The Heartbroken - S01 E190

Story 2 years ago

The Heartbroken - S01 E190

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 190

Right before saying goodbye an

hour later, Alyssa pulled me into

one of her bone-crushing hugs. “I

hope you work things out with

Seth.”

It didn’t seem likely, at the rate

things were going, so I just

clamped my mouth shut.

“Kyla, you’re the only one he ever

talks to when he’s upset,” she said.

“I’m really worried.”

I wish I could tell her that I’d try

talking to him, that I’d make sure

he was all right and that there was

nothing to worry about, but saying

that would make me a liar, so I

didn’t.

—

When I got home, Cedric’s car was

parked right outside our house.

I got out of mine and walked over

to his.

I could hear the faint hum of the

engine running, so I figured he

was inside. Gently, I rapped my

knuckles against the cold window

until it slid down to reveal a

grinning Cedric.

“Why are you waiting out here?

You should have rung the

doorbell,” I asked him. “Mom would

have let you in.”

“I don’t know.” He lifted his

shoulders in a shrug. “I felt

awkward about doing that, so I

thought I should just wait for you

to come home.”

When Cedric and I were together,

Mom and I hadn’t really been close,

so I could see why he would have

felt that way around her. I usually

didn’t stay at my house in the rare

times that Mom was around and, by

default, neither did Cedric.

“Come on in,” I told him. “Have

dinner with us.”

His brows furrowed. “With your

mom?”

“Remember how I said a lot of

things have changed?”

He opened his mouth to reply, or

possibly protest, but he just closed

it again. I watched as he twisted in

his seat to reach for something

from the backseat. When he turned

back, he was holding a thick, black

hoodie. He quickly put it on, even

though he was already wearing a

jacket.

I bit the inside of my cheeks, trying

to ignore what all these layers

meant.

He turned the engine off and

stepped out of his car. His bruises

were beginning mostly just

yellowish now and the cut on his

upper lip had almost completely

disappeared. I wasn’t sure if the

cancer affected the healing process,

but in any case, I was glad that they

weren’t as bad as they looked three

days ago.

Even my own black eye had pretty

much disappeared now. There was

still a slight, slight discoloration, but

it was nothing a little bit of powder

couldn’t conceal.

“Why’d you come over?” I asked

him as we made our way to the

front porch.

In reply to this, he handed me a

book I hadn’t noticed he was

holding. I reached for it, eyeing the

tiger on the cover. I held it in my

hands and turned it over. It was

titled Life of Pi, and it seemed like a

fairly new copy.

“I wanted to give you that, so you

can read it, and we can both go

crazy trying to analyze the ending,”

he said, sounding slightly worked

up. “Seriously. I just finished it an

hour ago and before I knew it, I

was already on my way here

because I really, really need

someone to talk to about the

ending.”

“I think this has a movie, right?”

He gave me another wide grin as

he dug into the pocket of his jeans

and protruded a gray flash drive.

“That’s the other reason.”