook her hand. “Jacy.”

Cassie seemed to observe Jacy. It didn’t make Jacy uneasy per se, but the gesture did confuse the her.

“You’re dating Tristan Carter, right?”

Jacy jerked her head back in surprised. How did she know? “Uh…yeah.”

Cassie smiled. “I overheard Cynthia talking about it. I’m pretty sure half the town already knows by now; most of us use this supermarket.”

Jacy laughed in disbelief. “Are you serious?”

“Afraid so. Cynthia’s quite an interesting person.”

“She’s definitely something wonderful,” Jacy found herself saying. Jacy regarded Cassie with curiosity. “How do you know the Carters?”

“I was in the same class as Tristan for practically my entire school career.”

“That must’ve been somewhat interesting.”

“It was, actually,” Cassie admitted. “It was fun to see the gaggle of girls always trailing him.”

Jacy giggled. “Was he a total stud back then too?”

“Oh yes,” Cassie answered. “And he loved every minute of it.”

Jacy laughed again. “But you weren’t one of them, right?”

Cassie sighed. “Oh, I did my pining in private.”

“Uh-oh,” Jacy began, “you’re not going to give me trouble, are you?”

Cassie held up her left ring finger. A modest stone glistened under the fluorescent supermarket light. “That stage of my life has officially ended. You won’t have to worry about me,” she finished with a giggle.

“Cassie!” a deep, male voice called from the end of the aisle. “Do you want to get the chocolate or the vanilla ice cream, honey?”

Cassie rolled her eyes and extended her hand once more. “It was really good to meet you, Jacy. I hope we see each other again before you have to leave.”

“Okay,” Jacy answered, shaking Cassie’s hand. Cassie scurried over to her intended and left Jacy alone in the cereal aisle. Jacy’s thoughts instantly flew back to Tristan and how he had told her that they were too young to get married. Cassie was engaged though, and she was the same age as all of them. How come she was getting her chance at marital bliss, while Jacy wouldn’t?

Just then, a commotion rose in the store. Jacy could hear the collective hush of voices. She crept toward the end of the aisle near the cash registers and located the reason for all the noise.

Her jaw dropped in shock.

Krista Baxter was walking in all her graceful glory toward the ice cream aisle. She casually brushed past Cassie and her fiancée toward the Haagen Das. As she opened the freezer door, two preteen girls walked up to her and asked for autographs. Krista looked more than happy to do it.

Krista Baxter was one of the hottest models on the market right now. She had graced more than a dozen billboards across Los Angeles. Jacy easily recognized Krista’s face. At 5’9”, Krista was leggy, but unlike Jacy, she didn’t pack a lot of meat. Her long, light brown hair cascaded past her shoulders in glorious waves. She wore an elegant black lace blouse and a tan skirt that reached just above her knees. She wore expensive-looking black stilettos on her feet. Her hazel eyes – Jacy had memorized their color – were covered by Christian Dior sunglasses and she carried a tan Louis Vuitton clutch in her hand. As Krista leaned over to autograph the notebooks for the girls, she asked one of them to hold her bag for a second. The girl’s eyes sparkled as if Krista had just handed her a big diamond, instead.

After the girls excitedly scurried off, Krista nonchalantly grabbed two cartons of ice cream from the freezer. She walked to the check-out line amidst the whispers and gawking of the town denizens. Either she was too dim to notice or she was ignoring them. Jacy figured it was the latter.

Just as Krista handed the clerk a twenty for both cartons of ice cream, Jacy caught Cynthia staring at the model with deep-seated hostility. Jacy was dying to know what was running through Cynthia’s mind at that moment. Jacy made her way with the cart toward Cynthia and stopped just as Krista made her way out the double doors, clutching her bag and her ice cream.

“Cynthia?”

Cynthia slowly turned back to Jacy, and when she did, the look of hostility just as quickly disappeared.

“Did you find something you wanted to eat, darlin’?”

Jacy smiled. “Some breakfast cereal.” Cynthia regarded Jacy with such admiration that Jacy grew a little uncomfortable. “Cynthia…are you okay?”

Cynthia let out the merest hint of a sigh. “Of course, honey. Come on…let’s check out now.”

It was clear that the appearance of Krista Baxter had triggered something within Cynthia Carter. Jacy now had two mysteries to solve. One…why was Krista even in Trinity Falls? And two…what had she done to make Cynthia so upset?

****

Amid Cynthia’s protests, Jacy helped put the groceries away. Afterward, she excused herself for a short nap, and Cynthia agreed that she’d probably take one herself. Jacy left through the back door and snuck past the football game that was still going on. She marched all the way to the small house out back. Once inside, she trudged into the bedroom and lay herself down on the bed.

About five minutes later, Tristan burst into the house, all hopped up on endorphins. “Whew! Man, I can’t believe that man is forty-five years old! He’s still whooping my ass out there!” He walked into the room and immediately pulled his shirt off of his body. His hard, chiseled chest glistened with sweat. Apparently, Jacy was not going to be able to take a nap after all.

He leaned over her on the bed and kissed her cheek. “Did ya miss me, baby?” he asked with a smirk.

Jacy made a face and pushed at his chest. “Go take a shower!”

Tristan pulled back, laughing. He began unzipping his pants as he made his way to the bathroom. He left the door wide open but moved further inside so that Jacy couldn’t see him undressing all the way.

“Have fun shopping with Mom?” he asked from the bathroom.

“Yeah,” Jacy answered. She suddenly remembered the incident with Krista Baxter. “But you know…the funniest thing happened today.”

“What was that?”

“Krista Baxter showed up at the store,” she answered. “And get this…she was buying two cartons of ice cream? How the hell does someone with her body get away with eating two whole tubs of –

Jacy stopped as Tristan reappeared in the bathroom doorway. He had wrapped a towel around his waist, but his face was completely humorless.

“Did my mom see her?” he asked with concern in his eyes.

“Y-yes,” Jacy ventured. “She didn’t look all too happy to see Krista either.”

Tristan leaned back against the doorway and sighed. He didn’t sound too happy.

Okay, now Jacy was dying to know the whole story behind Krista Baxter.

“Tristan…” she began timidly, “…do…do you know why she’s in Trinity Falls?”

Tristan’s averted his eyes briefly before directing his cool blue gaze back at Jacy.

“She’s here to see me, Jace.”

****

Tristan was expecting the look of confusion that presented itself on Jacy’s face, but the problem was he never wanted to have this conversation with her in the first place. Jacy took a few minutes to let Tristan’s confession sink in before she spoke again.

“Wh-why would she want to see you?”

Tristan was torn between lying and telling the truth. The truth might – no, would – hurt Jacy, but he had too much respect for her to lie about something like this. Anyway, she was too sharp to fall for any attempts at prevaricating.

“We used to date, Jacy.”

She blinked. “What? When?”

“In high school,” he answered. “We dated for the first three years.”

“Oh.” She seemed to want more. “What happened?”

“She screwed me over, and I left her.”

“She cheated on you?”

Tristan sighed. He may as well give Jacy the whole story. He walked from the doorway and took a seat on the bed next to Jacy.

“Krista got kicked out of school after our junior year of high school. Her family had very little money, so she essentially had nowhere to go. I stayed with her throughout that entire time because I…thought I loved her.” Jacy looked down, and Tristan knew he couldn’t stop. He had to keep going. “She eventually told me that she was pregnant and that I was the father.”

Jacy’s head snapped up. “What?”

“I proposed to her a little while after, and she accepted. We set everything up so that we could get married as soon as possible. My family doesn’t believe in having kids out of wedlock or anything.”

Jacy’s eyebrows furrowed in concern as the revelation of Tristan’s news sunk in. Tristan continued.

“But the baby wasn’t mine, Jacy. In fact, there was no baby. Krista wasn’t even pregnant.”

Jacy slowly turned her head back to Tristan. Her fear melted back into confusion. “She lied to you?”

Tristan nodded his head. “I was in over my head, Jacy. I would’ve believed everything she told me if I wasn’t told the truth by someone who had overheard Krista crying out all her sins into a cell phone.
What’s more, it turns out that Krista was spreading her legs open for any guy who promised her a ticket out of Trinity Falls.” Tristan could feel his jaw tighten and the blood surge as he recalled how he had been wronged. “I confronted her about it, but she was in denial. I told her I was going to bring legal action against her, and she got scared. So, she ran…all the way to LA.”

Jacy remained silent, apparently allowing all of this information to sink in. Her eyes suddenly went aflame. “But you said that she’s here to see y-you.”

Tristan’s crystal blue gaze drifted back towards Jacy. “Yeah.”

“Does that mean –

Tristan looked down. “I still talk to her.”

“What?” Jacy asked in disbelief.

Tristan averted his eyes, but he was still talking to Jacy. “She called me up a year after she arrived in LA, Jace. Krista had almost been raped, and she was close to killing herself.”

Jacy’s eyebrow lifted. “And?”

“I wasn’t going to have a woman’s death on my conscience.”

“It would’ve been her choice, Tristan.”

Tristan’s eyes lit with anger. “How could you say something like that?”

Jacy scoffed. “Are you kidding me, Tristan? How could you try to save someone who could’ve ruined your life?”

“Krista’s had a hard life, herself. I decided to let bygones be bygones. I wasn’t going to hold a grudge.”

“Fuck grudges!” Jacy yelled. “This isn’t about a fucking grudge, Tristan. This is about a total bitch trying to take advantage of you!”

“She’s a friend, Jacy.”

“Friends don’t screw friends over!” she retorted. She screamed in frustration. “I can’t believe you’re still seeing her after what she did to you! What’s more, I can’t believe that this girl’s got the guts to see you when she knows about us!”

Tristan averted his eyes again, a look of guilt crossing his handsome features.

“I mean she does know about us, doesn’t she?” Jacy asked suspiciously.

Tristan didn’t answer immediately, and Jacy grew frightened.

“Oh my God,” she uttered, her hand coming to cover her mouth. “You didn’t tell her, did you?”

The fact that Tristan leaned over, burying his head in his hands was answer enough for Jacy. His face was hidden, so Jacy didn’t have the opportunity to gauge Tristan’s reaction.

“She has to know about us.”

“What the fuck difference does it make, Jacy? It’s not like she and I are going to hook up or anything. My feelings for Krista do not involve a physical relationship.”

Jacy shook her head in disbelief. “What difference does it make?” she repeated, as if it was a stupid question. “Tristan…until you tell her about us, she’ll be convinced that she still has a chance with you.”

“Nothing’s going to happen between us!” he roared, jumping up from the bed and angrily walking back to the bathroom. “She’s wants my friendship, that’s all!”

Tears began to cloud Jacy’s vision. She’d had plenty of fights with Tristan before, but this particular argument was proving to be more of a test than any ones prior. She suppressed her tears at the sight of Tristan reappearing in the bathroom doorway. He had changed back into his jeans, but he was still naked from the top-up. He angrily stomped over to his duffel bag and pulled a shirt from his bag. He hastily threw it over his head and headed toward the bedroom door.

“Where are you going?” Jacy demanded, choking up.

Tristan’s icy blue eyes bore down on her before he gritted out his words. “I need some time to myself. Is that all right with you?”

Jacy sniffled. Tristan didn’t even wait for a response before he slammed the bedroom door closed. Jacy heard the slam of the front door before the tears began pouring out of her eyes and consuming her soul.

****

A/N: I had originally intended Cassie to play a bigger role, which is why I spent so much time on her introduction. But at this point of the story, I wanted the plot to revolve around just Tristan and Jacy, so you actually won't be seeing Cassie again. Please review!