Violet Nights

Chapter 33

Tuesday, 7:00pm— 

Keith would be going to New York with Lance tomorrow. Was he excited about this in any way? Probably not, but it would be a change getting out of his small, boring, depressing apartment for about a week. None of this changed the fact that he still felt guilty that Lance had offered to pay for his plane ticket. While he was at it, he went ahead and made Keith his partner on the project. They'd also be staying in the same hotel room for a while. (Who knows how that would go) Keith guessed they were becoming a little closer (?) Who knows? Maybe they'd even be friends after all of this was over. Maybe Lance would be the guy Keith would know through college and beyond. Probably not though, right?

Keith came home to a surprise waiting inside. And not a pleasant one. (Usually it would be but..)

"Shiro??" Keith exclaimed when he unlocked the door to his apartment. Sure enough, the white-haired man was standing in the living room as if he'd been waiting for Keith to come home so he could just chew him out for not answering any of his calls.

"First of all, how the hell did you get in?"

"You left your key under the mat. Really, Keith? Someone could've broken in." Keith couldn't help but freeze for a few moments hearing that last part. It made him think about the night his ex broke in and hurt him. How could he be so dumb? He didn't want something like that to happen again, and even though he told himself he would hunt down the guy, he hadn't actually put any effort into doing it. Neither did he even go the police about the incident. He didn't even know why. Was he afraid of the consequences? Or was he afraid he would be outruled in court? The guy had dozens of friends who would take his side in a heartbeat no matter what, even if he did rape Keith and probably hundreds of other vulnerable people. Was Keith placing the vulnerable label on himself now? He wasn't vulnerable that night, he was just scared. People get scared.

"Keith?" he heard Shiro's voice say gently. "Are you okay?" Apparently Keith had paused longer than he thought he did. And now Shiro was going to be all up in his business wondering what he'd been thinking about. He loved Shiro, but sometimes he was just too nosy.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just spaced out for a minute. I'm tired."

"Oh..okay. Well um, I actually stopped by to talk to you about that trip to New York."

"How did you find out about that?"

"Oh please, Keith, Adam is a teacher in training at your school."

Keith rolled his eyes, arms crossed across his chest. "Oh wonderful. Now you're gonna hear about everything that happens."

"Why? Did you do something?"

"No.."

"Then you have nothing to hide. Go pack for the trip."