Broken Souls Don't Cry

Chapter 16

Sara

Looking down from her bedroom window sipping from a glass of what, she observed Kai as he worked on her car. He had on dark blue jeans that had seen better days and a gray shirt that had car grease stains and paint on it. The weather was perfect for him to be out there working. It was mid-September, and the weather was cooling off, but they still had warm days.

She was thankful that he was willing to help with her car. She didn't know the first thing about repairing vehicles. She stayed up on the maintenance, oil changes, tire changes and rotations, things like that. However, she's always had to take it in to a shop if it needed anything repaired or replaced. Her battery had died last winter, and she had to have it towed to the shop for someone to change it for her. That was a price tag she didn't like. Thanks to her parents' contribution to her education, she only needed to pay for rent and food and then any other thing she needed.

Her and Casey's apartment wasn't big, two bedrooms and one bathroom with a small living room and kitchen, but it worked for them. She had met Casey her first year when they were paired up in the on-campus dorms. By her second year at school, they had moved to this apartment. It was quieter, yet still close to campus that they could walk if they wanted to. The quiet was more conducive to their study habits, and she no longer had to listen to neighbors having sex every night. Those would usually give her an attack and she'd spend the night bawling on the couch in the living room. Casey had found this place through a friend who was graduating, and they took over the lease and moved in.

Her phone pinged and she left the window to go see who messaged her. Sara gave a laugh, Amber, her youngest sister had sent a meme to the chat they had with their siblings. She responded with a laughing face. She missed her siblings and her parents. Her rape had been hard for her parents. They had divorced over differences on how to handle her rape. They still co-parented, pretty well compared to others she knew, but the fights that had occurred over her drove them apart. Amber and Brandon lived with her mom in the home they had moved to after Sara was pulled from school. Her father lived a few miles down the road in an apartment.

Sara still blamed herself for their divorce, but she had accepted it and moved forward. At this point only her parents could fix their relationship, if they wanted.

She glanced back out the window and saw Kai digging into the hood of her car. She was glad he was here. She may not have her family close but in some ways he reminded her of home.

He was a bit grouchy when he came over after his lunch date. Sara had assumed that the lunch hadn't gone well with Chelsea. Surprisingly, Sara was excited for their pizza and homework non-date tonight. Her and Kai were on friendly terms now and she was a little anxious to get to know him more. She knew AJ would be there and she wanted to learn more about their friendship.

She grabbed a glass of water to take out to Kai. He'd been out there for awhile and figured he'd probably be thirsty. It was the least she could do for him.

"Hey," she said stepping up to the car. He looked at her and smiled. "I brought you some water in case you were thirsty"

"Thank you" He reached over and grabbed the glass from her hand, their fingers lightly touching. She quickly pulled her hand away.

"How's it looking?" she peeked under the hood feigning interest.

Kai came and stood next to her and leaned in, their forearms touching. She could smell his cologne mixed with grease, oddly they worked well together. She mentally slapped herself. She should not be thinking these things.

"I'm almost done. Starters are actually pretty easy to replace. I noticed the other day that you need a new cabin air filter. So, I grabbed one of those as well and I'll replace it once I finish up with the starter."

"Oh," she said quietly, "You didn't need to do that. Thank you."

"It's my pleasure. I love working on cars. I rebuilt a 1962 Mustang a couple years ago. She is a beauty."

"Did you bring it out here?"

"Nah, she's still back in California." Kai stood up and she followed. They didn't back up from each other. His eyes looked over her face before quietly asking, "What kind of pizza do you like?"

"Oh, umm" she gave a nervous laugh and bit the bottom of her lip as she pushed some hair back behind her ears, "I like nearly anything except onions and anchovies. Even pineapple on pizza is fine with me." She smiled as she looked into his deep, sea blue eyes, that were greener at the moment, giving them more of a teal color.

Red alert! Back up! Sara's heart started to beat faster, both in panic and curiosity for being so close to him. Butterflies were fighting to get out of her chest as she struggled to breathe.

He looked into her eyes, almost as if he wanted to say something and then thought better of it. Hair flew into her face from the breeze and his hand came up to move it. His hand hesitated but then put his hand down and stepped back. The moment was only a couple seconds, but it seemed like days.

"Well," he coughed a little, "I'll get back to finishing your car. Then I'll go get the pizza."

Sara didn't want to go inside just yet, "Would you like company while you finish?"

"You're welcome to stay, though don't let me keep you."

Sara felt like running inside to try and sort out the confusing thoughts swirling in her head. She started to head back into her apartment but turned around to say, "I'll just go get my books and stuff gathered for tonight, then I'll be back out."

Once inside her apartment Sara went to her room and threw herself on her bed and closed her eyes. She reviewed what just happened at the car. He had looked at her in a way that made her nervous yet completely comfortable. Sara felt beyond confused. There was no way someone who looked as great as him would ever be interested in her.

Sara sat up and gathered her things for tonight then headed back outside to keep Kai company.