Tessa's Home

Thirty-one

Killian

I told Kayden not to come. But he insisted.

He told me he wanted to see Tessa again. Told me it'd been a while.

Well who's fucking fault is that? Nobody told him to leave. Nobody pushed him away.

He left of his own accord, and now he's back to ruin everything we've all built without him.

I'm seriously sick of him.

For the last few days, he's been trying his hardest to make it up to me.

He cooks breakfast in the mornings, even though dad literally pays someone to do that for us.

He starts every conversation we have and keeps them going when I refuse to.

He drives me to school, even though I've told him over and over that the Ivanov's are happy to take me instead.

He buys me gifts that I don't keep and invites me to hang out with him only to get nothing back.

Maybe I should try harder. I mean, I did say I'd give him a chance.

But he hasn't complained. He hasn't told me I'm not being fair. He hasn't said he's giving up.

And, honestly, I'm glad. I don't want him to give up. Even if his food tastes bad and the drives to school are boring and his conversations are annoying, I'm still glad he's trying.

Because it means he actually, truly cares. And that's all I've wanted from him for the last decade.

Kayden's catching up with Carl and Payton and Hugh when it happens.

Everyone looks straight towards the noise of glass breaking, and as soon as we see Tessa standing dangerously close to the glass pieces and with bare feet, too, we act.

Mikhail pulls Tessa away while Carl and Payton clean the mess. Hugh starts checking Tessa for wounds and Tyler, Mavok and Milo poke their heads out from the kitchen to see what's happened.

Kayden helps clean the glass and I go up to Tessa after seeing her dad try and fail to snap her out of whatever trance she's in.

"Tessa!" I yell. Is she even breathing? She looks up at me and I watch her come back to the moment. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she says, calmly, like she didn't just drop a glass cup and then go somewhere surely terrifying. Somewhere she refuses to let anyone else see. "Sorry, I just...got a flashback."

I inwardly wince at her words but don't say anything. She won't want us to ask about it. All of us are sure of that by now.

She says she's sorry and then makes up an excuse before going upstairs, none of us stopping her.

Mikhail sighs, face in his hands. I look down. I can't imagine how much this must be hurting him.

He may have physically gotten his daughter back, but how much of her really came back?

He must be frustrated. He must feel guilty, because despite his attempts to, he can't seem to help her.

That part...I'm sure we can all relate to it a bit.

"Where's the bathroom?" Kayden asks, smiling forcefully at Carl.

"Upstairs. First door on the right," Carl replies, too focused on sweeping up the smaller glass peices to look at him.

Kayden leaves without a word. Why'd he even ask that? Sure, it's been a while, but he's been to this house before. I'm pretty he already knows where the bathroom is. So why did he ask?