Chapter 9: Don't Go Breaking My Heart

It was Friday night, the night before Valentine's Day, and Sheryl was excited about it. The school was having a big dance tomorrow night. Sheryl had gotten a new dress, a red satin gown with spaghetti straps, and she had the perfect red high heel shoes to go with it. Sheryl had borrowed her foster mom's Ford Focus and was just returning from shopping at the mall to get some last minute things she would need in preparation for the dance

She couldn't wait for Seth to see her in her dress. He'd been so stressed out since last month when Colin had made those accusations about Seth fixing games. Sheryl knew that Colin had only done that to get even with Seth for going out with her. It was hard to imagine Colin could be so cruel, but it was even harder for her to imagine that anything Colin said about Seth was true. This dance would be good for Seth, he need to have some fun and relieve some of the pressure he'd been under.

Absentmindedly Sheryl wondered if Colin would be at the dance. She hadn't heard that he had asked someone and she hadn't seen him going out with anybody new, but that didn't mean he wouldn't show up alone. If she did see Colin there Sheryl resolved to just ignore him, pretend he didn't exist.

Sheryl had a winsome smile on her face as she drove to Seth's house. He had told her to stop by after she finished shopping, he said he would be all alone tonight and would love her company, she knew what that meant. She parked the car in the street in front of his townhouse.

When Sheryl walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell there was no answer. She tried ringing the bell again and still no one came to the door. She placed her hand on the doorknob and twisted and found the door unlocked. She walked into the house, it was dark inside as there were barely any lights on, however she did hear music coming from upstairs. With an uneasy feeling she climbed the stairs as the sound of the music grew louder.

Once she reached the top of the stairs she could tell that the music was coming from Seth's room and there was light peeking out from under his closed door. He probably just fell asleep with the stereo on which is why he didn't hear the doorbell, Sheryl thought to herself. She decided to go into Seth's room and slip into bed with him thinking Seth would enjoy waking up with her arms around him.

Sheryl opened the bedroom door and felt her heart drop down to her toes. Seth was lying in bed naked on his back and on top of him riding his cock was Carrie Moore, the school's biggest slut. The loud music had covered up their moaning and groaning but Sheryl could hear them now and see them now. She felt she was going to throw up. Seth turned his head and made eye contact with her, she could see it register on his face that he was aware of her presence; the bastard didn't even look guilty!

Tears came to Sheryl's eyes and she ran out of Seth room and made for the stairs. Once down the stairs she was out the front door when she got to her hand on the door handle of her car she felt someone grab her upper arm. She turned to see it was Seth. He had put on jeans and a tee shirt but was standing on the cold pavement in his bare feet.

"Sheryl, wait! We need to talk about this!" Seth said.

"Talk about what?!!" She screamed at him through her tears. "You were fucking the school whore!"

"Please Honey, calm down, I'm so sorry!" Seth said. "She came over to talk and one thing led to another... it was a stupid mistake! It won't ever happen again."

"You're right it won't happen again, we're through!" Sheryl declared.

"Please just give me another chance, we can get through this!" Seth pleaded.

"No! I hate you Seth Reilly!" Sheryl spat at him as she tried to get free from his grip. His hold on her tightened however, to an almost painful degree, and the look in his steel blue eyes turned from one of contrition to one of contempt.

"Fine, go! I don't really give a shit anymore. I never loved you anyway." Seth released her arm with a shove towards the car.

"What?" Sheryl asked in disbelief.

"You heard me. I never loved you, I just thought you were too good for that loser Colin and I took pity on you," Seth said.

"That's not true," Sheryl said.

"You really are dense, you know that? That night when I saved you, it was all a set up! I knew those guys who attacked you, I asked them to do it, just so I could win you over, and guess what? It worked!"

Sheryl felt like she had just taken a blow to the stomach that knocked all the wind out of her, when she finally was able to say something she screamed, "You fucking bastard! I gave you my heart; I gave you my... everything!" Sheryl went to slap his face but Seth blocked the slap and gave her a slap of her own. He slapped her so hard she fell to the ground.

"Colin can have you back now, I'm through with you," Seth said emotionlessly as Sheryl lay crumpled in a ball in the street crying her eyes out. Seth walked back to his house with an air of indifference as Sheryl lay there.

Sheryl managed to pull herself up and climb into the car. She was having trouble driving, her eyes were blurry from her tears and her face was stinging from Seth's slap, but most of all her stomach was churning as she thought about how completely fooled she had been by Seth. When she turned the corner she had to pull the car over, she opened the door and threw up all the contents of her stomach. When she had nothing left inside her and the dry heaves had subsided Sheryl wiped her mouth and settled herself back inside the car.

She continued driving even though she still couldn't stop the tears from flowing. Sheryl felt so betrayed she didn't know what to do or where to go. Then all of a sudden it hit her, there was only one person who could soothe her scorched soul.

Aileen sat at the computer in the small alcove of their apartment; she was online organizing the monthly finances and making sure all the monthly bill statements were correct. It was a curious thing but when she logged on to her user account her files didn't seem to be exactly in the same place she left them. Colin could have been moving things around but he had his own user account on the computer and that didn't seem likely, the only other explanation she could think of was the computer had a glitch in the system. Aileen hoped that wasn't so, the computer was getting a bit outdated but they couldn't afford a new one at this time. She would just have to ask Colin if he knew anything about it when he came home from work.

Just then the intercom buzzed. Aileen got up to answer it but before she got there the intercom buzzed twice more, whoever was at the door was quite impatient. Aileen pressed down on the "speak" button and said "Hello?" then she pressed on the "listen" button.

"M... Ms Reilly? It's... its Sheryl. I... I need to speak to Colin" said the voice over the crackling intercom. Aileen was shocked at who it was and about to tell her that Colin was at work but the girl sounded like she was crying and Aileen didn't feel right just sending her away.

"Come on up dear," Aileen said and she pressed the button to buzz the door open. A few minutes later there was a knock on the door. Aileen opened it to see a much disheveled Sheryl with tear streaks running down her cheeks from red rimmed eyes and a nasty red welt on the side of her face. The girl looked beyond miserable and Aileen's heart went out to her.

"Oh you poor dear," Aileen said when she saw the state the girl was in and she held her arms out. Sheryl collapsed into Aileen's embrace as a new wave of crying shook her body. "Shhh... there, there dear," Aileen said as she ran a hand through Sheryl's auburn curls. It felt a little funny to be consoling Colin's ex-girlfriend, especially considering the conditions under which they broke up, but the girl clearly needed somebody and Aileen's motherly instincts took over.

Sheryl let Aileen lead her inside the apartment and sit her on the couch. Aileen sat down next to her and allowed the girl to continue crying on her shoulder. "Shhh, honey it's okay," Aileen said as she ran her hand through Sheryl's hair.

"No it's not okay!" Sheryl said through her tears. "I was so stupid; I can't believe what I've done!"

"What happened sweetie? Who did this to you?" Aileen asked indicating the mark on her face.

"Is Colin here?" Sheryl asked looking around and evading Aileen's questions.

"No he's at work right now," Aileen said.

"Oh," Sheryl said

"Do you want to tell me about it?"

"I really wanted to talk to Colin," Sheryl sniffed.

"I understand dear," Aileen said feeling some trepidation, she had a feeling she knew what was going on. Still, she felt bad for the girl, she was in obvious pain and Aileen didn't have it in her to be unsympathetic toward her. Aileen continued to hold Sheryl trying to calm her down.

Once her tears subsided Sheryl blurted out, "It's Seth. He was using me all along." This only confirmed Aileen's suspicions. Seth had gone out with Sheryl only to hurt Colin and now that Seth could see Colin apparently wasn't hurting anymore, he no longer had any use for her.

"I'm so sorry sweetie," Aileen said sincerely, but her emotions were conflicted. Here she was comforting the woman who had once captured then broke her son's heart, the heart that Aileen had healed, and yet Aileen could not forget the men in her life that she had loved and had hurt her so deeply. She was feeling sympathy for Sheryl while at the same time fear that now she knew the real Seth, she would want Colin back.

"I was such a fool, I believed everything he said. He played me from the beginning!" Sheryl said starting to tear up again.

"You weren't the fool Sheryl, it was Seth for treating you the way he did and not realizing what a special thing he had." Aileen said.

"I was never special to Seth! He tricked me into believing we had something and into throwing away something that really was special! Oh my God! I have to see Colin! I have to know if he can ever forgive me!" Sheryl darted off the couch and headed for the door.

"Sheryl, wait!" Aileen said. "Take a little more time to calm down before you go out, it will do no one any good if you get into an accident because you were so upset."

"I'll be careful; I just need to see Colin right now!" Sheryl said as she ran out of the apartment.

Aileen was left alone with her thoughts and most of the thoughts that were running through her head right now were quite unpleasant. She got off from the couch to get herself a glass if white zinfandel wine, as she poured the wine into a glass she thought for a moment then shrugged her shoulders and brought the entire bottle back to the couch.

Aileen let the wine warm her body and try to help calm her nerves. She couldn't stop thinking about Colin. It was clear that Sheryl wanted him back. What if Colin decided he was still in love with her? Sheryl could offer him so much; she was the same age as Colin, their relationship could be out in the open, they could legally be married someday, and he could have children with her, a family. What could Aileen offer him? An incestuous relationship with his thirty-seven year old mother, a relationship they would always have to hide from the rest of the world, and, whether they admitted it or not, an underlying feeling of guilt that what they were doing was wrong always lurking in the shadows of their minds.

Aileen got off the sofa and went to the book shelf and picked up the copy of Dublin Daze that Colin had given her for her birthday. She brought the book back to the sofa, sat down, and opened it to the inscription. She read it over more than once, especially the part about Colin loving her more than life itself. She felt the same way about him.

Aileen drained her glass of zinfandel and refilled it. Tears came to her eyes as she thought about losing Colin and at the same time she laughed at the bitter irony of the situation. She had never loved a man like she loved Colin, he was her one true love and the only man in her life that had ever been worth fighting to keep and she would fight tooth and nail to keep him, except that she couldn't. The intense love she felt for him that made her want to see him happy would also make her stand aside. She grabbed a handful of tissues from the coffee table to wipe her eyes. If it came down between her and Sheryl, Aileen would have to let Sheryl have him.

She would always do what was in the best interest of her son. For a while there she had deluded herself into thinking she could offer him everything he needed, that they could continue to be together for the rest of their lives. If she was the one who made him happy, wasn't it in his best interest for her to be with him? He would always feel secure with her ever abiding love. If it just so happened that he made her just as happy... well that was a lucky coincidence. However, she saw now that Colin having a relationship with Sheryl would be healthy, what she had with him was... beautiful, but potentially harmful. If she truly wanted to act in his best interest she would have to let him go.

Aileen drank the entire bottle of wine as thoughts of her and Colin circled around and around in her mind. Not only was her mind spinning, but the room had begun to spin as well. It was a shame this all had to happen the night before Valentine's Day, Aileen thought. Colin had said he had made special plans for them tomorrow and Aileen had been looking forward to it; her first Valentine's Day with him since they became lovers, such a shame she couldn't at least have that. That was her last thought before she passed out.

Aileen roused to a semi-awake state when she heard Colin come home. "Mom?" She heard him say. She opened her eyes briefly and saw her handsome son standing in front of her, she wanted to gaze at him forever but her eyelids felt like they had ten pound weights attached to them and they were soon closed again. "Mom?" She heard Colin repeat, but this time she couldn't even pry her lids open for a second.

Aileen felt his warm fingers brush a strand of her hair behind her ear then run down her cheek, she wanted to reach up and hold his hand to her face but she had no control over her body and too soon his loving touch was gone. She heard Colin rustling around and the clinking of glass and assumed he was tidying up after her pity party. Then she heard the water running from the kitchen faucet, Colin washing the dishes.

The steady sound of the running water lulled her into an even deeper sleep. At one point she felt like she was floating in the air, then she couldn't hear the water running any longer, Colin must have finished with the dishes, but then the regular sound of water came flowing to her ears again and she decided Colin must not have finished after all.

All the running water made Aileen realize how dry her mouth was and how she cold use something to drink. She opened her eyes and pushed herself up into a sitting position on the couch. She saw Colin sitting in the arm chair next to the sofa.

"Hi," Colin said.

"Hi," Aileen said returning the greeting. She could see from the pensive look on Colin's face that he had something on his mind. Aileen could guess what it was. "Did you see Sheryl tonight?" Aileen asked.

"Yes," Colin said.

"And... ?" Aileen prompted.

"And..." Colin took a deep breath, "and I realized I still have feelings for her." Aileen knew that was coming but it still felt like a bullet being shot into her heart.

"So, are you back together?"

Colin looked at his mother for a moment then said, "I'm sorry Mom..."

"Hush," Aileen said with a tear running down her cheek. "There's nothing to be sorry about. You two belong together. I've thought about it all night long, I'm glad I could be there for you when you needed me, but I can't hold onto you forever, not like that, it wouldn't be right. You... you can have a normal life with her." Tears were flowing freely from Aileen's eyes now.