Cheat Sheets

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

For the past week my dad’s been helping me nurse my broken heart with hot chocolate drinks and hot water bottles. And for a week straight I’ve only left my bed so far to shower and use the toilet, other than that this has virtually been my safe haven for seven days.

Every morning and every afternoon, Braeden’s knocked on my front door, desperate to apologise and explain, but my dad’s turned him away every time. It’s too difficult for me to even think about him right now, let alone see him.

At night it’s the worst, all I think about is those days where I feel asleep in these very sheets with Braeden’s arms wrapped around me, Braeden’s lips hovering over mine, Braeden’s smell enveloping me. I miss it so much, I miss him so much. And even more so when I know that he sits staring at my bedroom window most nights until midnight when my dad goes out and tells him that he’s got to leave.

The sound of his motorbike pulling away from our house every night is enough to have me in tears again.

A knocking on my bedroom door, makes me pull the tissue away from my nose and turn to face the plane of wood patiently. “Keira, your friends are here; Kami and Jennifer and some guy named Adam.”

Adam? What the hell is Adam doing here?

 I shuffle up in bed and try to make myself look somewhat presentable for my friends, but I know I fail miserably when Kami’s mouth drops open in astonishment. “Whoa, what the hell happened to you, you look like a hot mess?!?”

“That’s because I am a hot mess!” I scream at her before crumpling to my bedspread in a hot torrent of fresh tears and sniffles. “I miss him so much.”

“Oh god” Adam announces, and I can just tell he’s rolling his eyes “she’s almost as bad as him. This is getting ridiculous!”

Annoyed that he’d mention Brae – I mean he who shall not be named – in front of me, I turn to glare daggers at the normally denim clad Adam who’s dressed in a tux. “Why are you even here?” I spit at him, throwing a tissue box at his head that narrowly misses him as he ducks. “God you’re so annoying! Just leave me to die here of a broken heart, I don’t want your pity’s!”

“Oh c’mon, and you call me a drama queen” Jennifer chuckles at me and I feel her handle settle on my back and start to rub in comforting circles “and we don’t pity you, Keira, we’re here to get you ready for prom!”

Ugh. It’s prom night; that cursed event that I was going to share with Braeden. But now that it’s over… “I’m not going.”

“Yes” Kami corrects me, dumping her metal make up kit on the bottom of my bed “you are. Now dry your eyes and hop in the shower, you are not going to prom looking like that; I refuse to let you be in my pictures looking like a puffy eyed snowman, so suck it up!”

I roll my eyes and chuck my cover off of me, eyeing up their beautiful ball gowns as they flitter about my bedroom trying to clear the mess of tissues that litter my bedroom floor. “Are you deaf or something? I’m. Not. Going. Braeden was supposed to take me and now that he’s… Ugh, I hate him!” I gasp at the word hate the leaves my throat, my stomach instantly tightening in regret. “No, I didn’t mean it. I don’t hate him! God, I’m so confused.”

“You were right” Adam mutters to Jennifer as she wraps an arm around his waist “she is a mess. Braeden’s such an idiot.”

“Don’t say his name!” I growl at Adam, slipping out of my unicorn slippers and trudging towards the bathroom. “This is a Braeden free zone!” Picking up my toothbrush, I access my bleary face in the mirror. “Speaking of Braeden… How’s he doing?”