Just My Luck

Jon entered the loft that he had been to many times over the past six months. He didn’t find Kylie on her couch or in the kitchen where she normally spent her time. The once welcoming home was now eerie and felt unfamiliar to him as he searched around the empty first floor. While he stood in the kitchen, he heard the door of her bedroom door open and then close before some shuffling noises followed. He flicked on the kitchen lights, making himself known to not scare the other person.

He found Elina walking in the kitchen with two empty wine bottles and a used wine glass. A frown was on her face as she threw away the empty bottles. She glanced over her shoulder as she placed the wine glass into the sink.

“Thanks for coming over. I didn’t know what else to do,” her voice was soft and filled with worry. “I don’t know how long she’s been asleep. The funeral was yesterday and she wanted to be alone afterwards. I should’ve known better.”

“You did what you thought was right,” he gave her a comforting smile. “At least you were there.”

Elina walked over to the kitchen table and sat down, where he joined her a few moments later. “She understood that you couldn’t be there. She knows how important practice is.”

“I still should’ve been there. I mean, I don’t know a thing about her family and she spent two weeks with mine.”

“She’s private when it comes to that stuff. Patrick didn’t find out about her dad until they were dating for almost two years.” She shrugged her shoulders, “don’t beat yourself up over it.”

“What’s the deal with her dad anyway?”

Elina shifted in her seat as Jon waited for an answer. She knew Kylie would have been upset with her for talking about her father to Jon. But after all he had done for Kylie for the past six months, he deserved to know.

“He loved booze more than he loved his family. She hasn’t seen him since she was almost seven years old and then out of nowhere, she finds out he dies because of liver damage.” Jon winced before she continued. “She was always afraid she’d end up like him so she was always careful when she drank.”

That part made Jon feel uneasy because it didn’t sound like the Kylie he knew over the summer. The girl he knew would try and get him drunk and would’ve kept drinking if he wasn’t there to stop her. He didn’t understand how the girl who was afraid to drink, was the same as the girl who couldn’t put the bottle down.

“What about when we went out together over the summer for drinks? You didn’t think anything of it when she kept ordering drink after drink?” His tone came out harsher than he meant it to.

Her eyebrows scrunched together in anger as she glared at him. “You don’t think I tried talking to her about it?” She spat at him, “she just ended things with Patrick and was having a rough time. She and Nik both convinced me that it was just a phase and that she would be back to normal in no time!”

“Elina, I’m sorry. I didn’t – ”

“Don’t ever accuse me of not doing my job as her friend! I know she and I went through a rough patch over the summer but I always had Nik to check up on her!”

He knew she wasn’t lying. He remembered how when they were in Winnipeg together, Kylie had received at least two or three phone calls from Niklas while they were back home in Sweden. With all the drama that had been going on and with the fact that Elina was pregnant, he didn’t want to anger her anymore. He kept his cool and apologized before they moved on.

“So she never drank like this while she was with Patrick?”

“Not like this,” she said with a shake of the head. “He always cut her off after two or three drinks because he knew how afraid she was.”

All Jon could think about was how he never did that with her. He let her drink. He let her get carried away and didn’t think twice about it. He sighed, feeling defeated. “I would’ve done the same thing if I knew.”

“I know. Nik and I really wanted to tell you sooner but we didn’t think it would get out of hand. Her father’s death just sent her over the edge.”

Jon asked about the funeral. She told him the sad story about how there was only 10 people who attended the burial. Her sister Victoria didn’t even have her husband or daughter with her. Their mother had a frown on her face during the whole ceremony but didn’t shed a tear, neither of the girls did. The rest of the people who attended were family members on her father’s side. Kylie nor Victoria recognized any of them since they were young children the last time they had seen them.

Elina went as moral support even though Kylie insisted that she didn’t have to go. It was the saddest funeral that Elina had ever been to because it looked as if no one even wanted to be there.

“I made her some food and stuck it in the fridge. I don’t know if she’ll be hungry or not but try and get her to eat something.”

He followed Elina to the front door and promised to keep her updated. He told her to relax and to not worry so much because Kylie would get better soon. She was just going through a rough patch and once she saw how miserable she was making herself she would be back to her old self.

After Elina had left, he went upstairs to go and check on Kylie. She was passed out on her back with her hair all over the place. The black dress that she wore to the funeral was tossed on the floor without a care. Looking at how tired and messed up she was, he felt guilty that he didn’t see the signs earlier. Even without hearing the story about her father, he still shouldn’t have let her drink so much over the summer. He thought he was doing her a favor by letting her let loose but he was doing the exact opposite.

He walked over to her bed and pulled the blankets over her body before he headed back downstairs. If he had to help her to get her to realize the problem she had, he knew he had to take some serious action. He couldn’t be the same sweet Jon that was her best friend and knew that it was going to hurt him a lot more than it was going to hurt her.

The first thing he did was walk over to the cabinet where she hid her liquor. There wasn’t much in there but still thought it would be in her best interest if the alcohol disappeared. He knew she would kill him for what he was about to do, but he didn’t care. It would help her in the long run and that was all that mattered to him.

He grabbed the wine and vodka bottles that she had stashed away and headed towards her kitchen. He grabbed the wine opener and opened up all the bottles before dumping the contents down the sink. His 18 year old self would be disgusted with the fact that he was letting all that alcohol go to waste. But at 18 he wouldn’t know how important Kylie was going to be to his current self.

He was done being nice to her and acting like she was this fragile thing. If he had to be that asshole friend to get her to stop acting like a child then he had no problem with it. And as his second act of being that asshole friend was to call the one person she didn’t want to see.

When Kylie had finally woken up from her drunken sleep it was roughly 9 o’clock at night. She rubbed her tired eyes and smudged her makeup in the process. She threw her blankets off of her body and rolled out of her bed before she dragged her feet to her bathroom. She looked at herself in the mirror and was disgusted with her reflection.

Her hair was in messy knots and her eye makeup was smudged down to her cheeks. It was her own fault that she had let herself get to this point but she wasn’t going to admit it to herself. She wanted to blame everything on Patrick and her father for making her hit her lowest point in life. But even she knew that people wouldn’t be buying it for much longer.

With a sigh, she walked over to her shower and turned it on before stripping herself from her clothes. She stepped in the shower and felt herself relax a bit as the hot water ran down her body. The whole shower went by as a blur and she only snapped out of her day dream when she felt the hot water turn cold.

Once she was dressed, she decided to go downstairs to see if she had anything to eat. She hadn’t been food shopping in a few days and wondered if she had to end up ordering out. It confused her when she saw her kitchen light on. The last she remembered, she turned it off before heading to bed with her two wine bottles.

She felt an angry, burning sensation build in her chest as she saw Patrick sitting at her kitchen table with Jon. She glared at Jon as he and Patrick carried on with their conversation, neither of them noticing that she was in the room.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

Jon snapped his head in her direction and stared at her with his soft, brown eyes. “I called him.” The way he spoke was so calm and peaceful that it made her angry.

“Why would you do that!?” She angrily gritted through her teeth.

“You need the help,” he replied, standing up from his seat.

“Help!? I need help?!” She shrieked, “Mind telling me what I need help with?”

Jon looked down at Patrick, a little frightened by her reaction. He never expected her to be happy with Patrick in her loft, but he never expected her to react like this.

“Just leave,” Patrick mumbled lowly.

He took Patrick’s advice and dashed out of Kylie’s loft to leave them alone. Her temper didn’t calm down once Jon shut the door, it only got worse because she was left alone with Patrick. She crossed her arms over her chest and gave him an angry look. It was a move she always did whenever they would get into a fight in the past. Normally, Patrick would try to do everything he could to get rid of that look, but he wasn’t with her anymore.

So, he decided he could be as harsh with her as he needed to be.

“Look, I don’t know why he called you but you can leave now.”

The smug smile he had on his face freaked her out. She didn’t understand why she was smiling, nor did she care. All she wanted was for him to be out of her loft.

“Why do you keep looking at me like that?”

“Because for once I can say whatever’s on my mind and you can’t hold it against me since we’re not together anymore.”

She rolled her eyes, “fine, just say what you have to say and then leave.”

Kylie turned on the balls of her feet and walked to the cabinet that held all her alcohol. She felt her stomach drop after she had opened the door. She panicked when she realized that all her alcohol was nowhere to be found as she searched the cabinet. She ran back to the kitchen in a matter of seconds, ready to yell at Patrick.

Before she could say anything, he simply pointed to her trashcan. With a worried look on her face, she quickly looked in the trashcan only to find all the empty bottles.

“You threw away all my alcohol!?”

“Why do you sound so surprised by it?” He questioned her, leaving out the fact that Jon was the one who actually threw it away. “I’m just trying to help you.”

“You can help me by leaving me alone.”

Patrick had never felt so disappointed in his life before until now. He was disappointed in her and how low she let herself stoop to. He had never seen her get so angry over nothing and it worried him. She never cared about alcohol before and he wanted to know why it was so important to her all of a sudden. While he and Jon were waiting for Kylie to come down, Jon briefed him on what happened with her father.

He was well aware of her situation with her father. Her family didn’t like to talk about him but didn’t hold a grudge against him. They were able to move on and hold their head up high. Neither Kylie, Victoria, nor their mother continued to cry over him or let him control their lives like how they used to. He knew that her drinking habits could have been because of him, but he didn’t know why she had gone over the edge. Yes her father’s death was not a light subject, but Kylie hardly had any memories of him.

As soon as he stood up from his chair, Kylie sent him a glare and walked into her living room. He sighed, knowing that he was going to have a long night. He knew he was in over his head, thinking that she would open up to him and tell him what was bothering her. But no matter how much she hated him or how badly he had messed things up, he couldn’t give up on her.

He found her sitting on her couch with her chest up to her knees. Her palm and head rested on her knees as she stared at her blank television. He was hesitant as he sat next to her, afraid that she would just walk away again, but she didn’t. They both sat together in silence before he finally looked at her.

“Kylie, what’s going on with you?”

“Nothing,” she quickly dismissed.

He frowned, knowing that she was clearly lying to him. “You know I think I liked it better when you were angry with me. At least then you were telling me what was on your mind.”

One thing that she didn’t miss about Patrick was how he always tried to make jokes when they were talking about something serious. She let out a frustrated sigh as she picked up a pillow to hit him in the head with.

“Why are you even here? Don’t you understand that I don’t want you here? Just do the both of us a favor, and leave!”

She wanted to lock herself in her room but knew it wasn’t a good idea. Learning from past experience, Patrick was too quick for her and would easily stop her from doing whatever she wanted to do. While he was busy rubbing his face, she took the opportunity to walk back into the kitchen. She knew he would just follow her in there, but if she got just a second alone it would prevent herself from trying to throw something at him.

Just like how she suspected, he grabbed onto her wrist before she could even stand up all the way.

“Why the hell are you acting this way?” He asked in a serious tone, “You’re being a brat!”

Kylie glared at him and yanked her wrist away from him. “Fuck you, Patrick! I’m not being a brat!”

He held back a snort and watched her storm off to her kitchen. He stood up from her couch and was hot on her tail as he followed her into the kitchen. She was bent over the kitchen counter with her head buried in her hands. He could hear her cry softly as he slowly approached her from behind. He placed a gentle hand on her back, making her jump from the sudden contact. He stepped back a few paces once he saw how angry she already was with him.

“God, why are you here? Don’t you understand that I don’t want you here?” She asked with her eyes watering up, “You’re wasting your time being here!”

He was growing very frustrated with her but he still couldn’t give up. “I’m here because I care about you.”

“Don’t lie to me! I know you don’t care about me because you slept with Carrie!” She shouted at him as loud as she could. Her voice cracked but she was too angry to care. He felt guilty, watching as she cried in front of him. “How could you do that to me? How could you do that to us!? We were supposed to get married next summer and start our lives together! Do you want to know why I stopped by your house that night? Huh? Do you?!”

He looked down at his feet because he didn’t want her to see him cry again. “W-why were you stopping by?” He croaked.

“I was going to tell you that I wanted to finally move in with you,” she wept. He finally had the guts to look at her and he regretted it as soon as he saw how vulnerable she looked. “I was going to sell my place and move in with you because I know that’s what you wanted. Hell, that’s what I wanted! We were going to take another huge step in our relationship and you just fucked it up!”

He was angry at himself now more than ever as she continued to cry. She was finally willing to give up the loft that she loved so much so they could finally start their lives together. And he just had to mess it up. If he didn’t invite Carrie over to hang out that night, his life would be where he wanted it to be.

His lips trembled as he reached out for her. When she felt his hand on her arm, she flinched and pushed him away. She looked at him with her watery eyes, begging for him to just leave because all she wanted was to be left alone. She couldn’t stand looking at him as he frowned at her. It hurt more than she would like to admit and it drove her crazy.

“Come here,” he whispered, pulled her body towards his. She whimpered and fought back as hard as she could but he used his strength against her.

He couldn’t explain why, but he self some sort of relief once he was able to wrap his arms around her. It felt good to have some sort of physical contact with her, even if it seemed like she didn’t want to hug him back. All that mattered to him was that she was allowing him to hold her so close.

“Why did you have to go mess everything up?” She sobbed into his chest, “We were so happy and everything got ruined.”

“I’m sorry,” he apologized before kissing the top of her head. Placing his hands on each side of her face, he used his thumbs to wipe her tear stained cheeks. Her nose was a light pink color as he wiped the rest of her tears away. “No more crying, okay?”

She gave him a simple nod as he placed a kiss on her forehead. She looked at him with her blood shot eyes while he continued to calm her. Everything about his touch was so familiar, so comforting. His skin was still warm and rough. He even still used the same cologne that she had bought him all those years ago. Everything about Patrick made her feel safe, and happy.

His hands slid down from her face and rested on her upper arms. He gave her arms a comforting squeeze, like he was trying to tell her that he would always be there for her. In their five year relationship together, they learned that a simple gesture could be more soothing than words. His hands never left her as she took a step forward, pressing her body against his.

“Kylie, I – ”

She placed a finger on his lips and shushed him. “Shh, no talking.”

Before he could say or do anything, he felt her lips on his. It was so faint and hesitant that he couldn’t tell if it really was a kiss or a not until he kissed her back. He felt some sort of electricity run through his body that he had felt about a week before. It was a feeling that he never had with Carrie.

In a quick motion, he placed his hands back on the sides of her face and backed her against the counter. They weren’t ashamed at how eagerly they were kissing each other because they knew how much they missed one another. Her hands slid down his chest and grabbed the hem of his shirt to toss over his head. As soon as she lifted up his shirt, he grabbed her wrists to prevent her from doing anything else.

“What’s wrong?” She asked weakly.

He frowned, “I can’t do this.”

Reluctantly, he backed away from her and stood on the other side of the kitchen. He pushed his messy, brown hair away from his face as she walked up to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck to bring his body closer to hers. He stood there with his arms at his sides as she tried to get him to kiss her again.

“You said you wanted to help me, didn’t you?”

“Of course,” he said without a second thought. “You know I always want to help you.”

This time he allowed her to kiss him again. “Then please let me do this. This moment right here, is the happiest I’ve been in months. Please don’t take that away from me.”

“Think about what you’re asking me,” he said firmly. “I don’t want to ruin things for us even more.”

“I need this, Patrick. I swear I do,” she pleaded. “Just please take me upstairs and make me forget about everything.”