The clear skies had turned grey on the beach with waves as high as mountain peaks crash onto the shore. The wind was whipping and whistling as flashes of purple and white lightning strike through the clouds. Greg laid in bed wrapped around a soft sobbing Yohani. She trembled under his chest, holding the comforter sheets over her head.
"Do you think she is okay?" Yohani sniffs from behind the sheet.
Greg sighed and kissed her tear stained face. Yohani has not stopped crying since Kitten left and Greg was stoic. Kitten never gave him a chance to speak before she left and the way she stood there in the doorway, the look of guilt all over her face, the marks that covered her body. Greg pulled Yohani closer to him as she melts into the bed with a yawn.
Nobody knows what Kitten did last night, but the evidence was clear in itself, and neither Greg or Yohani knew if they had it in them to forgive Kitten for what she did. Even though it hurts that she is gone. Hurts that she left without any final say on how she felt and if she was ever going to be okay. And if Yohani or Greg was to blame for what she did.
The next morning the sun did its best trying to shine through the thick, dark clouds and dry up the wet land, but the trees were still dripping and the sand was looking more like mixed cement. Yohani tried to open up the window to catch a breeze when the horrible stench of rotten eggs swept passed her and filled the room. She gagged and slammed the window closed and shut the curtains tightly.
Huffing she stomped her way out of the room and down the stairs and the smell of fresh fruit entered her nose. Yohani couldn't help but raise an eyebrow as Greg hardly makes breakfast when they're on a trip. Bending the corner she saw him in a white valentines day apron that was covered in red hearts and trimmed with a ruffle pattern.
The laugh that escaped her was loud and joyous, but Greg jumped from the sudden sound and banged his head on the microwave that was above him. Yohani laughed a tad harder at his pain as she walked over to the island counter and took a seat on one of the bar stools.
"You alright?" She asks quieting down her laughter as she tried to look at what was cooking on the stove.
"Yea I'm good, glad to be a professional clown today." Greg tried to joke as he places a bowl of fruit and a bowl of cream in front of her.
Yohani hums with a small delight, the thought of sweet strawberries made her mouth water, but she had no energy to eat anything.
"Can I just have some raspberry tea?" She asks Greg.
Greg turns to Yohani with a side-eye and notices the tired look on her face. He wished he could make it all go away, but all he can do for the moment is make sure Yohani takes care of herself.
"I'll make you some, but you have to eat as well, babe," Greg tells her as he moves over to their electric kettle.
Yohani sucked her teeth turning away from Greg. She's not that hungry and doesn't have to this morning, she could save some room for dinner.
"You will eat, Yohani."
Grumbling, Yohani's stomach began a soft rumble. Since Greg was to busy on the stove, she slowly ate some of the berries and cream not trying to get caught and give Greg any satisfaction.
A knock sounded from the front door and they both froze in place. Is it her? Did she come back? Their eyes met each other for a moment. Who was going to open the door for her? Did they even want her to come back?
The doorbell rings followed by another knock and Greg sighed as he motioned for Yohani to take over on the pancakes and she happily hopped over to the stove as Greg made his way towards the door.
Peeping through the hole, relief came instantly when he saw his good friend, Keith, standing behind the door.
"It's not her," he whispered over to Yohani.
His heart dropped as Yohani frowns and turn away. He doesn't know how Yohani was going to recover from this.
Opening the door, Greg greets Keith with a giant smile as they both yelled out excited greetings and hugged each other.
"I didn't know you two would be here this weekend, I thought you only came to the beach for fishing with your brother?" Keith questions as they pull away.
"Uh, yes, but we needed a quick getaway, there was some stress at home," Greg says, scratching the back of his head.
Keith nods in understanding. The history of Yohani and Greg's relationship was one he knew too well and it's probably for the best that they ran away from their problems instead of confronting it.
"Well, I'm not going to hold you up, I can smell your breakfast cooking up, but um, Bunni and I met this girl the other night and she dipped on us before we could wake up and left some of her stuff behind. She told us she was staying around here, but I haven't been able to find who knows her," Keith explains the situation that landed him on their doorstep.
Greg could feel the lump growing in his throat. He didn't want to hear her name. Kitten couldn't have slept with them.
"What is her name?" He croaked out.
Keith chuckles, "believe it or not, her name is Kitten."
His sweaty hand clenched the door handle as his anger started to boil in the deepest part of him. Greg was staring at his best friend of seven years who has no idea he slept with his girlfriend.
Yohani turned off the stove in a hurry and ran to Greg's rescue as he stood frozen at the door. Wrapping her arms around his tense body, she smiles at Keith who stood with his eyes scrunched up.
"Yes," she grabbed Keith attention, "we know her, she was our girlfriend."
In shock, Keith stumbled back looking at the pair. The anger and pain in their eyes being hidden by simple smiles and soft gestures.
"I-I... we didn't- we didn't know she was in a relationship nor in one with you two. She told all of us that she was single."
Keith tried to explain himself and Yohani chuckled at him. She found this situation too funny to cry about. Hell, since they all know each other intimately they might as well have a good chat about it.
"Why don't you and Bunni join us for lunch later on and we can all talk about?" Yohani offers.
Graciously, Keith nods and spurs out a number of apologies before stepping away.
Greg closes the door as Yohani helped him to couch. As they plop down, Yohani engulfed Greg in a hug. She knew he was angry, jealous, but most of all hurt.
Lifting his head, Yohani wiped the tears off his face as he sniffed and tried to avoid eye contact. She giggled softly and lightly kissed his lips.
"I know this hurts baby, but we need to talk about this before they come back over," she whispers.
Greg adjusts Yohani on his lap and stared at her lap in silence. It just was too soon to try to get over it. To try and justify anything Kitten did.
Yohani groans, "we can't avoid this right now!"
"Why not? Why can't we just cancel the lunch, go back to bed and go home tomorrow morning and forget all of this happened?" Greg asks.
Yohani scoffs in disbelief, "do you not care at all that she left here in the state that she did? Kitten think we're liars and abusers, she's scared of us, so scared she decided to hurt us and leave and not build with us, do you not care about that?"
Greg let out a sarcastic laugh as if he was supposed to actually care about Kitten now.
Tears spring to Yohani eyes as she climbed off of him. She thought he was actually showing some emotion for Kitten, but now she was just hurt and confused.
"If you don't care then why did you bring her into our relationship?" She asks quietly.
"It's not that I didn't care about her while we were in a relationship, but she made some choices and acted out in ways that aren't fit for our type of relationship," Greg explains.
"Greg she just left an abusive relationship we need to be patient with her!"
"I don't have patience for cheaters!"
"What don't you understand about this?"
"What I don't understand is how you can take pity on Kitten for this, didn't you tell me she didn't speak with you all weekend. She knew she wanted out and continued to keep our hopes up... I don't want someone who doesn't know what they want. One day she loves us and the next day she running out the door covered in bite marks."
Greg's face went dark as his body began to shake with anger. He will never get over this and there is no empathy for Kitten in Greg's heart.
"She was scared because she found out that you are the brother to her abuser who knows what was going on in her head!"
Yohani pleads Kitten case, trying not give up on her herself. It is hard justify Kitten, but they knew about the baggage Kitten was carrying that she herself has not resolved.
"She knows me well enough to know I would never hit her, what should've been going through her head was these are two different individuals despite their sibling status."
"But-"
"Who helped her the first time she ran away when Zach first hit her?"
"But-"
"Who was there for her when she found out that he was sleeping with other women and started belittling her?"
"But-"
"Who was there waiting outside in the car ready to fight at any moment when she broke up with him for good? I gave her a home, I gave her financial freedom, she had all of her rights and all it takes is for her to just 'know' that Zach is my brother to toss me away, I should've toss her away for being broken."
Yohani gasped as Greg let out a long frustrated breath, burying his face into his hands. This talk wasn't going to get any better and Yohani could tell that she would be having lunch alone with Keith and Bunni, she knows they will understand, but it will still embarrassing.
"I'll get back to cooking breakfast, but can we at least talk about what we're going to say to K & B?" Yohani asks.
"We'll answer their questions and that's it, there's not much to talk about anyway." Greg says as he stood up and marched his way upstairs.
Yohani sat on the couch taking deep breaths, trying to relieve the pressure on her chest. Trying not break down completely, but she has never felt more alone than now.
Wiping her face dry, she got up and returned to the kitchen. Grabbing a champagne bottle, she pours herself a glass and gives a cheer to such a marvelous day in their marvelous relationship.
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A/N: I don't know if any of you pay attention to my authors wall, but if you do yall see how bad I lie on there lmao. I was supposed to have this finished weeks ago and just finished tonight. Don't worry though the next chapter is finished and will be available soon. I MEAN THAT! Also you should follow me for updates, just saying ;)