Midnight Talks #Wattys2017

thirty-four

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CHAPTER 34|EVELYN

"LENNY?" HE SPOKE, HIS VOICE WAS RASPY and hoarse, he looked so different but familiar. We stood apart from each other, his tangled mane had always been lighter, wispier and messy, it now lung loose almost hitting his shoulders. His skin was smooth and soft and his eyes were no longer warm. They were cold and harsh, confused was not the word I was looking for. His dark thick brows pulled in a knot as he spoke, his jaw clenched. "What are you doing here, you're not supposed to be here." He growled somehow angered by my presence. I wish I could say that we had hugged and thrown our heads back in laughter reminiscing about all the stupid stuff we had done we kids but it would be a lie. One gigantic lie.

"What do you mean I'm not supposed to me here, neither are you." I said pointedly. Kyle soon joined my side seemingly confused by our offstandish behaviour, his arm snaked around my hips, his thumb coming in contact with my skin where my shirt was still slightly raised. Ezra's gaze drifted to Kyle, casting a burning glare piercing into Kyle's
sea coloured eyes.

"Wait, you two are twins? He's your brother?" Kyle mumbled mainly to himself rather than us probably speaking aloud what everyone was thinking. Ezra turned his head to look at him momentarily to roll his eyes, scoffing. His hair bounced as he pulled his hair back and cocked his thick eyebrows at me.

"He's a real smart ass, you sure know how to pick 'em Len." He sarcastically said crossing his eyes. Kyle clenched his jaw, his grip now getting firmer. I stared at the figure in front of me, itching to claw away at this facade in front of me. He looked like a copy of my brother but a ghoulish personality. It was chilling and disturbing looking into the shell of someone you once knew so well.

"You have no right." I spoke through gritted teeth. How dare he! I thought to myself snarling at my inner conscious, trying to calm myself down. I hadn't seen Ezra in years. Before we were separated our foster careers would allow us to meet (supervised of course) and we would just sit and laugh with each other, his laugh had always been energetic and contagious. He had that way about him, an infectious personality that would just keep you happy and make you laugh. He wasn't like this. His eyes were hard and a smoky green, his lips pulled into a deep frown almost resembling Eeyore from Winnie The Pooh.

"Wait, if they're twins, are they identical ?" Griffin asked Slater who chose to ignore him. His eyes rounded in confusion a frown knotting his brows.

"Excuse me whilst I talk to Ezra, please." I said sweetly grabbing Ezra (who surprisingly didn't do a thing) by the ear and pulled him with me, Kyle opened his mouth to protest before quickly shutting it again realising that I didn't want to talk I just wanted to sort everything out. When we were safely out of earshot I let go of him and he let out a bloodcurdling 'OUCH'. We both stared down at each other, well as best as we could. His head was a few inches above mine but we were roughly the same height and similar build.

"What are you doing here?" We both said at the same time throwing out hands up which made me laugh, like a real actual laugh. I held my stomach thinking back my situation. After years of practically being tortured by an elderly couple I managed to escape their small crescent that they lived at and runaway to London of all places to find him, and he's staring at me (probably assuming I'm crazy), but he's unharmed (at least from what I can tell) but he's aged, he's no longer the adolescent child that I had last seen.

Pulling together all the courage I could muster I held onto him tightly giving him a hug. His body was still chilled from the cold outside but he responded hugging me back. "I missed you, Ezra." I uttered. His body grew stiff and cold as he pushed me away from him.

"Did you?"

I frowned. What? "Yes, of course I did."

"I waited for you. Week after week in that tiny shitty room until I realised you were never coming back, Len. But you never came." His voice broke at the end, hurt trailed through my voice but I didn't want to tell him. I couldn't. Although Ezra was strong and guarded even when we were kids if someone hurt me when he wasn't around he'd blame himself explaining that it was his 'duty as the older brother' to watch over me and protect me. I furiously shook my head.

"No, it wasn't like that!" I fought back, trying to explain what truthfully happened. "Jack and Adelaide weren't how we thought they were." Ezra's hazel green eyes searched mine, his facade seeming to immediately crumble as he pulled me into a hug.

"Did he?" He guessed filling in the blanks. I said nothing allowing the silence to speak for me. He hugged me tighter before pulling away his eyes we're tired and confused. "What about Theo, where was he?"

Before I could answer Slater knocked on the door, his glasses still on the edge of his nose, his curlsfallen in his eyes, a rather drunk Arlo behind him singing a Queen song (rather badly I just add). He just got here, how is he already drunk? "Sorry to disturb, but we are about to cut the cake if you guys wanted to join?"  He smiled softly. Ezra and I looked at each other and nodded before following behind him.

We all stood around the centre table where Griffin and messily laid out the cake and candles.  "Dora The Explorer?" I asked looking up at the boys raising their brows.

"Hey, Griffin and Kyle were in charge of the decorations which included the cake." Matt smugly said causing Kyle to roll his eyes.

"It was the only cake left in Tesco's to be fair." Kyle justified giving me a wink from across the room. "So everybody now, happy birthday to you..." he sang encouraging everyone to sing with him Slater cut the cake.

***

WARM CALLOUSED HANDS GRIPPED MINE, pulling me in. His bristled chin scraped my shoulders kisses peppering my neck. "Are you okay?"
Kyle's voice mumbled into my ear as we stood on my the door of the balcony, just watching the sun set below the city, bright lights piercing through the darkness slowly setting London alight. I nodded letting myself press against him. "How was meeting Ezra again?"

I smiled turning on his arms. "Nice, really nice. He's going to meet me tomorrow after my shift at Andy's. We have a lot to work out, and to talk about." My mind flashed back to our spat earlier. Tomorrow. I decided. Tomorrow's the day I tell him everything about Theo and Jack. Kyle's eyes darkened as he nodded with understanding.

"What about Ezra and you? Are you going back to Sutton or Camden where he lives?" He said in a hard time. His hands frozen and stiff around my waist.

"No, I don't think so. Although it wouldn't be the worst thing. For us to be around each other again, I mean." I beamed. His arms dropped from around me, his jaw clenched almost as if he was fighting what he wanted to say. "What's wrong, Kyle?" I asked softly placing my hands on his chest. His body flinched as if I poured scolding hot water on him.

"Nothing." He tried. I furrowed my brows. With a small smile curved on his lips, he sighed. "I'm happy for you both, honestly I am. I just don't want to lose you but if you have to leave me then it's fine. I'd rather you be happy and for us to say that we tried than nothing to happen and you just leave." His voice sounded strained and thick with some emotion I couldn't quite identify, my heart fluttered.

"You aren't going to lose me, Kyle. I'm right here." He pressed his lips against mine, pulling me close almost taking in every detail of my body.

"I hope not." He uttered under his breath creating a silent prayer.

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Short chapter because I kind of felt bad at the cliffhanger, so I decided to spread some love. 😍 this book (should) be ending on the 40th chapter, but don't worry there will be a sequel. ❤️❤️

Thanks for all the love and comments! Thanks also for getting me at #26 in GENERAL FICTION yesterday 😩😘