Big Bad World

The Truth

The days had dragged on. Every day had felt like an eternity. I was lost like a ship at sea; except I was the lost ship stuck in a hurricane and I didn’t mind being shipwrecked. Being away from him was one thing, but being without him was physically and emotionally painful. I had been cooped up in my room for weeks now. Keith attempted in every which way to try and contact me, but I wouldn’t respond. He’d text me, email me and call me. Sometimes he has even tried to call Aubrey. I just wish he would get the hint that I wanted to be left alone; that I wasn’t into playing his game anymore. I couldn’t do it anymore. Love was stupid, and I fell for the devil.

Today I had decided to drag myself into work. I walked in there wanted to shut the world out and yell at everyone. This whole being without Keith thing had made me angry. Aubrey had even noticed it and had confronted me a few times. Why was it so hard to let go of him? He was like a drug to me that I was hopelessly addicted to almost like I needed to check myself into rehab. 

“You look like a train ran over you” Aubrey said, startling me in the worst way. I hadn’t even noticed that I was at work. My thoughts were so consuming.

“Maybe one did and I got lucky and survived” I shot back.

Aubrey’s eyes looked sad as if she was worried about me. “Lacey, go home. You’ve been like this for weeks. Just call Keith back.”

I gave her an evil eye and shook my head. “No. He has no right to talk to me. I’m done with him”

“Why, because you don’t want to fight? He not only blows up your phone, he’s been blowing up mine as well. He clearly really needs to talk to you, Lacey. Just let him talk to you.”

I rolled my eyes and began doing some work behind the desk. “If he needs to talk to me, he will come to me in person and talk to me. Until then, I don’t want anything to do with him. I was stupid to fall for him in the first place” I shot back and then looked to Aubrey who gave me a look of uncertainty.

“What?” I asked. Aubrey then pointed toward the doorway where Keith was now standing.

My eyes met his, but without saying a word I ran toward the storage room. “Lacey, wait” I heard Keith, stopping me in my tracks. Of course I would listen to him, because whatever he said I had to listen.

“What? I have nothing to say to you” I shouted. “You’re a liar, and you toss love around like it’s some kind of act. I’m tired of it.”

Keith sighed and walked over to me in hesitancy. “Maybe, if you see it that way. You’re probably right. But, I’m not a liar. I just didn’t tell you the entire story.”

I wiped a tear from my eye and looked at him. “I can’t trust you….” I mumbled.

“Lacey, please just let me explain,” he begged.

I sighed and looked at him with a hesitant look. “I… ugh, fine!”

Keith gave me a weak smile. I looked to Aubrey who signaled for me to go with him. Keith then grabbed my hand and led me outside. His touch caused a tingly sensation through my body. It was an electric shock; the one I fell in love since the beginning when I first met him.

I didn’t let go of his hand, I just allowed him to continue holding it. Even if I still so mad, I longed for him and his touch everyday of my life. Now that I could finally get that fix, I wasn’t going to let it go.

The man took me over to Cumberland Park and sitting us down on the stops leading down to the riverfront. All I wanted was for this moment to last forever, but not the talking. I didn’t want to talk to him; I just wanted to be next to him. Unfortunately though, that wasn’t the case. We both had to talk.  “So…?” I mumbled looking over into his beautiful blue eyes.

“Um, yea, right… I have to explain everything to you. Please, just listen to me” he asked pleading with his eyes.

“Okay… explain…” I mumbled signaling for him to go on.

“Nicole and I were in Brisbane with a really good friend of ours. We were at his barn just hanging out, looking at his car because the engine wasn’t working. Music was playing, and Nicole was in his house making something to eat. Well, I was the one working on the car; my friend was kind of just chilling with me. It was getting dark. Nicole came out of the house to put the porch light on, and brought some food. We hung out, we ate and we were just being friends. For once, my marriage had felt right, and our friend was a great friend to both of us. We just thought it was going to be a fun night, ya know?” he swallowed hard. “Well, after a while, I began to work on his car again. I asked my friend to head into the barn to grab a car part. During that time I had kicked the gas can over, but didn’t think anything of it being a big deal. From what I saw, it didn’t spill all the way over. Well, my friend was still in the barn when something went wrong with engine and it sparked. Before I knew it, everything was on fire. I ran over toward the house and Nicole saw the entire thing. I had thought my friend had gotten out, but the fire trucks came, and they found him. He was still alive, but he died quickly after.”

My eyes began to water as Keith was telling his story. Was this what he meant when he said he killed someone? I could see the sadness and guilt in his eyes like it was his fault that this happened.  In an instant I felt like maybe I wrong in being angry with him. I was wrong for a lot of stuff, but this would be the worst. He was Keith. He was my drug.

“Lacey, I killed one of my best friends. No, it wasn’t with a gun or anything like that, but I killed him. I started the fire because something with the stupid car part went wrong. The gas leak was a lot more extreme than what I noticed. I still think about it. Nicole was so angry with me. We screamed at each other all week after that. She kept blaming me for killing him, which I did. Soon after, she left me. I haven’t talked with his family since. I haven’t really been back that way. It haunts me,” he admitted with a tear rolling down his face.

My hand reached up to wipe away the tear. There wasn’t much to say. I was angry that he had never told me beforehand, but I couldn’t tell him that in that moment. I had to just sit and be with him. He had told me the truth, the least I could was be there for him.

 (A/N: Sorry it took me a few days to post this. It's shorter than most. I'm sorry about that. But, let me know what you think. I have more things coming! Leave comments. LOVE YOU!!)