Together

28. I know you will

I know you love me
Darling, you don't have to say it
You know you can trust me
It's okay, it's complicated
Nervous, trip over my words
You're so pretty it hurts
Baby I'm yours
Baby I'm yours
Baby I'm yours
-Isabel LaRosa

Kiara wakes up in her room, sunlight flooding in from a crack in the curtains, hitting her directly in the face. She scrunches up her face and turns her head in the other direction. It's then that she realizes this isn't her room. At least not her room at her parents' house.

She lifts her head and looks around the polished guest room of the Tanny Hill estate. She remembers the fight she had with her dad and coming over to Sarah's to stay. What happened next? She sits up. Right, she went to the boneyard.

She vaguely remembers she started to drink and then everything went black. Fuck. She's never been drunk enough to black out. Sure, she's had bad nights where some of the details were fuzzy, but this is a straight back hole in her memory.

She strangely doesn't feel super hung over. She needs to eat something for sure, but her headache isn't migraine level. She heads to the bathroom and sees the Pelican Marina shirt tossed on the floor. She picks it up and sees vomit. Ah, that's why she's not super sick. She puked it all up.

Kiara turns towards the mirror. She stands surprised by the plain grey t-shirt around her body. Who's was this? She pulls the collar to her nose and inhales, her mind throwing her a thousand memories all at once. All of them of JJ.

Why was she wearing his shirt? Why did it still smell like him? All the shirts she had of his had been rewashed so many times they wouldn't carry his scent this strongly by now.

She shakes her head. Maybe this one wasn't washed. She quickly starts her morning routine, washing her face and taking extra time to brush and rinse her teeth.

She turns the shower on, putting a hand under the water to test the temperature before heading back to the room to grab a change of clothes.

She opens the door and immediately stops when she looks up. JJ is standing by her bed, looking at his phone. And he's shirtless. He doesn't see her at first, and she eyes his profile. Was she still drunk?

JJ catches her out of the corner of his eye and does a double take before looking at her fully. Is this really happening?

"Sup."

"Sup?" she repeats, still not sure she isn't hallucinating.

"You still don't think I'm real?" he teases, but she's not sure what the joke is, though she's starting to put the picture together.

"This is your shirt," she states, pinching the shirt she's still wearing. His eyes leave her face to trail down her body. Is he checking her out?

"Ah yeah—"

"Why are you here?" she asks. She's not mad at him really but she can't help but feeling hurt. Why didn't he just tell her the truth? Logically she knows he was doing what he thought would keep her safe, but that's not how it felt when he did it. And now he's just standing in her room, half naked and teasing her?

He bites his lip, waving his phone in the air before tossing it back on the bed. "You texted me."

"Oh, so your phone does work." Okay, she was a little mad at him. She watches him take a few cautious steps towards her, timid and unsure if she'll allow him near her. She doesn't step back though so he keeps his pace until he's directly in front of her. "You left me," she challenges, lifting her chin with pride and stares at him.