Trust me, babe

Chapter 29

Kathryn

Everyone in the kitchen had frozen into place and everything had gone completely silent. So silent that no one seemed to even be breathing. The only noises that still could be heard in the kitchen were the steady humming of the air conditioning and our neighbour playing "Let it Go" from Disney's Frozen on the piano behind the wall.

I couldn't believe my ears. Had they really known? Had they really known my boyfriend was dating another girl behind my back?

For a while I just stared at them, trying to process the information, unable to say anything. Jacky was hanging his head, his careless happiness long gone and his face just as pale as the white kitchen wall. Kenzie was frozen in place as if she were a statue. A statue portraying a horrified young woman who was simultaneously extremely angry and extremely guilty. Her always so playful and confident brown eyes were full of tears now. Tears which just didn't dare to come out in the frozen silence of the kitchen.

As I looked at them and their reactions after Jacky had slipped out the unwanted information it became painfully clear: they had known. They had known my boyfriend was dating another girl behind my back. And they hadn't told me. For some reason they had just pretended to be oblivious about it — and pretended to be my friends.

Kenzie had been there, comforting me after Mikey's betrayal had come out, she had stayed in contact with me when I had moved here and now she was here, in my kitchen, playing chess on my dad's chess board and living on my expense, still pretending to be my friend. But she really wasn't.

I clenched my fists around my teacup. The teacup Kenzie had just given me to help me calm down after the failure of my date. She had given it to me pretending to be my friend, pretending to be someone who cared, someone who comforted you when things went wrong.

But when things had gone wrong, really wrong, she had just let it happen. She had let things go wrong and hadn't even told me how wrong they were going.

How long had she known the truth? Had she known it when she had tried to get me and Sasha into believing that Mikey was dealing drugs? When she had seemed so certain he was dealing drugs, certain that it was the reason behind his odd behaviour, his odd and mysterious businesses. Had Kenzie known what those businesses really were but still led me and Sasha astray? Led us astray so convincingly that I had actually believed her. Even Sasha had, eventually.

But why? Why had Kenzie done that? What had she ever gained from it?

I was still clenching the teacup in my hands, clenching it so tight it was a miracle it didn't break. Just like I had clenched my glass in Lyla's party when Mikey had suddenly appeared there with Ruby. But unlike that glass the teacup was hot. So hot that normally it would've been unbearable to hold it. Now I didn't even notice the burning heat of the cup against my palms.

"You knew," I said, finally breaking the silence. My voice was calm and quiet. It was always quiet before the storm and there was a storm coming now. A storm of emotions, a hurricane of rage and hurt, the rage and hurt of a wounded animal. A storm that was still hiding inside me, waiting to get out, waiting to be set free so that it could bring on destruction everywhere it went, so that it could scourge everyone who stepped on its way. "You knew and you didn't tell me."

"I'm sorry Kathryn," Kenzie whispered, her face pale and her voice shaky. She looked like a hopeless sinner on doomsday. She knew she had wronged me. She knew she had been caught. And she knew that there was nothing she could do to fix it anymore.

"How long did you know?" I asked. I wasn't looking at Kenzie. I couldn't look at her. Looking at her hurt too much. I had trusted her. She was one of the very few people I had trusted in my life — and had thought I could still trust after the Mikey episode. I had thought she was my friend. She was one of the very few real, close friends I'd had in my life. But she wasn't a real friend. She was a backstabber.