Shattered

Chapter 52: Anxious

Violet's POV:

"Tears are words the heart can't express."- Gerard Way

There was something indescribably comforting and heartwarming about having Kaden's hand rest on my leg while he drove. I admitted to him I was still feeling a little dizzy from the incident with the cabinet and he offered to drive. He had one hand on the steering wheel, the other resting on my thigh. Like being with me was natural, comfortable, something we could get used to.

Getting used to comfort was not something I was good at. I was always ready for the other shoe to drop. But even I had to admit something as simple as sitting in the car while he had his hand on me both somehow intimately and innocently... It was an addicting feeling.

"I'm sorry you had to wait so long for me to get off the phone," Kaden said, squeezing my leg. "Had a work thing with Xander."

"Oh, no worries, I was the one that was late," I said, the leg he wasn't touching unable to stop bouncing up and down. I couldn't stop thinking about Kane and the way he made me feel so exposed in about three seconds. No one had ever seen through me so clearly and pointed it out so bluntly. "So... I met some of your friends."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that too," he said, sending me a sheepish smile before focusing on the road. "I did not mean for you to meet a bunch of my friends without me."

"It's okay," I said, chewing on my lip. "They do cross-fit with you?"

"Mhm," he hummed, his thumb rubbing small circles in my leg. "Among other things."

I nodded slowly. I was really only curious about one person.

"Kane is... Interesting," I baited.

Kaden chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, sorry, I hope he didn't seem too intense. He struggles with social interactions. He's real cool when you get to know him, he just isn't very social."

"Right," I said, setting my hand on my knee to try to stop it from bouncing. "Social anxiety?"

"Uh... Something like that," Kaden nodded. "I don't know it's so much social anxiety as much as just... Well, honestly, he had a rough childhood that kind of setback his communication skills and he only recently started seeing someone to talk about it, so he just has a lot going on."

"Yeah, I was surprised how easily he brought his abuse up," I said honestly.

"He brought it up to you?" Kaden asked, his eyebrows raising as he quickly looked over at me in surprise before turning his attention back to the road. "That's... Good, I guess. I'm surprised though. He never wants to talk about it."

"He said he grew up in an abusive home."

Kaden frowned and nodded. "Yeah... Abusive is uh..." he chuckled humorlessly, shaking his head. "You know, abuse is a strong word, and somehow, I don't think it's even strong enough to cover what Kane's father put him through. I honestly find it a miracle he functions as well as he does."

"That bad?" I asked. Sounds familiar...

"It was a nightmare," Kaden swallowed. "From what I've heard. He doesn't really open up to me that much, but what I do know, it's... Pretty awful. He lost his mother, his sister died right in front of him, and his dad was a monster. So yeah, I'm sorry if he was weird around you, he's still learning how to communicate with people. His dad isolated him a lot so he never really had a chance to learn communication skills, but Tess and this new person he's seeing are helping him work on it."

"I see," I nodded. He still made me a little uncomfortable but... I could feel for him. He lost his mother. His sister died right in front of him. His dad was a monster. Strangely enough, I could relate to two of those three things. Part of me wondered what all he'd been through. Maybe he and I weren't that different.