The Heartbroken - S01 E157

Story 2 years ago

The Heartbroken - S01 E157

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 157

“I’m sorry.”

I looked away and swallowed,

lifting a hand to my eyes. “Yeah,” I

said. “Me, too.”

For the longest time, the two of us

sat in silence. I took the moment in,

keeping the tears in and

immediately wiping away the

stubborn ones that kept rolling

down my face. I wasn’t sure how

long we stayed like that, but by the

time I calmed down into small

sniffles, the oatmeal on my bedside

table was no longer steaming hot.

“Kyla?” she suddenly said.

“Mmm?”

“That still doesn’t explain Seth’s

car.”

—

I woke up a few hours later feeling

considerably better. My head was

still feeling twice as heavy as it

usually was, but the room no

longer spun around me, so the

medicine must have been working.

For a moment, I worried that the

whole exchange between my

mother and I were just part of a

dream designed to mock me, but

when I turned to the bedside

drawer and saw my car keys, I

knew it had happened.

I found that I could stand long

enough to stagger downstairs, but

the slightest movements were

enough to make me feel like the

oatmeal I ate a while ago would

make an unwanted reappearance,

so the moment I got reached the

living room, I sat down.

Mom walked in just a few moments

after I turned the TV on.

I wasn’t foolish enough to think

that everything between us would

suddenly resemble those mother-

daughter relationships that always

seemed so ideal. There were so

many years of prolonged silence

that separated us, but the

awkwardness, I suspected, was

more a product of the two of us

still feeling our way around each

other, trying to figure out how to

act like normal mothers and

daughters when we’ve been doing

exactly the opposite of that for

years now.

“So,” she said, folding her hands on

her lap and turning to me. “Seth.”

I cringed almost automatically even

though there were no longer signs

of contempt in the way she said his

name. Perhaps the fact that he

introduced me to his mother had

changed the way she saw him, or

maybe it was just a side effect of

making up with me.

“He’s not that bad,” I told her. “I

swear. He’s…” I trailed off, picking

at the hem of my oversized shirt.

Almost as if on cue, the doorbell

rang. Mom was about to stand up,

but I beat her to it.

I had a feeling I knew who it

would be.

Sure enough, I opened the door to

the sight of Seth standing on our

porch, both hands shoved deep in

his pockets.

I ignored the way my heart seemed

to skip a beat when our eyes met.

“Why am I not surprised?” I asked

him.

Judging from the smirk on his face,

I could tell he was about to say

something else entirely, but it faded

into a slight frown when he got a

better look at me. “Are you sick?”

The unmistakable note of concern

laced in his voice successfully made

me feel all fluttery inside. Almost

automatically, he lifted his hand to

press it against my forehead. “Holy

shit, you’re burning.”

I swatted his hand away. “What are

you doing here?”

“Wow, Ky, I missed you so much,

too.”