I know she didnt see me flinch and what she said.
I know she didn't really think that.. I hope she didn't think that. Did she think I was like her dad? Was I?
I didn't want to be. Hell, I wanted to be better. God knows I know more about shit dads than the average person should. So I should have gotten it. Should have just let it go.
I sat on the couch, eyes blankly looking in front of me just mentally kicking myself for what I had done.
Her whole conversation with Pewds ate at me. I know I should have just let it go, hell, I convinced myself to but it just keep popping back up in my head. I just needed to know more.. And now look what I've done.
It was so fucking stupid. Why the hell did I do that?
I could have just let it go about her dad and we would have been fine but I just had to sate the curiosity.
Fuck.
Worst thing is that.. She didn't slam the door like a normal kid would. She didn't tantrum or anything. She was speaking levelly the whole time and I think that's what messed me up the most. I feel like I let her down.
I got up and walked to the door, knocking lightly on it.
"Go away," she said. "I don't wanna talk to you."
"Echo, please. Please listen to me.." I started, essentially talking to the door. "I'm sorry..okay? I just.. The fact that he hasn't been punished for the things he did to you isn't fair and I thought that if.. If we could do that then you'd feel better about tour life knowing he could never hurt you again.."
"It wasn't for you to know. I wasn't ready to tell you yet."
"I know and I'm sorry"
"I know you are...But I need some time to be alone.."
"Okay.." I said awkwardly. "I'll just leave you be."
I back away from the door and walked towards the kitchen, standing besides a counter before I took my phone out of my pocket and dialed Cheyenne's number.
"Hello?"
"Cheyenne, it's me."
"What's wrong?"
"I fucked up bad with Echo." I said, finally letting the feelings I had bottling up show in my voice.
"What happened? Is she okay?"
"It's not a physical thing, she's not hurt or anything but I'm pretty sure she hates me."
"Why do you say that?"
I told her what happened, the conversation with Pewds, everything that was said, what happened what I said and she stayed completely quiet until I was done, listening intently.
"Okay, I can understand where you're coming from, I can understand why you brought it up and everything. But you have to kind of try to see it from her point of view, babe. That was something she shared with Felix probably because, being the fan she is of him, she used his videos to cope."
I frowned. I never thought of that.
"And you don't have that relationship with her", she continued. " You're someone that found her and gave her a place to stay away from that"
"Yeah, okay and?"
"So imagine if the only safe place she's had in weeks try to bring back memories of bad things, the most significant one, her losing her sight.."
"Oh." I finally understood why Echo reacted the way she did towards me. "How do I fix it, Cheyenne? How do I make it so that we're okay again?"
She paused for a bit. " If you've already apologized, I think all you could do is continue to do everything you've been doing so far to support her and just let this fix itself by itself. When she's ready to talk to you again, she will."
"How do you know all this shit?"
" 'Cause I'm the fucking best, bitch, don't you forget it."
I laughed quietly and I could hear the smile in Cheyenne's voice when she said "Don't worry about it, Ry, things will fix themselves."
"Alright. Thank you for listening.." I said.
"You're welcome."
"I love you"
"I love you too. Now go fix your mess."
"Yes sir. I mean yes ma'am. I mean, Madam. Affirmative Madam."
"Oh, shut the fuck up and go. We'll talk later tonight." I laughed.
"Okay."
I hung up and looked at my phone for a bit. Sometimes I was so happy that I had the support system that I had with Cheyenne. I was so happy we fixed what we had.
I sighed and went back to the living room and sat down on the sofa, looking at the television. There was no use just worrying about Echo until I gave myself an aneurysm. When she was ready to talk, when we were both ready to talk, we would talk.
I set up Smash on the television and then went over to my room and knocked on the door lightly.
"Echo, I'm going to play Smash until you're ready to talk to me and you've had your time alone. I'm not going to pressure you to hurry it up or anything. I just want you to know that when you're ready..I'll be waiting here, okay? I'm not going anywhere."
I stayed there for a second, listening intently for a response and I was surprised when the door opened and two small hands popped out, holding my WiiU which still had some cables attached to it.
"I think you'll need this." She said quietly handing it to me. I took it and smiled.
"Thank you, Echo. Would you like to sit down and join me? We don't have to talk about anything " I said my smile fading.
After a second, she fully opened the door and walked out, her hand out for me to guide her. We walked together to the living room, sitting down on the couch and she waited patiently as I plugged in the WiiU.
The silence was interrupted by the sounds of the game, not completely comfortable, but not weird either. After a few rounds, I felt Echo lean on my shoulder and I smiled.
We were going to be okay.
Okay, here's the chapter I promised. And the prologue for the other Cry story WARPAINT is also going up in a bit. I'm going to flood you guys with content cause I feel guilty for neglecting this for so long.
Okay, see you in a bit.
-James.
