Changing Tune

29. All the good and bad

Chapter 29: All the good and bad

Ellie's POV

*****

I could feel Blake tensing up as we were in his car, on our way to his house. He knew that he was doing the right thing by telling Adam and Dylan about Kyla, especially since she was going to be starting school with us on Monday. Yet, that did not mean that he was not nervous about it. 

I was proud of him for deciding to trust them, but I also knew how hard it must have been for him. He had been protecting Kyla for this entire life, and I knew how scary the sudden change in her life was going to be for him. Certainly, I could not fully comprehend what he was going through. My brothers and sister never suffered from any condition, but I knew that if they had, I would want to protect them in the exact same way Blake had. 

The ride to his house was completely silent. Nobody, not even Dylan and Adam, had said anything. It was no surprise that they were shocked to hear about Kyla. It was evident that they already knew that there was a family secret Blake was not telling them. They respected it, and that part in itself proved that they were trustworthy enough to know about her. 

Even if they did know that there was something that Blake was hiding from them, neither of them seemed to imagine that he had a secret sister he had not told anybody about. I, on the other hand, was surprised to learn that Jay Hart had suspiciously asked him way too many questions about his family during their first interview with him. I finally learned why Blake had been so nervous to go to the second interview with him. My first interview with the scary host that is Jay Hart.

My heart rate started accelerating the moment Blake parked the car in his driveway. I did not know why I could have possibly been so nervous about Adam and Dylan meeting Kyla. What I did know was that I had grown attached to her, and without realising it, I had grown to be protective of her too, even if we had only known each other for a short period of time. More than anything, I wanted Adam and Dylan to like her. I wanted Kyla to know that she was not alone, and that there were more people out there who were willing to be there for her. 

In a way, I could understand Kyla. We were both solitary people for the most part, but neither one of us was solitary because we wanted to be. We both suffered from a disorder, the only difference was that I could hide mine, whilst she could not. I had gotten good at hiding things, so much that not even the guys knew about it. I could not stop thinking about it ever since I encountered Kyla. If I were ever to tell anyone, I wanted her to be the first to know. 

It took me a lot of thinking to arrive to that decision. I had even managed to keep it a secret from my brothers. Yet, I wanted Kyla to know that she was not alone. I wanted her to know that even if other people seemed normal, most of them probably were not. She had talked to me about how sometimes she wished that she could be normal like the other kids. How she wished that people would not have to keep an eye out on her to make sure that she was okay. That was what triggered me into thinking about everything, and I hoped that by telling her that I suffered from severe anxiety and from emotional instability at times, she would realise that maybe she did not stand out as much as she thought she did. 

I turned to look at Blake as he took my hand in his the moment we stopped in front of his front door. He needed support, and I was there to give it to him. He smiled at me as I intertwined my fingers with his and squeezed his hand. Blake wanted to seem strong, like nothing ever bothered him. I knew more than anyone that that couldn't be further from the truth. He was vulnerable, just like any other person his age. It pained me to think that his childhood ever made him believe he had to be otherwise.