Given Up

Chapter 31

The next week was much the same. I saw Cassie but I didn't stay at hers that much. She was out at dance a lot and her mind was on that even when we were together. I didn't mind: I didn't want to leave Kate alone too much now that Scott wasn't there.

He hadn't been around at all but I sent him a few texts that he replied to. I had asked him to come round but he had been non-committal. I hoped if we could all talk together then he would come back and she would be happy again.

Kate was still working a lot and I kept an eye on her: still cooking for her and watching a series together. She smiled at me in all the right places but I could see that her heart wasn't in it. It burned that I was the reason she was unhappy.

I was awake in my room one night, unable to sleep as per usual. I could hear her through the thin walls talking on her phone.  Her voice was strained: the emotional tones making it through the walls even if I couldn't make out the words. The sound that came next I was well used to: crying.  It was loud and heaving: punctuated with sounds of her trying, but failing, to stop.

I slipped out of bed and knocked gently on the door.

"Kate..."

I heard the padding of her feet on the worn carpet before the door opened: she wiped at her nose and her eyes were red.

"Kyle, are you ok? I thought you'd be asleep."

"I..." I hesitated then. "...are you ok?"

She placed her hand on my cheek.

"Yes, yes." She looked anything but. "Get to sleep now; it's so late."

"Ok, but I am just next door if you wanna...talk or anything."

She stroked my cheek and sighed.

"Night Kyle."

I walked away but left my door open, just in case.

———

"Kyle?!"

My eyes snapped open and I was faced with Scott crouching in front of me. It took me a moment to remember where I was: the front steps of Scott's house. The early morning sunshine hit my eyes making me squint.

"Um, hi," I mumbled as I stood up and wiped the dirt off my bottom.

Scott's green eyes were set into a deep frown.

"What are you doing here? Has something happened?"

By the time her room had gone quiet, I had decided that I couldn't take another day of it like this. I had checked that she was asleep before I snuck out here before the sun came up.

I had knocked on the door and deduced that if Scott wasn't in then he was probably on a night shift. It crossed my mind that he could be staying somewhere else - with someone else - but I had pushed that out of my mind as quickly as I could.

"No, nothing has..." My throat was dry.

"How long have you been out here?" He tilted his head.

"A while," I admitted.

"What are you doing here?"

"You have to come back. Come back home," I blurted out.

He frowned at me.

"Kyle, you know why I have stepped back for a bit. What happened between us: it shouldn't have happened and it never should again."

"Yeh, but I want you to come back, ok?" I sounded screechy. "Don't you care about us anymore?"