The Coffee Shop Dancers

Chapter 16

"Where is he?" Julian asks.

"No. I'm not going to let you go after him!" I reply.

"Kayc, he hurt you-"

"He's hurting too, Jules! He's hurting a lot more than I am right now! He's just lost a really close friend after being beaten up to the point where he was unconscious! I don't think he wants to add more friendship problems onto his list." I interrupt. They shrug their shoulders before turning to the girls. The two girls nod before edging closer to me.

"Do you want to come back to mine tonight? We can watch some movies and eat some ice cream?" Bailey says softly. I nod slowly before standing up. Tahani throws her arm around my shoulder as we leave the alleyway. 

"We will see you guys later. Text us Kayc, let us know how you are feeling." Josh says.

"Where are you two going?" I ask.

"We have some business to take care of." Julian says as Josh nods in agreement. I try to go after them but the girls pull me away.

"I know exactly where they are going, and we have to stop them!" I say to them. They both shake their head.

"You know that they would never hurt Sean, they are hopefully going to knock some sense into him," Bailey says, helping Tahani to keep me walking.

~josh pov~

"That idiot." Julian says under his breath as we enter the coffee shop. A girl with black and green hair is typing away at the register.

"Excuse me?" I say. She looks up and smiles, humming in response.

"Is Sean around?" I add.

"Yeah, he's just around the back. He's busy at the moment, can I pass on a message?" she says sweetly.

"I think it would be best if we talk to him. We have a lot to say, and we are his friends by the way." I say calmly. 

"Okay, I will try. But I can't make any promises that he will want to come out," she hesitates. She walks into the staff room as I nod to Julian. Sean comes out a few seconds later as I see exactly what Kaycee was talking about. As well as him being covered in cuts and bruises, his face is red and puffy. 

"I already know what you two are going to say, so there is no point in saying it." he says.

"We just want to talk, Lew." Julian replies calmly. Sean sighs but walks outside with us.

"Go on. Tell me how much you hate me." he says as we exit the shop.

"That's not why we are here." Jules starts before nodding at me to continue.

"We were just on a walk with the two girls and we heard someone crying their eyes out in a nearby alleyway. To our horror, it was one of our closest friends! Someone who both of us would call a little sister. Care to explain yourself? Because Kaycee has just gone home with Bailey, an absolute mess because the person she loves the most has just told her he doesn't want to hang out with her anymore." I say, with a hint of bitterness in my voice.

"I'm sorry, okay? I just can't do this anymore! I can't feel like this anymore. She's always here to support me, she's always there for me, she picks me up whenever I'm down. And what do I do to her in return? I let my bullies say shitty stuff about her online! What a great friend I am! I can't carry on doing this to her! It's killing me! She never lets me help her, but goes above and beyond just to help me. I feel as if I am dragging her down as well! And I love her with my whole heart, I have since I met her! I always will love her! But doing this to her is something that I promised I would never do to her. I've dragged enough people into my messes before, ask my best friend at school! I can't do this to Kaycee, she doesn't deserve any of it." he explains.

"Sean, I'm going to be honest. I completely understand what you are saying. We know that you are trying to protect her from harm, she knows that too! But you have just made one of the worst mistakes ever. Kaycee loves helping people, with or without the backlash. That's one of her best traits but also one of her flaws: she will always strive to help people and will always put herself last. But we have also learnt that Kaycee knows her limits. She knows when something hasn't turned out the way she planned it too. But she is also ambitious and incredibly stubborn, so she will find another way out of it for both of you. She has gone to hell and back for us four. And we know how she feels about you, she would go even further for you! And you have to realise how good of a friend she is, to be honest I'm sure you have already figured that out. But if there is one thing you don't do to Kaycee: is leave her. Especially when she is trying her hardest to do all she can for you. As you said yourself, she has done nothing but stand by your side, and you said that you never want to hurt her because of everything she has done for you. But we can also tell you Sean, you have hurt her like no one else has before. You were the one person who she felt she could talk to about everything, who understood her, who made her smile a smile that no one has ever seen before. And now she's lost you, she's lost her light. And she believes that she didn't do enough to help, that everything she did wasn't good enough for you to stay. But you also need to take your own feelings into account! So you have to decide which you believe is the right thing by you and Kayc. You don't even need to tell us your decision, we will know from Kaycee soon enough. Just please make the right decision. You may not know which one it is now, but you will sooner or later. We will speak to you soon, as we should probably get back to the girls. Think about what we have said." I finish. We give Sean a small wave before walking off. 

"Nice words." Jules whispers to me as we head down the street. I smile at him and nod my head slightly. 

"I really hope he does the right thing." I say.

"So do I, Josh. So do I." Julian agrees.