2) The Intrusion

A Chapter by Ivy

John visits his friend Matt to vent his feelings and discovers his sister's family eavesdropping on him

2) The Intrusion

John was in turmoil. As he slammed the door to the apartment he shared with Lucy, the cold air in the hall hit his cheeks refreshingly and cooled them. He had made sure to pocket the red box before leaving, and now he pulled it from his jacket and looked at it.

It was empty of course, the ring being with Lucy. John thought of the joy that had been in his heart as he’d bought the ring with care and love, and the butterflies in his stomach as he knelt in front of Lucy on one knee. He’d thought, yesterday, that by this time today, Lucy and he would be in their bedroom already, her shirt off and his jeans unbuckled, happily having sex to celebrate their engagement before calling their respective families to tell them the news.

He closed the box with a snap that echoed in the hallway and raced down two flights of stairs to the second floor, where he began to knock furiously on apartment A2. “Go away!” a voice inside called. But when John would not let up the knocking, he said, “Alright, alright, I’m coming!” a voice called grudgingly. The loud sound of a recliner being shut was heard and a few moments later the door swung open. “Oh!” the man on the other side of the door said, his face lighting up. “John! Sorry, man, I thought it was Julia. She’s been chasing after me like a hound on the loose these past couple of days.”

Wordlessly, John opened the red box out again, and held it open for his friend to see. “Matt, I"”

“Yooooo, man!! You got the chick! Wooo! Let’s par-tay! We’re gonna need to arrange a bachelor party, man! Hmmm… I’ll rope Jules back in " even though I sure as hell don’t want to, but for this man " anything! " and she’ll definitely help do it"”

He was cut off by John. “Matt.”

Matt grinned. “Don’t be so solemn, dude. Save it for the kids!”

John cringed at “kids”.

“By the way, get in here, man! You’re standing out there like a stranger. Speaking of…actually this doesn’t really have anything to do with kids, but why doesn’t Lucy have the box? Also, shouldn’t you be, like, having sex now or something?” He laughed.

John was silent.

“Oh, damn,” Matt said quietly, his smile fading. “How could she have said…Did she…?” He pulled John into a hug, and then released him to see tears in his best friend’s eyes. He grabbed John’s arm and furiously pulled him into A2. The door closed, and small girl’s head peeked around the corner. She was around four or five and her brown hair was split into pig-tails. Her face was round a plump and cute, but at the moment her big eyes dropped with sadness.

As she stepped into the hall, an adult male and female followed her, and bringing up the rear was a teenage boy " whose hand was held limply at his side, an iPod barely in its clutch " all stared in shock at the now closed door of A2.

The man cursed suddenly, breaking the silence of the hall, and the woman gave him a reproachful look, covering the little girl’s ears. The group stepped fully into the hall and cautiously approached apartment A2 in a silent yet unanimous decision to eavesdrop. When they got close enough, they could hear Matt, loud and clear:

“That b***h!”"The woman’s hands went protectively over the little girl’s ears again"“That f*****g b***h! How could she say that? Marriage doesn’t mean anything to her? She basically said that she f*****g hates kids and she wouldn’t want to have children with you! F**k her! She’s a"” But apparently Matt couldn’t find any words to fill the blank, and had to settle with calling Lucy ‘that b***h’ every two minutes.

Finally, he took the concerned-best-friend role. “John…I’m sorry for you, man. I thought this was your moment. I didn’t think I would be seeing you until, like, noon tomorrow. I thought you guys would be pounding away all night"”

“Matt,” John cut in, “Please spare me that mental image right now because I’m really not in the mood. Can we talk about something else besides Lucy? Why does she deserve to be our topic?” He snorted in disgust.

The teenager outside the door snorted in response. “He sounds like a girl!” he whispered, doubled over in silent laughter. Both of his parents shushed him as hard as they could without making so much noise, but their attempts were futile.

“Who said that?” John’s voice said suddenly. “It sounded like a girl outside our door! Or window! If that’s Lucy’s friends spying for her, I am going to f*****g"” He cut himself off and angry footsteps were heard.

The people outside the door could have gotten away in time. If the teenage boy hadn’t grabbed the little girl’s arm too hard to drag her away. But because he squeezed so hard, she let out a squeal of pain, and wrenched her arm from her brother’s gasp, causing all four to stop, and the adult man and woman to turn back.

Just as the door to apartment A2 swung open, and there stood John, in shock.

“Uncle Johnny!” the little girl yelled, forgetting her hurt arm and the code of secrecy, as she ran toward John and embraced his legs. “Pick me up!”

“Lisa?” John said to the adult woman, lifting the little girl, Lily, into his arms. “Brad?” It was his sister and brother-in-law.

“Hey, uncle,” the teenager said. “Sorry ‘bout your b***h.” He returned to his iPod.

“Sam.” John forced a grin. “Hey man. Um…thanks…” He stroked the little girl’s hair as he mouthed to Lisa, and Brad, “Nice going guys. F**k you.” His eyes were full of anger and hurt.

Lisa bit her lip. “I’m sorry John,” she said apologetically, and John had a feeling it was for much more than eavesdropping.

He was silent.

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