Tempted | Kai Parker

sixty four: training wheels

Andie's POV

I repetitively flicked through the same cycle of apps on my phone all morning, only occasionally taking a break to watch some TV or grab something to eat.

The last few days, Kai had seemed pretty determined to crack on with his preparations for Joshua. But he did seem hopeful that everything he was planning should be in place soon. And then all that was left to do was wait.

I was just thankful that he wasn't completely shutting me out anymore. I still didn't know what he spent all of his time doing, but when he came out of the room, he'd talk. Sometimes he'd try his best to be positive, and other times he'd tell me that he was finding all of this really difficult, but he let me in.

That certainly made everything a lot easier. I didn't mind so much sitting by myself all day, if he was at least normal with me in the evenings. And the days had gotten easier too. The boredom didn't bother me so much, because I knew that we were at least safe. So, I tried my best to find ways to fill my time. Movie marathons. Looking through old pictures. Texting my friends. Whatever I needed to do to help the day go by.

Today I was thankful to see my phone light up, with a call from Caroline. Hearing her voice - hearing anyone's voice, after hours of being alone was so exciting that if anyone called me, it instantly became the highlight of my day.

"Hey, Care." I greeted chirpily, pressing my phone up against my ear as I stretched out on the sofa. "How is everything going?"

"Hey - it's good." She replied. "Just setting stuff up still. Movies, books, board games - everything needs a place. And the cleaning took forever."

"Did you stay there over night?"

"Mmm hmm."

"With Stefan?" I probed suggestively.

"Nothing happened." She grumbled. "I wish."

I let out a small chuckle, already feeling myself brighten up just that little bit more. I could almost pretend like I wasn't under house arrest, and I was just calling her to hear the gossip. I could let myself believe for just a few moments, that I had a normal life.

"Do you think you'll be done with everything today?" I asked.

"Yeah, we should be coming back tonight." She confirmed. "Hey - did you see the picture I sent you of our bikes?"

She had texted me a picture of our bikes from when we were little this morning. Caroline's was bubblegum pink, with iridescent streamers poking out of the handlebars, and mine was pale purple, with a little woven basket attached to the front.

We'd spent hours on them when we were younger. Racing around the winding pathways at the Forbes' vacation home and playing until the sun was setting. They were some of my favourite memories from my childhood.

"They were so cute." I gushed. "I remember your mom teaching us to ride a bike like it was yesterday."

"Yeah, and you went without your training wheels first." She scoffed. "That was the start of you being good at everything."

I rolled my eyes with a little chuckle, as I sunk back into the sofa cushions.

"You fell off and thought you were gonna die." I giggled. "That was the start of you being over dramatic about everything."

"Please, I was born a drama queen." She chuckled.

"True." I agreed, with a small laugh.

"Anyway, what are you up to?" She asked.

I let out a small sigh, looking at an empty bag of chips of the coffee table, and a stack of DVDs on the TV stand. It was quite difficult to glamorise laying around all day doing nothing, no matter how hard I tried.