Midnight Talks #Wattys2017

twenty-four

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CHAPTER 24| KYLE

"I said, That you mentioned an ex girlfriend but do you have a current girlfriend or someone you're interested in?"

I GULPED HARD, PENELOPE'S EMERALD EYES bored into mine, still and unmoving. Her thin arched brow twitched expectingly. Evan was the first to speak, he furrowed his brows leaning forwards slightly. "I'm sorry, what does Kyle's love life have to do with The Dirtbags?" Which was a valid question, my love life or lack thereof wasn't any ones business and better yet, why was this centred on me and not our music? I frowned trying to shake off the uncomfortable feeling in the base of my stomach, her cackle didn't help.

"Oh but everything of course, every band has a Casanova; it keeps people interested, especially if he is a bachelor." She answered before looking back into my eyes, "So, do you?"

Penelope Hamburg was beginning to feel like a paper cut that had just happened. My eyes darted around the room, prematurely landing on Evelyn's ash coloured eyes before back to Penelope's green ones. "Girlfriend, no." Wasn't a lie, so why do I feel a bit guilty?

"Someone you're interested in then?"

Yes.

I mean no.

Yes.

I mean no.

Yes, stop denying it!

I battled with my self conscious, I felt so conflicted."I have my eye on someone, but I suppose I'll stay single for a while." I blurted out knowing it was way too late for me to take it back or change what I had said with a witty one liner. Penelope's grin curved upwards like the Cheshire Cat, she scribbled down a few notes before slamming her notebook cut and placing everything in her bag after gulping down the drink in her travel mug.

"Well, it was a pleasure to meet you all." She stood up with a handbag almost out the door before uttering "before I go, can I ask you something off the record?" I nodded suddenly curious.

"This girl you have an 'eye on' as you said, she doesn't happen to be Christa Walters, does she?"

I shook my head furiously, "On the contrary, she's nothing like Christa. She's special, a diamond in the rough." Seemingly pleased with my answer she closed the door with a slam, the scraping of her heel across the concrete floor echoed down the hall and I finally let out the breath I never knew I was holding. "Shit, that Penelope is something." I voiced to the 6 set of eyes staring at me expectingly as if waiting for me to explain my thought pattern or what I had meant.

"By 'something' I assume you mean 'bat-shit crazy'?" Matt laughed gazing towards door where she walked out. I gave a half smile walking over to the dressing table mirror, the light was blistering showing every fine line and detail in my face - also known as fatigue. Under my eyes were still bright all though you could just about see the cobwebbed purple veins from under the make up, my hair fell into my eyes and I just stared at myself wishing to be back on that stage free from everything.

Evelyn came over to wear I was leaning, her lightened hair growing darker and her blonde highlights were no longer prominent. Her cheeks were still rose coloured like always, although her face was bare, her eyes bored into the mirror as I took her in. Every detail, the golden speckled ring around her pupils, a sea of ash surrounding her iris. Is it bad that this was my favourite feature on her face? Besides the most obvious place of course. I assumed I must of zoned out since I heard finger snapping in front of me and saw a misshapen blur in front of my eyes.

"Huh?" Slater let out a laugh. Huh? Where did Evelyn go?  "Hey, when did you get here?"  I asked suddenly confused I wiped my eyes tiredly.

"Oh about 2 minutes after Evelyn trudged back over to Arlo and I after trying to pry a conversation out of you but you just apparently stared at your own reflection." Yeah, my reflection. Let's go with that. He grinned before looking at Arlo and Evelyn. Knowing him he probably was saying a offhand joke whilst throwing his arm around her arm. She looked uncomfortable to say the least. "She's who you were talking about to that woman, right?"

"I'm not going to insult your intelligence by disagreeing with you, Slater." I muttered looking towards the floor.

"Why don't you tell her?" I laughed, bitterly but I still laughed.

"Why do people assume it's that easy, it's not like asking about the weather for crying out loud. Besides, there's so much I have to get right with her and so many broken pieces that she knows I want to fix and so much that I don't fully know about her yet. She's a fucking enigma to me Slater. I can't explain it. I'm pretty sure you know her better than I do."

Slater sighed. "You can't fix someone who's broken if they don't want to be fixed, I know next to nothing compared to you. If you want to know more about her than just talk to her instead of hiding and ignoring her, this isn't primary school. You're Kyle Matthew Henderson for fuck sake, and with all the time you've been making me spend with her I'm pretty damn sure she feels the same." I clenched my jaw looking at Arlo and Evelyn, my chest felt like it was suffocating but I couldn't do it, it took everything within me to not go over there, push her against the wall and tell her how I felt about her (in the most romantic ways, of course).

"Wait, not that I'm not pleased to see you guys here, but why are you here?" I pipped up loudly making Arlo's arm fall off of Evelyn's shoulder, her eyes snapped to mine and almost seemed to round and the sound of my voice she smiled.

"Because today was your first real show even if you weren't headlining. You were amazing, all of you were." Evelyn gushed suddenly getting up from her feet, "Matt you completely destroyed it, the way how you were playing so fast I thought you'd break the strings and Griffin you looked so focused and Evan you looked so happy it was like watching a kid ride their bike without stabilisers for the first time."

"Don't forgot about me, Eve." I raised my eye at her smirking watching her become immersed in the idea of music which was new to all of us considering all she spoke about was books and how we should all 'read more because books give people voices that can't be put into words' whatever that means.

She turned to me, her hair falling into her eyes and turned her back to me after uttering "How could I? Although I don't think you need your head to get any bigger." I grabbed her from behind pulling her towards me, my arms wrapped around her waist she laughed as I placed my head in the curve of her neck.

"Excuse you."

"You're excused, now let go." She said in a 'serious' breathy tone although her laughter made her facade fall, fast.

"Do you really want me to?" I whispered in her ear lowly. Her breath hitched and she shuddered in my arms.

Someone cleared their throat making my arms slip from her waist, her cheeks flamed furiously as she stepped out from my grasp and next to Matt and Griffin on the other side of the room. "Not that we don't care for you both individually but we don't really want to see you deflower Evelyn in front of all of our eyes." Slater stated awkwardly as if the tension in the room didn't need to be any thicker.

"I wasn't going to 'deflower' her." I mumbled although when everyone wasn't looking I mouthed a 'later' towards Eve who was still looking at me making her blush furiously and resulted to her flipping me off. I grinned in response just as Arlo and Slater said a goodbye to everyone. Arlo's eyes stayed trained on me, wild and angry but I'd be damned if I let him have Evelyn, touch her or kiss her again.

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enjoy 🤗🤗 no cliffhanger this time 😏 but over protective Kyle will appear a little more over the next couple of chapters and expect more Arlo and Christa 😝