If I Only Had the Heart

When Matt got back to the house, he was kind of pissed off. He immediately went inside and grabbed a beer out of the fridge. After popping it open, he went into the living room and sat down to watch TV. He wasn’t paying much attention to anything going on around him, so having the TV on was pointless. But it served as a distraction; it made it easier for him to not think about Kylie and Jake, whether they had a platonic relationship or not.

He was trying to ignore all Kylie related thoughts when his phone rang. “Hello?"

“Hey boy, what’s up?” he sister answered happily.

“Sitting here trying to forget about Kylie. Not working. What’s up with you?”

“Oh nothing, except I’m currently reserving a hotel room in New Jersey for tomorrow.”

Matt almost choked. “Excuse me?” he asked, his voice deadpan.

“I have some news that I want to tell you, but it has to wait until I can physically see you. Therefore I’m coming out to visit you.”

Matt chuckled and got up to throw his beer can away. “What if I don’t want you here, Audrey?” Matt loved his sister and knew she meant well, but sometimes she intruded in on his life. She liked to help him out and sometimes she went overboard. Given his current love life situation, he was assuming Audrey’s reason for coming to visit was so she could talk to him and try to help him out. The only problem was was that Matt didn’t want her help this time.

The brunette laughed. “Too bad; I’m staying in a hotel so it’s not like I’ll be intruding. I just have some big news and plus, can’t a favorite older sister come visit her favorite younger brother every once and awhile?”

Matt shook his head. “There’s nothing I can do to get you to not come out, is there?”

She laughed. “Nope!”

The two siblings talked a little while longer and made arrangements for when to meet and where Audrey was staying. She would be arriving in New Jersey tomorrow at around three and Matt was going to meet her at her hotel when she got there. When they hung up, Matt shook his head; he could just tell his sister had an ulterior motive as to why she was coming to visit. He groaned just thinking of all the possibilities.

Getting up, Matt sighed and walked towards his bedroom. He decided to turn his phone off so he could get a good sleep. He knew that tomorrow was going to be exhausting.

***

Kylie couldn’t wait to get home from Metal Skool. She decided to wait about an hour after Matt left before she even brought the subject of going home up to Jake. “Can we head out? I’m exhausted.”

Jake happily agreed, and after the two said goodbye to their friends, they headed out. Kylie dropped him off at Bendeth’s place, telling him to tell Bendeth that she was exhausted and would come in to say hi otherwise. “Alright, I’ll tell him. Thank you for tonight, Kylie. It was fun.”

“No problem. I’ll see you in a couple days.”

Once she got back to her hotel, Kylie ran into her room and slammed the door. She searched her bag for her cell phone and when she found it she frantically called the number for her voicemail service. She needed to know what that voicemail said, and she needed to know now.

She waited to get through all of her old voice messages rather patiently, and when she finally got to Matt she listened intently.

”Hey, Kylie. Uh, you obviously don’t want to talk to me right now. Honestly, I don’t know if I want to talk to you, either. There was a pause. Okay, that’s a lie. I do want to talk to you; I want to explain some stuff to you. But we can’t do that if you aren’t going to be calm and rational about the whole thing and just listen to me. Anyways, call me back. We really do need to talk.

Kylie collapsed on her bed as she listened to the voicemail again. She decided right then and there, she was going to call Matt back. She took a deep breath before dialing his number and waiting for him to answer. It rang once and went straight to voicemail signaling that his phone was turned off.

Glaring at her phone, she hung up and decided to call Jordan. After Jordan answered on the first ring, Kylie told her the whole situation and how she still needed to talk to Matt, especially after their fight. “I’m getting a sign here that is making me think I shouldn’t talk to him, though.”

Jordan laughed. “It’s not a sign, weirdo; his phone is just off.”

“I know that!” Kylie exclaimed. “But it’s making me nervous. It’s also making me think I just shouldn’t talk to him.”

“You’re too superstitious.”

“No, I’m just freaking out here and you aren’t doing shit to calm me down.”

Her cousin rolled her eyes. “Alright, alright. You want calmed down? Go over there and talk to him.”

Ky scoffed. “Yeah fucking right. I wouldn’t if my life depended on it.”

“Well I don’t know what else to tell you, hun,” Jordan laughed lightly. She was amused by how difficult Kylie was being.

“Fuck you; you didn’t calm me down at all,” Kylie complained, falling back on her bed. “I don’t know what to do Jordan,” she complained, sounding genuinely sad and confused.
“I know, sweetie, but I can’t really help you make the decision to call him up, y’know?”

Kylie sighed, but agreed. She thanked her cousin anyway and after promising to call Jordan back if she caved and talked to Matt, the two hung up.

She decided she would get ready for bed since it was almost one in the morning. After throwing on a pair of boxer shorts and an old t-shirt, she climbed into bed. Just as she was starting to drift off into dreamland though, her phone started buzzing around on her nightstand. She picked it up and saw she had a new text message from an unfamiliar number. She opened it and read.

Hi Ky! It’s Audrey, Matt’s sis. I’m visiting tomorrow and staying in a Hampton Inn near the studio. I want to meet up with you. I’ll be in around two. Can you meet me girlie?

Kylie mouth dropped open. “Is she serious?” she mumbled to herself. She and Audrey had talked several times and met once when Audrey visited the guys out in California. She was very sweet and extremely nice and welcoming to Kylie. But that was before she and Matt broke up. Now she wanted to meet up with Kylie when she was coming to visit?

What’s the worst that could happen? Kylie thought to herself as she opened a reply to Audrey. She started to type.

Hey Aud. I’m in the same hotel as you from the sounds of it. Of course we can meet up. Call me when you get close. See you later!

Kylie hit send and exhaled a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding. She lay down again and sighed. She couldn’t figure out if the feeling she was getting in her gut was one of regret for agreeing to see Audrey or fear for what was going to happen when the two girls saw each other. She knew Audrey had to know about the break up, so she obviously wanted to talk to Kylie about it.

Shaking her head, Kylie shut her phone off and tried to go to sleep. She knew tomorrow was going to be mentally exhausting, much like the rest of her stay had already been in Jersey.