She came out of her room hair dripping wet with a towel wrapped around her body as her blue eyes glared at her fiancé.
"Care to explain why a Cinderella dress is laid on my bed?"
Eric shook his head not even breaking a sweat as she groaned in annoyance before going back into her room where he had all the instructions waiting for her to read them.
They were going to a charity ball for cancer awareness because his parents both had people who had passed in the midst of their battle with the disease. He wanted to support them like he did every year and bringing his soon to be bride seemed like a good way to break the ice of them getting to know each other.
"Cancer awareness?", she asked softly sitting in the chair across from him now wearing a tank top and sweats with her damp hair resting over her shoulders.
"Yeah. It's this thing with my parents and I wanted you-"
"You want me to meet your parents? At this event?"
He became worried now as he eyes never left the elegant invitation in her hands.
"Kadence..."
"He died first. My father, he died, from pancreatic cancer. I thought Mama had it the way she would curl into herself on the most random of days but know she was just crazy, bipolar and schizophrenic. Every year I would see people with cancer awareness t shirts and I would tell myself that I didn't need one. What did being aware of the disease ever do for me?"
"Kaycee, you don't have to talk about it."
Her eyes were drowning in tears and the flush in her cheeks wasn't there cause Eric had done something incredibly sweet. She swiped at her face shaking her head firmly. It helped to talk when you had started opening the floodgates.
"He'd say it didn't hurt but the doctors told my mom to take him home and make him as comfortable as possible. A fighter. He'd always tell me to never let anything get me down not even looking death in the eyes. That night I helped you, I had been homeless for eight months because I had ran away from the group home. I would rather be free than be someone else's burden."
"You're not a burden."
"Thank you for saying that. It's not about what you do or say but it's just the way I was raised. You either go to school or work. Make something of your life."
"You don't have to come. I can schedule something more fitting for a meeting with my parents," Eric said letting Kaycee steal whatever she wanted like every other day.
"No!", she rushed to say taking a bite out of his bacon. "I want to go. Besides I'll be here all alone and you must have planned all this out in advance."
"Plans change," he shrugged.
"I'm not going to have a breakdown, Eric. I'll go with you tonight but we have to do stuff I want to do today."
"Deal."
They smiled at each other for a little while longer before she left to go finish cleaning up and picking out her outfit for the day.
