Your Melody Sounds As Sweet As the First Time It Was Sung

“Kiah?”

As soon as I stepped foot in Pete’s apartment, I could hear sobs. My heart immediately lurched for my friend and my eyes betrayed my panic. Seb placed his hands comfortingly on my shoulders.

“We’re in here!” Pete called out.

The voice was coming from the spare bedroom. I could tell immediately. I glanced anxiously at Sebastian. I was trying to tell him with my eyes that he could leave now. He barely knew Kiah, and I didn’t want him to feel trapped or pressured. However, if he saw this he paid it no mind, and began steering me towards the room by my shoulders.

When I got to the door it was open and Kiah was hunched over sitting in the corner, pressed against the red walls. Her face was a bit blotchy from crying, the shiny patches on her cheeks and chin making it clear that she’d been like this for a while. She was still crying, her eyes constantly brimming with tears. Her knees were hugged tightly to her chest and her chin was resting on them, darkening her blue jeans with spilled tears. Her eye make-up had long since been cried off and her hair hung limp down her back. Pete was kneeling beside her, his arms around her in a hug and trying to calm her down. His eyes clearly showed worry; Kiah was never this vulnerable.

“Charlie!” he gasped thankfully when I walked in.

“Charlie?” Kiah sniffed, watery eyes snapping up to meet mine before bursting into another round of waterworks.

I shrugged Seb’s hands away gently and swiftly made my way across the room to take Pete’s place, hugging her.

“What’s wrong, honey?” I asked, trying to let the sympathy overshadow the curiosity.

“You don’t want to know,” she said in a whispered, shaky voice, still clinging to my jacket like it was her lifeline.

“If it’s gotten you this upset then of course I want to know.” I said truthfully.

She hesitated before speaking again.

“Please don’t hate me. He already hates me…”

“What are you talking about? I could never hate you! Who hates you? What’s going on?”

She looked up again to look me in the eye before staring down again at her knees. I felt like a chopped up onion.

“Brendon,” she whispered.

It was barely even a whisper, but I still heard it. My blood ran cold. Was he okay? What about him? Did he do something bad? A million terrifying possibilities exploded to life in my mind as I tried pointlessly to be realistic. Eventually, I realized that Sebastian was still in the room. I didn’t want him to know about Brendon. I didn’t want my old life to clash with my new one. If it did, then I’d never be able to escape it.

I looked up worriedly, but Pete seemed to have read my mind and taken him out of the room to get a drink and to give Kiah and I some ‘girl time’.

“What about him?” I asked, holding her even tighter and trying to keep my voice void of emotion. I had to be strong right now. For Kiah.

“He… I…”

“Come on, honey. You know you can tell me.”

“I… I never t-told them that we l-left,” she stuttered. “I never told them that we b-both moved. I didn’t even tell them that I-I moved. And they j-just got h-home and we weren’t there…”

My mind was numb. I asked her never to mention them to me or vice versa, but I always assumed that she’d at least told them about the situation. Apparently not. I gulped.

“And?” I prompted.

Her chin shook before she continued.

“B-Brendon… he rang me. And he was angry. He b-blames me for not being able to t-talk to you. I t-tried to tell him the s-situation and he k-kind of calmed down a bit. Then h-he tried to make me tell him where we are, but I wouldn’t. And he got really angry at me, and I had to hang up on him, and now he p-probably hates me and you probably do too!”

She broke down into an even fiercer fit of tears. I didn’t know what to do, so I just stayed there hugging her for a while. When her sobs had lessened and she was hiccupping, I spoke again quietly.

“Have you told Pete yet?”

She shook her head, her lips quivering.

“Don’t worry, Key,” I tried to sooth her. “I don’t hate you. This isn’t your fault. This is all my fault. Now don’t you fret over this any longer, okay? You’re going to go into the bathroom and get yourself fixed up. I’ll tell Pete what’s going on. Everything will be okay. I promise.”

She sniffed and nodded and we both stood up stiffly. I nudged her towards the bathroom before slowly walking out the door, trying not to think. Pete and Sebastian were standing in the kitchen, both clutching glasses of water and not speaking. Their heads snapped up when I walked in, and according to the shock on their faces I’m guessing I wasn’t hiding my emotions as well as I was trying to.

“Did she tell you what’s wrong?” Pete asked worriedly.

I just nodded before turning to look at Sebastian.

“Seb, I’m sorry but I think it’s best you go now.”

“But I don’t want to leave you…” he began to argue.

“Please. This is kind of difficult and private.”

He bit his lip and after hesitating he nodded before crossing the room to hug me.

“You call me if you need me, okay?”

“Okay,” I promised.

He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before turning and leaving the apartment. Once he’d gone, I lowly told Pete what Kiah had told me.

“Take care of her for me, okay?” I asked once I’d finished my explanation. “Watch a movie or something with her…”

“What?” he interrupted. “Where are you going?”

I sighed. “I don’t quite know. All I do know is that I need to get out of here for a bit. Get my thoughts in check.”

“You’re not going back to Vegas…”

“No! God, no. I’m just going to go for a walk or something.”

“It’s like nine at night…” Pete began to worry.

“I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”

“Fine. Just… call me when you get home or something. Otherwise I’ll spend all night thinking you’ve been raped or killed and alert the police at absurdly early hours of the morning.”

“Okay, thanks Pete,” I said sarcastically, but I knew he was just looking out for me.

“Be careful,” he murmured as I shrugged my shoulders into the jacket that I’d disposed of when I got there.

“I will. You just look after Kiah.”

He nodded and turned around to go find her as I stepped out the door. After restraining my thoughts during the whole excruciatingly long elevator ride down the ground floor and making my way out the lobby, I finally stepped out into the chilly air of a Chicago night. And as soon as I begun walking to nowhere in particular and the first gust of wind hit me, a gasp of hurt escaped my lips. With my hood up disguising my identity, I began to cry.