Fall Away

Part of me was surprised I had been able to kick the boys out so easily. I kept glancing at the phone, expecting it to ring, expecting to hear Kirian’s voice.

But it never rang.

The apartment felt surprisingly lonely. It was quiet, with only a faint mechanical hum to disturb the total peace. It was too early for my neighbor to bring over his latest “girlfriend,” so there wasn’t even any noise coming from the room next door. I felt more alone than ever.

It was somewhat a relief when I had to go to work. At least Bella’s was busy and filled with noise and chatter. I was surrounded by people, even if half of them didn’t seem to like me. And I had something to keep me busy.

No matter how many times I glanced at the door, the person walking in was never one of the twins. I wanted to yell at myself for acting like a teenage girl, but I couldn’t seem to help myself.

By 10:45, reality had hit me. I was just making a fool of myself, expecting the boys to check on me, thinking that they needed to fix things with me. Hadn’t I already figured out that I wasn’t al that important in their lives?

The thought put a bit of a damper on my mood. People slowly trickled out and I began to pick up empty cups and wipe down countertops, both wanting and dreading midnight. I didn’t want to leave, but I didn’t want to stay here. Unfortunately, my options were pretty limited.

At a quarter to, the door chime rang one more time. I looked up tiredly, not wanting to deal with another needy customer.

My breath caught in my throat as I saw Kirian standing there. He was up and moving, so he must not be feeling that bad. As he moved closer to me, I could see the dark circles under his eyes, the paleness in his cheeks that suggested that something wasn’t quite right.

I didn’t call across the room to him, waiting until he sat down at the bar across from me. “Hey,” I finally said.

“Hey,” he repeated.

I waited a moment until it became clear he wasn’t going to say anything else. “Can I get you something to drink?”

He shook his head. “I just came to see you.”

I waited again, but when he didn’t start up a conversation I resumed my cleaning, picking up the cups and passing them into the kitchen.

“Have you been avoiding me?” Kirian asked suddenly.

I turned to stare at him. “Where did you get that idea?”

He shrugged. “I haven’t heard from you.”

“It’s been 24 hours, Kirian. Maybe.”

“Well…”

“Besides, I figured you were sick of me bothering you guys. I figured you’d call eventually.”

“I would call? You were the one that kicked us out of your house!”

“Oh.” I hadn’t thought about it like that.

“Yeah,” he replied, a twinge of amusement in his voice. “We figured you were still pissed.

I paused. I hadn’t been mad, exactly. I was more upset about them fighting than anything else. I had only been avoiding Kirian so that Soren would help me, and really, what a selfish reason. I should just steer clear of both of them and stop trying to interfere with what was… well, I guess it was natural.

“Nah, I’m fine,” I said aloud.

“So you’ll come over tomorrow?” he asked, smiling hopefully.

I told myself not to. I knew I shouldn’t. But something still had me opening my mouth and saying “Yes.”