Falling Down(143)

She clears her throat. "While you made promises to me just this morning, I think deep down you didn't believe a word of it. You didn't believe in us so you kept your backups."
"No, that's not it at all."
"No? Then explain it to me."
"I forgot, Lucy. I was distracted with everything going on."
She nods. "I distracted you so much, you love me so much, you want only me so much that you can't send the text you promised to send to get rid of the whores you say you no longer want. Well, okay then. That's all settled. Yippee."
Jace cringes.
She stands up and I stand with her. She shoves me, catching me off guard, and I fall back into the sofa.
"What the f*ck?"
"You stay here. I'm going to pack. Frank, please let Max know I'll need the car in about twenty minutes."
He nods and sends me a glare.
"None of you have to come with me. Actually I think I probably need to be alone."
"You know what? Fuck that, Luce," Jace says. "You go, we go. It's how we roll."
"Lucy, listen…"
"Sure. I'll listen as well as you listened when I asked you delete the whores," she says, turning and walking away. "You have a right to expect and demand those things from me, you said. You f*cking said that to me." She walks toward the stairs.
"Fuck!" I yell.
"Dude," Xander says. "What the f*ck?"
"I f*cking got distracted and caught up with Lucy and all the bullshit she's got going on."
She gasps.
"Fuck. I didn't mean it the way it sounded."
Her back still to me, she merely nods, her shoulders rigid. She starts up the stairs and her shoulders begin to shake as she walks a little faster.
"Dude," Xander says giving me a shove. "Go, what the f*ck are you waiting for?"
"I don't know."
Sera snorts. "You know what this is?" When I don't respond she shouts. "Do you?!"
"I do," Ben says with a look of disgust.
"This right here is Jesse being a f*cking coward. Mr. I-Don't-Do-Relationships purposefully f*cked up the best thing that ever happened to him and now he doesn't know what to do. Oh, boo f*cking hoo, Jesse f*cking Kingston doesn't know how to fix the relationship with the woman he swears he loves." She moves forward and stands right in front of me, then she gives me a shove. Hard. "You are a motherf*cking coward and if you don't fix this now, you can find another band to go on tour with you because Lucy deserves a whole hell of a lot better than this and you f*cking know it! She let you in. Do you know how hard that is for her? No, of course not. How would you know when you're too wrapped up in yourself to notice?" She shoves me again.
"I didn't do it on purpose."
"You f*cking did and now you go fix it," Jace says, getting in my face. No one moves. No one. Then Xander stands up next to Jace, then Ethan, Kennedy, and Ben, then Meggie and Trace.
"Either you fix this," Xander says, "Or I'm going for her because she's one hell of a woman and I'd be damn proud to call her mine."
"Get in line, dude," Trace says.
Kennedy and Ethan agree.
"Christ. I don't know how to fix this."
"You can't 'fix' this. She's a f*cking person not an object. You show her what she needs to see," Ben tells me.
"I have no clue what that is."
"Then you're f*cked, brother, and I'll be stepping up."
"The f*ck you will," I say and head up the stairs, taking them two at a time. I take a breath and punch in the code. Tears fall steadily from Lucy's eyes as she pulls clothes from the dresser and puts them neatly into her suitcase. Shit. When she does things with precision, she's locked herself in.