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Sitting in a small motel room, Kennedy stared out of the window as she thought of what her next moves were now she was home. Returning to her mother's home was not something she wanted to do right now, she didn't want to see those people yet. She couldn't afford to stay in this motel, she'd worked out she had enough money to stay in the motel for a couple of nights but then the money would quickly run out. Bam might let her stay at his, but she knew it was only a matter of time before he made the request that she saw her family.
Staring in the darkness, the night sky was all consuming. The black night had not a single star visible and the lights from the nearby street lights were broken. Her mind was full of questions and scenarios which had not yet happened, and for a moment, Kennedy was unsure if being back home was the right thing to do. She had been hopeful that returning to the life she had before might answer some questions, but knowing she had to face her family soon only reaffirmed that she was not truly ready.
Picking up her phone, she skimmed the numbers of people in her contact list, she hovered over the name of her support person before shaking her head. She could not return, she could not go back into the small space and pretend to get better again. Choosing to call Bam, she held the phone to her ear as she listened the phone ringing.
"Ki," Bam answered. He sounded sleepy and she was aware that she might have woken him up.
Leaning against the wall, Kennedy let out a sigh. "Bam," she spoke his name quietly.
"Is everything okay?"
Kennedy glanced at the bedside alarm clock, it was 4am, of course she'd woken him up. "Sorry," she said in a quiet voice as she got up from the floor and walked towards the bed, her eyes seeing in the darkness perfectly. "I didn't realise what the time was."
Bam knew when she was lying, he'd known her for far too long. "Just come by," he said through a yawn. "I'll leave the door on the latch, just let yourself in."
"Thank you," she mumbled as she grabbed her jacket from the bed. "Seriously, thank you."
·:*¨༺ ♱✮♱ ༻¨*:·
When Bam woke again, he realised he'd slept through Kennedy arriving, he had no idea what time she arrived or where she'd gone when she got to his home. Although, it didn't take him long to find her, once he entered his garden, under the bright beating midday sun, she laid asleep in the middle of the halfpipe with her jacket under her head and a skateboard under the heels of her feet.
"Ki," he walked towards her slowly. "Ki?"
He watched as her eyes slowly fluttered open before she quickly put a hand up shielding her eyes from the sun. "Oh my God," she groaned loudly. "I'm so sorry." Her movements were slow but she managed to get to her feet brushing herself down.
"Are you okay?" He asked her as he looked her up and down. He noticed how tired she looked, how she looked like she had not even had a shower.
Kennedy ran her things through her hair, running through the tangles as she shrugged her shoulders. "I just..." she managed to smile trying to play it off. "I'm okay, I just couldn't sleep last night. I guess I didn't anticipate how different it would be to sleep knowing no one is close by."
"You could always go and stay with my parents, Ape would watch you like a hawk," he offered playfully.
Shoving him, Kennedy rolled her eyes. "Your mom would never let me breathe," she laughed as she picked up her jacket and pulled it on.
"Look," he picked up the board and looked back to his friend. "You are welcome to stay here as long as you want." Bam was used to offering out space at his home to his friends, Kennedy was different though, she was not just another friend, she was family even if they technically weren't any more.
She smiled as she looked at him. "Only if you're sure," Kennedy didn't want to put Bam out but she also wanted to be close to someone.
"I'm sure, but..." Kennedy listened to that one little word knowing there was always going to be a catch. "Darbs is staying for a couple of weeks." When the words left Bam's mouth, she breathed a sigh of relief before grinning widely.
"That I can deal with," she laughed.
"I'll be honest with you though," Bam put a hand on her shoulder and tilted his head before giving her a sharp look. "If you're going to be staying here, you can't be staying up all night and not showering."
Looking down at her clothes, Kennedy shrunk away with Bam's hand before looking shocked. "I didn't even..." she trailed off as she wrapped her arms around herself. "Can I...?"
He pointed towards the house, "You know where the guest bathroom is. In my closet is some of my old clothes, help yourself."
Kennedy smiled to herself as she headed into his home. He'd always been good to her, even when the relationship between him and her stepsister went wrong. The young woman certainly had grown up but there was subtle hints that she was still troubled and not quite the person she was before. Kennedy ignored those feelings though, pushing them away, hoping that in time she'd just level out.
She walked the halls, glancing at the photos that littered the walls and the graffiti that encased them. Stopping by the guest bedroom, her eyes were drawn to a photo of a gathering which she'd been a part of, the tell tale signs of her blanket being left on a chair. A slight grin played on her lips as she searched the photo, of course in the middle of the photo was Bam, besides him was one of his closest friends at the time, Ryan. Touching the face of the young man, Kennedy let out a sigh, Ryan was always around and there was no doubt in her mind, he still would be hanging here with Bam if it hadn't been for his tragic accident. Then her eyes were pulled to the back of the photo, you'd have to really look to notice, but Kennedy would always remember that day, so it stuck in her mind. In the corner, almost out of shot was Kennedy, her long blonde hair sticking out like a sore thumb around all the brunettes in the photo, the young version of the woman was mid argument with the her mother and step sister, Missy. Kennedy knew just out of shot was Missy's father, her mother's husband.
Looking away, she shook her head as she walked the rest of the corridor towards Bam's bedroom. Entering his room, she ignored the mess in which the man who was helping her lived. In fact, it made her smile and let her feel like for a moment she was back in normality. In his closet, she grabbed some clothes, just something which she'd feel the most comfortable in before heading to the guest bathroom.
Although she'd seen the photo, seen something which reminded her of those times and her teenage years, she needed to push that feeling back down inside, her only immediate way to do that was to make sure the water was almost scalding when she stood under the shower head.
