Chapter 36
Once we make it to James' truck I crumble, my knees hit the pavement ad a sob rips through my chest leaving my throat feeling raw and burning. James kneels down on the ground wrapping his arms around me and I turn my face and burry my face in his chest letting the pain rip through me. He gently rocks me back and forth comforting me the best way that he can. My legs are numb, and my eyes burn but nothing else comes out and longer I have cried myself out literally not a single tear left.
I don't know how long we sit like this but finally I am fully able to stop crying and I feel numb enough to pull myself off of the ground and to go see my mom. James helps me to my feet and kisses my forehead sweetly before helping me into the passenger side of his truck. "Come on Baby lets go see your mom." I nod my head at him not able to find my words just yet. I pull out my phone and open google maps and type in my mom's address knowing that he will need directions and I am not ready to speak I need to pull myself together, I hand him my phone and he studies the map for a few moments before he hands me back my phone and pulls us out of the parking lot.
"I love you El and I am here for you Baby. I will help you through this." He takes my hand in his and brings our intertwined hands up to his lips and brushes his lips across my knuckles placing our hands on my leg to help comfort me further. "I love you too Babe. Thank you for being here for me through all of this shit. I promise my life is usually not this much of a shit show." We both chuckle and then fall into a silence as we head in the direction of my mom's house. I keep trying to force the look of pure agony on Jace's face out of my mind, in all of the time that I have known him I have never seen him so broken or hurt.
When we pull up in front of my mom's house, I flip down the sun visor and look at myself in the mirror and try to wipe away any evidence of the fact that I had been crying. James looks at me with a look of empathy, "You ready Baby? I am right here with you. I am excited to meet your mom, I didn't know it would happen this quickly." He says teasing me.
"Haha very funny Babe, usually I would have waited longer before introducing you to my mother, but you are special, and this is a very special situation." I say in a teasing tone giving him a look that says bring it we will go rounds. I feel like I am starting to feel like the usual me that won't give anything away to my mom, or so I hope. I take a deep breath to steady myself and nod at James signaling to him that I am ready if he is. He understands what I meant and quickly gets out of the truck and comes around to my side of the truck and helps me out. We walk hand in hand up the pathway to my mom's house, I feel like a giddy schoolgirl knowing that I am getting ready to introduce my lover to my mom. I knock on the door, which feels weird as hell to do, and I wait for her to answer the door.
She opens the door and looks at me for a moment registering that I am right in front of her, once she finally gets over the shock of me standing right here in front of her, she screams with excitement pulling me into a bear hug as if she hasn't seen me in ages. "Wait! What in the world! Why did you knock this is still your home too silly goose? Why didn't you call and let me know that you were coming? Is everything ok? Did you and Scar get into a fight?" She gives me the all-knowing motherly questioning look. I begin to get really upset at the mention of Scar's name. My eyes begin to water, and I feel as though I have been punched in the chest once again and of course Mama Bear notices this in an instant. 'Well so much for not telling Mama Bear anything about Scarlet, I really thought that I could keep it together. Oh well I can't lie to her.' My mom's face becomes panicked at my reaction.
"Stella Rose...you are scaring me. Sweetheart what is going on?" Mom pulls me into another hug causing me to cry harder. At this point my mother realizes that James is here. "Oh hello, I'm sorry I didn't see you there. I am Stella's mom. Scarlet and Stella call me Mama Bear welcome to my home." I pull back from my mom's hug to see James' reaction.
"Hello ma'am I am James. Stella and I are...I guess in a relationship to put a title to us. It's very nice to meet you and thank you for welcoming me into your home." He holds his hand out to my mom, which she pushes away and pulls him in for a hug in my mom's usual and loving nature. To my surprise James does not hesitate in the slightest to hug her right back and I feel my heart squeeze in my chest, and I feel myself fall deeper in love with him then I already was. 'Well, that is the final nail in my coffin I am officially the luckiest S.O.B.'
We all make our way into my childhood home, and we all take a seat in the living room. "Oh wait! I'll be right back. Then you will need to explain what's going on." She says this in here stern motherly voice like she used to use with me when I was in trouble as a child. She scurries out of the room and when she come back, she has a plate full of her famous homemade cookies. She sits on the couch opposite me and looks at me waiting for me to explain my reaction to her earlier questions. I take a deep breath knowing that this is it there is no turning back now.
I look at my hands unable to look her in her eyes, I have no idea where to start or even how much to tell her. James carefully takes my hand in his and squeezes it gently giving me the courage to tell my mom what I am going through. "Mommy, Scar and I aren't fighting, I honestly wish that we were fighting over the reality..." I finally look up from my hands and meet my mom's gaze. "Scar is in the hospital..." I decide I'll give her the short version of the story. "At the beginning of last week, she came out here to visit Cam. Incidentally to tell him about her relationship with Jace...finally. She was on Beast on her way back to Cam's house after they had breakfast and having the big talk. Well...she ended up getting hit by a drunk driver. She just came out of her coma about 4 o'clock this morning."