Stay With Me (by V.A.R)

CHAPTER EIGHT

       Adam waits for Kara outside of his house. He has been preparing what he will say.
       Adam is ready to tell her the truth because as she said if they want to be in a relationship together there has to be completely honesty and he needs her to know every single part of his past.
       He sees Kara coming out of her car wearing dark-blue shorts and a white t-shirt that had an abstract design with many bright colors.
       "You look amazing." he says to her.
       "Thanks." she says blushing and her heart goes fast, so she takes a deep breath to calm.
       "Please, c'mon in." he says and waits for her to enter before closing the door.
       She looks around the place, it has boxes, but not much decoration and there are photos with, what she guesses, it's her mother when he was younger, there isn't a single photo with his father.
       "So, I was thinking... maybe we could finish cooking the lasagna together. If that's all right with you." he says showing her the way to the kitchen.
       She nods and says "Yeah, but I've to warn you that my cooking skills aren't my best quality."
       "You said that with your singing skills and you sing well and I think it will be the same with your cooking." she lets a small laugh and they walk to the kitchen where he has the sauce in process and the ground beef and ground pork are on the table not cook yet.
       "So in what do you need help?" she asks looking around the mess he has in the kitchen.
       "The tomato sauce is not ready yet and we have to cook the ground pork, the ground beef and chop the onions."
       "Tell me what to do and I'll do it." she says cleaning her hands on the sink and she does a bun on top of her hair. He watches her do the bun and forgets for an instant what they were doing and all he wanted to do is kiss her.
       "What?" Kara says frowning when she sees the way Adam is looking at her.
       He shakes his head and says "Um... nothing... I was just... let's start." he gets the tomatoes cans out and the onions "Can you chop the onions?" he asks her.
       "Yes." she says taking the onions off his hand and he handed her the knife. She chops the onions, and he gets the sauce ready.
       Ten minutes later Adam turns his head to see Kara and asks her "Are you crying yet?"
       "I'm about to." Kara's eyes are full of tears that didn't come out.
       "Let me pass you a tissue." he says and grabs a tissue.
       When Kara turns around, instead of giving her the tissue he cleans the tears away from her face "If you want I can continue with the onions and you can stir the sauce."
       They were close, close enough for a kiss, and Kara just stood there not knowing if she should get closer or walk away, but Adam knows that even though that he wants to kiss her, she needs to know first his past before they are together so he takes a step back and clear his throat "So... do we switch?"
       Her heart is beating fast; again she was going kiss him. But she is glad he didn't kissed her, she wants to know him first "Um, yeah sure." she leaves the knife on the table and he gives her the spoon "So... um Adam."
       "Yeah?" he says knowing what is coming next. He is prepared for the question. He has prepared himself to answer it with complete honesty.
       "Do I add something to this sauce?"
       That was not the question he was expecting "Let me taste it." She gives him the spoon and he says "I'll do the pork and the beef, you can turn off the flame." she turns it off and sits down.
       He grabs the pork and the beef and cooks it and adds the onions.
       They stay in silence for a while and then Adam prepares the lasagna and puts it in the oven and he sits in the chair next to Kara and he takes a deep breath before saying "Okay... so about that call yesterday-." Kara turns her head and sees Adam. She didn't want to ask him, she wanted him to tell her. He sighs and continues "My father and I... we don't get along well. My father is the reason my momma died." he says with tears coming but he will not cry in front of her so he shakes them off.
       "I thought you said your mother died of intoxication." she says confuse, and he nods reassuring her he didn't lie.
       "My father's job wasn't legal. That's why we moved a lot. He was a drug dealer, but one day he decided that it was time to change and we moved to the town I lived in before coming here. You cannot walk out of that world from one day to another, those people find us. And one day I was-." he looks down and Kara puts a hand on his arm letting him know that he can continue and he gives her a small smile and continues "I was on my bedroom with my headphones on with the music really loud because I was pissed off with her for not letting me go to a party and she was downstairs cooking... they entered and I didn't even knew they were inside my house. My father wasn't home and since they were pissed off with my dad they killed my momma. I found out she was killed an hour later... my father's world was the toxic that killed her and I was the stupid moron pissed off at her momma and wasn't there when she needed me." Adam drops a tear. He has never said this out loud. No one knew this except for his father. And now he started he will end it "After that my father return to the business, he was afraid they might killed him and I moved away. I will not be near him and his toxic-damn-ass world." he looks up to see Kara's expression. He was expecting to see fear, but he sees a sad little pair of eyes that were there to support him.
       She hugs him and whispers in his ear "It's not your fault, okay?" he nods and hugs her even stronger.
       She looks at him in the eyes and asks "I don't want to sound disrespectful, but why the hell did he called?"
       "He's afraid her buddies are coming after me." he looks at her in the eyes waiting to see fear, but he sees she is worried not afraid.
       "Are they?" she asks worry about him. The idea this people are coming after him makes her stomach sick.
       "I don't know they might... I don't want you to be with me if you're afraid or if you don't want." she shakes her head and says "I'm not going anywhere, I promise."
       "Thanks for listening." he says with a glance.
       "Thanks for trusting me."
       "Um... I think the lasagna is ready." he turns his head to the oven.
       "Then let's eat. I'm starving."
       They sit up and talk. They talk about Adam's momma, and he tells Kara about how much he loved his momma, he tells her some of the best memories he has with her.
       "You know once, when I had my first real break-up... um my momma, she was like trying to cheer-me-up. She made me watch these girly movies and she wanted me to talk about how I felt... that didn't work on me. So one day, she just told me to get up and dress without excuses. She took me to a place far away from town, where there wasn't anything or anyone. She took out a bunch of plates and glasses and told me break them... at first I was confused but once I did it, God it felt good. It was like if I led out my anger breaking stuff." he tells Kara. That was one of the best memories he has with her momma.
       "She sounds kinda cool." she admits, and he nods and proudly he says "Oh, she was. I mean she wasn't a regular mother."
       "I can see that."
       They kept on talking about Kara's family. She tells him how awful her parents are at being parents but how amazing pair of brother she has. She talks about Jenna's alcohol problem.
       "Is she sober now?" he asks.
       "Not totally. She stopped drinking, but she drank again on these days, although she is better and knows what to do, there are still a lot of processes to do."
       "It's hard to stop drinking, huh?" he says with a grimace knowing it for his own experience.
       "I cannot say it for myself, but for what I've seen with Jenna... yes it is, it's not impossible because many people had made it but it's hard."
       Adam grimace again. He has tried to stop drinking, but it hasn't worked. Drinking is the only escape he has from his life when he needs a distraction.
       Kara notices the sad expression on Adam and remembers what happened at Jorge's party and asks him "You know... I don't want to sound rude, but um... do you have drinking problem?"
       He nods and says "Since everything that happened last year... um alcohol has been my escape from pain."
       "You know that's not a solution right?"
       "Yes, but... when the pain is so hard I need to stop it for just a few minutes."
       "You know why I ride my bike like a maniac?" he lets a small laugh and says "To fall down in front of my house so we can talk?" they both laugh and he continues "You told me you did that to disconnect from the world." she nods.
       "Exactly... when you I'm driving really, really fast my mind just disconnects from the world. Everyone has their own way to find an escape from reality, but you have to find an escape that doesn't adds any more troubles you already have." he doesn't says anything because he doesn't know what to respond, so Kara kept on talking "Um... have you try, I don't know... breaking any more stuff?" he shakes his head "Then try that. Maybe breaking stuff is how you can let out your anger."
       "Maybe." he says in a sad tone.
       Kara stands up and grabs his hand "c'mon."
       "Where are we going?" he asks still sitting down and Kara pulls him up and says "We will break stuff."
       "I have nothing I can break."
       "Just come all right?" he nods and follows her to her car.
       "What's the plan Kara?" he asks and she shrugs and says "I don't have a plan. We grab plates and then go to that beach we went yesterday and break them." she puts on her sit belt and he does the same. She gives him a glance and he laughs.

...

       A few minutes later she parks outside her house "Wait here." she tells him and gets out of the car. She opens the door of her house and looks for the garage door's key in the kitchen, and Mike walks in and says "Hey, you're home."
       "Not for long, I came to look something in the garage."
       He frowns and asks "What exactly?"
       Kara founds the key's and turns to Mike and says "Long story-." she gives him a kiss on the cheek and opens the door and before getting out she turns her head to Mike and says "See ya." and then she closes the door.
       She goes to the garage and grabs the box full with plates that her mother had there because she didn't like the color and never returned them. Adam comes out of the car and grabs the box from Kara's hands "Thank you." she says and opens the trunk of her car and he puts it there.
       As they walk inside the car he asks "Are you sure we can use them?"
       "Yeah-." she gets inside and he does the same and continues "my mother bought them like four years ago and she didn't like the color so she never used them."
       "We cannot break them on the beach." he points out, and she nods and says "I was thinking the same thing... Hum... oh I know. There is this abandon house a few minutes from here where no one has lived for many years."
       Adam knows that it doesn't matter what he says he will not convince her not to do this so he nods.