an assistant's dilemma: a kendall roy & roman roy love triangle

chapter 29

Kendall fell back asleep quickly, and Lucy moved to the recliner, tucking her knees to her chest and watching him sleep. She was unable to fade off to sleep herself, fearful that Kendall might simply drop dead if her gaze wasn't fixed on him.

The sedative wore off as the hours progressed, and a heavy, terrible sadness overtook her. The grogginess that the sedative provided her with allowed her to distance herself from the situation at hand, as if she was in a dream. But now, it was all clear to her. Kendall, consumed by misery and unable to open up to anyone, had tried to drown himself in the pool. 

Lucy wasn't sure how to cope with the full understanding of this. She felt the desperate need to talk about it with someone, but the one person she really wanted to talk to was asleep. She debated calling Eloise, but she didn't think she could explain what happened without collapsing into a puddle or tears. 

Kendall said very little on the ride back to the villa the next day, but Lucy, overcome by exhaustion due to not sleeping the night before, didn't much mind. The two parted ways when they returned, Kendall going to greet his siblings in the garden and Lucy heading up to her room in hopes of getting some rest.

Ken approached his siblings, trying his hardest to keep up a facade for them. He offered a smile that didn't quite reach his sad eyes, which were covered by his sunglasses. He assured them that he was fine, that he had simply fallen off of the floatie after too many drinks. They seemed unconvinced, but the Roy family was never good with vulnerability, so they simply nodded along. Roman could feel his skin crawling as a result of the uncomfortable conversation, and excused himself to go get another drink.

Shiv watched her brother walk off, assuring he was out of earshot before asking Kendall "Look buddy I uh...I didn't wanna say anything with Rome still around but...have you and Lucy talked?"

"What? About what?," Kendall asked, looking around the table. No one's eyes had left him since he sat down.

"I mean...she stayed with you at the hospital right?," Connor asked, inserting himself into the conversation.

"Yeah, I uh...I told her she could leave but...," Kendall trailed off with a shrug.

"Did she uh...did she tell you she found you?," Tom asked.

"Yeah," Kendall mumbled, looking around the garden in hopes an escape from this conversation would present itself.

"Yeah she was pretty torn up about it," Shiv said, taking a sip of her cold white wine. Kendall watched her, wishing he had a drink of his own.

"That's an understatement," Tom said with a laugh. "They had to sedate her."

"What?," Kendall asked, suddenly locked in to the conversation.

"Oh yeah it was bad," Tom continued. "The paramedics literally had to pull her off of you."

"Yeah she was pretty upset," Shiv added. "She jumped in the pool to try to get you out and Rome, Tom and I came because we heard her screaming. Tom got you out of the pool and she just...she laid with you until the ambulance got there. She couldn't calm down and Roman suggested they sedate her so..."

Kendall sat there for a moment, taking in this information and stuttering out meaningless syllables as he tried to land on a response. "C-can Roman even do that? Like...is that even his decision to make?"

Shiv shrugged. "I mean...she probably did need to be sedated. She was going to get dehydrated crying that much."

Kendall nodded and bit his lip anxiously. 

"So...did you two talk?," Shiv pried.

"I mean a little but...no not really. I didn't...I mean I didn't know any of that s-so..."