Split

Karma - Ch. 21

A calm summer day, one of the last at that, people would probably be on vacation, another state, another country, Holden spent his summer going to therapy.

It made no sense to him this whole arrangement, maybe he could reach a balance in his life at last, but he really knew that was pretty much impossible, he's always known he was fucked up.

Maybe being cooperative wouldn't be so bad? He told himself, so he started showing up at Henry's sessions, and explaining his situation in more detail to the therapist. His therapist, weirdly, found excitement in attending a system for once.

But the nightmares never stopped since he was young.

- - • • • - -

Henry told himself to start going out more, he thought it would be healthy, it probably was, but his choice of place couldn't have been more off.

He chose to eat at Kingsize Dinner, a terribly named place that was really frequented in town.

He stared out the window, until he noticed a familiar waiter was standing next to him.

"Welcome to Kingsize Dinner, may I take your..." Adam looked up from his notepad, noticing Henry. "... Order?"

"Oh fuck, I forgot." Henry widened his eyes, as he mumbled to himself, covering himself with his hand.

"Okay, you're alone now, Holden, I think I deserve an explanation now." Adam crossed his arms, the place seemed to be pretty calm at this hour, so Adam could take a little break.

Adam sat on the other side of the table that Henry was sitting on.

"First of all, my name is not Holden, it's Henry, I told you." Henry argued quietly.

"I know... It's just hard because you keep faking like nothing happened that night at the party, and why use a fake name after all?"

"It's not a fake name, it's an Alter-Ego, another personality." Henry pinched his forehead, in stress.

"So now you're a kind of superhero?" Adam opened his drowning blue eyes wide, in disbelief.

"What? No." Henry groaned. "It's a mental condition, it's a double personality, Holden hooked up with you at that party, I was asleep."

Adam looked at Henry with his hypnotizing blue eyes, barely understanding what was going on.

"I'll have a burger, you go back to work, got it?" Holden chimed in, his gaze relaxing as it usually does.

"Geez." Adam sighed.

- - • • • - -

He knew he had fucked up with people in his life, Henry didn't know what got into him, but he was trying to fix it.

Maybe he just hoped karma didn't get to him, maybe he wanted closure.

Holden was still in control, just as he was going out of the diner, he bumped into a familiar face, he wasn't ready to face Haley yet, but destiny said 'Fuck you'.

"Heeey...." Holden said, awkwardly, and raised a hand in an uncomfortable wave.

"Henry." She said, emotionless.

"So I wanted to talk if you'd-"

"No, I don't want to talk, you're still a backstabber to me." Haley put her finger on Holden's lips.

"I shouldn't have used you, Hen- I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, I should have just ended it while It was still safe." Holden moved her hand, and apologized profusely, which weren't things Holden felt, but things that he knew Henry would say if he had the balls.
"I'm with Nick now, and deeply I knew something wasn't right when I was with you. The point is that I don't wanna hold a grudge forever."

Haley stood still, processing all of the information, raising her shoulders as she breathed in, and lowering them as she sighed out.

"Such flattery that you didn't mean to." Haley said, sarcastically. "But you did, and I don't have to forgive you."

"That's okay, I just needed you to know that h- i did like you even at some point, and it wasn't all just pretend." Holden sighed as he finished.

"Good, fine, whatever." She said, as she walked off.

"Well, fuck me then." Holden mumbled to himself.

Summer was about to end, senior year, this was his last chance to get through high school alive, he just hoped it wouldn't be a chore.