until the end of time, my love | luis mendoza³

TEN: BROKEN-HEARTED

"COME ON, BABY," Some random old man practically begged Kenzie from his seat at the bar. She had never seen the man with balding white hair and ugly thick glasses before, he wasn't one of their regulars. Kenzie sighed as she leaned against the counter, leaning closer toward his face.

"For the last time, man, I'm not interested," Kenzie scoffed before she turned around, grabbing a towel from the back of the bar. She heard the man's low whistle over the music and rolled her eyes, ignoring him as she continued to wipe down the bar.

"If you're going to harass the bartender, I'm gonna ask you to leave," Kingsley's strong British accent came out of nowhere, making Kenzie smile to herself.

"Come on, man. With that shirt? You can't expect me to keep my mouth-. What the fuck!"

"Oops! Sorry, looks like you have to leave now," Kingsley said with a shrug, shrugging his shoulders. Kenzie turned around to find that Kingsley 'accidently' spilled the man's beer all over his pants, causing everyone sitting beside him to laugh. The old man stood up quickly, stumbling away as he cursed Kingsley out.

"Thanks for that," Kenzie said as she passed by Kingsley, laying a hand on his shoulder before going back to wiping down the counters. "those fucking old guys. Ten times worse than guys around our age."

"It's because they probably haven't had some action in decades," Kingsley laughed. "old fucking freaks."

Kenzie laughed as she continued on wiping before she felt her phone buzz in her pocket. Her brows furrowed at the random number but she instantly went to the back to answer when she realized that it was a Minnesota number. As soon as she entered the kitchen, she pressed the answer button.

"Hello?"

"K-kenzie! Oh my god! How have you been?" The person on the other line said. Kenzie instantly recognized the voice, even though her voice was hoarse. Like she had just woken up. Despite that, she still sounded happy to hear Kenzie's voice.

"Liv? Hey! What's going on? Are you okay? I've been worried sick about you," She ranted, leaving out the part where she found out she had been abused for her entire life. It didn't seem like the right time.

"Did you get the book?" The happiness in her voice vanished and the whisper of fear even scared Kenzie. Maybe it was the right time to talk about what happened.

"I did," She said, pausing for a moment. "Liv, I'm really worried. What did they do to you?"

"You have to promise me that you'll protect that- oh, yeah! I'll make sure I take my meds," Liv said as Kenzie tried her best to keep up with the change of the topic. "it was nice to hear from you too, Aunt Donna. Make sure you check out that Instagram post I told you about, you know, the one I showed my mom."

"Your mom's Instagram. You want me to look at your mom's Instagram?"

"Yes! Tell me what you think about that! Okay, I gotta go, Aunt Donna. Bye, I love you."

And with that, she hung up the phone. Kenzie wasted no time, she immediately went to her Instagram. She search Liv's name first, only to find that someone deleted her entire account. Then, she looked up her mother's name.

Judith Arquette, who never had Instagram or most forms of social media, was now borderline Instagram famous. With nearly 100 thousand followers, she was some kind of mental health positivity account. Kenzie scrolled down to the first post, finding a photo of Liv. She looked happy, alive. She was smiling brightly, Kenzie remembered that photo.

After the tragic murder of her brother, our dear Olivia fell ill. Life has not been easy since she was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia but we are managing. We have decided that we want to share her story to help those out there with this illness and people whose loved ones are affected by this illness.

There was a lot more to that phony ass paragraph but Kenzie stopped reading to look through more of the account. There were pictures of Liv in mental facilities, doing normal things, taking medication, along with the inspirational quotes she probably found off Pinterest. Liv looked nothing like herself, she looked tired, distant from this reality. There was even a link to donate to Olivia. She scoffed as she quickly dialed Nate's number.

"Dude, they got Liv in some mental hospital saying that she has paranoid schizophrenia due to Ryan dying," She said as soon as he answered the phone.

"Wow, wow, wow. What the fuck? Do you think it's all fake?"

"Oh, it definitely is!" Kenzie said quickly. "I mean, they're abusive! If Liv was genuinely ill, do you really think they would give a shit?"

"Fuck no, they're lunatics," Nate said. "what do we do from here?"

Kenzie sighed, "I don't know, man."

***

There truly was a dull atmosphere to the apartment that next morning. All four teenagers were off from work and school, and instead of doing something exciting, they were trying to get Emercyn out of bed.

"Come on, Em," Kenzie said as she knocked on the door for what felt like the hundredth time. "just let me in, I'll keep the weirdos with penis' outside!"

"Leave me and my penis alone, it's nine in the morning," Nate's grumpy self said. Kenzie gave him a look as Luis rolled his eyes, leaning against the wall as he sipped his coffee and enjoyed the show.

"Thank god!" Kenzie whispered when she heard the click of the clock. The three of them entered the room,
immediately stopping in their tracks. "holy shit."

Emercyn 'The Clean Freak' Reed was literally living in her own filth. There were clothes all over the floor, food wrappers and empty bottles scattered all over the room. And she was already back in bed with the covers wrapped around her body.

"I feel like I'm in a fever dream," Nate said out loud as he ventured into the room. "this is like the definition of a depression room."

"Nate!" Luis scolded him as Nate threw his hands up in mock surrender as he took a swat beside Kenzie on the bed.

"Me and Charlie are on a break," Em said from the comfort of her bed, her voice muffled from the sheets that engulfed her. The three of them shared a panicked look, knowing that there wasn't much they could do.

"Oh, Em. I'm so sorry," Kenzie said, immediately sitting down beside her curled up body. "do you wanna talk about it?"

"Not much to talk about," She sniffled. "he said he wants to focus on school. The weight of our long distance was already fucking him up."

Considering that they had only been at school for a short few weeks and the whole Charlie going out all night with no communication chaos, it was safe to say it was much deeper than school work.

"Aw, Em," Kenzie said, laying a comforting hand on her back. There wasn't much to say, nothing could actually make her feel any better. Kenzie knew she would not appreciate a monologue on how she deserved better.

The heavy breathing, the occasional sniffle, and the shaking of Emercyn's covered body was enough context clues to leave the poor girl alone to tend to her broken heart.

"Love you, Em. If you need us, we'll be out in the living room," Kenzie said as she leaned against the doorframe. There was no response, not like Kenzie was expecting one anyway.

guess who's done her first year of college and is ready to write again...meeeeee🩷🩷