Still Waters

Chapter 61

Kenney called me a few days before we left for VA. I wondered how he remembered my parents' number. Shayna called me a few days before that, so maybe she gave it to him. Naturally, I asked her about giving Kenney my gate code when I talked to her. She just said "You wouldn't have answered the door if he called you first," and left it at that. She may have been right. If they had warned me ahead of time, that would have given me plenty of time to worm my way out of seeing him. Not because I didn't want to. Just because...that's where I was then. I would have pretty much wormed my way out of seeing anyone at that time.

Kenney took forever to say anything when I answered the phone, but my dad told me who it was when he called for me to pick up, so I already knew who was on the other end.

"I just..." he sounded like he was about to make up a reason why he would be calling me at their house instead of waiting until I got home, but then he switched gears and got straight to the point. "You ok?"

"Yeah, I'm ok. Sammie's ok, too." I knew that was his next question.

He kind of sighed like he had been holding his breath for a while. "Good. So..."

"Yes, I saw Collin. No, we're not back together."

"Huh..." He said it like that was...interesting.

"And I don't want him anymore."

"Huh..."

There was an awkward silence.

I felt like I should fill it. "My dad talked to him."

"And?"

"And Collin never came back after that."

"Huh..."

"Kenney."

"Yes?"

"Why did you call me?"

"Because I love you."

Now it was my turn to say "Huh..."

"And I wanted to make sure that you were safe."

Another awkward silence.

Again, I wanted to fill it. "I wrote something."

"Oh yeah?" He was always happy when I wrote. I guess he thought I needed to purge.

He was probably right.

"Yeah. Want to hear it?"

"Always."

I smiled. That was always his answer whenever I asked him if he had time to listen. It kind of felt weird being back in my old room talking to Kenney late at night on the phone. It also felt good, like old times. Kind of...

"So, I wrote this last night, but it's not about last night so...don't freak out."

He chuckled. "Ok...Now I really want to hear it."

I wasn't sure what he meant by that, but the feeling that it gave me was too awkward to address.

"It's called 'I Almost Died Last Night'."

"Oh..." I could hear his heart sinking over the phone.

"Still want to hear it?"