Breaking Walls | ✓

Chapter 21: Looking back

Lucas

That morning

When the doorbell rang for the third time that morning, I was pissed. The previous night at Kea's friend's apartment had been great, Kea seemed to have been enjoying herself, this was a different- more open side of her from how guarded she always was back home, I was happy about it.

I met this girl, Erica, a first year at NYU and within fifteen minutes she asked me if I wanted to get outta there.
I loved New York.
She was a pretty redhead that was wearing a tiny skirt that showed the curve of her butt perfectly and a crop top that emphasised her waist and navel piercing.
She spoke a lot about documentaries and modern Art. I played football, I neither understood, nor cared about either, but she was hot and I was hammered.

We took a cab and made out all the way till we were in my hotel room.
It had been a great night and now she was somewhere in the room, but I was too hungover to look for her.

So when the bell rang, it was like acid to my ears. I got up but my eyes refused to open past slits, I groaned at the light that was coming through the windows. I reached the door tripping twice over what looked like Erica's heels.

I opened the door, though I was in no position to open my eyes to see who it was, nonetheless I tried.

And the last person I was expecting in the morning was Kea. I found myself rubbing my eyes open to see her more clearly, she looked disoriented and lines of tension branched on her forehead. Her resolve to keep things hidden, running low. She was wearing a t-shirt and flip-flop, I was hoping to God she hadn't walked the streets like this.

I got her inside and into the adjoining room, I had booked a suite because I had thought Kea would spend the night here. I knew about her having to vacate her room. But she had made prior arrangements and she didn't need to know that the suite was for her. Plus I had made pretty great use of it.

I pulled her into a hug almost instinctively, I didn't know what else to do. I ordered us coffee and got Kea to sit on the couch, she kept staring blankly ahead. I gave her a glass of water and went to get her luggage in. When I came back I found her in the same position, with the glass untouched.

Her eyes; red and puffy. 

Kea never cried.

In the thirteen years I had known her I had only seen Kea cry once and that was when her dad had left, that was the only time. But the more I looked at her the more anxious I got.

Her hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail but it looked tangled and messy from the back, her face was pale, the kind when the blood leaves your body. Her lips were bitten down and swollen, it was a tense habit of hers, but something told me, that wasn't her doing.

My mind wandered to the night before, at the party. Kea's friend Colin had been looking at her the entire time, his eyes hadn't left Kea the whole while I had been there. I recalled that just before I had left he had gone with Kea inside a room. But I didn't make much of it.

I examined her further, her clothes were barely there like she'd run away without looking twice at what she had taken or left behind.

I focused on her face again, then her eyes.

I don't remember what I said or asked when I had realised that she'd been crying.

But whatever I had said made Kea look at me as the first few tears fell followed by a hundred others. She didn't speak for the first few hours. I didn't want anyone to see her like that so I had woken Erica up and asked her to leave, that earned me a mouthful.

I sat by her for hours as she processed this. I ordered her favourite food hoping something would make her want to eat. But she refused to even look at it.

When she finally spoke, her voice was raw and I couldn't help but feel helpless that I couldn't do more.

She told me everything, how she had met René, how their conversation could only be described as magical. It was laden with quick fun banter, one story led to three more and before things blacked out she loved every moment with this guy.

The fucker fled before Kea woke up. I was so angry I wanted to rip this René him to pieces then.

..

But better late than never because he was here now in Kea's house, after a whole year and a day that felt longer, demanding things he couldn't have. I had kept so much anger bottled up inside me for so long.

He was refused to leave and I was trying to keep it civil and walk him out but he kept asking to see Kea.

I lost it.
After everything he had done back in New York, he still wanted to see Kea?

I pushed him but he didn't push me back, just stood a few steps away asking if he could see Kea.

I pushed him harder this time and he fell to the ground, he didn't say anything. Just stood up again "I just need to see her once." His eyes were desperate.

"Don't you get it?" I pulled him by the collar and pushed him to the wall, "She doesn't want to see you." I pushed his head into the wall, "She doesn't want anything to do with you."

The asshole still didn't get it, "I'm not leaving until I see her." And before he could finish I punched him right in the eye.

He groaned and hunched forward, one of his plastered hands covering his eye.

He slid against the wall and sat on the floor as he looked up at me and begged, "I just need to see her once. Please."

Here in front of me was a guy who was clearly out of his mind. No matter how bad I pushed him, he refused to retaliate.

I didn't get it.

But he looked so broken. 

It didn't matter that I felt sorry for him, I couldn't let him see Kea.

I kneeled down next to him, "I can't let you see her. Kea is not okay Reyes. You are why she's not okay. You really need to think about whether her seeing you right now would help you or her."

I gave him an ice pack for his eye that was swelling unbelievably fast and let him out.

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Author's Note:
Thank you, everyone, that's been reading my book so far! You don't know how grateful I am.
A lot more coming for everyone that like this story so far.
Big news coming with the next chapter in the authors note.
Stay tuned.