Lethal Lust

24 | her judgement day

Kylie scuttled into the female toilets' after her horrific yet bizarre encounter with Pattie only minutes before. She apprehensively rushed through the swarms of guests in the hall, struggling to contain her emotions. Through her peripheral vision, she noticed Elijah making his way towards her but she immediately quickened her pace, and continued rushing towards the opposite direction. The thoughts of what they'd been up to only half an hour ago suddenly seemed abhorrent to her and she felt dirty as the memories washed over her.

She entered the tiny bathroom and was welcomed by a sallow looking Jess gazing at herself in the mirror. Jess gyrated her body towards her friend as soon as she heard the door open.

"Oh my god, what happened to your hair?" Jess gasped, hands flying towards her mouth in response to Kylie's messy mane. Kylie was forced to remember the impact on her skull as the strands of hair had been forcefully wrenched out by the turbulent force that had been Pattie.

"Nothing." Kylie gulped slowly as she took in the view of herself in the mirror. It could've been a lot worse but it was an understatement to say that she probably needed a haircut.

"You didn't get into a fight with one of the guests, did you?" Jess quizzed her best-friend. She recalled how only a few months ago, her biggest and only true concern about getting married was Kylie getting into a fight with one of her wedding guests and now look at her, she was doubting whether she even knew the man she was going to marry. "It was Lola, wasn't it?"

"No... I fell." She responded unconvincingly. "Anyway, leave that. I have something I need to tell you, Jess." She exhaled heavily before turning to face the red-headed girl, ready to give her some home truths about her mother.

"Is it about Elijah?" Jess's spoke, her voice barely louder than a whisper. If even Kylie believed that Elijah was being unfaithful and that's what she wanted to tell her, then surely Jax may be correct and maybe she was justified in having such doubts.

"No...why would it be?" Kylie replied. It was only then that she noticed the unusual sheen behind Jess's eyes. The kind that tells you that your friend is moments away from breaking down. "You're crying," Kylie murmured softly, cupping her friends' face gently between her hands.

"No, I'm not." She replied but the little water droplets had already started streaming down her cheeks.

"Why are you crying, Jess? What's wrong?"

"Jax told me he thinks Elijah's having an affair. He's been cheating on me for months, he said. And the worst part is...I think I believe him." She sobbed silently, leaning against Kylie as she did so.

"What? That can't be true." Kylie replied, pretending to be shocked and hating herself all over again.

The guilt was gnawing at her every day and as much as she told herself, never again – every time Elijah came near, she felt the urge to kiss him, to melt into his arms again. He was her poison as much as she was his and it eventually it would destroy her from inside if she didn't put an end to it. But something about him, about being with him even if only sexually ignited something from within her and made her feel as though she wasn't defined by her past, by what the loan sharks had done to her, or the neglect that her parents had subjugated her to. But here in this moment, with Jess crying on Kylie's shoulder, she realised she was no longer the victim, but the perpetrator of her own story.

"I don't know what to do Kylie. Seven years we've been together and now it feels like it's the end. Like I never really knew him." Jess continued to cry.

"That's not true. You know him better than anyone else does." Kylie replied, grabbing a tissue and dabbing it against her friends' damp face.

"We don't even talk anymore. It's like there's nothing left to say anymore."