Page 43 of Almost

I knew I shouldn’t have let Kiera pick up Zeus without me. I could have texted Thalia to tell her I was running late, avoiding this whole situation.

Kiera is crying while I rub her back, trying to calm her down. Nothing I’ve said has helped, but I don’t know what to say when I’m not sure what happened. I only know that Thalia quit, but she seemed fine when I dropped Zeus off the other day.

“Baby, I can’t help if I don’t know what happened,” I say calmly for Kiera’s sake, but inside I’m fuming. We’re a month out, and now Thalia decides to pull this shit? She had the nerve to keep my dog too?

She’s holding on tightly to me, her fingers twisted into the fabric of my shirt. “She’s a bitch. How could you ever be with someone so awful?”

I know Kiera, and she’s the most kind and gentle person I’ve met. I mean, she can’t even kill a bug. A few months after she moved in, there was a spider in the bathroom. She stood on the counter screaming for me to come take it outside because she couldn’t bear the thought of it dying, even as she was terrified of it.

But…I also like to think I still have a decent idea of who Thalia is. She isn’t the kind of person who would lash out without a reason. Every time we’ve come to blows, I’ve deserved it. There are a few times when I think she could have reacted differently, but there’s always a reason. I’ve never met someone more deliberate with their words than Thalia. She’s never been anything but nice to Kiera, so I don’t know what could have happened to change that unless there’s more to this story than what I’ve been told.

“She’s complicated, but Thalia isn’t a bad person, Kiera.”

Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say, causing Kiera to pull away from me, physically and emotionally. “Sebastian, she yelled at me, and said some really mean things! You can’t seriously be trying to tell me you think she’s a good person when she’s not. She punched you a few weeks ago when she was a guest in our house!”

Her face morphs into one of anger, reflecting how I feel on the inside, but now I’m more conflicted. “I don’t know what happened, so I don’t know what to say. I will say that I deserved to be punched by her considering I’ve said and asked for a lot from her lately. Lia shouldn’t have yelled at you, but I’m trying to understand.”

Fuck me. We should never have left the beach.

“There’s nothing to understand. Thalia is a bitch, and now we don’t have a photographer for the wedding!”

“We’ll find someone else, but will you please stop calling her that?”

Whatever Thalia said to her, must have really gotten under her skin. Kiera wasn’t even this riled up when Thalia hit me.

It feels like my hands are tied behind my back and I’m stuck in a tank running out of oxygen, trying to de-escalate a situation I know nothing about. I can’t exactly excuse myself from this conversation to call Thalia again when realistically, she’ll just ignore it. I stand up because I need to move around.

Kiera stares at me, her eyes rimmed red from crying. “Since you’re so keen on defending her, why don’t you just marry Thalia instead. I mean, you’ve already proposed to her, so what’s stopping you?”

The bullet she fired with her words hits me square in the chest. Did she really just say that?

I’m not defending Thalia, but I don’t think I’m wrong for asking Kiera to not call Thalia a bitch, and for wanting more information about what happened when she went there. I don’t think my request is unreasonable, but I don’t deserve to have that shit thrown in my face.

My jaw hangs open, as my mind struggles to recover. Kiera really just said that to me.

Kiera gasps, her hands covering her mouth as she begins crying again. “Seb, I didn’t mean that.”

“I…” I trail off, because what the hell am I supposed to say?

“I’m so sorry,” Kiera cries, throwing herself at me to wrap her arms around me, but I feel numb.

Is this how all of our fights are going to turn out? We only returned to Charlotte this morning, but it already feels like it was weeks ago.

My arms hang limply at my sides, and I can feel Kiera shaking against me, but I can’t bring myself to comfort her right now. I’ve been trying my best to come to terms with the fact that Thalia is the almost I’ll regret for the rest of my life, but that was…I don’t know what that was.

“I’m so sorry. Please don’t leave me,” she says through sobs.

I didn’t tell Kiera about Thalia so she could lord it over my head until she decides to fire that bullet into an argument. Am I wrong to be upset by this? I know that shit has been harder than it’s supposed to be leading up to what is supposed to be the happiest day of our lives, but telling me to marry my ex-girlfriend is uncalled for.

I rest my hands on her shoulders, gently pushing Kiera away from me. “I’m going to Owen’s.”

The color drains from her face, and she grabs for my arms. “No, please don’t go. I can’t lose you.”

“I need to leave before I say something I can’t take back.”

Tears spill down her cheeks, but I can’t feel bad. This isn’t my doing.

“Please, Sebastian.”

---