Unknown Beginning

Part 60

They were rapidly approaching the end of April and Riley had successfully kept her relationship with James hidden from Kenny. In fact, other than Ben and Steph (and maybe James' sister), no one knew about them. They had discussed being more publicly open about their relationship but since they weren't sure how or when to do this, they just kept continuing on with their current routine. This meant, other than the sneaking around part, Riley and James were feeling very happy and content without prying eyes and external pressures or judgment.

On the other hand, Kenny was still spending almost all her free time with Tyler which meant Riley had resigned herself to their relationship and thus her increasingly infrequent time with Kenny. With the exception of insisting she was happy with Tyler, Kenny declined giving Riley any details or insight into her relationship whenever Riley would inquire. Usually she would insist everything was great and change the subject. Which is why Riley was surprised and then alarmed to find Kenny sobbing in her room in the middle of the day on Friday.

Rushing to comfort Kenny, Riley crawled onto the bed next to her and wrapped an arm tightly over her shoulders. "Kenny. Hey. Deep breaths, babe." Riley encouraged.

Kenny was shaking from the sobs but tried to take a few breaths.

"That's it! That's great. Keep going Kenny. Keep breathing." Riley prompted as she rubbed Kenny's back with one hand and held her hand with the other.

Gradually Kenny's sobs decreased until she was sniffling.

Riley waited a few more minutes until the sniffles decreased further and asked "What happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"That's not an option." Riley disagreed. "Is someone hurt? Are you hurt? Is your family ok?"

Kenny shook her head "It's not my family. No one is hurt. It's..."

"Did something happen with Tyler?" Riley asked cautiously.

Kenny nodded.

"Did you break up?"

Kenny shook her head.

"Kenny. I'm gonna need more. Please."

Kenny started off slowly, voice shaky, and then everything spilled out of her at once. "Tyler read my journal. I was in the shower getting ready for my next class because we worked out at the gym together before. He was waiting in my room and he must have started reading it then because next thing I know he's pounding on the door and yelling at me. I had no idea what he was saying because I couldn't hear with the water on but I thought he was going to break down the door.

I hurried to get out of the shower and put my towel on and when I opened the door he was in my face yelling at me. I don't even know what he said but I walked to my bedroom, still in just my towel. And I'm standing there still dripping and he basically corners me and is yelling and so close to my face and he's saying I lied to him and he's an idiot for ever trusting me and all this stuff. And I'm trying to figure out where this is even coming from and I'm still just standing there in my towel and basically he read in my journal that, a few months into dating, I had written about missing my ex boyfriend sometimes and also how my ex still has sexual pictures of me from right before I became official with Tyler. And Tyler just kept freaking out and I was crying and I said I had to go to my class because it couldn't be skipped so he stormed out and slammed my bedroom door and the front door and I got dressed and went to class.

But I was sitting in class trying to keep myself together for the group presentations people were doing but the first group wanted us to split into small groups to discuss a prompt they had given and I just knew I couldn't talk to anyone or I'd start crying so I got up to leave. As I was leaving the teacher tried to stop me but saw my face and I kept walking. So then I was pacing the hallway crying, trying to pull myself together and failing.

Suddenly my teacher was there and basically told me to go to the counseling center and I agreed. She told me to wait while she got my stuff and then came back with a classmate who was supposed to walk me to the counseling center to make sure I was ok. He was really nice, his name was William I think. So anyways, William walks me to the counseling place and I go in and talk to one of the counselors but after I left I didn't know what to do and Tyler was freaking out texting me non stop because I didn't respond to him. I told him I was in counseling and wasn't ignoring him and he said we needed to talk when he got out of his class. Then I came back here and got super upset again and you showed up."

When Kenny finished her explanation, Riley realized she'd been holding her breath. This was bad. So much worse than she could have anticipated. And even more concerning, Kenny hadn't mentioned breaking up at all.

Riley didn't know what to say. Well, that wasn't true. She knew what she wanted to say but that wasn't what Kenny wanted or needed to hear right now. Knowing Kenny needed to get out of this relationship as soon as possible, Riley suggested, "Maybe it's a good idea if you two take some space from each other for a couple of days?"

"He's not going to like that. He said he wanted to see me in person to talk to me right after his class."

"Kenny, I think you deserve some time to process this. He betrayed your trust by reading your journal and then reacted in a really scary way."

"But I'm the one who messed up. I shouldn't have even been thinking about my ex when I was with Tyler. And I get why he would be mad that my ex has pictures of me."

"Kenny. You didn't do anything wrong. I know he's spun it to make it seem like you are the problem here but it isn't true. Please just take a couple days away from him to think."

"I dunno..." Kenny murmured uncertainly.

"Please Kenny, for me."

"Ok... I guess it's a good idea. We'll just take the weekend off and regroup on Monday? It's not like I even know what to say or how to fix this anyways other than to apologize..." Kenny lamented half heartedly.

"Well let's not apologize right now, but I do like the plan to wait until after the weekend. Let's text him now so he knows. I'll help." Riley encouraged.

"Thanks Riles." Kenny sighed as she curled up to rest on Riley.

Riley wrapped her arms tight around Kenny, wishing her embrace was enough to keep Kenny safe. To give her strength and show her how much love she deserved. Riley then kissed the top of Kenny's head and said "Anytime, babe. You know I'm always here for you."