Meori Apeuda

Chapter 24

"Would you mind...? I'll join you guys in a few minutes ok?" I said slowly and turned to him, beaming. He looked kinda confused at my reaction to the call, but nodded. I stood on my toes and kissed him, then looked at my phone again, accepting the call.

"Hiiiii!" I squealed and the next second I heard Cara starting to sing Happy Birthday for me. I threw my head back and laughed.

After she had finished with a long and exaggerated "Tooooo yoooooou" we both started laughing. "Hey Birthday girl, how are you?" Cara chimed and I turned around, seeing Chan closing the door behind him. I stopped for a second, did he look sad? Then I shook my head, blaming it on imagination.

I sat down on the bed and crossed my legs. "Quite good..." I said, in a tone that suggested there was more. "I can hear you grinning from ear to ear, bitch, come on, spill the tea!!" Cara cried and we both giggled.

"Well...I'm not at the B&B anymore..." I started and bit my lip, grinning.

"Oooh that story's gonna be good, let me get my glass of wine, girl, I want to know EVERYTHING!" she said and I could hear her rummaging in the kitchen. My heart sank a little, when I thought of how this story had begun, and contemplated telling her. But Cara was one of the most intelligent people I knew, she'd be wondering about the reason why I left the B&B.

"Ok, I'm telling you the whole story. But you must promise me that you're not gonna be angry with me..." I started, again biting my lip, but out of nervousness this time. There was silence on the other end at first, then I heard her sigh. "Let me take a sip of wine first, so I'm prepared." I heard her drink, then she obviously let herself fall onto her couch, because I heard her sighing. "OK. I'm ready. What happened?"

I exhaled sharply and then told her everything that happened last week. From the theft that reduced my money, the karaoke evening on Saturday, the kiss, the men that came into our room and the reaction of the guys.

I told her how I had left the B&B because I had no more money and had to pause for a few minutes, listening to her seemingly never ending stream of accusations and curses, asking me why I hadn't said anything.

"Are you finished? Do you want to hear the rest?" I asked when she gasped for air. She snorted. "Oh no girl, I'm not finished at all, but I do want to hear the rest. Did Chan pick you up at the B&B when you told him?"

I didn't answer and after thirty seconds of me not saying anything she screamed "You didn't tell him????"- "No, I didn't." - "What the hell, Kaylee?"- "I didn't want to be dependent anymore, okay...??"

She stopped mid-sentence and silence fell. She knew how important that was for me. When she answered, her voice was warmer and calmer: "Kaylee, baby, you know that Chan is not him, right? Not everybody is like him..." - "I know..." I whispered, swallowing hard.

"What happened then? How did you end up where you are now?" - "You better take another sip of that wine..." I murmured and cleared my throat.

"Sweet baby jesus..." I heard her mutter darkly and chuckled. I continued my story and told her about my plan of sleeping at the playground, how I had walked there in the evening and how the four bastards had chased me.

Cara didn't say a single thing the whole time. I could have sworn she even held her breath.

"...then he grabbed my hair and said 'Little girls shouldn't wander around alone at night, where's your pretty boyfriend?' and suddenly Chan stood there, with Lix and Bin and - Gosh Cara, you should have heard his voice, he was literally growling! Like a wolf. He said: 'He's right here.' and Felix told them to let me go immediately. Well and seconds later all hell broke loose."