Be Wherever You Are

Chapter 9

Kiara awoke to the sensation of being gently shook by the shoulder.

"Heyyyy, wakey wakey." Reine's teasing voice filled her ears as she mustered the force of will to open her eyes.

"I'm awake." Kiara mumbled, shifting from one side to the other and wiping at her face.

"I'll take your word for it." Reine chuckled. "Do you want to have dinner?"

"Didn't we just have lunch?"

"I can see why you might think that. You slept for the entire afternoon." Reine said, "Well, most of it. I figured out that that hook can not, in fact, hold the kind of weight I wished to hang from it, went out to get you, found you asleep, woke you up, brought you back and you immediately fell asleep again."

"Oh," Kiara blinked. "I don't really remember any of that."

"I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it had turned out you were sleepwalking the entire way." Reine chuckled. "Must have been some dream that you didn't want to wake up and spend the afternoon with me."

Kiara thought back to the dream, to the feeling of being bound, to the mix of fear and excitement, to the remembered feeling of Calli's lips.

Kiara looked away and said nothing. How could she? What was there to even say.

She felt Reine's eyes on her.

"Kiara? You okay?"

"Yeah just, tired." Kiara said, looking back but avoiding eye contact.

"Alright then." Reine said, though Kiara could tell she didn't fully believe her. "Well, I'm gonna go to dinner before it closes. Come join me if you get hungry or change your mind and want to talk about it after all, okay?"

"I..." Kiara began but didn't even know how to start or what to say.

Reine leant in and kissed her on the forehead. "Take your time."

With that she stood and walked out, leaving Kiara alone in the room.

Kiara sighed and pulled herself upright.

"What am I doing?" She muttered to herself, sighing and bringing her head to rest on the velvety headboard.

This wasn't fun, she'd been having fun with Reine before she read those damn texts and now...

She had to do something.

She looked over to her side, to the phone charging on the bedside table.

She looked at it for about half a minute, willing herself to pick it up.

She grabbed it.

No new messages.

She unlocked it, hit contacts, scrolled down and pressed the name Mori Calliope.

Suddenly the silent room was filled with the sound of a dial tone.

One ring.

Two rings.

Three rings.

Calli picked up.

"Kiara?" Her voice was quiet, as though she didn't quite believe that it was happening."

"Hey." Kiara said, "Listen, we need to talk."

"I..." Calli hesitated. "Yeah."

"Those messages."

"Ah, those." Calli's tone was clear, she was hoping to not have to talk about those fucking messages. "Sorry about those, I was drunk and not thinking. I shouldn't have ever sent them, that wasn't fair."