Stay With Me ✔

24.

"What are you doing here?" His eyes are wide and searching mine for some hint as to why I'm here, on his doorstep. His hair is damp, curling in places as it air drys and as always, he looks like he could use a few hours of sleep. He looks nervous, like he's a kid and I just caught him with his hand in the cookie jar. He keeps shifting his weight from one foot to the other like he's uncomfortable and he only opened the door wide enough for me to see him and nothing more. If I didn't know for a fact that Lexy was at cheer practice, I would think he was hiding her in there. 

"You didn't text me back, so I thought I would come see you and apolo-." 

"Ky, you shouldn't be here." 

"Rave, I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry and I-"

"Kylie, you really need to leave." He cuts me off a second time and I'm getting really tired of being interrupted today. First Cade and now Rave? 

"Rave, just listen." 

"No, Kylie. Leave. Now." He says more harshly than before, and I feel my heart drop as he looks at me blankly, like he doesn't want me there at all. I can fear my insecurities creeping back into my mind and taking over as tears build behind my eyes. I avoid looking at him, instead I keep my eyes on the cracked concrete. 

"Okay." I turn and walk down the steps and back towards my car. I let the tears fall, not wanting him to see me raise my hands to wipe my eyes. I can't believe I thought this was a good idea, he hadn't texted me back, so why did I think he would talk to me in person. 

"Shit. Ky, Wait!" I hear him call out to me and I stop walking as I hear him running towards me. His hand touches my shoulder and I feel those familiar sparks as he moves in front of me and tucks his fingers under my chin, tilting my face so that I'm looking at him. 

"I'm sorry. We just can't talk here." He stares into my eyes and even though I don't understand why we can't talk here, I can see how serious he is by the look in the sea of green staring back at me. His gaze leaves me and flashes back to his house and he seems to be waiting for someone to come outside - someone that he doesn't want to see me here.  

I nod my head and he lets out a breath of relief. "Can we go to the park?"

The ride to the park was quiet and so was the walk to our usual spot at the bench near the pond. Rave runs his hands through his now dry hair as we take a seat on the bench that holds so many memories for the two of us. I watch him as he performs this nervous habit and study his face, his sharp jawline, his piercing eyes, his slightly chapped lips and the dark circles around his eyes. Is he ever going to tell me what's going on with him or will it forever remain the thing that stands in our way?

"Did Lexy talk to you today?" His quiet words break the silence and he avoids eye contact as he nervously bounces his leg and bites his lower lip. 

"Briefly." 

Rave's leg bounces a little faster and he shakes his head, clearly having some internal argument with himself right now. His eyes are closed and he lowers his head to his hands. I can't stand seeing him like this and honestly, it's making me nervous. What does he think she told me? Did something happen for her to tell me about? 

I move my hand and rest it on his bouncing knee, causing him to low the nervous movement and bring his sad eyes to mine. "What did she tell you?" 

"She offered to help me with you and when I told her I didn't need her help she told me that nothing happened between you two the other night." I answer, leaving out the part about her telling me Rave would come back to her once he's done with me.

"She told you that?" He looks just as surprised as I did when Lexy said the words to me this morning. 

"Yeah, but I think she has some ulterior motive..." I reply, thinking back to the menacing tone Lexy had when I rejected her help and she leaned in to tell me I was just a phase to Rave.