“Are you sure it’s okay? Your mom won’t mind, given the weird atmosphere?” Elise looks borderline terrified as I lead her into the house after school and shrug it off. Not caring one iota if my mom minds. It’s been weeks since I had my friend home for dinner, and I want to get some sense of normal back in my life while it’s still in self-destruct mode.Home feels weirdly warm and inviting today as the delicious smells of baking bread hit us in the face as we yank off our school jackets and kick off our shoes. I guess Monique is in the mood to spend the afternoon in the kitchen, and I thank her mentally for the years she always made this fele like home. Her small touches, her constant presence, and today, the smell of her pouring love into our food has been the only thing to comfort me lately.“Kayla, you’re home. Elise…are you staying for dinner?” I don’t get to answer as my mom appears in the hallway as though she’s been waiting for the door to open and answers for me. She is seeming
I don’t know what brought me in here or even remember walking in or climbing the stairs. But as Dane’s old room stretches out emptily in front of me, I spot the discarded hoody on the bare mattress where I threw it and idle slowly to retrieve it. It seems symbolic, lying here.An unloved, unwanted heap of fabric, left in here to exist alone in the nothingness of what he left behind.The hoody is me.Pulling it into my lap as I slide my butt onto the edge of the mattress with more effort than warranted, given I feel dead on my feet. Scanning the walls and furniture and the sheer emptiness of this room without anything of his. A naked shell, a box without personality. Everything is gone just like he is, and it fills me with a deeper, darker ache all the way down to my toes. Every day, a new wave of confusing feelings comes at me, always different from the one before, and each time, I am no more prepared to navigate it.I guess it’s like going through the steps of grief, and I am finally
“Here, drink something.” Tyler's gentle coaxing as he presses a warm cup into my hand snaps me out of my zombie state of staring at the blank hospital wall, and I blink back into reality. I wasn't even aware I was zoned out on another plain, as I don’t recall any thoughts. I don’t even know how long I was sitting immobile like this, unaware of the people around me.He's crouching in front of me, assessing my mental state, appearance, and expression and nods off towards my mom and Monique in the chairs across the room where they are now silent. My mom had been crying for the first hour here, but it seems she, too, has hit the silent numb. Waiting endlessly like we are. My mom looks shellshocked, pale, and lifeless as Monique cradles her in like she’s the child in this. Sitting a few feet away because of a gap in the chair layout.I wouldn’t expect anything else from my mom. I have always parented myself. Whenever I needed someone to lean on, it was him we should not name.“You all look
I’m so groggy when I wake up after finally passing out when I got home. I have no idea what time it is or what day it is, yet my bedroom is oddly bright. Last night at the hospital feels like a distant dream, and as I toss and turn to get myself out of bed, I catch sight of my alarm clock and pause in a shocked gasp.It’s four pm.I have slept for almost twelve hours. I have no idea how I even did that and Bryan will wonder why no one is there for his waking up. He probably woke up already.“What the fuck?” I shoot up, almost falling off the edge of my bed in sleepy clumsiness, aware that visiting at the hospital is at nine am, and I was sure I had set my reminder to wake me up. I don’t know if I slept through it or if, in my stupor last night, I didn’t save the timer.“Mom!!” I race into the hall, stumbling and banging into the wall because despite my energetic, alert wake-up, my body has yet to catch up. Calling frantically to rouse her, too, as I know she will kick herself for bein
“I’ll go to the pharmacy for some toiletries and bits and pieces while Bryan sleeps. You head off home for now, and I’ll see you this evening.” My mom is up and tidying Bryan’s new private room after we settled him in here, and now I am getting the strong vibes she wants me to leave. I know it’s because Dane is coming. I overheard Mom and Bryan earlier saying Dane would come around eleven after he was on a ward, and it’s almost that time. My mom thinks she’s being sly about the hints that I should go home for lunch but I am not leaving until I at least see him once. I want that face-to-face, that moment of closure.To see the person who vanished from my life so I can put a lid on what we were. I guess a part of me wants to see for myself if he has suffered, too. Because I will know by looking at him, I will be able to tell with one encounter whether he even missed me a little bit. I need it to quieten to anger in my head and the ache in my heart.Just once. Even if we say nothing to o
His eyes lock on mine for a millisecond, registering shock at my presence, halting him to a sudden stop. He averts them to his feet, shuffling slightly backward to block the doorway with his arms outstretched, but whoever is behind him that he’s attempting to hinder shunts him forward with an ouch as they hit him. He doesn’t do a good job of stopping them from getting in.“Ouch…why did you stop? Why are you blocking me?” It’s a young feminine voice, and she slides under his arm and past him, giving him a weirdly confused glance as though questioning the sudden statue-like posture in the open doorway. I catch it from her side view, growing insanely jealous as she places a hand on his arm to bring it down from the door frame.Molten lava spikes in my belly at her very handsy motions.It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that this teen girl dressed in a similar preppy, neat, and almost upper-class style with a sleek ponytail and fresh face is Hannah. Her color scheme seems to de
“Lunch is served.” I smile brightly as I unpack Monique's food onto Bryan’s bed tray and set them out like a gourmet restaurant, napkins, and fresh cutlery included. Monique has it in her head that despite the hospital supplying him with meals, he will never get better if it’s not her cooking. So it’s my unofficial job to deliver three meals a day.“This looks delicious, thank Monique from the bottom of my heart. Tell her I can feel the effects already. You all spoil me.” Bryan shifts to pull himself higher in his upright position, looking better today with more color on his face. Day by day, a return slowly of the man we love and know so well.I can admit that now he seems more like his old self. That sense of heavy dread weighing on my heart every second has lessened somewhat. He is one less stress for me, one less tragedy of my life. I guess having a truce with my mom is second. We may not be okay by a long run, but not having to spit venom at her any time she gets close has been
Hearing Bryan about to out me is all the push I need, not wanting it to seem like I am hiding, and I yank the curtain back to reveal myself. Plastering on a blank expression cool manner and lift my chin a little higher. Eyes straight to Bryan to ensure I don’t stray their way completely, blanking the two figures lingering closely near his bed.Seeing them in my peripheral is enough. The sickening lurch of pain reminds me that it never goes away, even when I stop noticing it as much.“All done and tidy. My mom won’t moan about me putting them in the wrong place.”I catch the slight movement of surprise out of the corner of my eye and the way Hannah slides back to hide behind Dane at seeing me appear. Dane’s head had jerked my way before he quickly averted it, and I caught the subtle gasp from one of them.“Um…Hi, Kayla. You look pretty.” Hannah whimpers like some terrified child who has just come face to face with the grumpy old witch of the village. Fake compliments to try and befrien
“We can go to my study…Dane, just Kayla.” She adds as though he will follow and he probably was going to, but she’s right. Something started between her and I and should be resolved that way. Dane has been shielding me too much lately because of my inability to face more drama. I need to put my big girl panties back on. Her and Dane have nothing to say to one another anyway, and he will only put her on the defensive, which I want to avoid.“I’ll be close by….just yell if you need me…… Very close by.” Dane doesn’t lower his voice; instead gets louder with his warning tone, making it obvious to my mom that he doesn’t trust her, and I pat his arm to get him to release me.I slide out of his arms and follow my mom out of the kitchen, across the hall, and into the study without looking back, even though I can feel all their eyes follow me out. Already, my insides are like a washing machine because I do not know what exactly she intends to say to me.My mom is being weirdly quiet, too, and
“You four are making me feel chronically single.” Hannah huffs, pushing the cans of soda across the breakfast bar towards Elisa as Tyler opens up some bags of chips for us to share. We have a stack of pizza boxes waiting to dive into and a plan to darken the nook to spend the day eating junk and watching movies. Dane and I are too tired for anything else and feel like we are on some emotional comedown after a month of hell.“What happened to your Korean boyfriend? That distance could not separate you from?” Dane chimes in with obvious sarcasm oozing, while leaning into me from behind to deposit the dip we made. It’s clear to me that teasing Hannah is a full-time occupation when they are in the same room. She really is like his annoying younger sister, even if she is our age.“I am devoted to Min Yoongi, but I would like to experience a present boyfriend. Someone I can touch and laugh with.” Hannah sulks slightly, clearly regretting her life choices.“I can’t imagine anyone would want
My Dad never calls me, rarely picks mine up, and never texts either. So, seeing it now, flashing so invasively on my phone is enough to make my heart thud through my chest painfully.“Do you want me to give you space to take it?” Dane interrupts my obvious inability to move, breaking the spell it’s cast over me.“No…stay!” A sense of panic grips my stomach and throat, and the sudden cold wash of nerves sobers my good mood. Instantly afraid of what he is calling me for even though, logically, I know.My mom must have called him, or Bryan, at least.Maybe he wants to clarify…I don’t even know.“Are you going to answer it or keep staring at it?” Dane interrupts the deer in the headlight motion of me holding it at half arm’s length, and I blink at it, then him, and shake my head.“Do you need me to do it?”“I don’t know.” I sound terrified. I don’t think I have it in me to answer the call. There is so much grey area when it comes to my dad. So many times I have been hurt by him that faci
“Well, this is depressing.” Dane wheels his case into his old barren bedroom, gazing around at the emptiness even though all his furniture is still there. “It feels like someone else's room.”All the personality is gone without his things in here, and it smells like a fresh, floral hotel, thanks to Monique. His art, posters, pictures, trinkets and books are all gone, leaving empty walls, shelves, and surfaces where he used to have such an array of masculine things, more so after he moved in here permanently and brought it all from his mom’s house.“Imagine how it made me feel watching it get this way….you’re an ass.” I throw him a mock glare and get a kiss blown back at me.“I wanted you to miss me.” He winks and goes back to his case. In a happy mood ever since we started packing to come here.I gaze around, infected by his happiness, and yet sigh at the memories of being in here without him.Even the lack of his laundry tossed on the floor somehow makes this place impersonal. The be
“There’s a lot that this test result will change….I know now is probably not the best time to talk about where we go from here. You probably need to process it the same way we did, but I want you to know….I'm not going back to the UK. I’ll sort it out myself. Enroll back in school, find somewhere to stay, maybe with Tyler….” Dane sounds so far removed from the immature rebel of months ago who was forever making my life hell and living stupidly. He sounds like this experience has aged him so much.He has a sensible head on, his eyes set on the future and he’s not reacting one ounce to my mom. It’s like she no longer has any affect on him.“You’ll move back home, there is no argument in that. I’ll call the school and arrange for you to go in and re-enroll. I’ll call your mom and explain things. Don’t worry about anything. I told you, didn’t I… always your home and whenever you wanted to come back.”For being the fragile one here, Bryan seems to be the one most resigned and okay with thi
“Wait.” I tug Dane back by the hand he’s interlaced in mine, so he stops abruptly near Bryan’s room door, and I pull him to turn to me. Panick is overtaking my soul now we’re close to actually doing this. Walking in here it’s been growing inside of me like a building storm.All my bravado and anger have dissipated because I am so over trauma and tears in my life that I want to avoid any more conflict and run to hide instead. I think I have reached a point of fragility that my emotions don’t want to take anymore.My nerves are bubbling over, my heart is racing, and I'm swinging between cold and hot sweats that have my entire body flushed and trembling. I’m genuinely scared even though my mom is the one who should be.There is no more fight left in me. Not when the possibility of Dane being ripped away from me a second time is all too real, and that thought terrifies me more now I have lived it once. I can’t do that again. I won’t survive.“It’s going to be okay, I promise. We do this a
“Like what?” Hannah squeaks in outrage, crossing her arms on the table to lean in and peer at him, that he might be dissing the man of her dreams or her favorite band. Finding insult in that but nothing else he had said before this.“Your face,” Dane snaps back at her before flicking her in the forehead and pushing her back again.“Ughh.. See… Why is he like this? Is this what you put up with? How can you date him when he’s so awful?” Hannah throws her hands up in frustration, and yet all of this only makes me relax about what kind of relationship they had. If Elisa wasn't so feeble and gentle, I know this is how they would act together. At times, there are glimpses of it, but Elisa is too good-natured and cannot sass. There’s nothing in it.I can see the dynamic slowly opening up between them. She’s like an unwanted younger sibling he both doesn’t like but also does but is forced to take out with him. Annoyed by her presence, but I can tell they also have a sense of relaxed and comf
“You look nervous. Relax….What are you scared of?” Dane brushes my hair from my face for the third time, running a finger down my cheek before leaning in and pecking me lightly on the lips. Igniting the same burst of internal flutters, he always gives me, and a layer of warmth. Suddenly, in my world, everything feels right again, just having him by my side, but I still cannot escape this constant gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach.“Every time I have seen this girl, I was a bitch to her….I’m still not ok with the fact you spent the last month with her while ignoring me.” Try as hard as I might, I cannot quench the sense of nausea and dread while sitting here waiting for her to show up. “I feel weird meeting her this way and under these circumstances.”I should never have agreed to this.It’s a clean, bright diner near the hotel they are staying at and the hospital, so we intend to stay here until we’re ready to face our parents and work out a game plan. Hannah is a formality I
“Deal…. I want my boyfriend back how he was. I don’t want to remember any of this shitty separation. Can we get back together?” I ask stupidly even though it’s obvious we are already making up. I just need him to say the words to help with the insecurity I am feleing after how cold he was. “I want my boyfriend back.”“Technically, babycakes, we never broke up. Neither of us said the words so we don’t need to get back together. He shrugs like this is the most logical thing ever, and I lean back to scowl at him.He does not get out of his asshole past four weeks that easily. The boy really is trying to pull a fast one.“Really?” I ask in obvious, oozing sarcasm. “Because I remember clearly a certain boy telling me he was going no contact and not coming back from the UK before he blocked me on absolutely everything….that was a very final break up even if you never said ‘the words.’ You can’t be in a relationship with someone who moved abroad and refuses to communicate with you.” I point