Hooking up [KJ Apa]

Chapter Sixteen

When I wake up, darkness still fills the room. The alcohol is still running through my body as my eyes flutter open. The redhead that is lying next to me is still sound asleep. His left hand is resting on my bare back, a reminder of last night's events.

My hand travels up to his hair, entangling my fingers with his locks, before I turn my head to the other side. I reach out to grab my phone, moving just a little which causes Keneti to move his hand off my back. I check if he's still asleep before turning on my screen. As I only wanted to know the time, I didn't expect to have any messages. Yet, this one that I got immediately sent me back into the past.

From: Unknown number
Missed me, my lovely darling?

I immediately shut my phone off as I fall back on the pillows. Flashbacks fill my mind and I'm starting to feel nauseous. Maybe it's because there's still alcohol in my body, or it's just because I've been shutting off the many memories to that year and a half.

My reflux starts acting up and I rush to the bathroom. Luckily, the toilet seat is open, so I crouch down, hang over the toilet seat and let it all out.

A pair of hands wrap around my hair and pull it back in a ponytail. Keneti rubs my back as the last bits come out of my body.

"I'll get you some clothes to put on." He says and leaves the bathroom.

I flush the toilet, letting the reminders of last night flush away with it. I lean back against the wall next to the toilet as I see Keneti, in boxers, walk back to me. He's holding a sweatshirt and a pair of boxers which he gives to me as he fills up a glass of water at the tap. He hands it to and I take a large gulp of it.

"I'll let you get dressed." He smiles at me, but it doesn't reach his eyes.

I wonder why it doesn't when he leaves the room to let me get dressed. It somehow reminds me of the few times we went out in Auckland and got pissed out drunk.

I pull the clothes on he gave me before drinking the remainder of the water. I stand up, feeling light in my head, but I'm able to get into the bedroom again. Keneti is lying on his side of the bed and under the blanket, looking on his phone. He looks up when I re-enter the room, a light smile dancing on his lips. I sit down with crossed legs on my side of the bed with a heavy heart. I need to tell him about the past 2 years. About what happened and how I got out of it. But it's harder than I thought. I close my eyes and breath in deeply.

"I got a text earlier." I begin, "From Landon."

He sits up as I focus on a point on the wall next to him. I control my breathing to make sure I don't have a panic attack in the middle of my explanation.

"I want to tell you about him." I whisper before raising my voice to a normal sound, "I want to tell you about him, because you should know about him. I just don't want you to judge me."

He nods, "I would never judge you, George."

I take a deep breath, "I met Landon 2 years ago at a Burberry shoot in London. It was my first big shoot, so I was obviously nervous. And he comforted me. Showed me poses, helped me get really comfortable in front of the camera. We just clicked, you know. So, he kissed me that night when we went out.

"When we went public with our relationship, big companies saw how great we were together and started booking us together. We traveled the world, making the hotels our homes. In the public eye, it was the perfect relationship between two A-list models.

"But it wasn't as perfect as people thought it was." I sigh, tears forming in the corners of my eyes, "It took me a while, and a few friends, to realize that Landon was verbally abusing me. He- he called me names, made me feel useless, got me to cut off my oldest friends... It took me longer to get out of it. It's just that it was like routine for me. Day in, day out. The same old words thrown around my ears.

"Until one day he snapped and slapped me across my face. I broke things off with him right then and there. My last shoot was for a set of pictures for Daya, Zendaya's clothing line. She helped me get a restraining order against him.

"But the whole ordeal wrecked me. I needed to find myself again, so I bought myself a place in New Zealand and moved over there for a few months. I took a break from social media and my life in the spotlight, and I even started writing again.

"Zendaya eventually brought me back to the modeling world. She even personally came to New Zealand to drag me back here." I smile sadly, "I'm okay now. It's been months since it happened."

That's the end of my whole speech. I can see that he's processing everything, and I get that it's a lot to process. He moves closer as a tear escapes my right eye. He reaches over to push it away as I close my eyes by his touch.

"I know you, George." He whispers, "You're not okay."

He enbraces me as I break down in tears. My sobs fill the air for a long time while Keneti rocks me on his lap. His heartbeat is the only thing that truly helps me breath at a controlled pace. He swiftly lifts me up to pull away the blanket underneath us. He puts me down again, pulling the blanket over the both of us as he pulls me close.

It's his breathing that calms me completely until I doze off to a deep slumber.