To Love a Shooting Star

by K'Anne Meinel

  “Kate! Your back!” Giving and receiving hugs from the boys cooled her anger a little but she could see Sandy out of the corner of her eyes and she wasn’t happy at the blatant affection, she ignored the pain that their hugs caused. Kate chatted with the boys for a few minutes before taking the clickers and putting them on the counter where everyone was sure to see them. Twisting her key chain she removed the house key as well and placed it there. She headed upstairs.

  Kate was already exhausted from just coming home and dealing with the crap she already had, she was also still in a lot of pain, but she kept herself moving. Going to the closet she opened it and removed two suitcases and a garment bag and placed them on the bed. Grabbing her entire side of the closet in her arms she carefully lifted the full contents, staggering a little she placed the hanging garments in the bag and started removing the coat hangers. She kept those that were her own but replaced Erin’s back on the now bare rod. She collected her shoes from the bottom of the closet and placed some in the bottom of the garment bag before zipping that closed, folding it in the middle, and stacking that to the side of the bed. Opening the two suit cases she went to the dressers and started emptying those of her things. She was just too tired though to get very far. Having lived in two homes for all this time her things were often duplicated here in Hollywood and again up in Santa Barbara. If she missed anything she was sure Erin would box it up for her. She very deliberately removed her promise ring and placed it on the dresser where Erin was sure to see it. Going into the bathroom she stripped her dirty clothes and took a shower. She loved baths but with incisions knew it was not a good idea to soak them until they had healed, she didn’t want an infection at this stage. Washing her hair and body she was relieved to get some of the tape marks off of her. A couple of the bandages on her back fell into the shower and she ripped the rest of them that she could reach off of her as well and threw them all into the waste bin. The shower exhausted her even more. She tried to brush and dry her hair but couldn’t keep her eyes open. Staggering to the bed she laid a towel down for her hair and wrapped her bathrobe around herself. She laid down next to her suitcases and was soon fast asleep.

  Erin came home right before dinner. Using the keypad in her wagon she drove directly into the garage and was soon in the house through that door. Greeting Sandy she was puzzled as Sandy quickly dropped her eyes, as though guilty of something but Erin dismissed it as her own over active imagination.

  Seeing the boys hanging out with Sandy she greeted them “Hey guys, how ya doing?”

  “Hi Mom”

  “Hi Mom, did you know Kate was back?”

  Startled and puzzled Erin looked around her in surprise “she is? When did she get here?”

  “Oh, about an hour or so ago.”

  Sandy quickly asked “did you want some dinner, it will be ready in a few minutes?”

  “Yes, hang on though, I’ll be right back” Erin was confused. As she headed for the hallway to the stairs she noted the garage door openers and the key sitting on the counter and wondered why they were sitting there. She went upstairs to the master bedroom and opened it to find Kate sound asleep on their bed. It was obvious she had just taken a shower as her wet hair would indicate. Erin was alarmed to see the still open closet empty of all of Kate’s clothes. She noticed the bulging garment bag on the side of the bed and the two suitcases on top of the bed next to Kate, one half filled. Looking around she saw a couple of open dresser drawers. Then she saw the promise ring on top of the dresser. What the hell was going on?

  She had gone to the hospital to pick Kate up but had been given the run around for an hour about where she might be, she had come right after a shift change or something and no one knew anything. Since she wasn’t family they wouldn’t tell her anything, famous or not. Erin had worried ever since. To find her peacefully sleeping on their bed but obviously in the middle of packing made her angry. Between the packed bags, the promise ring, the key and garage buttons it was obvious Kate was planning on leaving. She wanted to shake Kate awake and ask her what was going on but given the last few days she wasn’t sure that was a wise idea. Kate needed her sleep. Erin withdrew from the bedroom and returned downstairs.

  Dinner was excellent. Sandy was a great cook. Erin though kept quiet, wondering about what was going on upstairs. She answered the boy’s questions about the day and asked a few of her own but she was very distracted. Sandy never said a word directly to her but kept glancing at her. Erin never even noticed. After dinner she wanted to rush upstairs but instead helped the boys with their school stuff that Sandy had gone and bought them. This too annoyed Erin but she didn’t say anything. Sorting and packing up their book bags, they were ready for when school would start. They showed her the clothes Sandy had bought as well. Finally though it was time for bed. Despite it still being officially summer, Erin convinced them to go to bed to prepare for school scheduling. Neither fell for it but humored her about at least going to their rooms. Erin took advantage of this and returned to her own bedroom. Kate was still asleep. It wasn’t very late but Erin decided to get ready for bed and join Kate in their bed. Since Kate was sleeping in her robe and on top of the bedspread, Erin pulled a blanket from the end of the bed and covered her up. Sliding under the sheets herself she lay there and watched Kate sleep for a long time thinking before she herself fell asleep.

  Kate awoke sometime around 4am. Feeling disoriented she stretched slightly at her curl around her suitcases. The empty one clunked to the floor and woke her fully. It all came back to her in an instant and she looked around the room alarmed. Erin had left the side table lamp on and when Kate looked to the right of the bed she looked straight into Erin’s bright blue and incredibly intense eyes that had awoken at the noise.

  “What’s going on?” Erin asked. She didn’t want to antagonize Kate right off the bat but she did want some answers to what she had observed.

  Kate looked away and looked around the room, still a little disoriented she answered “nothing” and she tried to slide off the bed herself.

  Erin got up from her side of the bed and met Kate around the end of the bed. “What does this mean?” She gestured to the still open closet and the packed bag as well as the suitcases.

  Kate looked her straight in the eye and said sadly “I get it, you want me gone, I’ll be out in the morning” she tried to walk around Erin but she wasn’t having any of that and moved to head her off.

  “What do you mean I want you gone?” All the anger she had felt from the frustration and worry of the past few days returned.

  Sighing Kate’s gaze didn’t leave Erin’s angry face “look, I’m not stupid, you locked me out but Sandy let me in, maybe in error, but I do have the right to retrieve my things don’t you think?” Her face registered her fatigue. She was also extremely sad.

  “Locked you out? I didn’t lock you out?” Erin added confusion to her anger and the lines on her forehead reflected that.

  Getting annoyed, Kate wished she had finished packing yesterday and gotten everything in her SUV so she could have avoided this confrontation. “It’s obvious you saw the TV report, but locking me out was a little childish much less changing the codes.”

  Erin looked at her like she was crazy. What the heck was she talking about? Plus it was 4am and she was a little sleepy. This just didn’t make sense! “Kate, I don’t know WHAT THE HELL you are talking about?” She tried to keep her voice down but couldn’t help the anger coming through.

  “Dammit, what do you want from me? I said I was sorry for causing you the worry. I don’t know what more I can do. You want to keep my things too? Fine, I don’t need them. I’ll dress and get the hell out of here.” Kate tried again to pass Erin but Erin grabbed her arm. Kate winced and Erin immediately released her.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you more. I don’t know what the hell is going on and I’d like to get to the bottom of it.” Concern replaced the anger.

  Staggering slightly Kate reached in the suitcase for und
erwear and sat on the edge of the bed to put it on. Erin watched her silently. “I waited at the hospital for you today to pick me up, when you didn’t I took a cab. I tried to get through the gate but the code didn’t work. I buzzed but no one answered.”

  “Maybe no one was home, Sandy took the boys school shopping.”

  Kate looked at Erin sadly, how quick she was to defend people “no, they were home, the camera moved to look at me and I buzzed again. SANDY let me in. Then my garage door opener wouldn’t work so I figured it was a battery and went around to the side door which my key didn’t work for. Fortunately that was unlocked and I could get in. I tried the garage door opener in my SUV and it didn’t work, I don’t think the batteries in both would be dead. So I left them and my key on the counter downstairs for you.”

  “Yeah, I saw them.”

  “I figured since you didn’t pick me up this was your way of telling me things had changed. Pretty childish if you ask me.” Kate couldn’t keep the bitterness out of her voice.

  Erin tried to sit down next to Kate on the bed but Kate moved over, every indication being that she didn’t want to be close to Erin. Sighing herself she said “let me tell you what I did yesterday. I worked all morning since the hospital indicated that you wouldn’t be let go until late in the day. When I went to the hospital to pick you up, I went to your room which was empty and clean as though you had never been there. I must have caught the shift change but no one knew where you were and they weren’t too forthcoming with information” you could hear the sarcasm in Erin’s voice at this point “it took me an hour to find that they had released you. So I came home, only to find Sandy cooking dinner, the boys done with their school shopping” Kate knew that Erin enjoyed doing the school shopping with the boys “and you half packed and passed out up here.”

  Kate listened to every word. “Why IS Sandy here?”

  “She was to take them shopping to help a little but not do it all. She has been taking the boys while I was at the hospital with you.” Erin couldn’t keep the resentment out of her voice.

  “Do you realize how much Sandy IS here? Do you realize how much she resents my presence here in your life much less the boys?”

  “Come on, what I had with Sandy is well over. We share children, that’s all.”

  Kate looked at her incredulous. How could she be so blind? “Erin, she is still in love with you if you can’t see it! Christ, I’ve put up with two and a half years of her snipes, resentment, and little digs. I’ve had enough. If you didn’t change the codes or the lock I’ll bet I know who did!”

  “Come on, why would she do that?” Erin totally ignored the crack about the resentment and digs.

  “Because she still loves you and hopes to get you back! How long am I to stay quiet about all that?” Kate was trying to keep her voice down, it was very early in the morning but it was a little loud.

  “Kate, are you sure you’re not seeing more than there is?” Erin sounded a little condescending. She didn’t want to get in the middle of her ex and her current girlfriend. She also felt a little guilty. Kate had never complained. She had never told Erin how bad it was but the boys had mentioned some of the rotten things Sandy had said and pulled on Kate and for this to come about now when Erin should be angry at Kate made her feel awful.

  “You’re BLIND where she is concerned. I accept that you two had children together and I never resented it. The boys and I have a good relationship thank God, but enough with allowing that woman to walk all over you!”

  Compounding the guilt and the anger Erin also had the fear that Kate would indeed leave her. The suitcases had been a jolt. “I think your blowing things out of proportion. You have no proof that she changed the codes, maybe there is just something wrong with your unit. I don’t know about the key, but I will check it out okay?”

  Kate just shook her head. Erin defending someone wasn’t new. Kate loved how fiercely she protected those in her inner circle but this was getting ridiculous. Sandy was devious, a bitch, and had been undermining them from the first time Kate met her. The boys saw it and ignored what they could. Kate had ignored Sandy and it infuriated her but then Kate had done it deliberately to get her own back. But Erin refused to see. It was frustrating.

  “Come back to bed, please? It’s too early to go anywhere and you still look exhausted. We can talk in the morning okay?”

  Kate slowly rose from the bed and shoved the half-filled suitcase to the floor with a clunk. She walked to the bathroom to use the toilet and grabbed her nightgown. Exchanging the bathrobe for the gown she returned to bed. This time she flicked the bedspread down. Spotting the damp towel she crunched it in a ball and threw it onto the bathroom floor. Normally a fairly neat person she just didn’t care at this moment. Crawling into bed she was joined by Erin. Neither turned towards the other and both lay there like statues until sleep claimed first one and then the other.

  Erin was the first one awake. She watched Kate sleep for a moment and thought back to their early morning fight. She knew Kate was probably right. She had felt guilty about Sandy for years but how long do you say you’re sorry for cheating on your ex-girlfriend? How long do you take the subtle abuse? Sandy had taken full advantage of their relationship because of the boys. Enough was enough. Erin wasn’t willing to lose Kate over Sandy. Kate was the best thing that happened to her in years, she genuinely made Erin happy. She loved her more than she had ever loved Sandy. Sliding from the bed she quietly put on her robe and left the bedroom. She was surprised to see Sandy in her kitchen making pancakes.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I stayed in the guest bedroom. The boys and I were going to finish up their school shopping.”

  Erin knew this was Sandy’s subtle way of chastising Erin for not being a proper mother. Sandy knew that Erin was very involved with the boys’ lives and was a good mother but any time she could belittle or embarrass Erin, she did. Erin loved shopping with the boys for school and Sandy was going to try and deny her that privilege? Not if Erin had anything to say about it. Not answering right away though would bother Sandy so Erin instead reached in a drawer for batteries and changed the watch battery in Kate’s keychain garage door opener and used AAA batteries in the clicker. Going out the garage door she was very well aware that Sandy had been watching her every move. The new batteries made no difference, neither the clicker or the key chain opened the garage door. Erin returned to the kitchen. Going to the control panel for the gate which also held the video monitor she punched in her access code and punched up the access code for the gate, sure enough it was changed. Using a number Sandy would not guess, she changed it again when Sandy’s back was turned to her pancakes. Next she grabbed the key and tried the side door, no luck, it didn’t work. As their front door used the same key, she wondered if Sandy had changed the locks but then realized the tumbler on the door was tripped. Flipping it back up the key not only fit but locked and unlocked the door fine. She checked it on the front door as well. That tumbler had not been tripped. She was very angry though. What childish and unnecessary games Sandy had played and Erin was certain it was Sandy. Kate was recovering from surgery and probably depressed from her misadventure. She hadn’t needed to come back to THIS!

  Laying the key next to the clickers she waited for Sandy to notice or acknowledge her standing there. When she poured the last of the batter on the griddle she turned to wash out the bowl and looked up into Erin’s angry face. “Why did you change the code on the gate?” Erin asked calmly.

  “The code on the gate?” Having been a lawyer most of her adult life she was a better actor than some of the people Erin knew.

  “Don’t play games with me. The code was changed, the garage door has been changed, I’ll get that fixed later, and the tumbler was tripped. You can’t tell me that those three things were a mere coincidence?” Her voice was icy.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Sandy tried to look a little hurt but failed to keep the triumph out of her eye
s. “Maybe the boys were playing with things; you know how they can be.”

  Mentioning the boys and trying to lay blame on them really annoyed Erin but she didn’t let it show “Sandy, we meant a lot to each other for a very long time, we have the boys together, and I don’t want that to ever change. However, you don’t live here. You don’t call or ask if it’s okay to come here. You stay over without being asked. All of that has to change. I don’t want you to feel that you can come and go. It’s not like when I lived here with just the boys.”

  “Yeah, she lives here with you now” the voice changed to a slight sneer “I get that. She isn’t however their mother, you and I have that privilege.”

  “Your right, she isn’t their mother, I AM” Erin stressed “you are their other mother, their parent. Kate however is their friend and MY girlfriend. She lives here, YOU DON’T” she told her firmly.

  It was a battle of wills, each trying to stare down the other. Sandy turned back to the stove to flip the pancakes on the griddle.

  “Sandy, I want you to gather your things and leave.”

  Incredulous Sandy turned around. She was angry beyond words but managed to spit out “what about the boys? I promised to take them shopping!”

  “I will finish their shopping and return some of the things they cannot wear or use at school. You should have consulted me first.”

  Sandy turned back to the stove and angrily turned off the burners. Leaving the last pancakes on the grill she went to grab her jacket and purse and stomped through the living room. Angrily she put on her jacket, glaring at Erin who refused to be stared down. “Is this what it has come to? You don’t wish to share the boys anymore?”

  Erin looked at her sadly, it was a poor attempt at manipulation “Sandy, you will ALWAYS be in their life, you’re their mother as well as I am, but these shenanigans have got to stop. I won’t allow you to ruin what I have with the boys much less with Kate.”