“Shh, just enjoy the beach a little longer,” I mumbled as I stretched my legs out in the sand and rested my head on Jake’s shoulder.
“Did you just shush me?” Jermaine asked incredulously.
“Let it go Jermaine, just let it go,” Kit said with a smile as he leaned back onto his palms to watch the ocean.
I dozed a little bit against Jake. The three of them seemed content to stay there for a while talking a little, but mostly just taking in the last little bit of Spring Break. At some point, Jake nudged me awake and Kit helped me back inside for a real bed. The next morning, we all woke up early. We managed to get one last swim in, and cleaned ourselves up, before finally saying goodbye to the beach house and heading back to school.
Chapter 49 - Kit
January 17th, 2015
“Hey, Riker,” I said as soon as I swiped answer on my phone.
“Actually, it’s Jake. Sorry, I don’t usually make it a habit of calling people from his phone, but we kind of have a situation here and could really use your help.” Jake sounded like he was panicking slightly, and that couldn’t be good.
“What’s the situation?” I asked, failing to keep the concern out of my voice.
“Pearce broke up with Riker last night. It was pretty bad. But he’s been in the middle of a breakdown since then and I don’t really want to leave him, but I have an astronomy field trip tonight I can’t get out of and…”
“And you want me to come over and be with him,” I finished for him.
“If you’re not busy, yeah I was going to ask you.”
And that was how I found myself in their dorm room ready to, for all intents and purposes, babysit Riker for the night. Riker had just cried himself to sleep Jake explained, as he pulled a blanket up over him.
“When he’s awake, I can’t get him to do anything. He just stares into nothing for hours or he cries. And when he cries, he talks, but it’s so jumbled I can’t understand it.”
“Okay, okay I can handle that,” I said. In reality I didn’t know if I could or not, but I would try.
“I’m sorry you have to do this. If I had anyone else to call, I would.”
“It’s fine. What kind of a friend would I be if I refused to help?”
“One I wouldn’t want him to have,” he said then lapsed into silence for a few moments before continuing “Umm, his phone doesn’t have a passcode to it, so if there’s an emergency, I don’t know, if you need to call me or his parents or something you can.”
“Let’s hope there isn’t an emergency,” I said lightly.
“Yeah,” he breathed out.
“Go, I’ve got him.”
Jake looked at him one more time before grabbing his backpack and hurrying out. I sighed and sunk into the desk chair. This was not how I had planned on spending my Friday night, but somehow, I wouldn’t be anywhere else. A friend was heartbroken. He needed someone, and I would gladly be that someone for as long as he needed.
I silenced my phone and rested it on my thigh so that I could see it if someone called, but it wouldn’t wake Riker up. Then I pulled a book out of my bag and settled in. Thirty minutes later when he woke up, I knew it was going to be a long night. He blinked, seemed to realize he was awake, and then curled up into a tight ball.
“Hey, Riker,” I said softly.
“Kit?” It was barely more than a whisper.
I smiled at him and tried to put as much positivity into my voice as I could. “Thought you might like some company.”
His bottom lip trembled and that was the only warning I got before the waterworks started. I knew this would happen at some point, but I hadn’t exactly worked out how to deal with it yet. Guess it was time to figure that out.
“Hey, hey, hey. It’s okay. You’re okay.”
He looked up at me with wide blurry eyes and tried to talk through the sobs. “We…good week…left…phone…break up.” That’s all he got out before he pulled at his blanket and buried his face in it. His shoulders were shaking, and his sobs were muffled. I put a hand on his arm through the blanket and rubbed, hoping to calm him down.
“He broke up with you over the phone after he visited?” That was a harsh way to be broken up with. Who drove up to visit their long-distance boyfriend for a week then break up with him over the phone a few hours after they left?
He nodded then started sobbing harder. So that was probably the wrong thing to ask.
“Come here,” I said. I sat down on the edge of his bed and pulled him into my lap. Immediately he clutched onto my shirt and buried his face into my stomach. “So, I don’t know if you want to hear this or not, but I’m going to say it anyway. If Pearce could do that to you, then he never deserved you. He’s a piece of trash and you deserve better, so much better.”
One of his hands flexed its grip, settling a little looser than it originally was. Well that was a win I thought as I settled a hand on his back and slowly rubbed up and down. He cried for another ten minutes before he turned his head back out.
“Hey, why don’t we watch some Netflix or something? I brought my laptop, and you can pick what we watch if you want to,” I said as I repositioned so that I was fully on the bed, legs stretched out and all, and pulled my backpack up with me. He practically crawled on top of me, clinging, and conveniently leaving enough room for the laptop to balance on my thighs where we could both see it.
Seeing as how I had no idea what he actually liked to watch on TV, I pulled up the entire selection of drama shows and told him to say something when he saw one he liked, unless I found one first. Of course, I hoped I wouldn’t have to pick. So, I scrolled through the list slowly. Finally, after what felt like ages when I was about to give up and put on Mulan or something, because Disney was usually a safe bet for everyone, his arm slowly reached out and stopped mine from scrolling. Taking the hint that he wasn’t going to talk I pulled my hand away. He clicked on White Collar and we started watching.
Admittedly I had never had any interest in the show before, but at least the cast was decent. The more of it we watched though the more I got into it. We both ended up falling asleep around episode five, and that was how Jake found us early the next morning when he finally made it back from his field trip.
Chapter 50- Kit
March 23rd, 2017
It was a nightmare. The dishwasher, one line cook, two bus boys, and two servers were all out sick just from this one shift. There was me and one other server left covering two sections each instead of our usual one. The one bus boy we had happened to still be in his first week learning the ropes, so he was already struggling, but good on the kid for giving it everything he had. The three cooks we had left in the back were trying to cover the extra cooking work and the dishes, but it wasn’t going smoothly. Somehow while half our staff were out sick, the local population decided to swarm the place. So we were half staffed and serving twice as many customers as usual.
“Does anyone need anything else?” I asked as I set down one table’s food.
“No, I think we’re all good,” the father said.
“Great. Let me know if you do need anything,” I said. I turned around intending to go around refilling some drinks and checking in on some tables when I saw the bus boy cleaning up one table with three more that needed cleaning and lots of guests waiting to be seated. I rushed over to one of the tables and started gathering up all the dishes before walking them over to him and placing them in his bin.
“Sorry Kit, I’m moving too slow,” he said.
“You’re doing fine. You’re doing a three-person job by yourself, so don’t worry about it. I got your back.”
I helped him wipe down and clear the last two tables before moving back to the kitchen to pick up the food for another one of my tables.
“We’re gonna have another table ready for you in two minutes, Kit,” Damian, one of the cooks, said.
“Gotcha,” I said over my shoulder as I walked away. I delivered that round of food, picked up three tables’ payme
nts, returned to the kitchen, delivered that food, ran the payments, returned the checks, and took two more tables orders before I finally got the chance to refill drinks.
I set about refilling seven different tables drinks, apologizing for taking so long, then helped bus another two tables. And it went on like that for the next few hours. Twenty minutes before my shift was supposed to be ending, I was finally taking a break in the kitchen and eating a sandwich Damian had somehow found the time to make for me.
“Alright, no it’s okay. I’ll figure it out. Goodbye,” Kary, the head chef and current manager on shift said before hanging up the phone.
“Who’s calling out now?” I said jokingly. Unfortunately, the answer was serious.
“Leslie’s coming in to help out, but Clark just called out sick. He started throwing up a half hour ago. Once you and Macy get off, we’re gonna be even more short staffed than we are now.”
“I’ll stay until it calms down some more,” I said before I really thought about it. It wouldn’t be the first time I covered someone else’s shift on short notice.
“You’re a saint, Kit.”
So that was how I ended up staying at work three hours later than normal and was just now walking into the apartment. I stopped short when Riker was standing there with his arms crossed, looking like he was stuck between crying, yelling, and straight up attacking me. Attacking me would’ve been fair in that moment.
I held my hands up peacefully and started to say “Riker,” but he didn’t let me get any farther than that.
“You didn’t even remember until right now, did you?” he said, and that heartbroken voice made me want to punch myself.
“No, but I can explain.”
“There better have been a medical emergency involved,” he said, anger starting to seep into his voice.
“There was a work emergency. Half the shift was sick. We were swamped and there wasn’t enough staff. If I didn’t stay and keep working they would’ve gone up in flames,” I tried to explain calmly. Sure, this was bad, really bad, but I didn’t stand him up on purpose. It was an honest accident.
“You didn’t call me to tell me, you didn’t text to let me know what was happening. You didn’t call or text when you finally left. You just left me hanging and left me wondering if you were okay, or if there was something wrong. It takes ten seconds to say something came up and you couldn’t make it, or to say sorry and that you were okay and would explain when you got home.”
“We were in chaos,” I said even though I knew it was a pathetic excuse.
“I don’t care,” he practically growled at me.
“What do you want me to say, Riker?”
“That you’re sorry!” he yelled, and that might have been the first time I had ever heard him angrily yell.
“I am Riker, I am sorry that I stood you up, but it was an accident. Things started spiraling and I just forgot about everything that wasn’t keeping the diner afloat.”
“You don’t forget someone you love on accident! You think, ‘I’m supposed to be with him right now.’” His voice broke, and it was probably just the anger keeping his tears at bay now.
“Well, I didn’t. I thought, ‘What table has been waiting too long for food and are there any clean dishes left?’” I yelled back at him. I was getting angry too now, and I knew I didn’t have a right to be angry. That I was in the wrong here, but I always got defensive about my job.
“Those aren’t your problems!” He yelled again.
“It’s my job, Riker! What was I supposed to do, leave them high and dry?”
“Yes! Them, not me! You aren’t a manager and you weren’t even scheduled, you did not have to stay!”
“That’s not fair,” I said, no, I lied. It was fair. I didn’t have to stay there, but I did, because that was who I was. I was the person who would step up and help out at work without being asked. He knew that.
“Isn’t it? You’re basically saying I come second to a job you’re leaving soon anyway!”
“That’s not true!” I wasn’t saying that. Not at all. He didn’t come second to anything or anyone. He was my number one. It was just an accident, and I didn’t know how it happened.
“Then why did you forget about me!?” he yelled and this time tears started falling down his cheeks.
I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t have an answer. It was a horrible mistake.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he said when I took too long to respond. He stormed off to his room and slammed the door shut. The lock of the door clicked behind him.
I was a horrible person. A horrible, horrible boyfriend, and I didn’t even know what to say to him now to make it right. I had to try and say something though, Riker was crying. I could hear it from where I was still standing in the living room, so I walked over to his door and knocked on it.
“Riker talk to me, please,” I said. I waited a few seconds before trying again, “Riker I’m sorry.”
“Please, Ri,” I begged. He still didn’t answer. I stayed standing there anyway, desperately hoping he would say something back. Riker was crying and I couldn’t comfort him, because it was my fault. After ten minutes the door finally opened again, but he was holding his gym bag.
“I’m going to stay with Jake for a few nights. I need some space to think. Come find me when you sort out your priorities,” he said then shouldered past me and out the front door.
I crumpled against the wall and slid to the floor, staring into his bedroom. For an hour, I sat there in silence, crying and thinking about what I was supposed to do before my phone started ringing. I didn’t even look at it, just swiped decline again. If it wasn’t Riker’s ringtone then it really didn’t matter. When my phone dinged with a text message, I checked it hoping that it would be him. It wasn’t.
Elyse: If you don’t answer your phone I’m going to come over and break down your door.
I didn’t respond. She could break the door down if she wanted to. I was pretty sure Riker didn’t lock it on his way out anyway. He was so upset, and it was my fault.
I don’t know how long it was before she did in fact show up and let herself in.
“Kit, where the hell are you!” she yelled as she walked in the door. I didn’t think I could handle anymore yelling.
I summoned what little strength I still had to call tiredly back to her “Whatever you want, I can’t right now.”
“Like hell, you can’t. You promised me those spreadsheets tonight and I need them.” Great, now she sounded angry.
“Not now, Elyse.”
She stormed over to the hallway finally and I was expecting more yelling, but I was surprised when she just sighed and said, “what happened and how long have you been on the floor?”
“I don’t know how long it’s been.”
“And the answer to the other question?” she prodded. Answering her questions was the absolute last thing I wanted to do right now, but I knew she would only keep at it until I answered her.
Taking my eyes off Riker’s bedroom for the first time I tilted my head up to look at her and said, “I screwed up big time and now Riker’s staying at Jakes.”
She lowered herself down next to me and nudged my shoulder. “Right, tell me everything.” So, I did. I told her everything that happened and by the end I had started crying, again.
“He’s not pissed that I stayed to work, he’s pissed I forgot about him. And he’s not pissed. He’s hurt. And he’s got every damn right to be. He’s the most important thing in my life, the best thing that has ever happened to me, and I forgot about him. I didn’t ignore him. I didn’t just cancel on him. I forgot about him.”
“People forget important things all the time.”
“Not like this. I don’t know how I forgot him.”
“I don’t know, either. I can’t give you your answer and I can’t tell you that you didn’t mess up or that you didn’t say the wrong things in that fight, but I can tell you two things. The first is that everyone say
s the wrong things in an argument, so that you can get past it. The second is that I know you love him, so tomorrow you’re going to see him and you’re going to do whatever it takes to show him that you are sorry and remind him that you love him.”
“Easier said than done.” I dropped my head back against the wall again and stared back into his room.
“What am I missing here, Kit? You missed a date. It’s not unforgivable.”
“It’s his birthday.” I swiped a hand across my eyes. “I’m sorry, Elyse, I appreciate you trying to help, but I think I need to be alone. I’ll get you the spreadsheets tomorrow.”
“Fine. Call me if you need me.”
“Yeah.”
“Alright.” She stood back up and playfully shoved my shoulder. “You two will be okay, just think things through before you make any moves to fix it. I’ll see you in class tomorrow.”
Chapter 51 – Riker
March 23rd, 2017
Jake and Jermaine agreed to let me stay at their place for a while. Jermaine had picked me up and drove me back to their apartment. He had asked on the way if I wanted to talk about it, but he was never comfortable with emotions, and serious relationship discussions had never been something we had with each other, so I passed and as soon as we got to the apartment he disappeared into his room to wait out what had become my emotional outpour.
As soon as I stepped through the door, I threw myself against Jake’s chest and sobbed for a good while. Now though we were on the couch watching Peter Pan, and I was curled up and pressed tight to his side, with my head on his shoulder, trying desperately not to cry again.
“I hate relationships,” I muttered at the point when Peter and Wendy get into a fight.
“No, you don’t. You love relationships.”
“Hate them,” I muttered stubbornly.
“You adore them whether it’s yours or two strangers on the street. Don’t lie to yourself just because you’re pissed off at Kit,” he said as he rubbed my arm comfortingly.
He Loves Him Page 19
