Page 46 of The Wrong Side of Kai
“Uhhh,” I say, awkwardly looking anywhere but at her. Clearly, Kai doesn’t want his parents to know the truth, so how do I answer? I imagine telling her:Sorry, Mrs. Washington, but your son got his ass beatby a guy who we’ve been screwing with thewhole week.I imagine the complete look of horror on her face.
“Mom,” I hear Kai say sharply, saving me from having to lie straight to his mother’s face. I let out a breath of relief when I spot him descending the staircase. He narrows his eyes at her. One is still black and swollen, but at least both eyes are now open fully. The gray sweatpants he’s wearing low on his hips look ridiculously attractive. “Don’t interrogate the guest.”
Cindy holds her hands up in surrender as she backs away. “Okay, okay!” she says, but she eyes Kai with deep concern, pressing her lips together. Kai’s first week at Westerville North hasn’t gone down well – he’s skipped a bunch of classesandgotten into a fight, so I’m surprised his mom is even allowing him to have friends over. “Just yell if you guys need anything.”
“We won’t,” Kai says, then motions for me to join him upstairs. As I fall into place by his side, he flashes me a reassuring grin. I can see the cut in his lower lip.
We pass the living room and his father gives us a wave from in front of the TV, and I make the effort to wave back and offer a polite smile. I can’t help but like Kai’s parents and it’s comforting to know that at this moment in time, they have no reason to believe I’m a terrible person. But I am.
Kai leads me upstairs and into his room, and this time it’s nowhere near as cluttered as it was on Monday. His bed is unmade, there’s still laundry scattered all over the floor, and there are too many cans of soda and water bottles on his bedside table, but everything else has been pushed into one corner of the room. I notice the Netflix home screen on his TV.
“Are we Netflix and chilling?” I joke. The thought makes my skin feel hot, but I kid myself it’s just the intense heat in this house. I pull off my coat and throw it over the back of his desk chair.
Kai grins and dives onto his bed, sprawling out. He props his head up with a pillow and looks at me. “I’ve been watching that crime documentary all day. The one I told you about,” he confesses. “I’m still piecing together my conspiracy theory.”
I sit on the edge of the bed, crossing my legs. I keep a certain distance between us for now. “How are you feeling?” I ask, my brows pinched together in sympathy. I still feel awful for being the reason Kai ended up getting hurt the way he did, and I haven’t yet told him how I messed upagaintoday. He doesn’t know that I’ve made everything much worse than it already was, simply because I couldn’t control my impulses. “By the way, I’m returning your bike. You need it more than I do, so I’ve put it in your back yard.”
“Thanks. And let me think,” Kai says, then lifts his shirt and prods at his ribs with his fingers. I try not to stare, but it’s near impossible to stop my heart skipping a beat at the sight of his abs. The smooth curves of his waist, the hem of his boxers. . . “A little bruised, but I doubt I’ve fractured anything. And my face? Well, I guess it just looks badass.”
I crawl across the bed and lie down next to him, staring up at the ceiling, my hands pressed to my face. “It’s my fault,” I mumble, my voice full of remorse. “You were right. We should have stopped all of this yesterday, and Harrison would have never found out that you were helping me.”
I sense Kai shift from beside me, and when I drop my hands from my face, I find him propped up on one elbow and staring down at me. His smile is lazy. “And who was the one who suggested we do this in the first place?”
“You. . . But we never meant for it to get this bad, did we?” I sit up and cross my legs, anxiously fidgeting with my hands in my lap. I can’t look at him. “Kai,” I say. “After the fight. . . I was so mad. I couldn’t stop myself.”
Concern slowly fills Kai’s tender gaze. “What did you do, Nessie?”
“I never told you about some photos I found on Harrison’s phone,” I admit. “I was holding on to them, but I didn’t ever plan to use them. They were nudes.”
Kai snorts, and I snap my eyes up to give him a firm look. This isn’t funny right now. The regret is eating me up and I’ve spent the entire afternoon wishing I could take back what I did. In fact, I wish I’d never started any of this in the first place. I should have just dealt with Harrison face-to-face in a more mature manner. At least then I would have been the bigger, better person.
Instead I chose to retaliate.
“I stuck one of the photos on Harrison’s locker,” I say. “It seemed like a good idea in the moment. Sort of like we’d come full circle. I wanted to make the final move. But now. . . now Harrison will just hit us back even harder!”
I shouldn’t have printed out that photo, and I definitely shouldn’t have taped it to Harrison’s locker for the entire school to lay eyes on – it was a step too far and I hate myself for letting things get this bad. Kai and I should have never made this into a game.
“I’m sure my ribs can handle another beating.”
“Kai!” I hiss. His sarcasm and teasing, for once, are getting on my nerves. I need him to level with me, to be serious and reassure me that we’ll get through this, because right now, I really don’t know if we can. I already burst into tears yesterday morning when Harrison and his friends cornered me in that janitor’s closet, and today Kai has sustained too many cuts and bruises to count. We’re done.
“Then we’ll tell Harrison that it’s over,” Kai says calmly. “Like, we’ll strike up a peace deal. He doesn’t screw with you anymore, and we won’t screw with him. He’d be an idiot to ignore that.” Kai moves his body closer to mine and surprises me when he rests his head in my lap, staring at the TV. “Can you play with my hair?” he asks.
I gently weave my fingers through his curls, feeling their softness against my hands. I run my fingertips down to the shaved section of his hair at the nape of his neck, massaging as I go. We sit in silence for a few minutes while my hands move over his head, and I wonder if he’s napping. “Did you ask me over so I could soothe you to sleep?”
“No,” Kai says, “I wanted to see you.” He twists his body around so that his head is still in my lap, but now he’s looking up at me. The corner of his mouth curves into a smile. “I think this has been the longest we’ve gone this week without having seen each other.”
One hand is still resting in Kai’s hair, the other is on his chest. I look down into his eyes and I can’t remember a time when they were ever unfamiliar to me. Monday feels like so long ago. “Right? We’ve spent so much time together that I feel like I’ve known you for months.”
“Youwishyou’d known me for months,” he says, his smile transforming into a grin.
“Thank God you got kicked out of Central,” I say with a laugh. “Otherwise I may never have been anything more than that girl who spilled her drink on you.”
“Aren’t you glad that I worked up the courage to talk to you in the school office?”
“You know I am,” I whisper, and I run my eyes over him, taking in his gorgeous features. I touch the tip of my finger to his eyebrow, then softly skim my thumb over one of the grazes on his cheek. He parts his lips a little, and I touch the cut on his lower lip too. His gaze is locked on me as I draw a map between every little cut and bruise on his face.
“Then kiss me,” he breathes.
