you're the broken one

?!

A bittersweet smile spread over Monica’s face as Salem mentioned Ellie, her eyes dropping in thought briefly as she thought back to the beautiful brown-eyed little girl she’d met earlier. It was hard to believe that was her daughter, though the connection the two shared was obviously there because Monica found it all too easy to interact with the small child. But still, how were you supposed to believe that something happened when you had no recollection of anything involving it? Monica’s smile turned to a softer, more content smile at Salem’s mention of them being sisters. It was nice to see Monica hadn’t totally alienated everyone over the past few years. After her big blow up with Aubrey, the brunette never expected to trust anyone again, let alone become so close with a whole group of them. 

With a furrowed brow, Monica tilted her head slightly before looking down at her chest. Curiously, her finger went to curl around the collar of her shirt, pulling it back to gaze down at her chest. The first thing she saw was the bruising from the accident, her skin painted shades of blue and purple and red. But then she focused, looking to her nipples to see the jewelry. “Oh.. my god. Did we do this together?” She asked, looking up with wide eyes, amusement glinting within them. ”Thanks, Sal.” Monica said with a small smile, taking in everything she had said. It was a lot, but the girl had done a great job of summarizing it all. For the most part, Monica could piece together at least a general idea of what her life had come to. How she’d gotten close with Ethan, and fallen pregnant, causing her to not go to school, and drop out of work. There were just a few pieces that….weren’t exactly clicking. 

Her expression changed a bit as Monica spoke again, she nodded her head slightly before the girl asked her questions. Salem's tongue slid against her lips, breathing in and adjusting the way she sat in the chair before answering. "Well, um." Sal swallowed hard, eyebrows furrowed, and her eyes looking past Monica.

"Well, um. You stopped working a little before you had Ellie. There was something wrong, I can hardly remember." Her head shook slightly, "You were at work and you were in a lot of pain.. I think I was at work, maybe. BJ ended up calling me. You had called Ethan and told him something was wrong. I think maybe you were having contractions? I'm so sorry, I can't remember exactly what happened." She chewed on her lip a bit, "We spent awhile in the hospital, everything was alright in the end. It was just a lot of stress on the baby." She nodded, pushing a smile onto her face, "I think we all spent most of our time convincing you to take off work. It was for your health, really. But you were really worried about money. Which is understandable. I get it." She let out a long breath, "But it was for your health."

Salem chewed on her lip a bit more, mulling over how to tell Monica about the situation with her parents. "The situation with your parents is a little bit um.. harder to explain, I guess." She pressed her lips together, her eyes finding Monica's.

Raising her eyebrows at the question, a sigh left her lips, nodding. “Yeah, like..  May or June, I think. I’m still trying to pin point my… last memory. I think it was the… end of May? Like I remember graduating. Which was the beginning of May so.. Somewhere around there.”  An exasperated sigh left Monica’s lips as her eyes seemed to look out into nothingness, searching her mind for a moment before glancing to Salem and shrugging. “Eh. Whatever.” A grateful smile spread over her lips at Salem’s offer, nodding as the gratitude shown in her eyes. “Yes, please, fill in everything you can. I hate not knowing things. And I mean, it’s not…exactly that I don’t trust him.. it’s just.. I don’t.. he’s so nervous and.. trying to tell me everything he does, it seems like he’s so unsure of things and I just… don’t know.” 

"Christ, I would have to put up with him yammering about you all the time. And I was just sulking about thinking that I had just lost some great love. It was ridiculous." Her elbow now rested on her leg, her chin in her hand and her eyes were fixed on Monica. She felt like she was carrying on and on, that maybe she was boring the girl. But Sal wanted to make sure she filled her in properly. "So there I was, totally pissed about you two and then BJ moved back. The nerdy boy from middle school, with the vending machines and all that. He started working with you at The Cheesecake Factory and I fell in love with him. He made me realize that I never really had the feelings I thought I had for Ethan and once I realized that and let it go, I just welcomed you back into my life. Well, that and you were really sick. Which turned out to be a pregnancy, which lead to my beautiful niece, Ellie-- you saw her earlier, right? She's perfect and let me tell you, you're super mom." Salem flashed her a smile before shifting in her seat, "But I'm getting off topic, let's keep this chronological, yeah?"

"So you got pregnant, and you were staying at Ethan's house before and after you gave birth. We started spending a lot of time together, so, yeah, we definitely became friends again. More like sisters." Salem laughed, trying to muffle it with her hand clasped over her lips, "Check your nipples if you want to see exactly how close we are these days" She jokingly raised her eyes seductively and leaned back in the chair, sitting her arms on the arm rests. "I've spent the last two and a half years watching you and Ethan grow together, learn together and coexist. It's a good relationship and I'm very lucky to have you guys around me." She smiled sweetly, she hoped that Monica could read the sincerity on her lips. Part of her felt as if she was going to overwhelm the girl but if Monica wanted to be filled in on everything that Salem could fill her in on, then she would do just that. Her fingers tapped against the chair's armrest gently before sitting up quickly and leaning forward, 

The sound of a door opening pulled her back, looking up to see a familiar redhead peeking into the room. If the popcorn boy hadn’t told her everything he did when she woke up, Monica would’ve assumed Sal was here to push past the large discrepancy that had happened between them and was here because she cared, and was worried. But now Monica was unsure of almost every aspect of her life. “Hey Sal.” She said softly, sitting up a little more, her face twitching as she winced in pain from sitting up too fast, before turning to look at the girl. “How.. are you?” She bit her lip, tucking a dark lock of her hair behind her ear as she tried to figure out what exactly was the right thing to say in this situation. 

She sucked in air through closed teeth, shifting her weight in the chair and trying to stay as normal as possible given the situation. "I am absolutely still at AMC, it sucks but I get to do basically whatever I want since Ethan quit and started working at The Cheesecake Factory. The boss has this thing about me, I'm like his favorite person. In an entirely skeevy way." She wrinkled her nose slightly to show her disdain for the man. "Sometimes I feel like I'll never get out. But it's money in our pockets, you know?" She smiled before fiddling with the hem of her shirt.