Because It Happened [Book Two] ⚣

Chapter Twenty-Three: March 6th 2017

True P.O.V

It was odd to see Kyle standing there, even more so after not seeing him since before my kidnapping. I knew that he was practically living here, he had been living here since before I even knew Alister. But if he lived here, then why haven't I seen him until now? I've been back for longer than a week, and I've not seen him once. Was he avoiding me now? Had he been avoiding me before? Even without the kidnapping thing taking place in the middle of everything, Kyle still seemed to be to busy to notice me during it all. Having a boyfriend seemed to take up more than enough of his precious time. He couldn't even deny that he spent all his time with Luke. Whatever happened to friends come first? I don't know, but I didn't need to know to notice that a gap was forming between our friendship. We were falling apart at the seams.

Kyle wasn't completely to blame, though. I haven't pulled my weight either, we've both been letting our friendship down. I don't think either of us ever imagined these things happening but look at us now.

When Kyle and Luke walked into the mansion, the first sign hadn't been the door opening. The door had been the thing that scared me in the first place. The only thing that had made me calm down in the slightest was the sound of Kyle's generic laughter. That generic laugher made my fear of a stranger breaking in, that stupid, irrational fear, disappear. No one laughed exactly like Kyle. It actually sounded like a baby dying, not that you could tell him that.

When the two of them walked past the doorway, I was able to get a good glance at my best friend who I haven't seen in more than two weeks. Before I was kidnapped, he had looked relaxed, peaceful. Now, he looked similar, just a little more stressed looking, tired. He looked really tired, more tired than I think I've ever seen him. The smile on his face was stretched, a little more forceful than his genuine smiles. Both of them being the stupid idiots that they were, they walked right past the living room, barely giving it a passing glance. It wasn't as if they would have seen me upon first glance, as I was still sitting on Alister's lap, using him as a human shield. My little head barely peeking out over his shoulder to see over the top of the couch.

I felt Luke's eyes meet mine, but he didn't seem to register what he was looking as he continued to walk down the hall, his arm around Kyle's waist loosely. At first, without further examination, neither one of them seemed to see anything off about the living room. They both seemed to acknowledge that Alister was working on the couch, which wasn't something new by any means. In fact, it was kind of a common thing that Alister did. He has that big ass office, and he'd rather work in the living room.

It wasn't until one of them seemed to realize what they had actually seen sitting on-top of Alister, looking at the both of them with uninterested eyes. When they understood exactly what they saw, the footsteps heading towards the staircase halted in an instance, and the rushed steps back to the livingroom doorway filled my ears. Both of their heads popped into the living room. At first, their eyes didn't land on me, they seemed to look everywhere else but at where I was. Both sets of eyes scanned the entire living room, overlooking both Alister and me, making sure it wasn't something else in the room that seemed off. When Kyle's eyes landed on Alister, he turned and looked at me.

With the way his eyes widened with shock, you'd think he was seeing a dead person. He blinked rapidly as if that would make whatever he thought he was hallucinating disappear, meaning me. Once Kyle realized that I was real, his eyes widened even more.

"T-true!?!" Kyle studdered, popping all the way into the living room, taking a few hesitant steps towards me. His eyes began to water slightly, the smallest of tears forming as a faint, relieved smile appeared on his face. I wanted to believe that his reaction was completely genuine, but I couldn't. A part of me was hesitant to trust him. "Y-Your back!" Kyle said in a cheerful, happy voice as he ran around the living room to be directly across from Alister and me.

I wasn't able to predicate his next move fast enough as within a few seconds, my best friend tightly wrapped his thin arms around my body, squeezing me in what could have once been a comforting embrace. This time, it was anything but a comfort.

Something in the back of my head began to panic at an uncontrollable level. It was as if my head was underwater, and I wasn't able to swim to the surface. I couldn't breathe. The feeling of Kyle's arms around my waist reminded me of the feeling of being restricted like I had been when that crazy bastard cut up my back. Like the ropes that had bound me in place that first day. His hands reminded me of the unwanted touch of Mr. Creepy. Within the span of the next few seconds, everything that happened to me during my kidnapping came back to me. My cuts began to burn as if they were just created, my wrists hurt as if they were bound again, the fear came back in one big wave. The cuts on my back, the delicate cuts that were just recently starting to heal, burned like they were just reopened.

I don't what exactly happened next, but I do know that it started with me screaming loudly. My breathing sped up as I panicked, trying to do everything in my power to get Kyle's hands off of me. I ended up scooting my way off of Alisters lap and further onto the couch, my back against the arm. Kyle retreated, looking panicked and scared. I held my arms up in a defensive position, imaging the same damn hand pistol to be waved around and pointed in my direction. The same damn threat that was used every time by Mr. Creepy. Alister got off the couch carefully, sitting on the floor next to me, but not touching me. He seemed to realize that I was in no shape or position to want to be touched suddenly.

My body tensed up with panic. My eyes darted around the room, looking for a threat that wouldn't appear. I knew that I wasn't in that place, that I was safe inside Alister's mansion, I wasn't strapped to a medical table and being cut for the heck of it. I knew that, so why did it feel like I was there? I didn't want to relive those memories, I wanted them to go away.

"Is he okay?" Kyle asked quietly, his question clearly not directed towards me. I wanted to snap at him, as I knew that I was anything other than okay. Thankful, Alister seemed to be a whole lot more patient with Kyle than I would have been.

"He will be," Was the faint grumble of a reply that Alister gave. "Breathe, it will be okay if you just breathe, in---and out," Alister commanded calmly, and I listened, wanting whatever was happening to me to stop. I followed his instructions, listening to his voice with each new command, even though the commands didn't change. In and out, in and out. His voice became my guide, leading me out of the dark place that was my mind. Because of his instructions, I began to slowly calm down, my body slowly untensing. Kyle continued to stand a bit away from the couch, watching the careful interaction between Alister and me.

Luke carefully entered the room, my eyes instantly snapping towards him. He walked over to Kyle before slowly ushering him out of the room. As much as I cared about Kyle, he was in no position to assist me with whatever was happening, as was proven when he literally jumped away from me when I first screamed.

Slowly, the two exited the room, giving Alister and I the privacy we needed at the moment. A moment that was filled with Alister calming me down and me eating it up. I hated that it had gotten to the point that I was freaking out over what happened, but I knew that a person could only take so much before they broke down.

It seems like I found my new breaking point.