It seemed like a good idea at the time, Kerass thought to himself. He had stormed out of the house after the reveal. He couldn’t even utter the thought in his mind, he was so infuriated and disgusted. He had no idea where he was walking and he didn’t care, but anywhere was better than his house with the traitor. Kerass cursed under his breath continuing to walk in the rain not caring that he was completely drenched. Not even caring if his clean, nice boy image was ruined, he kept walking. He didn’t even notice the rain after a while…
12 hours earlier…
Her heartbeat rose, palms sweaty, deeper breaths: it was all just another sign that she was about to confess something to Kerass. Kerass had made her feel safe, something her ex had done, but that safety ended quickly and within a day she had been withdrawn from the school. She shunned that memory out of her mind.
“I have to tell you something and it’s kinda, very hard to say,” she said amazed at how controlled her voice sounded, inside she felt like she was going to explode.
“I’m all ears,” Kerass said with a smile on his face.
Cadence opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. This time it had nothing to do with nerves. She felt like she was about to faint. There he was, her ex stood down the hallway walking straight over to them. His hair was now bleach blonde, an unfortunate choice, but his gaze was just as powerful and intense as Kerass’ was at the beginning. She knew he had said he would come three months later, but she couldn’t believe how quickly the time had flown by. After the peer support group was disbanded, she hadn’t texted him. She had grown attached to Kerass.
“Hold me,” she said at once, but it was too late, Damien, her ex, had put his arms around her.
“I’ve been waiting to hear you say that, baby,” Damien said kissing her on the neck.
“Let go, Damien!” she said, a little louder than she had wanted too.
Kerass pushed him. Cadence begged inside her head that he wouldn’t do something stupid and try to intimidate him physically. Damien was a junior and therefore much stronger than Kerass was. “What the heck do you think you’re doing to my girlfriend?” Kerass asked.
“The heck?” Damien laughed. “Who’s this, Mr. Clean? No it can’t be…he’s not buff enough.” Damien continued saying that it was time to embrace the real world.
Kerass responded he lived in it but there was no point in having a dirty mouth or a dirty mind.
“Just keep telling yourself that, kid,” Damien said. He turned and looked at Cadence. “Let’s just ditch. We’ve got a lot to talk about.”
Cadence resisted, but only for a second. She knew they had to talk things out. Kerass looked right at her. With a look, she tried to convey that she loved him, but this was just something that she had to do, but boys were stupid. She’d have to explain it in great detail later, but she just couldn’t get the words out of her mouth. Kerass turned and walked the other way down the hallway. She silently begged for forgiveness, but yet again, no sound came out of her mouth.
She wasn’t anywhere to be seen in the cafeteria either. At the beginning of the year, Kerass had always sat next to Jay, but ever since Cadence and him had become an item he had never sat at lunch with Jay. It seemed like they may no longer be an item. He was being pessimistic though. He walked over and sat down next to Jay knowing without a shadow of a doubt that he’d still want to have him sit down next to him.
“Wha- What are you doing here?” Jay stuttered.
Kerass asked if it was all right if he sat down there. “The ex has come back into town. She skipped the rest of the day in order to talk to him,” he said completely stagnant.
“Sit down,” Jay responded putting away his phone. He avoided eye contact from Kerass.
Kerass asked if something was wrong. He responded that it was nothing compared to the problems that Kerass was facing. “True enough,” he said.
Things started to get really tense. Jay was holding back, he could tell, but honestly he didn’t care at the moment. The only thing he was focused on was the conversation that he wished he could be sitting in on.
“How could she have left school for him, man?” he asked out loud. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”
He was surprised when he heard an answer out of Jay. Jay responded that potentially the bond wasn’t as strong as he had originally thought. “Or maybe it’s not mutual, you know?”
The thought had never occurred to him. What if that was true…he couldn’t bear it if it was. He could tell that tears were starting to form. He fought them back. He couldn’t show that this was hurting him as deeply as it had. He bit his tongue. It made him jump and snap out of it.
“I met him actually as he was walking in,” Jay said candidly.
“You what???” Kerass asked. This information was boggling his mind.
Jay continued saying that he was way cool. “I mean, I can understand why she left school for him,” he said with a smile on his face.
“Now that’s a low blow,” Kerass answered. He continued stating firmly that he should be his best friend and that it showed more love to lie to him than to tell the truth so bluntly.
Jay responded that the truth was always better than a lie. “I mean, it’s just whatever, but I doubt he even remembers meeting me.”
Jay was becoming extremely defensive about it. This began to bug Kerass because he began to feel like he had to walk on egg shells around Jay, but it didn’t matter now. He wanted to find out what was happening between Damien and Cadence. The bell rang which caused everyone to groan, but Kerass was thrilled. He was one hour closer to finding out what was happening with Cadence. He wasn’t even sure if she was still his girlfriend or not.
“Listen,” Damien started. Whenever he talked, it commanded attention. Cadence fought back not maintaining eye contact. “I’m gonna have a small party at my house, like a house warming thing.” He grabbed her chin which lifted her eyes to meet his gaze. Now she couldn’t take her eyes off of him no matter how hard she tried. He expressed how important it was to him that she show up.
“All right,” she said. Damien let out a huge sigh of relief. Cadence continued saying there was one exception. “Kerass has to come along.”
Damien’s eyes showed his sheer disappointment in what she said. Reluctance painted over his voice, he agreed to the condition. “9:00,” he said staring off to the side. “Don’t be late.”
Knock. Knock. Knock. Kerass couldn’t believe that he had agreed to this. He started to regret the decision once Damien opened the door. Damien was the ultimate enemy. Kerass equated him to the anti-Christ. He certainly had the charm to be. Once inside the house, he could hear music faintly in a different room. The song ended and immediately started up again.
“Wait…is Katy Perry on replay?” Kerass asked bewildered. This dude was even weirder than he had anticipated.
“Why, yeah,” Damien replied eloquently. “What’s the matter with that?”
Kerass smirked. “Nothing, it’s your house, man,” he said trying to hold back laughter. He was unsuccessful. His laughter echoed off of the walls.
“Keep it down!” Damien said quietly but firmly. He went on saying that it would annoy the neighbors. Kerass, always being one to obey the rules closed his mouth. Not out of respect to Damien, but out of respect to the neighbors.
“Follow me,” he said. Unpacked boxes stacked up to the ceiling. They really had just moved in. It wasn’t a fluke visit, or a runaway situation. Kerass’ heart sank in sheer disappointment.
They walked up a flight of stairs. Nails hung out of the wall. Picture frames should be hung here, but they must be in all the boxes, he thought to himself. Walking down the hallway, he could sense something wasn’t right. Where was everyone else? They walked straight into his bedroom. He could tell he was going to explode… “Where’s everybody else?” he demanded louder than he had wanted.
“Uh…” Damien began to stutter. For the first time, Kerass saw Damien, the junior who commanded control, stumble. His words became few as he kept on restarting his next sentence. Kerass could tell he was nervous and he was glad that he looked like a fool. It served him right. “There’s no one else.”
Kerass put his hand into a fist. His knuckles turned white.
“What did you think was going to happen, Damien?” Cadence asked interceding the tension rising between the two of them.
“Do you love him?” Damien asked. Visibly he was calming down, regaining his cool.
Kerass looked at Cadence’s eyes. They started to glisten. His anger started to boil over.
“You know I do. It’s not even a competition,” she said sympathetically, but with a confidence that expressed that whatever they had was over.
Kerass let out a sigh of relief. Finally things could start turning back to normal. “Well, I’m awake enough to stay up all night,” he said. Cadence locked her hand into his saying that she would join him.
“You can’t possibly l-love him!” Damien shouted at the top of his lungs. His hands started to shake. “Not the way that you loved me,” he added barely above a whisper.
Cadence begged Damien not to continue. Kerass’ heart rate started to raise. Attempting to keep his cool, he asked, “What does he mean, the way you loved him?”
Cadence began by saying that she was going to wait to tell him. Her voice low, but still filled with confidence. “I had sex with Damien, but it didn’t mean anything.”
Damien burst into tears. He fell to the floor gasping for breath. “How could it not mean anything to you?” he said in between sobs. “My world was rocked by you...and it meant...nothing.”
Kerass reiterated Damien’s question. “How could losing your virginity mean nothing?!”
“I-,” she began, but no further words came out.
Kerass continued asking whether that was the reason she transferred out of the Lutheran school. “Or were you kicked out?” he paused waiting for an answer, but she was stoic. “Answer me!” he demanded.
“What I do with my body is no one’s business but mine,” she said acidly.
Kerass stormed out of the bedroom racing down the stairs. It was raining outside, but he didn’t care. His body demanded air. She had betrayed him. What else had she been hiding from him? Damien deserved Cadence, the traitor. He stormed out the door into the pouring rain. He knew definitively now that he was going to stay up all night.
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