Little White Lies {Completed}

Chapter Five

Kenzi slipped out of Ethan's grip at 5am as usual. Today instead of the gym she walked along the beach, her knee and joints aching with every step. She remembered when Ethan had been gentle and loving, when he had been unable to keep his hands off her and she liked it. She guessed she probably shouldn't have encouraged it so much and he wouldn't be so controlling now. He at least had been tolerable last night, actually cuddling in to her when they went to bed. Even if it was a little too forceful and suffocating, it was a nice change from the previous night. She had left him a note again, he would probably be furious when he knew she'd left early for a second time.
Her head was clearer today and so were her eyes, but she wasn't looking forward to her meeting with Jed this morning. She was on set at 6am to change and ran in to Jeremy walking through the gate. "Hi," she said, keeping her eyes down.
"Hi. Have a good night?"
"Uh, yeah. You? Were you there with friends?"
"Yeah, not from here though. We had a good night, not too late though." She could feel his eyes on her and was now sure it had been him in the alley, her last hope was that he wasn't sure it was her.
"Kenzi, I can't stay silent forever. I'd like us to be friends, but I can't not say anything."
"Jeremy, please. Just... I don't know. If you can't, then I guess we can't. I don't want to talk about it."
Jed was waving her over and Jeremy followed. "My trailer, ten minutes." He said firmly. Kenzi nodded and continued to the dressing rooms with Jeremy.
"What's that about?"
"Work. Nothing to worry about. I need to get changed, excuse me," she turned in to the showers at the end of the hall and left Jeremy to go to his dressing room.

"Sit down," Jed snapped. Kenzi sat in the chair next to him and he turned to face her. "You can't put up with being treated like that, Kenzi. It's wrong. It's abuse. What can I do to get you out of there?"
"Nothing, Jed. With all due respect, as my boss, it's none of your business. He doesn't beat me up, he's just a bit overprotective. And I'm used to it, I can handle myself. He won't come here again, and he's not affecting my work."
"Christ Kenzi how can you think this is a normal relationship?"
"Like I said, he's jealous, and he has a tendency to overreact. He's looking out for me. And yes he's a bit controlling-"
"A bit? Kenzi, he called you a teenage slut. Because he didn't like your clothes, which by the way are definitely not slutty. The man has issues."
"And I push his buttons more often than I should. I'm fine, really."
"He doesn't hurt you, physically?"
"Not... no."
"That's not a hand print on your wrist?"
"Did Jeremy tell you that?"
"No. It's pretty obvious."
"It might be, I thought it was pen. It's fine, he didn't mean to leave a mark, he just squeezed a bit hard."
"And you grimaced when you sat down,"
"We are absolutely not going in to that."
"Kenzi-"
"Fucking hard against a wall sometimes makes you a bit tender. Happy? This conversation is over." She stood up and walked out, hoping he wouldn't fire her for it.

A few minutes later Kenzi paced around her trailer. She wasn't stupid, she knew Ethan didn't always treat her like he should. But she had it mostly under control, most of the time. She knew where her line was, and if he crossed it she would leave.
A soft knock on the door interrupted her thoughts and she turned to see Jed. "Jed, I'm sorry. I had no right to speak to you like that just because you were concerned. You were trying to be a good friend and I was out of line."
"Yeah you were a bit. A regular boss wouldn't have gotten involved though. I just don't get the opportunity to talk to you outside work any more. Kenzi, I'm really worried you're going to end up a statistic. You really need to get out while you're in one piece."
"It's not that bad, honestly."
"It's think he's got in your head. It is that bad. I won't mention it again, unless something else happens, but please be careful. Promise?"
"I promise," she hugged him.
"I'm here if you need to talk, ok?"
"OK. I could probably do with that, because I don't really have any friends left."
Jed shook his head sadly. "Any time, Kenzi. Day or night. OK?"
"Thanks Jed."

Kenzi kept to herself for the rest of the day. There wasn't a lot for her to do on set but she had a lot of planning to do for the location shoots, so she stayed in her trailer for the majority of the day. At 5 o'clock she started to yawn and decided it was time to go home. She wasn't surprised Ethan wasn't home, or that he hadn't told her what he was doing, but she was surprised when he walked in half an hour later while she was grilling chicken for dinner. "Hey," he said from the doorway. Kenzi looked up. He sounded like the Ethan who used to tell her he loved her 20 times a day, the one who liked to surprise her.
"Hi," she said warily. "Are you staying for dinner?"
"I am, I'm staying at home tonight. We can watch a movie or something if you want?"
"Oh. Yeah, ok." She yawned. "Sorry,"
"Still tired?"
"It's been a long week, Ethan."
"We can just go to bed if you want."
"Ethan," she hoped he was feeling as loving as he sounded. "I need a night off. I, uh, can barely sit down."
"That's OK, I meant go to bed and sleep. I'm kind of tired anyway."
They ate in silence. Kenzi wasn't used to having him home, especially not in a reasonably good mood. She began to realise how little they had in common, how little they had to talk about. "How's work?" She tried to break the silence.
"Good. Actually we have an opening for a system administrator in the IT department. I got the selection criteria for you, I thought you could apply."
"I could. I could do the job with my eyes closed, it would be a big demotion."
"But it would be a real job with prospects and opportunities for advancement."
"I like my job," she said softly.
"Of course you do. You play with gadgets and dress like a geek at comic con. What's not to like? But eventually you need to grow up."
"Do you think that's all I do? I dress like this because I need to run around and climb ladders and crawl under things." Kenzi sighed. "I don't want to fight, Ethan. Please just one night without fighting?"
"Sure," he finished his dinner and put the plate in the dishwasher, then went down the hall. When he came back he had changed and he put his phone and wallet in his pocket as he opened the door.
"Where are you going?"
"Out. With the grown ups. Do you want to come?"
"No, thanks."