XI. Guilt
➳ Dylan's POV
Kaylee unlocked the door to her house, still bawling in my arms. I set her down gently on her couch and knelt down in front of her. I removed her hands from her face and lifted her chin to look at me. Wiping away her tears with my thumbs, I looked into her eyes. They were filled with sorrow, hurt, and despair.
"How about I go get you your favorite Ben & Jerry's ice cream and you can talk to me about this?" I suggested carefully.
She nodded slowly and sniffled. As I took a pint of Ben & Jerry's Half Baked and a spoon from the kitchen, I already had a gut feeling what this was about. It had to be Ryan. My God, Dylan why didn't you just tell her yourself in the first place?
When I got back to Kaylee, she spent the next two hours spilling out what happened and how she felt about it. And sure enough, it was Ryan. I listened intently and when she was finally done venting, she put on the strongest smile she could. Damn, she still looked beautiful even with her tear-stained eyes and smudged eyeliner.
"Forget about Ryan. He's a loser and a douchebag. Let's just do what you planned on doing when you first showed up at my doorstep," she winked.
My heart soared. I had come to rekindle our relationship and friendship with her, so if she was thinking what I was thinking then...
"Time to watch Friends!!!!" she squealed with delight.
Oh, I thought to myself. Well that works too.
We watched the box set and laughed at the hilarious antics of Joey and Phoebe, as well as the stupidity of Chandler. She accidentally flung some ice cream off her spoon and onto my face, immediately cracking up at my stunned expression.
"Oh, now you've done it. This is war!" I yelled as I pelted her with throw pillows.
Our long and tiring war ended in a stalemate. Apparently, not much happens when both sides are hiding behind a chair. I eventually noticed that we were still all alone and it was nearly 2 a.m.
"Where are your parents and Hanna?"
"Umm, my parents are on a business trip and Hanna's at her boyfriend's place for the weekend," she replied.
"Oh."
Neither of us really said much after that - we simply enjoyed the company of Friends. I couldn't help but notice the smile on her face the whole time though. Whether it was from me or from the TV show was unknown to me, but I didn't care. All I cared about was her happiness.
At around 3:30 in the morning, she fell asleep on my shoulder. I carefully laid her down on the couch and covered her with a blanket.
"Goodnight Kaylee," I whispered as I kissed her forehead.
I settled into the armchair by the couch and closed my eyes. When I heard her deep breaths and knew that she wasn't awake anymore, I whispered out loud once more before falling asleep.
"I love you."
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Bright sunlight streaming onto my face woke me up from my slumber. As I stretched and flickered my eyes open, I smiled at the sleeping Kaylee on the couch next to the chair I was residing in. Memories from last night flooded through my mind and I smiled once again. We had such an amazing time last night - just like old times. I couldn't help but notice the wave of guilt that washed over me, however. I felt so horrible about not telling her and I knew she would never forgive me if she found out. I was so screwed.
A slight stirring beside me snapped me out of my thoughts.
"Dylan?" Kaylee said, grinning as she rubbed her eyes.
"Hi, sweetheart."
She apparently realized her situation just then and her hands flew to her disheveled hair. She combed it out with her fingers and wiped the little dribble of drool on the corner of her mouth. I chuckled lightly at her wild effort to look nicer.
"I probably look extremely disgusting, don't I?" she groaned.
"No, you don't."
She smiled in relief.
"You only look slightly disgusting," I teased.
She gasped and slapped my arm.
"You're despicable!!"
"And yet you still love me," I smirked in return.
"Shut up, cassanova. Let's make some breakfast."
We spent the next hour trying to make some buttermilk pancakes. Let's just say it ended with flour on the ceiling and in our hair. Yeah..it didn't go smoothly. Even though half the pancakes came out burned, we managed to create pretty amazing pancakes in the end.
We sat down in her family's breakfast nook and savored our delicious, non-burned pancakes.
"This is so good," she said with her mouth full.
"Wow, so lady-like Kaylee."
"Shut up!"
I rolled my eyes at her. "So are you going to Lola's party tomorrow night?"
"Umm...I'm not sure. I mean it's the night before school and it'll be the first party I go to without...you-know-who."
"Come on, Kaylee! You're gonna be going with me and that's a thousand times better than going with him! Right?"
Silence.
"RIGHT???"
"Of course, Dyl. I was just messing with you!" she laughed loudly.
"So does that mean a yes?"
"Sure, I guess I'll go. But you better not ditch me for some pretty girl alright?"
"No promises."
She swatted my arm again, quite violently if you ask me.
"Ow!! Will you stop that?"
"Promise me you won't ditch me!"
"Fine, I promise. But how do you know I'll keep my word, Kay?" I said with a devilish smirk.
"Because...because I trust you," she said softly. "And I don't say that to many people anymore."
My face softened from its playful state and I got up to hug her. My stomach dropped at her statement and my heart ached. It sucked to see her so vulnerable and it felt even worse knowing that I could've softened the blow by telling her earlier. Why did I have to let Ryan's words get to me? The manipulating asshole. I hoped and prayed that Kaylee would be able to forgive me if she found out, even though that was a slim chance.
As I stroked her hair, my mind was still etched with worry. The guilt was eating me alive now.
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Another chappy up, yes! It's relatively shorter than the other chapters (by like 1000 or 1500 words - oops), but this is more of a filler chapter anyways. Things will definitely go down in the next chapter though!
Okay, this week my story went up to #472 in the What's Hot list for Short Story. I can't even say how much that meant to me, so I wanted to thank you all here for your support :)
Questions:
Thoughts on the cute Kaylan bonding in this chapter?
Ideas on what Kaylee should wear to the party? Keep in mind that it's some time in the fall.
Goal/Motivation: to get at least 5 votes on this chapter. And maybe get my story to 715+ reads? If it doesn't happen, that's alright, but it really does help budge me to write the next chapter faster!
Note: I'm going to be going on vacation soon, but I'll have some free time so I'll try to keep writing!
Alright, hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to vote, comment, fan, or add this story to your reading list if you did :)
lots of love, rhi.