'Everything has a past'
"Why don't you have shoes on?" Enrique asks slowly, while the rest stress over my bruised state.
"'Cause I went running in them," I mumble under my breath, shrugging one shoulder.
I hear mum sigh. "Come on honey, let's get you cleaned up," she says making her way toward me.
"That's fine, I'll help her," Kayden replies curtly reaching by my side before she can. I frown.
"Don't talk to her like that," I reprimand softly, but loud enough only for him to hear. "And I'm fine, just a few cuts and bruises," I dismiss with a wave of my hand.
"You've got blood on your arm," Kayden deadpans, I shrug.
"I'm fine," I argue.
"Get your injuries tended to, we'll talk more about the events that led up to this once you're done," Ryan remarks, his tone oozing authority.
"I'm fine," I grumble under my breath.
"Rachel," Ryan nods in her direction earning a firm nod from her in return. "Call off the search and get security detail back to their previous posts," he adds directing his words to the guard who borough me here.
"Right away Mr. Ashford." The guard nods before leaving.
"Come on Liv, let's go," mum announces motioning towards the stairs. I sigh but give in a do as I'm told anyway.
Kayden follows us upstairs, while Wesley and Enrique accompany Ryan making their way in the opposite direction.
"Does it hurt?" Kayden randomly asks as we enter 'my' room. Mum immediately guides me to the bathroom before pulling out the first-aid from under the sink.
I shrug in response to him. He rolls his eyes. "Words?" He prompts. I shrug. He sighs. This causes a small smile to curve my lips. He rolls his eyes, but a faint smile appears on his face as well.
"Liv can you sit on the counter?" Mum asks breaking us out of our wordless conversation.
I nod at her and try to jump up but hiss in pain as soon as my scrapped palms come in contact with the cold granite top of the counter. Before I can say anything else Kayden wordlessly picks me up--earning a gasp of surprise from me--and places me on the counter effortlessly.
"Thanks," I grumble under my breath, right as mum gets out the cotton ball coated in antiseptic. I inwardly whine at this.
She takes a hold of my hand turning it to have my palm face upward, she brings the cotton ball towards it only to have me pull away subconsciously.
"Liv," mum warns after a good two minutes of me continuously pulling away from her hold.
"It burns," I whine out in my defense, still avoiding having any contact with the cotton ball.
"It's supposed to burn," she sighs. "Now quit whining and I'll be done in a minute," she admonishes. But that doesn't stop me from pulling away...again.
"Liv!" She snaps in frustration. Her eyes meet mine holding a mixture of emotions, but vexation dominating them all.
"Honey, just two minutes, and I'll be done, okay?" She assures in a much calmer tone when her eyes move to my side momentarily before snapping back to my own.
"Want me to hold your hand?" Kayden asks me, his tone gentle, probably catching on to the fact that I'm not pulling away voluntarily. I tentatively nod affirmatively.
His cold hand take a hold of my wrist in a gentle yet firm hold, making sure to steer clear of any damaged skin. After this, we get done with the cleaning part rather quickly, my eyes squeezing shut through it all accompanied by silent whines on occasion.
"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.
"I'm binging to understand that now," I mumble softly, letting my head rest on Kayden's shoulder in pure exhaustion.
"You gave us quite the scare back there," Wesley sighs, claiming the spot beside my legs on the bed.
"Didn't mean to," I reply.
"We understand that," he assures. "We just need to set some ground rules," he adds earning an immediate groan from me.
"I hate rules," I mumble into Kayden's shoulder earning a low chuckle from them.
"You don't necessarily have to like them, just stick to them," Kayden says ruffling my hair before I smack his hand away.
"I'm guessing, not leaving the house before informing someone is one of the rules?" I remark.
Wesley chuckles. "You're a quick study," he nods affirmatively.
"So am I grounded or something for this?" I ask after a few moments of silence, moving my head just enough to get a clear read of Wesley's face.
"Do you want to be?" He shoots back with a lazy smile.
"No," I reply. "But knowing Ryan, that's not much of a choice," I shrug. My words cause an eerily gloomy emotion to flash in his eyes before he masks it away with impassiveness.
"You don't need to worry about that," he assures me and I tentatively nod.
"Anyway, how are you feeling?" He is quick to change the topic, his demeanor returning to its usual laidback self. I shrug.
"And we're back to no words," Kayden sighs dramatically, causing me to stick my tongue out at him.
"Don't stick your tongue out at me," he narrows his eyes, a mischievous smirk playing on his lips.
Grabbing the pillow as a shield I move away from him, and stick my tongue out at him again.
"Oh now you've had it," he declares before launching himself towards me and tickling me mercilessly, all while being mindful of my injuries.
Screams cloaked by laughter fill the room as I desperately try to get away from him. But being the asshole that he is, doesn't let that happen.
"Wesley help," I wheeze out between laughter, trying to push the pillow as a barricade between us.
"I think I'll just sit and watch, thank you," Wesley replies while trying to stifle a chuckle of his own.
"Kayden. Can't. Breathe." I hug the pillow trying to hide behind it. He finally stops hearing this, letting me breathe in relief.
I sit up in my spot before turning to Wesley. "Traitor," I narrow my eyes at him, to which he raises his hands up in mock surrender.
I roll my eyes at that before grabbing my pillow and walking towards the other side of the room and flopping down on the bean bag there. They just look at me in amusement causing me to huff in response.
"What did I miss?" Our attention snaps to Enrique whose now standing by the door trying to figure out what's going on here.
"Not much," Wesley shrugs, I narrow my eyes at him.
"Why are you sitting there?" Enquire asks me with a raised brow.
"Social distancing," I shrug.
"From whom?" He inquires, amusement evident on his face.
"Attacker," I point at Kayden. "Enabler," I point towards Wesley.
"Do I even want to know?" Enrique asks rhetorically directing it toward them.
"Nope." They both reply in unison.
"Olivia," Enrique turns to face me, solemnity returning to his face, causing the other two to sober up as well.
"We need to talk, can you come to sit here with the rest?" He asks an almost undetectable gentleness to his tone.
I nod tentatively before narrowing my eyes at Kayden. Enrique is quick to catch on to this and turns his attention to his younger brother. "Stop annoying your sister," he warns earning a quick yet firm nod from Kayden. But the humorous disposition in their exchange is more than evident.
Crawling back under the sheets, I find my previous spot beside Kayden and get comfortable, before directing my complete attention toward Enrique.
"I believe Wesley has already spoken to you about ground rules?" He asks me and I nod affirmatively.
"I prefer verbal responses," he remarks, making me want to almost immediately withdraw from the conversation. "But as long as we understand each other, none verbal answers would be fine as well," he adds in understanding.
"Coming back to ground rules," he directs the conversation back to the point. "I need you to understand that although I'm led to believe that you leaving the house on your own accord and will was a normal occurrence back when it was just you and your mum, I'm afraid it cannot continue here."
"Our lives aren't as simple as yours. And now that you are part of our family, yours isn't either. You need to be cautious, and take necessary precautions before doing something that can potentially endanger your safety," Wesley adds, his demeanor changing from laidback to stern in a blink of an eye.
"So now the rules," Enrique remarks. "They are fairly simple," he adds. "Don't leave the house or any place without informing your mum, Ryan, or either of us. Whenever you're here do not interact with any stranger you might run into, especially men." I nod affirmatively and wait for him to continue.
"Ryan prefers to conduct business from home, so we have a few close business associates walk in and out of here on regular bases, you do not indulge in any form of interaction with them be it pleasantries or conversation. If they initiate anything you are free to ignore them and continue with your day."
I really fight the urge to interrupt him and ask why do all of them address Ryan by his first name and not by 'dad' or something, but I refrain. 'It's not my place to ask'
"I'm not entirely certain as to when your mum has decided to move here completely, but when you both do, I need you to come to either of us if you ever need anything regardless of the time. If something makes you uncomfortable you tell us, if someone makes you uncomfortable you tell us." I nod again.
"I would prefer to have our contacts on speed dial on your phone, but I'll leave that choice up to you," he adds.
I shrug before reaching out grabbing my phone and handing it to him unlocked. "I'm fine with that." All three of them appear to be relieved? by my answer as Enrique enters their numbers under emergency contacts on my phone.
"That should be all for now," Enrique says handing me my phone, and I nod.
"One question though," Wesley interjects. I raise my brow in question.
"What's your dating life like?" He inquires in complete seriousness, while I'm caught off guard and rendered speechless by his question. All their attention is now focused on me.
"Past or present?" I manage to ask after a moment of wordlessness, but I soon come to regret my choice of words when I realize the tension in the room has grown as their bodies stiffen.
"There is a past?" Kayden asks slowly.
I shrug trying to think of ways to dismiss the situation. "Everything has a past," I mumble.
"Is that so," he nods talking more to himself while the other two just study me. "Tell me more about this past then," he says with a newfound eagerness, with the other two in agreement with him.
Never in my sixteen years of existence have I regretted my choice of words more than I have today...
Author's Note:
I hate that I've to start almost every author's note by apologizing for being late yet again...but yeah sorry about that.
But on the bright side here's a really long chapter!
Anyway thanks for reading.
And I would actually like to ask you guys about something, what are your thoughts on Olivia being a queer character?
I've always thought of her as a queer character but I'm a litter on the edge since I'm not very confident in writing anything to do with love interest and a queer character is a little tougher...I'm just afraid I might offend someone or not do the character justice.
I don't know guys I would really appreciate your thoughts on this.
Comment &vote
~Kia