She stayed in the bath until the water ran cold. When she couldn’t take it anymore, she turned the water off and climbed out, wrapping a towel around her splotchy red body. She felt better. A good cry and hot shower usually helped her cope with the pain. Her head still wasn’t right, but then she probably never would be. Not until she learned that she wasn’t the one who messed up, it was actually the idiots she continued to date.
As she made her way back into her bedroom, she wrapped her hair in a towel. It was early but she needed to get up and get going. Nora, her mother, would be coming by that afternoon with Aiden. He was staying with her for the week, while Fallon and Lucas were in Goa. Even in her state of depression, Audrey was excited. They had a lot planned, and being with Aiden would take her mind off the dickhead.
She pulled shorts, a tee, and underwear out of the dresser, throwing them over her shoulder and onto the bed. When she turned around, stray pillows lay on the floor along with her panties and bra from the night before. She stared at the bed that she and Levi had had sex in, the sheets tousled. Her eyes filled with tears as her heart beat in overdrive.
She reached for her underwear and went through the motions of putting on her clothes as her body started to shake. Then, without thinking, she ripped the sheets off the bed and threw them out the open door into the hall. One by one the pillows joined them before she bolted into the hall, picked up everything, and ran down the stairs. It surprised her that she didn’t fall on her face. The next thing she knew, she was throwing the sheets and pillows out on the front lawn.
Running back upstairs, Audrey pulled the mattress off the bed frame with so much aggression that the towel around her hair fell off. She managed to get the king-size mattress downstairs, knocking picture frames off the walls and twisting her ankle. She pulled the mattress through her living room, knocking over a bookcase and two end tables before getting it out the door. After laying the mattress on top of the other things she’d thrown out, she clapped her hands and ran back inside to grab anything else that might remind her of Levi.
One by one picture frames flew out the door, hitting the mattress with so much force that they bounced off and broke.
It was so invigorating!
She found anything and everything that reminded her of him. All their favorite shows, DVDs, snacks from the kitchen, their favorite blanket. It all had to go! She stood in front of her pile of Levi, breathing hard, as she thought about anything else that could be in the house. Remembering the old Xbox that sat in the closet, she ran inside, grabbed it, came back out, and threw it on the pile too. Still breathing hard, her body covered in sweat, she ran her hand through her wet hair as tears welled up in her eyes.
Stupid asshole.
There was only one more thing to grab, but she knew it was going to take a minute, so she took a second to catch her breath as she silently said good-bye to their things. Even though she wanted to kill him, it still hurt to look at them. To know he was gone for good. After she calmed down, she turned to go back inside. At the top step of the porch she was surprised to see Tate sitting in a lawn chair, drinking coffee, and she let out a loud scream. Tate let out his own girlie scream before falling out of his lawn chair, coffee flying in the air, landing at her bare feet. When it didn’t burn her, Audrey realized it wasn’t coffee but chocolate milk.
“What the hell!” he yelled, jumping up.
“You scared me!”
“How? I’m just sitting here. You are the one throwing stuff and screaming out obscenities!”
“Why didn’t you say something?”
“What? I am sitting here, enjoying my milk and watching the show! What did you want me to do, say, ‘Hey Audrey, I am watching you freak out and declutter your house, do you need help?’ ”
She narrowed her eyes, but then it was like a lightbulb went on. “Yes.”
“Yes?”
“Yes, I need help! Come on,” she said, walking back inside. She went to one end of the couch and looked up to see Tate standing in the doorway. “Grab the other end,” she told him.
“Huh?”
“Help me,” she knocked her body into the end of the sofa, “get this sofa out.”
“Really?”