Until I Met Her

Chapter 8

How can I be 19 years of age and tired all the freaking time?

Eleanor took her job seriously. She had me skating whenever I had free time and to make sure I managed with uni stuff, she changed seats and now sat between me and Alexa. To be honest, uni wise, she was a great help.

Christmas and new years came and went and not even then did Eleanor let me rest. She managed to get me to go to three different competitions. I felt like at times, she was doing this to get away from something, she was focusing so much on me and the competitions that I don't think she was taking time for her own things and that made me feel bad.

I wanted to talk to her about it and I was using our trip to do so.

We were on our way to London for a competition at the same skatepark as the one Eleanor took me too. I knew some of the girls competing and I knew it was going to be a hard one but I was confident that I would do good.

One good thing about this trip was that we wouldn't have to pay for an Airbnb because Aunt Grace said we could stay at her house. It was just for one night and since it was Lexi, Mark, Eleanor and I, she didn't have a problem.

A good thing about all these trips, though, was that I was always so busy that I didn't have enough time to think about Kelly or reply to her messages, whenever she messaged, that is. It was confusing. Kelly was confusing. One minute she made me feel like she wanted me, the next she would be cold and leave me on read.

Thankfully, though, whenever that happened, I could focus on skating and the anger would soon go away. The pain... that took a little longer to go away and sometimes, it'd come at random times, for example when I woke up that morning, I felt as though there was something in the pit of my stomach.

And I'd be lying if I said the feeling was new. I've been feeling that way for a while now and I've tried to ignore it, to push it away but it always comes back and up to then, I had always been too stupid to ask Kelly straight up.

Everybody seems to know something I don't, as if they could see Kelly's intentions without even knowing how she talks to me or treats me. If everybody can see it, then there must be something going on, right? Maybe I'm the only one who doesn't see it because I don't want to see it.

Sighing, I get up. I hate that when you're trying to be quiet, everything you do, somehow makes ten times more noise than usually. I don't remember the door cracking when I first open it, so why was it cracking when I walked out the door?

Auntie Grace's house was big and nicely decorated. Her husband was a lawyer, he liked white collar cases. It was his specialty and once he started talking about it, he wouldn't shut up.

I walked out of the house and into the garden, the cold winter breeze gave me goose bumps. I sat on the closest chair I could find and took my phone out. I clicked on Kelly's contact and I stared at it until my eyes began to water. My heart was in my throat. I knew I had to make this phone call sooner or later, I just didn't know say exactly.

When I finally made the call, I don't know if I was shaking because of the call or because I was terrified of this phone call.

At the fifth ring, Kelly's raspy sleepy voice came from the phone. "Hello? What time is it?"

I swallowed hard, forcing myself to speak. "A little pass two."

"Tyler?" She asked, suddenly she didn't sound so sleepy... more like concerned. "Tyler, are you okay?"

"I'm fine but I think we need to talk."

The silence was so heavy, I thought she might have hung up. "At two in the morning?"