The next morning, Alyssa finds herself in her office/makeup room sorting through emails and packages that have been sent to her. She's been so caught up with family business that all her packages from different brands have indeed piled up. But she was happy she could finally sort through it and give a couple of the products test runs. Although it took a lot longer than she expected, she was happy she could get back to her videos and brand meetings.
"Hey beautiful, this was at the front door for you." Stephen slightly knocks before entering her room. He places the medium sized box on her desk before examining the products all over the floor. "Organizing all your presents, huh?" He chuckles and scratches his head, the amount of products she receives making him a bit nervous. She had a pretty big room to herself and he was starting to think it still might not be enough. These brands loved his fiancé so much that they showered her more than he's ever tried to.
"Yup. Isn't it exciting?"
"Jeez, I suppose. You got room or do we need to take a trip to IKEA for more storage containers?"
"Might have to."
"What's in the box, baby girl?"
"Hm, good question." He watches Alyssa put aside the Colourpop lipsticks she was toying with to look at the box. She arches her eyebrow, reading aloud who it was from with a ton of lipstick colors lining the top of her hand. After all this time, he was still confused as to why girls always felt the need to run their lipsticks over their hand to get a better look at the color. It looked the same to him inside & out, but Alyssa claims it's not the same thing. "Aw, it's from SK-II."
"From who?"
"It's the skin care company I talk about a lot."
"Oh, all those facial washes you got in the bathroom. Those are nice."
"Yeah, they're a really good skin care company." Alyssa says, damn near breaking the box when she opens it.
"Sheesh. Be careful, Lyss. You might hurt yourself. Or those precious little products."
"I'm fine." She finally opens the box completely, revealing a decorated box containing new products that were about to hit the market. She examines the products and quietly nods before opening an envelope. Steph looks at his watch to get a good look at the time before waking Klay up for practice. "Oh.. my god." Alyssa says, covering her mouth.
"What's wrong?"
"No way." Alyssa laughs before covering her mouth again, Steph still confused as to what was happening.
"Care to fill me in?"
"SK-II wants me to go to Bali with them in the next couple of days."
"Wow, that's great baby!" He kisses the top of her head as he examines the card with her and gives her shoulders a light massage. "When are you leaving?"
"By the weekend."
"So after opening night? Whew. Thank God."
"Aw babe." She chuckles and looks up at him. "I wouldn't go if they had me leave before opening night."
"Nah, but this is a good opportunity for you. It'll be a good experience. Traveling on your own internationally."
"Damn, well. If you put it like that, it's kind of scary."
"You won't be gone for long, right?" He pouts. Yes, he really was happy for her. He knew there would be more of these trips down the line, and he wanted to take every opportunity that presented itself to her. He wouldn't want her to miss a thing. But at the same time, it was already hurting his heart knowing she'd be gone even for a couple of days.
"No, I think it's only a four day trip. I'll be coming back on the fourth day."
"Alright, I guess I can deal with that." She playfully hits him.
"It'll be okay."
"Only if you give me a kiss." He gets to eye level and puckers his lips. She feels the butterflies forming in her stomach as she looks at him. That feeling would never get old. She bites onto her bottom lip before resting her hand on his cheek and giving him a deep, passionate kiss. "Youll have fun, my queen. I love you."
"I love you too." She smiles before turning her attention to the products in front of her once again. "Oh by the way, what happened to Klay?"
"Oh shit, I need to wake him up soon."
"Is he okay?"
"Don't ask me how he even got here, but he was drunk as hell on our backyard porch. Talking all this nonsense about Sheri."
"He misses her, doesn't he?"
"You could say that." Alyssa simply shrugs. "But, they gotta figure that on their own."
"Yeah, we'll see." She pushes the products aside as she stands and stretches. "I'm gonna come down with you and make some breakfast for the two of you before practice."
"You don't have to. I could just throw a banana at him."
"Would you be a better best friend to the man?" She laughs. "I'm sure he's gonna need some food in his system."
"Yeah, what better than fruits and water?"
"Quit playing." Alyssa immediately gets to work in the kitchen as Stephen makes his way to the guest room, seeing Klay still sound asleep. He shook his head before loudly barging into the room.
"Good morning sunshine!"
"Ugh, shutup." Klay says, throwing a pillow at Stephen before placing another over his head.
"We have practice soon, so you need to get your ass up."
"Fuck practice."
"Maybe you shouldn't have gotten so goddamn drunk and thrown up in my backyard last night." He says, sitting at the end of the bed looking back at Klay.
"Okay, dad."
"Alyssa's making breakfast."
"Jeez, at least someone's an angel."
"My angel, thank you very much. What happened to you last night, Thompson?"
"Didn't you just clarify what happened?"
"I'm trying to ask you why you did that to yourself."
"I'm pretty sure I told you last night."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm not that dumb, Stephen. It was cause of Sheri."
"That dumb." Steph chuckles. "You miss her?"
"Guess you could say that." Klay winces as he sits up, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"You need to find a way to fix that."
"Not so sure if I can." He sighs, as he rubs his eyes and leans over onto his knees.
"If you really feel that way about her, then I'm sure you can come up with something."
"All I really wanna do is talk to her." Steph sighs. He knows this isn't his place to do it, but no one else was going to let him know about it. Though they've had a rough patch, Steph feels the need to tell him about Sheri and what's been happening to her.
"Yo, I need to be real with you."
"What?"
"She, uh." Steph sighs. Damn. This was a lot harder than he thought. He swallowed the saliva that built up in his mouth before returning his attention back to Klay. "She relapsed." Klay immediately turns, scrunching his eyebrows.
"W-what? W-what do you mean?"
"Come on, man. This isn't easy for me to say either."
"When? Stephen, please. Tell me when."
"I don't know specifics, I just know that it happened. That's how Shaun's in the picture."
"Fuck." Klay mumbles to himself, burying his face in his hands. The one thing he promised to do was take care of her so she wouldn't have to visit the past. He was determined to take good care of her in the beginning, especially because he wanted to give her the world & show her she was worth something. She felt useless, betrayed, depressed.. all of the above, for so long. & He was trying to be that saving grace.
Clearly not. And now it's killing him more than ever.
It literally made his heart hurt.
"Goddammit. I had one fucking job." He mumbles. Steph feels guilty for doing what he did, but he had to know. Klay had to know where all this shit put Sheri. It served as the reminder for him to wake up & quit fucking around with females who don't care about him the same way as Sheri did. And, it served a reminder of his promise to her. Stephen feels even more guilty when he hears Klay's muffled cries through his hands.
"I'm sorry, bro. It's not easy. But you had to know. At this point, it may be best to just lay off until things clear out. She's trying to get herself together & someone's already there helping her do that. If you love the girl, you'll let that happen."
"No." Klay shakes his head as he gets up, preparing to walk out. "I'm gonna get her back & I'ma tell you right now, ain't no Shaun gon' be there to take care of her."
"Let's not be irritational."
"I'm not being irritational."
"You are."
"No. I got her in this, so I'm gonna get her out."
-
Sorry for the filler chapters! But the drama will be starting up yet once again in the next chapter. Like... a whole lot.
Klay & Sheri? You're gonna have to stick around & see what happens.
Bali trip? Yeah trust me that ain't all peaches & cream.
Ugh, im excited to write the next chapters. Continue to show love :) Ya'll are my motivation!