My Champagne Problems

21: Blanc de Noirs

"Almost done," Kayden whispers to me causing me to pry one of my eyes open. I sigh in relief. But the entire room freezes when I flinch away at the slight motion of mum's hand lifting upwards crossing my eye level.

Guilt and shame soon cover her face, before she clears her throat. "Just cleaning that scratch on your forehead," she mumbles softly.

I force myself to relax, before nodding. "I'll do it," Kayden volunteers--sensing my discomfort--taking the antiseptic-coated cotton from her.

"You can be really stupid sometimes, you know that?" He remakes under his breath placing a band-aid over the spot. I frown, raising my brow in question.

"Who the fuck goes running in heels?" He tilts his head. I shrug.

"Didn't think it through," I justify.

"No shit," he retorts.

"You're almost done here," mum announces, while visually re-checking her work. "But let's get this dirt out of your hair first," she adds once satisfied with her work.

"Kayden can she borrow some of your clothes, we haven't shifted anything here yet?"

"Sure, I'll go find something that will fit her," he nods. "Shorty," he adds teasingly at me before sauntering out of the room.

Mum helps me wash my hair while avoiding any conversation between us. She helps me dry my hair just as Kayden returns handing me a sweatshirt--four sizes too big for me--and some sweatpants that I'm positive are long enough for me to trip over.

Having no other choice, I take them from him gratefully and change leaving my once favorite dress lying in a pile of misery on my bathroom floor. 'I'll deal with that later'

As expected I walk out of my bathroom drowning in his clothes, but to their merit at least they're comfortable and warm.

"Hey those are my clothes, but where's little Livy?" Kayden teases me as soon as I enter the room, holding on to the waistband of the sweatpants hoping they don't fall.

"Was that a joke? 'Cause I forgot to laugh," I remark flatly with a sarcastic smile.

"No sense of humor that's your problem," he rolls his eyes.

I flop down on the bed and immediately crawl under the sheets making myself comfortable, before spotting the tray of food sitting on the nightstand. I look at Kayden with a raised brow.

"You didn't have dinner, thought you might be hungry," he shrugs nonchalantly and I smile inwardly at his thoughtfulness.

"Thanks," I mumble. "But I'm not hungry," I add trying to politely decline even though I feel terrible for doing so.

"No appetite?" He asks and I shake my head negatively. "That's fine," he assures. "But you eat when you're hungry," he adds sternly and I agree with a firm nod, before spacing out.

"So," he clears his throat drawing my attention back to him. "You want to talk about what happened?" He asks me slowly, cautiousness evident in his demeanor.

I shrug. "My heel broke, I fell," I sum it up.

"Before that, Liv. Why were you out running this late anyway?" He asks. I sigh.

"I need to process things, and clear my head," I reply. "I didn't think it would be such a big deal," I sigh.

"Slipping past the guards and running off at this hour without informing anyone would inherently be a big deal." My head snaps towards the door to find the owner of the voice that just spoke, only to find Wesley. "But the state you returned in isn't helping your case either," he adds.