Arranged

Alone

Vixen's POV:
I stand at the island, holding myself up on the counter, my elbows resting on it, drinking a beer in an empty house and an even emptier heart. The door opens and the everyone walks in. The girls go upstairs and the boys come into the kitchen.

"Why'd you leave? What happened? We just saw Kyla crying and you looked... like you went through something." Mark says, grabbing a beer for everyone.

I clutch her ring in my hand before putting it down, letting everyone see it. "This happened." I say, taking a sip of my beer.

"She took it off?" Kayno says, his eyes big.

"No, the ring just levitated off her finger." Z says, rolling eyes.

"I'm sorry man. That's horrible. What happened?"

"That bitch, Tiffany." I say, my anger surfacing.

"Home-wrecker Tiffany. She's always been a problem for you." Z says.

"The problem is that she doesn't know how to take a fucking hint. Basically threw herself onto me and tried to fuck me right there in my office. Kyla walked in after she left and it looked pretty obvious. There was an old condom wrapper on my desk and-"

"I know where this is going." Mark says.

"I don't." Kayno says.

"Yes you do." Z says.

"Okay, maybe I do. But still, finish."

I sigh and I continue after sipping my beer.

"When she walked in, I was wiping Tiffany off my lips and-"

"You kissed her?" Z asks, his eyes wide.

"She kissed me. Kyla thought I'd had sex with her, I mean the scene was pretty obvious. There were papers strewn everywhere, she'd unbuckled my pants and kissed me until my nose and lips were red. I tried pulling her off and I told her no so many times, even when I was drunk, but.."

"She doesn't know how to-"

"Take a hint." Mark finishes, interrupting Kayno. Kayno hits him in his arm and Mark laughs and pushes him back.

"Guys, cut it out. Vixen's going through something right now and you two can't be serious?" Z says, setting them straight.

"Sorry." Mark says, calming down.

"I just don't know what to do." I say.

"I love her, and I don't know how to get her to listen to me when I tell her that nothing happened."

"Make her." Z says.

"Make her what?" I ask, arching my eyebrow.

"Listen. Cam gets like that. She gets mad and only wants to see it her own way. You gotta be aggressive with her. Make her listen. If you know you truly didn't do anything, don't let your relationship fall apart because she's misinterpreting the situation and falsely accusing you." he says.

Everyone including me looks up at him, in shock.

"What?" he says, shrugging.

"You're the last person I'd expect to talk about aggression. You're so.. chill." Mark says, tossing a grape in the air to catch it in his mouth.

I think to myself. Maybe he's right. "I just... I'm never aggressive towards her. I don't wanna scare her."

"Then know your limits. You know how you can get if you get too mad or too out of control, so just know how far to take it." Z says, shrugging.

"I'll give her some time first. Then I'll talk to her when her adrenaline isn't rushing anymore."

"That's a good idea." Z comments.

"Well, good luck with that. I'm gonna go crash." Kayno says, going upstairs.

"Same. G'night boys." Mark says, following behind Kayno. Me and Zeno stay downstairs talking for a while, then I go upstairs and I walk into the room. I shake my head, not wanting to sleep in bed, so I grab a blanket from the closet and I go to sleep downstairs on the couch for tonight.

After three days of sleeping on the couch, I wake up and I hear the boys laughing and chatting in the kitchen as my phone rings. I pick up the phone, yawning.

"Hello?" I say, rubbing the sleepiness from my eyes.

"Vixen. What's up? I came over the other night and you weren't home." King says.

"Yeah, I went out with the boys for a bit. Was there anything you needed?" I ask, standing up and stretching as the light pours in through the living room curtains.

"Nah. Just dropped by to check on you guys. How're the kids? Kyla?" I pause, sighing.

"I wouldn't know right now." I say.

"What? Why not?" King asks.

"Me and Kyla... we kind of split up."

"Split up? Where are the kids?"

"She has them. I have no idea where she is, but knowing her, she's probably with Lyilah, talking about the other night."

"What did happen?"

"We'll talk about it. Come over later, I've got nothing to do right now."

Suddenly, the doorbell rings. I look over to the door and I sigh. "That's the door. I'll see you soon."

"Yeah. Alright."

I hang up and I go to the door, unlocking and opening it. I see Kyla squatting with Aleah's hand in hers, stooped down next to her while fixing her hair. When she stands up, she looks up at me and suddenly just wraps her arms around me, lying her head down on my chest, letting Aleah's hand go as she runs in.

"Nayno!" she calls out, running to the kitchen.

"Uncle Kayno's right here, Care-bear." Kayno says, picking her up and kissing her head. I shut the door as I drape an arm across Kyla's back, hugging her as mixed emotions swirl around my mind.

She lets me go and grabs my hand, walking me upstairs to the room. I shut the door and she sits me on the foot of the bed and climbs on top of me to straddle me and hug me tight.

"What's wrong?" I ask calmly, not really knowing what to do.

"I couldn't stay mad at you. It was eating at me, and I couldn't take Aleah calling for you. It brought back too many traumatizing memories. And I'm sorry." she says, burying her face in my neck. "I'm sorry about the way I reacted."

"You had every right to react that way. You didn't know, and the situation looked pretty obvious."

"I could've though. I could've taken the time to understand your side of the story instead of going off of what I saw. I was blinded by anger, and what I thought was betrayal and I'm... I'm sorry." she apologizes, pulling back and putting her head down. She runs both her hands through her hair and sighs. "So I wanna know. Everything that happened from start to finish. I want you to be a hundred percent with me right now, and I want you tell me the truth."

"Always. Yeah, okay." I say, nodding my head and straightening up.