Obsessed

Chapter 44

Denise isn't here today. Instead, Don is. "Hey Kristen," he says with a bright smile.

"Hey Don." I greet him.

"Don," Kyle acknowledges and then shakes his hand.

"Here to visit your brother?" Don says to me.

"Yeah." I answer.

"Alright."

"In his room or-"

"His room I think."

Don leads us through, the same way Denise did. He has a similar assortment of keys and addresses each door with a different one. "Why is there so much security?"

"I know what you're thinking. It's pretty hard-core. But you'd be surprised what some of the kids are in here for."

"What about Tanika? What's she in for?"

"I can't really tell you that, doll."

"Oh."

"Don't worry. She didn't commit a crime or anything." I get a sudden depressing feeling. I wonder what she's in here for. I don't need to worry about that though, because I can tell that Lewis and her are pushing through their troubles together. I know Emily hurt Lewis, but with Tanika he's going to get over that quicker than he thought.

Kyle grabs my arm just as Don was about to let us in to the door Lewis is behind. "Kristen... are you sure?"

"He said he wanted to see you."

"You trust him?"

"I do."

Kyle nods and then follows me into the room. Don locks the door behind us. I remember the fifteen minute rule and the three knocks.

"Hey Lewis," I say.

Lewis peaks over his newspaper to recognise me standing there. He does a double take when he sees Kyle.

"This is Kyle. It's about time you two properly introduced yourselves."

Hesitantly, Lewis stands up from the chair and takes a step closer to the two of us. I pull Kyle's arm so that he's in front of me.

Lewis puts his hand out and Kyle takes it. Lewis doesn't smile. Kyle doesn't either. "I'm sorry about before... I wasn't well."

"Forget about it man."

"I'm really sorry."

"Don't worry. I understand."

It was an awkward conversation. But eventually, Lewis returned to his former self. Cracking inappropriate jokes, quoting superheroes and wiggling his eyebrows whenever he deemed the situation fitting.

When the fifteen minutes are up, I am upset to leave. I hug him tightly and thank him softly. Kyle pats him on the back and then the two of us walk out with Don.

"That wasn't too bad," Kyle admits.

"I told you."

"You're always right."

"I know."

***

I convince Kyle to walk with me to the ice-cream shop down the road. He orders a massive cup of chocolate ice-cream and I laugh. Then he claims it's for us to share. "Only if you add hot chocolate fudge sauce," I suggest.

He nods in agreement.

"Heaven."

For an hour we sit and chat about different things. Randy and his family, my family, I admit to my obsession with his eyes. It only boosts his ego more.