Keep You Close - HO

•16•

The dinner begins, and Kylie makes her way back to the table. I take notice of how happy she is. It seems every guy makes her happy but me.
"Michael is so much fun, you made him out to be way worse than he is." She says as she sits down.
I feel anger rise in me. I can't stand Michael, he's my least favorite person on this planet. The last thing I want is for the girl I'm in love with to think he's fun.
"He's fun until he screws you over." I mutter.
Food starts to be served, and a few speeches are made on behalf of the studies we're funding with the profits from tonight.
There's definitely tension between Kylie and I, and Tom can tell. The twins are absolutely clueless as usual though. Kylie's phone starts to vibrate, and she looks at it.
"It's my publisher.. I have to take this." She says.
"Of course." I nod, encouraging her to take the call.
She leaves the room, and Tom slaps my arm hard.
"What the fuck man?" I say.
"What are you doing? Why are you being stupid?" He asks.
Now the twins give us their full attention, trying to grasp what is going on.
"I don't know what your talking about." I state.
"Telling Kylie you just want to be friends? What is wrong with you!" He whisper yells at me.
"It's for the best." I try to end the discussion, not wanting to go into detail of the scene I saw the other night.
"No it's not. You love her. The whole point of all of this was for you two to be together again and-"
"She's with Alex." I interrupt him.
Tom stops talking, his mouth dropped slightly. I know he wasn't expecting that at all.
"That dude from the bar on her birthday?" He asks.
"That's the guy." I sigh, sipping on my drink.
I didn't want to talk about this, especially not tonight, especially not in front of the blabber mouth twins. Tom just can't stay out of things for even one night.
"How do you know?" He asks.
"Saw them kissing."
"Kissing? Was it a kiss kiss or just a kiss?" He prompts and I roll my eyes.
"I don't know, I looked away." I say.
"Well what if it was a 'trying to see if we like each other' kiss or a 'I'm sorry but I like someone else.' Goodbye kiss." Harry interjects.
Could it have been?.. maybe it didn't mean anything. I mean, if she was dating him why would she be here? With me?
There's a huge possibility that it was a one time thing..
"There's still a chance.." I whisper to myself.
"Yeah you fuckin idiot!" Tom says loud enough for surrounding tables to look over in annoyance.
"I'm going to talk to her when we get home tonight." I say.
Kylie comes back into the room, excited to tell us that the first copy of her book is done with the cover and all. I'm so fucking proud of her and everything she has accomplished. She is one of the most hardworking people I know.
We eat dinner and chat, luckily the twins kept their mouths closed about the conversation I had with Tom earlier. I think about taking Kylie outside to talk, but right as I work up the courage to do that, Michael walks up to the table.
"Another amazing event, Harrison." He says, but I know he's only being nice because Kylie is here.
"Thanks." I nod.
"So Kylie.." he starts and I roll my eyes. "I was wondering, maybe you'd like to get brunch tomorrow?"
What?! No! Is he serious?! He can't be. I look to Tom, who shrugs slightly, knowing there's really nothing we can do to stop this.
"Tomorrow? Well I have a meeting with my publisher.." she trails off. Good girl. Let him down easy.
"No worries, maybe another time." He gives her a smile. Oh how I wish I could rub the rejection in his stupid face.
"You know what?" She stops him from turning away. "I'll end the meeting early. How does 12:30 sound?"
Fuck.
"12:30 is perfect. I will get your number from the books and text you the details." He nods and walks off.
Tom stares at Kylie with his mouth dropped and she lifts her brow in confusion.
"Really? Michael??" He says.
"I'm sorry is this weird for you?" She asks, ignoring Tom and looking to me.
"No uhm- not at all. It's fine." I say and now Tom's eyes widen even bigger than before.
He kicks my leg under the table, and I glare at him. I don't need to start this conversation in the middle of a charity dinner. He kicks me again, and I kick him back even harder.
"Jesus Christ." He groans in pain.
"What's wrong?" Kylie asks him.
"I uhh- well." He tries to think of an excuse. "I'm just really fucking horny to be honest."
Kylie puts her hand over her mouth, trying not to laugh. Of all the excuses he could have come up with, that's the one he chose. That's Tom for you.
"You need to get laid. I bet that Beth girl can help you out with that." She says.
Oh shit..
"Did you hear that from Michael? Considering he's slept with her several times." I point out.
"This is going to be a long evening..." Tom sighs.
______________
The night comes to an end, and everyone starts saying their goodbyes to head home. Tonight was suppose to be the night. I had it all planned out. Kylie would be in love with me again, and I'd make tonight amazing, have an expensive bottle of champagne when we got home, and ask her to me mine again. Of course this is the one singular plan of mine that has fallen through. I'm normally so good at keeping my life under control, but this is the one piece of it that I can't seem to control no matter how hard I try.
I want to talk to her about the kiss with Alex, it obviously meant nothing if she agreed to a date with Michael. But at the same time, if she agreed to a date with Michael then what does that say about her feelings towards me? If she loved me again, she wouldn't be going out with Michael.
I watch as she hugs the twins goodbye. She's so beautiful, and her smile lights up the room. I adore her. I want her.
"You're staring mate." Tom says as he walks up next to me.
"I don't care." I say.
"What are you gonna do?" He asks.
"I don't know..."
Kylie walks back over to Tom and I after saying goodbye. I can tell she's exhausted.. maybe I shouldn't say anything tonight. She needs a night to just relax without any stress. I can give that to her.
"Ready to go?" I ask.
"Absolutely." She nods. "Goodnight Tom."
"Night Ky." Tom smiles, and I hold my hand out for her to take.
We say goodbye to a few more people as we make our way towards the door. Kylie let's out a big yawn, and I can't help but let out a little laugh. She always has had the goofiest looking yawns. She's adorable.
"Headed out?" Michael asks as he steps in front of us. I swear this guy never stops. He's obsessive.
"Yeah, I'm exhausted." Kylie answers.
"We'll go get some sleep, I'll see you tomorrow." He says, pressing a kiss to her cheek. Everything in me wants to punch that guy right in the face, but I can't. How disappointing.
We walk out to the car, and I open her door for her.
"You're so extra." She teases.
"No, I'm a gentleman." I state, shutting her door for her and rounding to the other side to get in.
As I drive us home, Kylie lets out a big sigh, moving her eyes from looking out the window, to look to me.
"I can't believe we made it a whole ten days." She says.
"That bad?" I ask and she scoffs.
"No dummy. I just thought one of us would start a fight or something. We did a lot of that back then..."
She's right, we did fight a lot. I'm really glad we're not in that place anymore. Tomorrow I'll talk to her, tell her how I feel. But tonight I'll just appreciate that we're in a good place.