Darius didn't like riding the bus, but he figured since his dad took the car to go wherever he went, they had to. He disliked the tasteless smiles he'd get from riders. He despised the staring problem people seemed to have apon this vehicle. The looks of interest his mom received from male passengers did not go unnoticed by him, though.

        His mom seemed to pay no mind to them. Darius couldn't figure it out. If countless strangers could look at his mother with such want and longing, why couldn't his father? His mother was beautiful. She was a head turner. She was funny, sweet, caring, but his father didn't seem to care about these qualities she possessed. He didn't understand it.

        Janice pulled the string to signal to the bus driver that they needed to get off. When the bus slowed to a stop, his mother rose, still with Hazel in her hold as she held out her free hand for Darius; Darius taking it without hesitation. As Janice made her way out the front doors of the bus, Darius did not miss the bus drivers eyes lingering on his mother before letting them off.

        Darius was relieved as the bus took it's leave, but soon after grimaced at the sight of the unnecessarily big, peach-colored house. His mother let go of his hand to give the wooden door a signature knock. When the door was opened, they were greeted by two big smiles.

"Janice! What are you all doing here so late? Come in."

        Seeing her parents' again brought her comfort. Just hearing their loving voices made her feel at home. She followed them inside along with Darius and Hazel. "Darius, sweetie. You're getting so big.", Janice's mother stated while gently tugging at his right cheek. "Oh and look at Hazel." She took Hazel from her arms and gently cradled her. Janice smiled, loving the fact that her parents loved her children so much.

        Her father looked over her mothers shoulder at Hazel, gently smiling down at her. "She looks just like you did as a baby, Janice." Her mother nodded in agreement.

"..Yeah."

        The evident sadness in Janice's voice grabbed her mothers attention. "What's wrong?", she asked. She saw the tears surfacing in her eyes and figured it had something to do with Charles. She knew Janice and Charles had been having problems, but assumed things would get better over time. Apparently things had gone downhill according to the tears in her daughter's eyes.

"I made cookies, Darius. Go on in the kitchen with Grandpa and he'll give you some."

        Not wanting to leave his mother's side, Darius hesitated. He looked up at Janice who gave him a reassuring smile. He knew his mother was hurting and understood her need to be alone with his Grandmother. Though he highly detested sweets like his father, he reluctantly followed his Grandfather knowing his mother would be alright with hers.

        When they were alone, Janice's mother gazed at her daughter with sympathetic curiosity. "What happened?" Janice held back her tears as she spoke. "Charles makes me feel like I'm nothing. Like I'm disgusting. Have I changed since I had Hazel?" Tears began spilling out of her eyes. She hated what had become of her and Charles. They'd fallen apart and it hurt. "Charles doesn't love me anymore... and I know he's cheating on me." It was obvious he was. She'd tried so hard to ignore that fact, but she always knew.

        Janice's mother embraced her and combed her fingers through her hair. "I don't know what to do." Her heartache was accompanied by a headache. Knowing Charles no longer wanted her pulled at the strings of her heart. She didn't know how to handle it. "Maybe you and Charles need time apart." Janice looked up at her mother, tears still falling. "If you're certain that Charles is cheating on you, then it's clear he doesn't realize what he has. You two need to be separated. At least for a little while."

        Her mother figured this had all been going on too long. It'd been months since she'd last seen her daughter happy as she had once been. "I don't know.. I don't think Darius and Hazel would be happy with that. I want them to grow up with both of their parents. Not just one."

"That may be, but I'm sure your children would want to see their parents happy. It's going to hurt them seeing you two argue so much."

        Her mother wiped the tears from her daughter's face. "I just think that maybe you two should do co-parenting, but not be in a relationship with each other." Janice slowly shook her head. "It's not that easy, mom. I love him."

        Janice received a sympathetic smile in response. "I know sweetie.. but, a relationship won't work if only one person is trying to keep it together." Her mother tightly embraced her. It broke her heart to see her daughter like this. "Whatever you decide, just know that I'm here." Janice nodded. She so desperately wanted everything to be fine between her and Charles, but her mother was right. It seemed as though Charles didn't even want this marriage anymore.

        She loved Charles, but she didn't want him to feel forced to be with her because they had children together. Co-parenting was an obvious option that could work. She loved Charles, but it was clear he'd grown out of love with her. He'd even gone as far as to cheat on her and she didn't want to remain quiet while trying to ignore it anymore.

        Janice felt a vibration in her pocket and took out her phone to see who was calling. 'Charles' was displayed on the screen. She let out a sigh and looked at her mother. "It's Charles.. I'll be right back." Her mother nodded in response.

        Janice then stepped outside, closing the door behind her. She tapped on the green phone icon and slid it over. "Hello?"

"I'm at the house and you're not here."

"Yeah. I'm over my parents' with the children."

"You didn't think to tell me first, Janice?"

        She could hear the heavy irritation in his voice. Charles really didn't care for her anymore. Whenever they talked, he no longer called her 'baby', 'sweetheart', 'love' or any of those color-coded words that showed he cared even in the tiniest bit. Instead, he opted into calling her by her name which instead signaled he only wanted to know something from her. There was no love behind it.

"Charles.. We need to talk."

An irritated breath was heard over the phone. "What now?"

        Charles took a deep breath before replying to her husband. "..You don't talk to me anymore and it's like you're always in a rush to leave. As if you don't want to be around me."

"..."

"I... feel like our marriage is falling apart."

"I could've told you that, Janice."

        She found herself at a loss for words. He made no effort to deny anything she'd said. Some part in her desperately hoped he would, but she half-expected him not to. There was a major decline in their relationship and it hurt more than anything.

        Hearing Janice go silent on the other end, Charles spoke. "So, you want a divorce?" Janice felt her heart shatter at his question. She knew this was coming, yet she still wasn't prepared for the heartbreak. The pain. Tears gathered in her eyes at the thought of them splitting.

"Mommy?"

        Janice quickly turned around to see Darius staring at her with curious eyes. She gave a forced smile, not wanting her 4-year old to get the idea of what was going on. If anything, she wanted for her and Charles to sit down and talk to him about it, first.

"Hey, sweetie."

        She inwardly cursed herself for the cracking in her voice. Darius remained quiet while staring at her.

"Let me talk to my son."

        Janice handed the phone over to Darius. He took it and put it to his ear, not taking his eyes off of his mother. He noticed the red stained whites of his mommy's eyes. It meant she had been crying..

And he knew why.

"You're getting a divorce..?"

        Charles hesitated in answering. He didn't want to hurt his son. He knew Darius wanted them to stay together, but things just didn't work out that way. "..Yes.. I want you to know that-"

"Why? Did I do something wrong? I'm sorry." Tears began falling out of his eyes.

"Darius-"

"Daddy, please! I'm sorry! Please, stay with mommy! I won't be bad anymore! I promise!"

"It's not your fault, Darius. You didn't do anything."

More tears fell down his cheeks. "Then, why..?"

        Her heart was breaking with every sob from her son's mouth. She'd never seen Darius show such emotion and it ate at her heart. Janice took the phone from him and embraced him tightly. She'd caused her son pain and she desperately wanted to fix it. She wanted to make it go away. Unfortunately, this was not one of those events where a mothers kiss would make it all better. This was something more complicated.

        Darius pushed her away from him and ran back inside of his Grandparents house, painfully sobbing. Janice felt guilty. Her child was broken.

Why did things have to turn out this way?