Page 45 of Catch Me

Kyle pauses, glass of cold apple juice in his hand. “Got home? From where?” His eyebrows scrunch into a puzzled look as he leans back against the counter top.

“Yeah I went to erm,” I stutter, unable to think up a lie quick enough and by the time I lift my eyes back up from the ground Kyle is grinning at me.

“You went to see Lois then?”

I nod sheepishly. “Yeah, I couldn’t sleep so I went over there at about 2am.”

The confused eyebrow scrunch is back when I meet Kyle’s gaze. “Why are you back here so early then?”

I swallow thickly, unsure whether to share what’s going on with one of my best friends. To be honest I'm really fucking lonely in this situation and there's nothing I want more than to rant to someone about how I'm feeling without Lois. My head is scrambled with everything that’s going on with her, not knowing whether we’re going to survive this break and eventually facing Sean's wrath. But Kyle’s listening ear is being held out to me on a silver platter and my hand reaches out and snatches it without my permission.

I sigh heavily. “Ok fine, Lois and I are having a break right now.”

“A break?” Kyle’s blue eyes are wide with concern and for a beat I think he’s going to come over here and hug me.

“Yeah, she wanted some space and to be quite honest, I'm struggling to give it to her.”

“Ahh, I see.” Kyle ponders for a moment, tracing a path down the condensation on his glass of juice. “So…how did you manage to sneak over there last night then?”

I dip my head in shame, elbows against the cold marble surface. “I had a nightmare, about her with another guy and I couldn’t get the image of them both out of my head. There was no way I was getting any sleep unless I went over there and saw that she was in fact not in bed with someone else.”

Kyle sucks his teeth, floppy blonde hair falling to one side. “It’s giving paranoia Andersen, be careful you don’t scare her off.”

“Don’t say that.” I run a shaky hand through my hair. “I just feel fucking empty man, I don’t know how to describe it, it’s like…” I glance up, catching Kyle’s empathetic gaze. “Like I'm missing a puzzle piece when I'm not with her. I just feel like a shell of my usual self, knowing I don’t get to go home to her at night, don’tget to kiss her or have her hair tickling my face when I go to sleep.”

Kyle drops his empty glass into the sink and moves around the island towards me. “I know man, I totally get how you must feel.” His hand lands with a pat on my shoulder. “I think you just gotta suffer though for the next few days, she needs space and if you don’t give it to her she’ll resent you for it.”

I drop my head again, nodding. “Yeah, I know.”

Kyle’s palms land on my shoulders and with a sympathetic squeeze he moves past me towards the stairs. But he stops half way up and clears his throat, pulling my attention back to his face that’s now swallowed in the shadows of the early morning.

“She’ll come back to you, don’t worry about that.” He smiles a little, corners of his lips turned up. “She loves you, anyone with a pair of working eyes can see that.”

“Thanks man, I hope you’re right.” I murmur quietly, letting my chin land on my chest as both hands ruffle my hair with growing anxiety and frustration.

I know the next couple of days will be the longest of my life, but I also know that Kyle is right and I have to give Lois the space she’s asked for. If I don’t do this for her, it might damage our relationship going forward and that’s not something I'm willing to risk.

CHAPTER 24

LOIS

I either have the world’s worst hangover that’s already lasted three days without me having touched a drop of alcohol, or I'm missing Nick so much I can hardly function. I think the latter must be true because like I said, I haven’t so much as sniffed a martini in the past week. It’s been three days since Nick snuck into my bed in the middle of the night and allowed me to slip into the best sleep of my life. I couldn’t tell him how much I’ve been struggling without him, this break was my idea and I knew I needed it at the time. But now, being without him for three days I feel like my usual positive self has disintegrated and I'm currently walking around the dorm like a zombie.

“Are you sick?” Molly’s concerned voice snaps me back to reality, the one where I'm currently pouring milk into an already overflowing cup of coffee.

“Shit,” I curse, yanking a cloth from the drawer and mopping up the waterfall of milk that cascades down over the edge of the counter top.

Molly’s hand grips mine, stopping me. “Let me do it,” her voice is soft, worried and I nod my head once, moving away from the puddle of mess that I created.

Molly mops the ground with the now milk soaked cloth, peering up at me with worry pulling at her eyebrows. “Are you ok?”

My mouth almost answers for me, before I get a chance to think and the automatic denial of there being anything wrong slips out. But I stop it this time, why should I pretend I'm ok when I'm clearly not? Molly already knows it anyway, the way she’s looking at me, she can read me like a book.

“No, I'm not ok, I'm really struggling actually.”

Molly gets to her feet, launching the cloth into the laundry basket in the hallway with perfect precision.

She’s so good at everything, god she’s annoying.

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