The Heartbroken - S01 E186

Story 2 years ago

The Heartbroken - S01 E186

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 186

“Have you told Seth about dinner

this Saturday?” Mom asked me over

some kind of reality show on the

TV that neither of us was actually

watching.

I was curled up on the sofa,

reading one of Dad’s old books and

she was on the smaller sofa,

sipping a cup of coffee as she

examined a new client’s file.

Yesterday, when I came home

during lunchtime from my

sleepover with Hail, she saw my

black eye and freaked out, fussing

over me in any way possible. I had

to convince her that I got it from an

accident again and again, but I

doubt she actually believed it

completely.

Now, I looked up at her, feeling

slightly guilty for not remembering

what was up on Saturday.

“Dinner with Norman,” she

explained when she saw the look

on my face.

Now that she had mentioned it, I

realized she did tell me about it

sometime last week, but in light of

recent events, I had completely

forgotten about it.

I took note of the page I was

reading and snapped the book

shut, setting it on the glass table in

front of us. “Mom.”

She looked at me as if she was

bracing herself, like she expected

me to tell her I didn’t want to meet

Norman or something similar to

that.

But it wasn’t anything like that.

Detaching myself from the words, I

said, “Seth and I broke up over the

weekend.”

She stared at me in stunned silence.

She sat back, raising an eyebrow in

a curious expression, as she stared

at me. “What happened?”

I swallowed, much too aware of

her gaze on me. “Things didn’t

work out.”

She exhaled, standing up to sit next

to me. To say I was surprised when

she pulled me closer for a hug

would be an understatement.

“Oh, sweetie.” She placed a hand

on my head, stroking my hair in a

surprisingly comforting gesture.

“Are you okay?”

I lifted my shoulders in a half-

hearted shrug. “I think so.”

She let out another deep breath. “I

know you like him a lot, Ky.”

I found myself nodding, letting

myself be comforted by her touch

and words, remembering the

feeling of having her cheer me up

just like she used to when I was

much, much younger.

“Yeah,” I confessed, “yeah, I do.”

—

Hail and I were back to sitting with

Cedric during lunch.

I had called her last night, using it

as an opportunity to tell her about

what Cedric and I had talked about.

At one point during the

conversation, we both dissolved to

tears.

She apologized for keeping it from

me, telling me it was only because

Cedric has asked her to. A part of

me felt betrayed, but it was more of

a pang of regret for having spent

so much time hating them both

when they’d done nothing wrong.

I told her about the kiss and all the

moments that eventually led to it.

At first, she stayed silent, but just

when the silence had started to

grow awkward enough, she said,

“Why did you kiss him?”

It was such a simple question,

really, but I found it hard to

scramble for a reply.

I tried to think back to that

momentary lapse in time when I

had pressed my lips against his and

tried to dig through my brain to

remember how I felt at the time,

but I came up with nothing.

“It just… felt like the right thing to

do.”