Break In My Heart

47. Control

After a few moments, I pulled away and wrapped my arms around him, burying my face in his neck. He chuckled as he wrapped his arms around me. "Oh, Addison. What am I to do with you?"

I didn't respond. Instead, I just held him tighter and enjoyed the feeling of his presence. But the moment didn't last long before the sound of the door opening filled the air and I instantly pulled away. Once I did, my eyes locked with the last person I wanted to see.

"What are you doing here?" I coldly asked, not wasting time on pleasantries or fake cheeriness. She didn't deserve that from me. I subtly settled myself in front of Tyler to act as a shield between him and whatever she was going to try and throw our way.

"I just want to talk," Kyra said as she slowly crept into the room before closing the door behind her. "I just want to talk, promise." She had an uneasy look in her eyes that mirrored the nervousness she'd used to get before a big dance performance or a class presentation. It was a nervousness that couldn't be faked, at least not easily.

Nevertheless, I wasn't going to give her the opportunity to bring darkness into our lives when we were so happy. "Well, people don't always get what they want in life. Besides, you don't deserve it anyway. You need to turn around and leave–" I was cut off by Tyler putting his hand on my arm, which shut me up immediately as I looked at him.

His gaze was unwavering as he looked her dead in the eyes. He showed no signs of discomfort or hesitation. He had things on his mind and he was finally going to let them out. "What do you want to talk about, Kyra?" His voice was void of emotion as he spoke, a stark contrast to the playful tone that fluttered in it mere moments before.

She wavered under his intense stare then cleared her throat. "I...Sorry to drop in on you like this. I've been looking around and I couldn't find you guys but I saw Addi's car still in the parking lot, then I remembered seeing you guys duck in here a few times and–"

"Please get to the point," Tyler said, cutting off her unnecessary babbling.

She nodded. "Of course. Look, I know you guys are pissed at me, which I totally understand because what I did was horrible and inexcusable, but I wanted to give you my sincerest apologies. I...It's just when I saw you guys together, it reminded me exactly of my dad and what he did to my mom and I just snapped. It felt like it was a cycle, first my dad, then you Addison and I just..." She sighed as she broke eye contact. "I wasn't actually going to do it, though. I never would have. I just wanted some control back. For a moment, I just wanted to control my life."

"Look, I don't know what happened with your dad, but it doesn't excuse what you did to us," Tyler said. "Though I agree that Addison should've been completely broken off with you, no strings attached, before we got together, you two weren't dating anymore. Furthermore, control isn't a good enough excuse to threaten to out someone. Nothing is. And the fact that you threatened to do so, regardless of if you intended on doing it or not, was an awful thing to do. Even though you felt like you were gaining control back in your life, you were sucking it out of ours."

"Besides, you weren't just hurting me, Kyra, and you know that," I added. "Your actions and threats and words affected Tyler in ways you couldn't begin to imagine let alone understand. But you knew that. You saw what it was doing to us and yet you kept pushing and pushing. Name-calling, subtle threats. And to make matters worse, you started that stupid rumor that could've ended very badly for us and you know it, especially after everything that happened with my dads. We might be in 'modern times' but there are still bigots out there. Bigots that could've hurt us for simply being together, I mean our time at All-State proved that. I really want to believe that you didn't think that through when you were going on your little revenge campaign, but a part of me thinks you knew and didn't care."