kaya stretched, preparing to finally
exit the warmth of her bed. after two
days, her legs dangled off the side of
her bed as she yawned—hearing all of
her roommates screaming downstairs.
suddenly her door flew open to reveal
a frantic avani and confused nessa.
"can you please come help us force these
two apart down here," avani groaned.
"what's happened?" she asked getting up
quickly—already assuming the situation was
serious. "well jaden made a joke that you were
the hottest girl in the house and quinton kinda..
punched him?" nessa said, which sounded more
like a question.
she groaned running downstairs. seeing
the two boys fighting and griffin and bryce
trying to hold them back from each other.
"I WAS FUCKING JOKING GRIGGS" jaden
shouted at him. "WELL IT WASN'T FUCKING
FUNNY" he yelled back. kaya ran in between
them and their expression's softened. "simps"
she mumbled under her breath. "what?" jaden
asked. she ignored his question. "you guys need
to not fight over a joke for once, jeez" she huffed,
looking between the two boys.
"fine," quinton said, running his fingers
through his hair. jaden had a busted lip,
probably from the punch quinton threw
at him. she glanced at him to see he had
a bloody nose in return. the boys had to
drag jaden upstairs to fix his bleeding lip.
quinton just wiped the blood running down
his face. "can you at least let me help you?"
she asked grabbing his hand. she didn't
let him answer as she pulled him upstairs.
making it into kaya's bathroom she found
more tissues and things. she sat on the counter,
allowing quinton to stand between her legs
as she cleaned the boy's nose. "you shouldn't
have punched him" she finally said breaking the
silence. her words stuck in the air as the two
sat—him occasionally flinching when she tried
to wipe his bleeding nose. "he shouldn't have said
what he said," he replied. "it was a harmless
joke, he was just trying to make you guys laugh,"
she threw away the tissues.
"yeah but you can't just say it the way
he said it. he acted like it was okay to just
say things like that," he tried not to look at
her. "but why do you care? you don't need
to protect me. i can protect myself without
you." those words stung his chest like a thousand
bees. of course she needed him, right? they
had been best friends since they were about
five. there was no way she was tired of him.
she wasn't tired of him. she just didn't want
him to get too attached to her, more attached
than he already was. sure they were close
and made jokes all the time, but she didn't
want to date him or make him think she did.
she had liked him for the past 3 years and didn't
know how to tell him yet. ruining their friendship
was the last thing she wanted to do, especially
if it caused one of them pain—which was inevitable
no matter which route she took.
"whatever" he said grabbing his phone
off of the counter walking out of her
bathroom. she watched him leave her room
with his head down. as tears formed in
her eyes. they never regularly fought, but
when they did it was always violent and toxic
for them. neither of them knew how to
stop fighting—even though now it happened
a lot less than last year. their fights were
less physical—even though quinton never
hit her, she'd beat the shit out of him—but
they were not completely verbal.
she sat there thought running through her
mind making her light headed. she exited
her bathroom, laying on her bed. she didn't
cry but she felt like she was going to. she
fell asleep instead, her head pounding.
she didn't know what she was going to do
but she was trying her best to not think about
it.
