Letting Him In

Bonus Chapter #2

"From sprinkler splashes to fireplace ashes
I gave my blood, sweat, and tears for this
I hosted parties and starved my body
Like I'd be saved by a perfect kiss

The jokes weren't funny, I took the money
My friends from home don't know what to say
I looked around in a blood-soaked gown
And I saw something they can't take away"

-Taylor Swift, You're on Your Own Kid ________________________________________________________________________________
Kaeden

Kaeden wasn't sure if coming to a coffee shop in an isolated corner of town where anyone rarely wandered was the best idea. Honestly, he didn't care right now. He'd just finished the court hearing for his father, and though the man had been sentenced to lifetime imprisonment, he couldn't get his words out of his head.

You'll never amount to anything. You were always pathetic, and I tried to make you better. But now-

That was all he got in before he was restrained and ushered away. But the look in his eyes, and the words he'd said, stayed with Kaeden.

It hurt to think that someone who was supposed to love him felt all of that for him. And if his own father felt that way, then maybe his words held some truth.

He slumped in his seat at the corner booth in the small shop, looking over the menu that was on the table. It was a few minutes before a young boy came over to take his order.

"What can I get you?" he asked, sounding bored.

"Iced coffee and a bagel, please," he said.

The boy left to get his order, and Kaeden was left alone with his thoughts. His mind drifted to another thing he'd been trying not to think about.

His phone was filled with messages from Laia. They were all about the same thing: apologizing for cheating on him, saying she wouldn't ever do it again, that it was a drunken mistake.

It wasn't her cheating on him that hurt; hearing about it hadn't felt as bad as he had thought it would. What had hurt was how he felt about himself. Obviously, if even in a drunken state she had gone back to her ex, Kaeden wasn't enough. All Kaeden could think was that his father was right. He would never amount to anything.

And it wasn't just that. Noone around him really needed him. What use was he to anyone, when he couldn't even help himself. He hated that he needed to depend on others to feel like he wasn't completely worthless, that the only time he didn't feel hollow was when he was able to help someone. But that's just who he was. He didn't remember when he had started becoming this way, but it was him now, and he just couldn't change it no matter how much he wanted to.

He snapped out of his thoughts when his order was placed in front of him, and he looked up to see a female version of the boy who had taken his order standing by the table.

He looked at his order, a small frown on his face.

"You know," the girl chuckled, the sound like tinkling bells, "usually people look that disappointed if they don't like how the food tastes, but not before they've tried it."

"I'm sorry," Kaeden muttered, shaking his head. "I just... I don't even like bagels, so I'm not sure why I got one."

She raised an eyebrow, her expression somewhere between bewildered and amused. "I've heard many weird things from customers around here, but that's a first."

With that, she walked away, back to the counter. Kaeden shot the bagel another disgusted look, and settled for just drinking the coffee.

He scrolled through his messages, trying to distract himself from life. Elijah had sent him pictures of himself with Hernandez, both of them grinning by the beach. The trip to Thailand was a congrats-on-beating-cancer-again gift from Hernandez to Elijah, and Kaeden was happy for him. His bestfriend deserved it after everything he had been through.