Chim - Turn To Stone

Chapter 38

Thirty - Eight

I looked at her incredulously. “what?” I asked, not sure I was hearing her right. 

She looked away from me and at the road, conscious of the fact that I hadn’t been paying it much attention. “pull over” She sighed and pointed to a lay by ahead of us. 

I couldn’t have been more stunned, I really hoped she wasn’t going to tell me that this was somehow my fault. “what do you mean, you did it for me?” I asked her with a frown as I let the car come to a stop in the lay by. 

“I’ve said too much” she said quietly, biting her lip. The worry was evident on her face, but by this point, I didn’t really care. I needed to know what she meant when she said she ‘did it for me’. 

“I don’t think you’ve said nearly enough” I laughed in shock, although there was no humour in it what so ever. 

The street lamp illuminated her face against the darkness and even though my stomach was doing somersaults, and I really didn’t want to be around her at the moment, I felt sorry for her. The only thing that was keeping me from completely flying off the handle was the fact that I might get an answer to the question I so desperately needed an answer to…why?

She turned in her seat and stared at me for the longest time. I wanted to look away but something told me I needed to be strong for this. She sighed before going to speak, her eyes pleading with me. I could have been wrong but I sensed that she thought I wouldn’t want to hear what she had to say. 

“he heard you Kimberley…he heard you talking about us to Nicola at some awards thing” 

I didn’t say anything, I just looked at her with the same shocked expression as I had when I parked up. 

“he was going to tell everyone…he said it would only be a one time thing and he promised he wouldn’t say anything about us if i…well you know?”.

She unbuckled her seatbelt and leant over to hold my hand. If she hadn’t have squeezed it so hard, I might not even have realised she was touching me. 

“but then he kept calling me…I only did it to stop him from telling everyone about us Kimberley. And I know it was the wrong thing to do, I should have just told you and we could have faced it all together, but I didn’t, I wanted to protect you from it all…you were never supposed to find out”.

I felt empty inside. It was like, I could hear what she was saying, but the words weren’t being processed in my head right because I just didn’t understand at all. 

“but...I...I’m going to be sick” was all I could get out before the overwhelming feeling of nausea hit me. I flung my door open and swung my legs out, thankful that I hadn’t eaten much throughout the day. 

I held my head in my hands, but I could still hear Cheryl getting out of the passenger side door. She walked around to my side and bent down at my feet, holding my knee’s to support herself. 

My head was spinning, but I was well enough to feel my world collapsing at my feet. This was worse than what i could have ever expected. Of all the scenario’s that I had running through my head, this one didn’t even factor. 

I looked at her as if I was seeing her for the very first time. “why didn’t you just tell me?” I sighed, close to tears. 

She sighed herself before dropping her head to my knee’s, when she lifted it up I could see she had been trying to stop herself from crying. 

“because I knew it would destroy you, I didn’t want you blaming yourself. All I wanted to do was protect you from him, but it all went wrong” she sobbed. 

“I…don’t know what to say” I stuttered, shaking my head in disbelief. My mind was racing but when it came to it, what was I supposed to say to her? 

“don’t say anything" she said, so low that I had to listen hard to hear her properly. She raised herself a little bit and draped her arms around my neck, I couldn’t stop the tears from falling this time, I was too overcome with shock and emotion. 

It was almost midnight and there wasn’t a car on the road. I don’t know how long we sat in the lay by and cried together.