Canyon Moon | H.S.

Icing on the Cake (53)

"Alright love, tell me what happened?"

Anne's sitting opposite me at the kitchen table. It's early afternoon, both of us having crashed when we got back to her house. She practically drove for six hours straight, insistent on getting me home.

I slept in the car, lulled to sleep by the movement and the sound of the radio playing softly in the background. Anne's presence made me feel a lot calmer. I think because my brain knew that I could rest and not have to worry about anything for a while.

Anne went to bed as soon as we got to the house, waving off all my apologies for the long drive and telling me to make myself at home. I went straight to the room that we stayed in for Christmas.

I finally let myself cry. I shut the door behind me and sank to the floor, sobs ripping themselves from my throat so violently I had to clasp my hand over my mouth in fear of waking Anne. The room smells like him, and all I can picture is the two of us in the bed, holding each other close.

I crawled into the bed and cried myself to sleep, letting pure exhaustion take over.

Now it's daytime again and it's time to start facing the facts. Starting with admitting what's actually happened.

I clutch my mug of coffee between my hands, letting the heat scorch my hands to distract from the constant whirring in my ears.

"We were at a party." I say, not quite able to meet her eyes. I feel so guilty about telling her this, and I'm honestly terrified that she's going to side with him and kick me out of her house. "It was some big event that he'd been invited to ages ago, which was why there was a week off in the middle of tour."

She just nods for me to keep going.

Part of me wants to ease myself into it, but I'm just kidding myself.

"He kissed another woman." I say in a low voice, my heart pounding against my chest.

"He what?"

I know she heard exactly what I said and is asking out of disbelief.

"I went to go and get us drinks, and when I turned around to go back to him, he was kissing another woman."

I don't know who she was, and I really don't want to. The idea of him kissing someone completely random is slightly less painful than kissing someone he knows. Like an ex or something.

"Oh my god."

I don't want to cry again, but I feel it escape the corner of my eyes. I swipe at my face angrily with the back of my hand, frustrated at myself.

"I turned and ran. Anna took me home-" I choke slightly on the word. "Anna took me back to the house where I packed a bag and then took me straight to the airport."

She stays silent.

"In hindsight, a ten hour flight probably shouldn't have been my first reaction, but I couldn't think straight. I don't have any friends in LA that aren't his friends first, and I just needed to get as far away as possible."

She nods, a sympathetic look in her eye.

"Slightly ironic that I ended up calling you but..."

She chuckles softly.

"Have you talked to him at all?" I scoff bitterly at the memory.

"He arrived at the house just before I left. He tried to talk to me. Decided that starting a sentence with 'I promise' was the right way to go about it." I stare at the empty spot on my hand where I've gotten used to seeing a ring. "I threw my ring at him and stormed out. I haven't said anything to him since."