I'm so grateful!! This is insane I love you all! This is a monster chapter, over 4K words but I hope it's all worth it. It's one of my favorites I've written this story so please enjoy! Also warning for swearing like I did last chapter.

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Zoe, Jackson, Stella, Erica and I left their house at around 4:30 to go to dinner. It was the earliest I'd ever eaten before. I guess that's the life of someone with two little kids. Kurt left for his boys night out around the same time we left.

Surprisingly, I really liked Red Robin. They had some yummy steak fries with this amazing seasoning. Jackson was super cute and loved to play the games on the kids menu with us. He kept "beating" me in hangman but I think Erica was his favorite person to play with. I didn't mind. I got a chance to talk to Zoe about some of the current news and break the ice to get more comfortable in each other's presence. It was still a bit awkward but we were getting more familiar with each other.

Zoe was worried that someone would recognize Erica at Red Robin. As we all know, she's super popular with the teen and early adult crowd, along with fans in every age group. Erica said she's used to avoiding the crowds, especially in LA. She just wore an oversized sweatshirt, leggings and white shoes to keep her on the down low. Erica also wore sunglasses and a low baseball cap. No one really questioned us, except for a group of teen girls who asked if she was Erica Handler. She laughed it off and said she gets that all the time. Then no one really approached her about it. I think part of it was also the fact that the Red Robin staff kept everyone away for the most part. Erica was sure to leave a large tip at the end of dinner. Another perk of traveling with a celebrity is the fact that they pick up the tab every time.

After dinner, we got back to their house at around 6. It was super early, but Jackson and Stella were already super sleepy.  Erica and I helped Jackson get ready for bed in his cute fireman pajamas while Zoe got Stella ready for bed. Erica even read Jackson a book, which he was overjoyed about. At 7, they were both out cold.

Kurt was obviously not back yet, so it was just me, Erica and Zoe downstairs.

"What now?" I asked as I sat at the island.

Zoe leaned against the island, "Well, I have to clean up all these dishes before I do anything. Kurt likes the house to be clean when we go to bed." I looked over at the sink area. There were cookie sheets, bowls, mixers and everything stacked a mile high. It would take at least an hour to clean all of it. Erica noticed it too.

"No," Erica said firmly, "Give yourself a break. The dishes can wait until later."

"No, I gotta do them," Zoe protested.

"You're working around the clock each day, 24/7, cleaning, dealing with the kids and doing everything around here it seems. Give yourself a little break. You more than deserve it. Here," Erica walked over to their mini wine refrigerator and pulled out a bottle, "I think we all need a drink."

Zoe opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again. It seemed like she really wanted that drink.

I hopped up and grabbed three wine glasses out of Zoe's cabinet while Zoe and Erica popped the bottle of red wine open.

We all sat on her giant sectional house. We had a few sips of wine when Erica asked the question that's been on my mind the entire time I've been here:

"Why did you marry that douchebag?"

Zoe winced at Erica's question and took another sip of wine. It seemed like the alcohol was loosening all of us up a little bit. Her eyes downcasted.

"I mean, I hate to be harsh, but it's true. He's a jerk to you. Why did you marry him?" Erica continued.

Zoe took a long sip of wine before answering.

"We met in college. I was only twenty two and he was twenty three. We were young and were only dating for a few months when suddenly I was pregnant with Jackson. After that, things moved pretty fast. We got engaged four months after I found out I was pregnant and married two months after Jackson was born. It seems like we did it all backwards. I can't believe that was only three years ago. While all this was happening, I was trying to juggle being pregnant and having a baby while I was still in college. Kurt was super supportive of me and really helped me get through that rough time. It also helped that he had a great corporate job at a successful company throughout and after college. It really financially supported us. I honestly couldn't have done it without him. After college finished, I went straight to becoming a stay-at-home mother. He went straight to becoming a working dad. And we were both so young when all this happened. Heck, we're still young." Zoe pauses and got a refill of her wine glass. I had a feeling we would be needing a lot of that tonight.

But that wasn't the full story, I could tell.

"So what happened after that?" I asked gently.

"After Stella was born, our relationship went super tense. At one point, we were arguing every night. About responsibilities as parents. Kurt wanted to go to parties and hang out with friends all the time. I did too, but I always had to remind him that we had a toddler and a newborn baby to take care of. Part of the reason I think we've been arguing is that all of this family life came so quickly. We completely missed out on our 'fun twenties'. We never got to party after Jackson was born. We both missed it, but I had to remind Kurt of the reality and he didn't like it. We argued almost every night. I realized how awful it must be for our little boy, only two years old, to hear his parents arguing. After a while, I just stopped arguing back and standing up to him, just to stop the fighting. Our communication was absolutely nonexistent and still is. This all started happening seven months ago. It's recent and I don't know how to fix it. And Kurt refuses to go to couples therapy with me, so I'm kinda stuck."

I didn't really know what to say. I never experienced anything like that before.

"Zoe, wow, I'm so sorry to hear that. I guess all the happy family stuff I saw on Instagram was fake?" I couldn't believe all this was going on when their pictures looked like the perfect family. However, now that I think about it, the last time I remembered Zoe posting was about three years  ago, when Jackson was born. I never even knew Stella existed because Zoe stopped posting.

Zoe laughed weakly, "I guess it was. Although, before I deleted it, we were in a way better place than we are now. My last post was just after Jackson was born and we were thrilled. Everything just kinda went downhill from there. But the reason I deleted my account three years ago was because of my unhealthy addiction to it, not because of anything with Kurt."

Erica wordlessly got up and just hugged Zoe. This surprised me because, ten years ago, there would be absolutely no way Erica would willing touch someone, much less Zoe. However, time made Erica change a bit. She's gotten softer and more kind, which was nice to see.

Zoe hugged her back tight. I could see how much this situation was affecting her. The moment Erica hugged her, Zoe sort of melted and collapsed in her arms. It seemed like the burden of the world was on her shoulders and there was finally someone who could help her lift the burden. I decided that I would help Zoe however I could in this rough patch. When Zoe pulled away, she had tears in her eyes.

"I'll help you however I can. If you need money or anything, I will be there for you. You're not alone Zoe." This was the kindest I'd ever seen Erica and I really loved it.

"Me too," I chimed in.

Zoe nodded at us in thanks and took a long gulp of wine. Erica and I quickly followed suit.

The wine really loosened us up. For the first time, I was completely candid and honest about my situation in DC. I told Erica and Zoe how isolated and lonely I felt in high school and beyond and how Mike ditched me. I also spoke about my job and how I was evicted from my apartment. Zoe, being so kind, offered for me to stay as long as I needed. I told her I appreciated the offer, but how Erica and I were going to investigate the Joshua situation.

Zoe then spoke about how much she wants to go. She was saying how much she needs a vacation right now. It would do wonders to her mental health just to take a break. But she said at this point, there was no way she trusted Kurt alone with the kids for a long period of time.

Erica then spoke about how the fame affected her. She said she's more cautious about her actions and feelings, as they were constantly broadcasted on every magazine in the world. At the level of fame she's at, she's stalked by random people every day. Erica said that fame was something very outside her comfort zone, but was embracing it and enjoying it. Even though it's annoying to be constantly followed, lied about in tabloids, and have your life under a microscope, the experiences outweigh it. And I'm sure that Erica doesn't mind the millions she makes per day.

As the night went on, there was more alcohol consumed and the less I remembered. It got as late as ten, eleven at night. We all spoke candidly and truthfully (although a lot of it was the wine speaking.) It was fun though to completely let loose and let the words fly out.

At around midnight, Kurt was still not home and Zoe was completely drunk, though she admitted before she was lightweight. I was dizzy and everything was fuzzy for me. Erica was the best of us all, not drunk but definitely not sober.

"I just missed you guys so much. I missed you guys sooooooo freakin much you have absolutely no idea," Zoe slurred with her eyes half open.

"I've missed you too. Oh god how I've missed you and Erica and Mike and Jawa and Chip and Erica," I slurred back to her. I wasn't completely sure what I was saying.

Suddenly, I saw an angel above me.

"Alright, get up both of you," the angel said, "Off to bed." The angel yanked my arm so now I was sitting upright again. I realized that that might not have been an angel, as the angel was yanking me around.

"Stop!" Zoe giggled drunkenly, "Stop, stop, stop hehehe." Zoe kept poking Erica as she was trying to drag her off the couch and to bed.

"Come on Zoe, you have to get upstairs. I'm not carrying you." Zoe was rolling around, super drunk, on the floor. She must have been super lightweight.

She didn't stop so Erica grabbed her face while Zoe was mid-roll on the floor. Erica slapped her face. Not super hard, but hard enough for her to wake up from a super drunk state.

Zoe jolted, and with Erica's help, got upstairs and I assumed to bed. I was still laying on the couch, but I felt the wine wearing off a tiny bit so I wasn't seeing black spots every time I opened my eyes.

Erica came back down to me on the couch.

"Come on, Ben," she said, collecting the wine glasses and placing them in the dishwasher, "Go to bed. You're gonna have the worst hangover in the morning."

I just grinned, "Uh huh."  The drinks haven't worn off that much at all.

"Erica, did I tell you how much I missed you? I miss you everyday! E-ver-y day!" I drew out the syllables.

"Okay Ben," she said, sorta dismissively as she knew I was drunk, "I missed you too. Off to bed."

Even though she seemed sober, I could tell the drinks were affecting her still too, as she was swaying on her feet.

"No, Erica you don't understannndd," I drawled out, "I missed you SO much. I even kept the sticky note you gave me the last day before school let out. I kept it in my top drawer, the alpha drawer, the leader drawer." I giggled.

Erica sat on the couch next to me. We were merely a foot apart.

She smirked, "I missed you too Ben. I thought of you a few times in these last ten years."

"Yes. I missed yooooouuuu," I drunkenly bopped her on the nose. If she was sober, my arm would already be broken by this time. But she just laughed.

"I missed you too. You know, I'm going to be honest, I-" unfortunately, I didn't hear the rest of her comment because I passed out from exhaustion and from drinking.

XXX

I groaned and wondered why I was up. It definitely wasn't morning. I was way less drunk than I was before (now I could make cohesive sentences) but I had the worst headache. Just the mere start of an awful hangover.

I realized I wasn't on the couch anymore. I was laying on top of the covers on a twin bed in Zoe's guest bedroom. The clock said it was 3:30 in the morning. It's only been three hours since the drinking.

I wondered what woke me but figured out that the garage door had opened, shaking the whole first level of the house. Kurt must have gotten home.

I then realized after all of this that I was not alone in the room. Way across the room was another twin bed, in which Erica was sitting on it scrolling through her phone. I was embarrassed I hadn't noticed her before. To be fair, she was quite a ways away.

She noticed I was awake and smirked, "Can your brain finally work properly?"

I groaned, "Kinda. I guess." I sat up, rubbing my eyes.

"Good. You blacked out before you could get to bed. I had to carry you here because it would be so rude to leave a crazy guy blacked out on Zoe's nice couch."

"Uh huh," I said, very bleary eyed, "Thanks for that. How are you not drunk? You drank as much as I did."

"I'm not as lightweight as you. Plus, I've learned to regulate my drinking because of all the parties and award shows I go to. Can't pass out drunk at the  Kardashian's unless you want to get embarrassed. But I'm still drunk, don't get me wrong."

"Oh," I said, still trying to wake up. Comfortable silence followed as I tried to rid my headache and as Erica swiped through her phone.

"What the hell?" Erica growled after a few seconds.

"What?" I asked. She was staring at something angrily on her phone.

"That as*hole Kurt posted a picture of me on his Instagram account even after I told him not to!" Erica aggressively tapped her screen.

"What? How do you know?"

"I told Scott to watch social media after that whole Kurt incident. I told him to see if anyone posts about it and let me know about it. Scott sent me something that said an Instagram account, @kurt_andrews, posted a pic of me from when I was with Jackson. Without my knowledge or permission. That jerk."

She kept clicking.

"It's not a bad picture but I can't believe that he would do something like that. At least his account is private. I guess I shouldn't be surprised he would do that." While Erica was angry, I could hear the slight slur of her words. She wasn't sober.

"I would wait until morning to do something until you have a rational mindset." Luckily, I was smart enough to realize that we weren't mentally acute to solve any issues.

She nodded. I layed back down, trying to fall asleep again. Erica was still on her phone.

After about two minutes, I heard her curse, quite loudly.

"Oh no f*cking way." Her tone was the most calm yet deadly I've ever heard. It honestly chilled me. it was terrifying.

"What?" I said, walking over to her. I was scared to see what she was talking about.

Wordlessly, she showed me the phone. It was a picture on Kurt's Instagram account of him. Kissing another girl. From four hours ago.

"Wha-?" I couldn't comprehend this. Boys night out? Yeah, maybe with some ladies too. I was furious.

I've never seen Erica this angry. Even when facing enemy terrorists, I've never seen her face like this. It appeared calm, but I could see the hard lines in her face. Her crystal blue eyes were cold in the most fury I've ever seen. I would hate to be on the receiving side of that.

Erica calmly stood up and started walking towards the door, phone clenched in her hands. I was perplexed for a second, but then I was aware of the sounds coming from the kitchen. Kurt was almost right outside the door and probably getting a snack or something.

Realizing where Erica was going, I jumped up and blocked her path. I was beyond angry too, but with all of us being slightly drunk, I knew nothing good was coming out of this. And when Erica can't control her emotions, especially while intoxicated, things could get really out of hand.

"Move Ben," she demanded calmly. There was a deadly edge to her voice though.

"'No," I pleaded, "Come on, Erica. I'm mad too, trust me. But this isn't really our place to do something and you're drunk. Nothing good is coming out of this. We'll solve it in the morning."

"I said move Ben," she said in the same deadly calm tone.

But I stayed planted in my spot.

Erica grabbed the front of my shirt and shoved me on the bed out of her way and left the room. I quickly got up and scrambled after her.

When I left the room, I could see Kurt in the kitchen getting a snack and some water and Erica rushing towards him. I was too late.

Erica grabbed his shoulder and whipped him around so he was facing her. His eyes widened in surprise and she clammed a hand over his mouth before he could say anything. She then grabbed his arm and twisted it in an unnatural way and pinned it behind his back, hand still firmly around his mouth to muffle the screams.

He was bent over in pain and she marched him to this storage closet adjacent to the stairs. It was like a small room and was very well organized and the lighting was like a room. Erica threw him into the room.

He crashed to the ground and slid all the way into the wall, where, when he hit the wall, a disinfectant powder fell on his head. Kurt coughed up white powder.

I was standing behind a furious Erica who was standing over the sitting man. He looked ridiculous right now.

She closed the door behind her. We were all crammed into this tiny room.

"What the hell?!" Kurt yelled at Erica, "That was completely uncalled for!"

"Uncalled for?" Erica taunted angrily, "Really? So you think you don't deserve that for cheating on your wife?"

Panic flashed in Kurt's eyes. I caught it and it was clear Erica did too.

"What?! How dare you accuse me of such things?! That's not true!" Kurt tried to save face.

"Oh really?" Erica sneered, "Then what's this?" She shoved the picture of him kissing someone else that night in his face.

He visibly paled at the picture. It was clear he was contemplating lying again or owning up to it. It didn't matter because Erica would be able to sniff the lie out anyway.

But Kurt went with deflection, "How'd you view my account? I'm private."

"It doesn't matter," she sneered, "What matters is the fact you're cheating on your hardworking wife and that you posted a picture of me without my consent specifically after I told you not to."

Kurt realized he was made and his whole act dropped.

He swore, "Are you gonna tell Zoe? Please don't. It was one thing, I was super drunk."

"One thing?" Erica scoffed and scrolled down his feed. Another pic of him making out with the same blonde woman from two week ago.

"I'm telling Zoe and you're going to court. You scumbag as*hole." Erica was furious and I was too.

"Yeah, well, good luck with that. If you tell Zoe, then we're gonna divorce and she's gonna lose all her money. She's gonna be homeless along with the little kids. Zoe needs me." Kurt had the audacity to go there.

This was the tipping point for Erica. His ignorance was disgusting and unacceptable. She punched him right directly in the face. I think I even heard something crack.

He swore very loudly and clutched his face.

Erica leaned over him, "When you guys divorce, she gets half of what you have. And plus, I'm her friend. Do you think I'm short of any cash? Zoe and the kids are going to be fine. In fact, they'll be better than when you were in their life. I'd be more worried about yourself."

He was about to respond, when the closet door opened, revealing a terrified Zoe holding a baseball bat. She must have heard all the noise and came to investigate. She didn't look drunk anymore at all.

Her eyes went wide at the scene in front of her. Erica standing over Kurt, covered in white cleaning powder and clutching his face.

"What. The. Hell. Is. Going. On. Here?" Her words were slow and deliberate. She seemed angry at all of us at this point.

No one responded yet. Zoe narrowed her eyes at all of us. "Out. Everyone. Out of this closet. And someone better explain what's going on." I definitely didn't want to be the one to explain all of this. I tried to prevent it.

We all filled out into the hall with the stairs next to us leading up to the second floor.

"I'm sorry," Erica said sympathetically. Zoe looked confused. Erica showed her the phone.

At first Zoe couldn't comprehend it. She looked at it a couple of times. She zoomed in and out. Finally, she turned on her husband sitting against the wall. Zoe said nothing but her face said it all. Betrayal, anger, sadness and hurt were all visible.

"Look, babe, I can explain-" he tried to save himself.

"No. It looks pretty clear to me," Zoe was dangerously calm. I was holding my break to see how this would play out. Erica was looking at everything with calculated eyes, and was watching Kurt very carefully to make sure he didn't make a move.

"No, I-"

Zoe's calm facade finally broke. 

"GET THE F*CK OUT OF MY HOUSE RIGHT NOW KURT ANDREWS!" She screamed this so loud I was sure the neighbors heard this.

"Babe, please," He tried to plead one more time. Kurt stood up, but Erica's iron grip was around his arm so he couldn't approach her. It looked like Zoe's last thing she wanted was to be near him.

"GET OUT!" Zoe pointed to the door aggressively.

Kurt tried to approach her again, but Erica yanked him back. Water was flowing down her cheeks and her face was streaked with tears.

"I'll take him out," Erica said coldly as she dragged him out the front door.

As if it couldn't get worse, we all heard a little voice call over the banister.

"Mommy?" Jackson's voice was trembling in unshed tears, "What's happening?"

Zoe didn't want to face him with her tear streaked face as he was just behind and above her so she called out without turning around.

"Daddy and I had a disagreement. Don't worry, baby, we'll talk in the morning. Go back to bed." Zoe tried her best to hide her emotions and the amount of trembling in her voice.

"But mommy I'm scared," Jackson finally started crying. Zoe looked like she was debating facing and comforting her son, but with her face all red, it might be more scary than calming.

"I'll go," I offered. Zoe gave me a grateful smile.

I took the stairs two at a time to reach Jackson with little tears falling down his face. It was heartbreaking. He was trying to wipe them away but he couldn't. He was clutching his teddy bear dog in his other hand.

I hugged him for a long time. Finally, he was exhausted enough to fall asleep a little while after. Per his request, I slept on the door next to his bed that night.

But before I went back to sleep, I saw Zoe sitting against the wall and sobbing. She looked like she wanted time to herself at the moment.

This was going to be one giant mess to figure out in the morning.