Behind Closed Doors

14: Reunion

Kaimi slept so good at night that she swore she was hearing Skyler in her sleep. When she gets up and realizes that it's already almost noon, she feels an odd fluttering in her chest. What if Skyler's voice wasn't in her dreams? She jumps out of bed and runs out of the room at top speed into the kitchen.

When she sees Skyler sitting at the dining room table talking to her mother, she just about cries. Skyler perks up when she hears Kai, too, and rushes to get out of her chair to hug her.

"I missed you so much," they both mumble to each other. Neither of them wants to let go, either, so they stand there like that, hugging for a good while until finally, Skyler pulls away.

"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty," they tease.

"It's not my fault that no one woke me up. You could've come to get me! I've missed you so much, Skye," Kaimi whines.

"I know, but Eva said you needed your rest. Sounds like you've had a crazy time without me," they say.

"That's beside the point! I thought you weren't coming back until tomorrow!" she exclaims.

"Well, after everything, Bea decided we should come home early," Skyler says, putting their hands in their pockets.

"Daniel and Colton told me everything, I'm so sorry, Skye," Kaimi says. She sits down at the dining room table to eat the plate of food that Eva had put down for her. Skyler sits back down too.

"I'm still struggling a lot, I don't want to speak to any of them, so I'm going to stay here for a little while," they say, sighing.

"That's okay, we love having you here, right mom?"

"Of course. You can stay as long as you want, as long as Bea says it's okay," Eva says, looking at Skyler with a sullen face.

"So much happened while you were gone Skye, I just-"

"Eat, and then we'll talk," Skyler interrupts. "I'm going to go unpack my stuff into your room."

"Oh, alright. Let me know if you need any help," Kaimi says, frowning. Skyler doesn't seem happy at all. And understandably so, but Kaimi hopes that they'll still be able to be friends and be the way that they were before Skyler left. What if things would never be the same?

"Don't worry, Kaimi. Skyler needs time to heal. It's hard when you realize that your family isn't biologically related to you," Eva says.

"I know, but I'm worried that things won't be the same between us now. I have so much I want to talk about with her, but I also don't want to seem insensitive to the pain she's feeling," Kai explains.

"Be yourself and It'll be okay. You guys will be spending a lot of time together, so you'll have plenty of time to tell her everything. You need to give her some time."

Kaimi nods, finishing off her plate and taking it to the sink to rinse it off. "I'm going to go help her," she announces before running to her room. When she opens the door and steps inside, she sees that Skyler hasn't even touched her suitcase. She's sitting on the bed, face sullen and body stiff.

"Skye? Are you okay?" Kai asks, sitting next to her.

"I can't do it," they mumble.

"Can't do what? Unpack? I'll help you," Kaimi murmurs.

"No, I can't believe that my mom would do this to me. All this time, the person I connected to the most was my own father. He's been right under me the entire time, pretending to be a family friend. Didn't that hurt him at all?"

Kaimi wraps her arms around Skyler. "I'm sure it did hurt him. It's hard for people to keep secrets. The guilt will eat them alive. I'm sure he wanted nothing more than to tell you. But I bet the main reason that he didn't was that you'd already created such a strong bond. He didn't want to ruin it."