Will's POV
I smiled to myself as sunlight filled the window and aimed over my shoulder perfectly, as I turned the page in my book to read the next.
I was sitting on the red cushion booth in the cafe with my legs splayed out on the rest of the booth, while Natalie was on the opposite side of me, busying herself with her phone. It seemed to be the only thing she was paying attention to today, but I could care less. The smell of coffee and freshly baked cinnamon bread that Louis had just finished baking filled the air, and even though the cafe was loud, filled with friends and family having conversations, the sound was drowned out by the words of my favorite mystery novel I was re-reading.
It was Natalie who had found my book just the other day. She was going through my things, trying to find things to throw out to clean out the house a bit, since I was never fond of cleaning, and for some reason never had the time to.
I remembered how excited I had become when she had found the book and handed it over to me because I couldn't remember the last time I had picked it up. As I flipped through the pages, from the first page to the last, a small cloud of dust filled the air and I turned my face slightly to avoid coughing. The vintage smell of it filled me with happiness as I bounded up the stairs and back into my room for a day full of reading. But that was then.
"Who's this?" I suddenly heard, but I ignored her voice, wanting to get on with the page I had started. Something wavered in front of my face, but I ignored it, too.
"Hmm?" I hummed instead.
"I said, 'Who's this?'" A glowing screen was shoved in my face now, so close that I couldn't see anymore because of the closeness. Natalie pulled her hand back slightly to let me see the screen now.
And I froze when I saw what was on the screen.
It was the picture of Kaylee I had accidentally taken that day at the creek that I meant to delete afterwards, but forgot about it.
I hadn't realized that I had been staring at the picture, a little wide-eyed too much, that Natalie was even more annoyed with me now. She pulled the phone back from my view and began thumbing through the screen, trying to look for something. I stared as she did so, until I heard myself ask, "Why do you have my phone?" I had thought it was hers, but seeing the phone up close now, I realized that it was m+y own. I hadn't even realized that it was missing.
She avoided both my gaze and question and continued looking through the phone and said, "You didn't answer my question." She looked up. "Who is she?"
I turned my face slightly so that she couldn't see me panicking. My heartbeat had picked up pace and I had no idea what I could say to her to make her believe me. I had never been the best liar anyways. I rung my fingers together and tried to come up with something quickly. But nothing came to mind that was good enough to save me. Or Kaylee.
"Will?" Natalie said.
"I don't know," I finally mumbled, and I almost slapped myself. There was no way she would buy it now.
But instead, to my surprise, she curled herself up on her side of the booth and hugged her knees to her chest, lowering her head so that her face wasn't showing anymore to me, and soft sounds of sobs escaped her mouth.
"Natalie?" I asked, confused, but I still made no move to go over and comfort her. My hands stayed frozen by my side, as if it was connected to my body as one. I told myself to get up and go over to her, but my body was immobilized. It didn't even feel like mine anymore.
"I didn't do anything wrong," instead came out of my lips, like she was the police and was accusing me of something I didn't do.
She brought her hands up in front of her face and I could already see the mascara smudges on her fingers and I held my breath. So stupid, was all I could repeat over and over in my head. Why had I ever even taken that picture? I should've deleted it immediately.
Then as if all at once, I remembered what I was supposed to do and I dropped the book on the booth and slid out of it, moving over to her side. My arms wrapped her like a blanket and she stiffened before melting into my arms. Her hair tickled my arm as it slid over my arm, and I could feel wet smudges of her tears on me. And I cringed, because I knew it was my fault. It was always my fault.
There was silence between us, even though the people around us were still talking, until Natalie sniffled and said, "You've been cheating on me, Will?" She turned her head slightly to look up at me. I stared at her in shock in reply. Cheating?
"Natalie?" I said slowly, removing my arms from her. "She's just-"
She scooted a little away from me and looked up at me with her blue eyes. "You like her." she said simply. I bit down hard on my lip and tried hard not to feel and taste the metallic taste that was slowly pouring into my mouth.
"No I don't."
"You're lying."
"How would you even know?"
She pushed me and I slid out of the booth to let her out. She made a move towards the doors that were just swinging because someone new had just entered, but I stayed close by the booth with my hip leaning against it slightly. I felt that if I had nothing to keep me steady, I would fall over on my own just perfectly and just as easily.
"Will, there's a lot of things I know about you that even you don't know about yourself." She turned on her heel again to leave, but I stopped her with my words.
"Please, Natalie," I stared at the ground, "don't bring her into this."
"What's her name?"
"Natalie..." I warned. She narrowed her eyes at me and I whispered, "She means nothing to me. Please, Natalie," I sounded desperate for some reason. I glanced over at the counter and found Louis watching the both of us with a hard stare, and Chance was beside him being the cashier, busy with a customer since he said he was bored and wanted to do something.
"Kaylee." she said plainly. "That's her name, isn't it?" She smirked when I winced at the sound of her name. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Louis making his way over to us now. Chance began to move after him, too, but stopped short when another customer approached him. But he still watched us as he rang up the cash register for the couple in front of him.
Louis was by my side now, and he glared hard at Natalie silently, while I said, "Natalie, please, she didn't do anything wrong. It's my fault. Please Natalie..."
"I just wanted to see your expression when I said her name." Natalie grinned and turned her back on me, this time making all the way to the front of the door with her hand on the door, too, when I began to move after her to reason with her some more. There was no way I could risk losing Kaylee to Natalie like this, just like what happened to her.
"How did you know the password to my phone?" I finally asked, weakly. My head was spinning now with questions I knew she would never answer for me.
She stopped, but didn't turn around. "Her name." And I could just imagine the smirk on her face as she exited the café.
"Natalie!" I called and walked forward a step to chase after her when a hand settled on my wrist, pulling me back from going after Natalie. I turned around furiously to see who would do this now, but all I saw was a worried Louis.
"Will," he said, "what did she say this time?"
I didn't say anything. My eyes were still watching the retreating back of Natalie's cross the street and head back in the direction of my house.
"Will-" Louis began again, but I slowly felt myself losing balance and slid down onto the ground. "Will!" Louis gave a shout and dropped to the ground beside me.
His hand was still on my arm, shaking me to get me to talk to him, but all I did was stare out in front of me. And all I saw was nothing but white walls. Her name.
It was so long ago, yet I could still see the situation play out in front of me. She was there, and so were the others. The color of red was everywhere and I looked down at my hand and rubbed my fingers together, still feeling the sticky liquid drip through my palm, filling up the little lines running down my palms.
Louis' voice was still at my ear, begging me to say something, but I was frozen in a memory that should've never happened. She was only trying to save me, but instead of me saving her in time, she had given herself up for me. For a life that never meant to go far.
She promised me that everything would be alright, but look where I was now. In the exact same spot she had left me in, broken into too many pieces that would take too long to pick up, endangering another life that wasn't meant for me to endanger.
"Will!" Both Louis' hands were on my shoulders now, and I felt another body settle down next to him, no doubt Chance. "Will, please," Louis was begging, "say something."
Still staring at nothing, I said, "I don't what to do."
"Thank goodness, Will." Louis praised out loud that I was still alive. "Don't know what-" he asked, but then he stopped himself shortly. "She knows, doesn't she?" he asked, but it was more like a statement than a question.
I nodded once and ran my fingers through my hair, pulling at the roots to feel something other than what I was feeling right now. I watched as Louis opened up his arms slightly and I fell into him silently, sobbing quietly into him. Chance watched, and even though he had no idea what Louis and I were talking about, he patted my hand comfortably. People watched and stared as they passed by the mess on the floor, some judged and some didn't, but I could care less right now.
As Louis ran his fingers through my hair, over and over again, and Chance made a small conversation while continuing to play with my fingers, I breathed heavily and tried to calm myself down. My body was still numb with trembles and I felt as if I was being eaten from the inside out. Honestly, I wasn't even sure if this body belonged to me anymore.
Halfway through Chance's small talk, Louis began humming a light tune to me and I sighed, thinking about how lucky Chance was to have someone like Louis. Sometime later, I fell asleep and somehow ended up back in Louis' room, in his bed, and at his house. Laughter filled the room when someone sounding like Louis said something, and I shot upright, because I had just remembered what I had said that afternoon to Natalie about Kaylee.
That she meant nothing to me.
But that wasn't true, because I had just realized that I had dreamed about her in my sleep.
Natalie's POV
He loved her.
I grabbed a strand of my hair and twisted it around my finger, before pulling down on it hard to feel the pain. I stood up from the computer chair in his room and paced around the room, closing the door to his room shut, too, and locking it as well, before I began tearing his room apart.
I pulled open his drawers and dumped out his clothing and rummaged through it, trying to find something that might have been given to him by that Kaylee. But I didn't find anything, but a few sweatshirts and shirts. I then moved onto his shelf, pulling out random books and tossing them onto the ground, but there was nothing hidden between the pages either. When had Will become so good at hiding things?
I stared at his room, leaning against his desk, trying to find where else he could hide anything else. By that time, I had already checked his whole room. I sighed and stared at his bed and then down under at it, the only place that I hadn't checked yet, because I was afraid of what I could find under there. But that was my only choice left, wasn't it?
I got down onto my knees and held my breath, getting down onto my stomach now and reached one arm under his bed blindly, trying to make contact with something, and I almost missed it, too, when my fingers brushed against a few papers, and pulled out a notebook. I got up from my lying down position and brushed the strands of hair out of my face, before I looked down at the notebook, only to find drawings and sketchings of scenery and people he knew.
There was one of Louis, his room, other random stuff, and then I turned the next page, only to see a pool of dripping liquid and a girl lying on the ground, and I gasped. Because I knew that memory all too well. In a hurry, I flipped to the next page, trying to delete the sketch from my memory, and looked down, and found the proof I had been looking for.
A sketch of Kaylee.
~A/N: I'm so sorry for not updating in like a month, but I was busy, but here you gooo. I hope you enjoyed it and please let me know your thoughts. So COMMENT, FOLLOW, AND VOTE! And who do you think this mysterious girl is...
~Forever_Yours_Too