Sight Chapter 45: Dependence

*** author’s note: warning: there’s some language.***
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6:31 p.m. | DeCarlo House
Odd. Cailean thinks. After a few short rings, his call to Aislyn goes straight to voicemail. He tries calling back, and this time there are no rings at all as the robotic voice on the other end instructs him to leave a message. Maybe her phone died. Of course Cailean knew that was no explanation for her silence all day. He himself had been busy, so he understood if it was just a hectic Monday for Aislyn as well. But something about her had seemed off last night and he couldn’t help but worry. Cailean’s phone buzzes in his hand and he glances down to see that it’s a text from Chad. He unlocks his phone and reads the message. 

Of all the things Chad could’ve said, him asking for a cover from Cailean was the last thing he expected. To say Chad and Mai were transparent with one another in their relationship was an understatement. Cailean knew he wouldn’t have made such a request without good reason, so he sends an Okay in response.

As he slides his phone back into his pocket, the doorbell rings, and Cailean rises to answer it. “I got it!” He calls out. Stan had just returned from a business trip and was upstairs settling in. They’d planned on eating dinner together. A few years ago when his mother and Stan ended up getting married, Cailean didn’t know what to expect. He’d read some forums on the internet where people either shared wonderful stories about step parents or horror ones, but Stan had turned out to be just as good natured a person as his dad had been. Granted their relationship wasn’t the same, not even close. But Cailean felt he owed it to his mother to welcome the person that came into her life and helped her find some happiness after the tragic passing of his father, and so, he made an effort with Stan whenever he could. 

Having gotten distracted by his own thoughts on his way to the door, Cailean can’t mask his surprise upon seeing Mai standing in the doorway. “Mai, hey. What’s up?” She pulls him into a one armed hug. “Why the look of utter shock?” She asks with a cocked eyebrow. “I just wasn’t expecting to see you. Hasn’t nurse life been draining you?” He asks. “It has, but that doesn’t mean I can’t spare some time to see friends.” She says. “Right. Come on in.” Cailean says as he steps aside to let her enter. “Anyone home?” She asks as she walks past him. “Just Stan, he’s upstairs.” “Can we talk outside?” Mai asks as she turns to look at him. Cailean gives a stiff nod and begins walking towards the patio. 

As far as lying went, Cailean absolutely detested the action. Mostly because his father drilled the notion that a dishonest man wasn’t a man into him from a young age. He also didn’t think he was very good at it, especially in front of people who knew him well, as Mai certainly did. He accepted Chad’s request partially because he didn’t think she’d come to speak with him in person so soon. Mai sits down on the steps outside, and Cailean joins her. “It’s a beautiful night.” She says. “It is.” Cailean does his best to sound casual, but suspects he’s coming across rather tense. “You’re working on that Phillips case, right?” Cailean relaxes. Discussing work wasn’t something he could do freely, but compared to lying, it was a much preferred topic of conversation. “Yeah, why?”

“Today some journalists came by. From Bayville of all places. They wanted to see Mr. and Mrs. Phillips but I notified them that they were already discharged.”

“I know, I spoke to Walter Phillips myself today.”

“You did?” Mai asks, turning to him in shock. “Why are you so surprised?” “It’s just…” Mai pauses to rest her head on her hands. “The whole time they were admitted to our ICU ward, none of our medical staff got to see them. I mean, I heard rich people were pretentious-” “Don’t let Gus hear you say that.” Cailean jests. Mai laughs. “But, to refuse our care and bring their own people in is just unheard of. What’s weirder is our director allowed it.” “That is odd.” Cailean chimes in. “Going back to the journalists though, they were weird too.” Mai presses on.

“How so?”

“It’s not uncommon for different media outlets to grill us for details we can’t give, but that’s normally right when something happens, not days after when the noise has died down.”

“That’s true” Cailean leans forward. “Did they mention what they were working on?” Mai shakes her head. “I know figuring out what happened is your job, what I told you may not be relevant at all to what you’re doing, but I thought you should know.” “Thanks for telling me.” Cailean says. “Actually, since you’re here…” Cailean reaches into his pocket and pulls out the paper Mr. Marseille had given him at the Phillips residence earlier.

“Could you take a look into this for me?” He asks as he hands it over to Mai. She opens it and glances at the name scrawled on the page. “Michael Bates?” She says aloud. “Who’s he?” “Not entirely sure, but I have a suspicion.” Cailean runs a hand through his hair. “I swung by my mom’s office on the way back from the Phillips’s and when I had her look up the name in the OPD’s database, nothing turned up. I’m hoping you’ll have more luck with medical records.”

“I could, but you know I’m technically not allowed to share what I find with you. Not unless your mother or her force has a warrant out for this guy, which you’ve just informed me that they don’t.”

“I know.” Cailean says, well aware of what exactly he was asking. Mai narrows her eyes at him. “Who gave this to you?” She asks.

“Can’t say.”

“What’s your suspicion.”

“Can’t say.”

Mai shakes her head. “What exactly can you say?”

“Not much. That’s the nature of the job.”

“Of course it is.” Mai says with an exasperated sigh.

“Last question: Is this Cailean the prosecutor asking, or Cailean my friend?” “Both.” He says with a smile that Mai returns. “The last thing I want to do is put you in a situation where you could get into trouble, Mai, but-” “Say no more, Cailean. I’ll see what I can do.” “Thanks.” “Don’t thank me yet, there’s a chance I won’t turn up with anything, but I promise I’ll try.” Cailean leans back against the railing. “Thank you.” He says again, and they sit quietly for a moment.

“How was your early dinner?” Mai asks, eventually breaking the silence. Cailean was about to say he hadn’t eaten yet when he remembered Chad’s text. “With Chad? It was good.” He hopes he sounds convincing. “Where’d you go?” Oh, no. Cailean thinks. He’d expected to hear the full story from Chad before having to cover for him, so he hadn’t pressed for details. “Martha’s Pub.” He says and he instantly regrets it as Mai flinches. He expects her to call him out, but she only shakes her head and laughs. “Well, I should be heading back now, I have an early shift tomorrow.” “Okay.” Cailean says apprehensively. “I’ll hang onto this.” Mai says as she slips Mr. Marseille’s paper into her breast pocket. “Right.” Cailean says.

He’s about to rise to walk Mai out when she rests a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t bother.” She says, and even though she was still wearing a smile, her eyes were ice cold. “I can see myself out.” She adds. The look she gives him was enough to let Cailean know she most definitely caught him in his lie. “Goodnight.” She says over her shoulder as she makes her way back towards the patio doors. “Night.” Cailean says after her, knowing better than to go against her wishes. Once he hears Mai’s engine start, and its sound echo around the house, he pulls out his phone and sends a text to Chad.

You might be in trouble.
___

9:07 p.m. | Persefoni Home
Aislyn found herself amazed at her ability to navigate the highways home while emotionally distressed not only once, but for two consecutive nights in a row. Granted seeing Cailean’s father did leave her more shaken than her evening with Axel had, but she considered it a feat nonetheless. They’d spent the ride back throwing theories around as to what could be in the hidden floor of that warehouse, with none of their guesses light-hearted in nature. When Aislyn dropped Axel off in front of his apartment, he’d told her it’d be better to keep their discovery to themselves, and she agreed. 

“I’m home.” Aislyn says, popping her head into the kitchen when she comes upstairs. “Evening, Aislyn.” Nicole says as she hand washes some dishes in the sink. “Hey there, kiddo.” Her dad says, turning around to greet her. Aislyn glances behind him and notices three cups of coffee on the counter, and wonders which of the two needed the extra caffeine boost amid their nursery preparations. “You’re back late.” Her father says in concern. “Today was a rather eventful day.” She says. Nicole shuts off the water and gives her a bright smile. “There’s a surprise in your room.” “Please don’t tell me you bought me more clothes, I’m still working through the last things you got me.” “You’ll see.” Her father says. Aislyn looks at them questioningly, “Okay. Well, I’m going to go change now.” “Night.” Her father and Nicole say in unison. “Night.” Aislyn echoes, amused.

As she walks away from the kitchen, her smile fades. Her adrenaline spike had completely left her, and now Aislyn felt cold, slightly light headed, and bone tired. She grabs a pair of sweats and a t-shirt from a folded pile in the laundry room she’d yet to put away and heads into the shower. The hot water doesn’t do much to relax her as she still feels rather tense when she steps out.

While rubbing on some of a moisturizer Nicole had gifted her recently, Aislyn wonders how she and Axel’s evening discovery would impact the trajectory of their investigation into the Phillips Construction Company, if at all. With a sigh, she switches off the light and makes her way towards her room, looking forward to getting a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow there’d be plenty of time to worry.

When she opens the door, she fully expects to see J.D, waiting for her to fill him in, and is shocked at the sight of Kimberly twisting her hair into a bun by her dresser instead. “Woah.” Aislyn says in surprise. “About time!” Kim exclaims, “Do you normally get in this late?” Kim reaches out to hug Aislyn. “No, this was a first.” Aislyn replies, opening her arms to return Kim’s embrace. “Hope you don’t mind, but I made myself quite at home. I came straight from work so I bought what I needed on the way over.” Kim gestures to Aislyn’s table that now held a plethora of her belongings. “You have the sweetest parents.” She adds.

The idea of there being a guest in the house hadn’t entered Aislyn’s mind, and suddenly the extra cup of coffee downstairs made sense, as did the surprise her father and Nicole had mentioned. “I know.” Aislyn says with a warm smile. “Not that I’m not thrilled to see you, Kim, but what are you doing here?” Kim steps back and hops onto the bed, patting the space beside her. “I told you when we talked last night that I want to help. You didn’t think I was just going to let you worry around by yourself, did you? Actually, don’t answer that. You’re used to handling things on your own, so you probably did.”

“Well, you aren’t wrong.” Aislyn says as she joins her. “Have you talked to Cailean?” Kim asks. Aislyn thinks back to the call from earlier she’d hastily declined with a pang of guilt. “Not since yesterday, no.” “Are you planning to?” Aislyn shakes her head. “I’d rather not talk about that right now.” “Aislyn-” Kim says disapprovingly. “How did your date with Gus go?” Her attempt at distracting Kim is successful. “How’d you know about that?” Kim asks with a blush. “I take it that it went well. Very well from the look on your face.” Kim playfully swats her arm. “We went to an art gallery, which was quite fun actually. But it paled in comparison to afterwards…” “Do tell.” Aislyn says with a raised eyebrow. “He told me he had feelings for me.” Kim beams. “And then we slept together. Twice. It was better that I’d thought it would be if that were possible… and we’re dating now.”

“I’m happy for you, Kim.” Aislyn says genuinely. “It must’ve been hard, liking him for as long as you have.” Aislyn thinks back to the moment Kim had told her about her long held feelings for Gus while they were trapped in an underground rusted cell, being held against their will by the Perelli brothers. It was hard to wrap her head around how her relationship with Kim from then had transformed into what it was now, but she was thankful. “Gus isn’t the type to discuss his emotions, so I wonder what made him decide to open up to me.” Kim says. Aislyn shrugs, amused. She didn’t want Kim to think she betrayed her trust by talking to Gus. In her mind, she gave him a much needed push, but his feelings for Kim were already there and that’s what mattered.

“Anyway, I’m here to talk about your love life, not mine.” Kim says, recomposing herself. “What are you going to do about Cailean’s dad?” “I told you, nothing. At least for now.” Aislyn twists the bracelet on her hand to avoid having to face the judgement in Kim’s  eyes. “You told me before that ghosts linger around because they have something they didn’t finish, like your friend.” “J.D? Yeah.” “What if Mr. DeCarlo’s business has to do with Cailean, then you’d have to tell him, wouldn’t you?” Kim questions. “In the past I’ve managed to help people move on without disclosing my ability.” “Aislyn!” Kim chides. “What?” “Where do you see your relationship with Cailean going?” Aislyn is thrown off by the question.

“What do you mean?”

“I think you know exactly what I mean.” Kim says while raising her eyebrows. 

“I don’t know… I haven’t really thought that far ahead.” 

“Sounds to me like you’re not taking it seriously.”

“That’s not true.” Aislyn protests. “Tell me, Aislyn, have you and Cailean been intimate with one another?” It was Aislyn’s turn to blush. “No.” “Sounds to me like you’ve had plenty of opportunities on Valentine’s day to take that next step, if you wanted to, but you didn’t. Why?” “I wanted to. I still want to, but…” “But?” Kim echoes. Aislyn reddens even more. “Everyone goes at their own pace, don’t they?” Aislyn averts her eyes from Kim’s stare. “That’s very true, but that’s not your reasoning, is it?” “No, it isn’t.” Aislyn says with a defeated sigh.

“I keep feeling this immense guilt in the pit of my stomach that trumps the desire beside it, because of the lies I keep telling him.”

“Aislyn, take it from someone who has known Cailean for as long as I have. One of the things he hates most on this planet is a liar.” Aislyn swallows. “Don’t get me wrong, I totally understand where you’re coming from. But, you’re so preoccupied with how Cailean could look at you if he knows about your ability that you’re overlooking how he’ll actually feel about you once he finds out you’ve been keeping things from him all this time.” “I get it, but-” “No, you don’t.” Kim interrupts. “Growing up he’s always felt pretty strongly about honesty because of his father. It’s not my place to say…”

Kim pauses to bite her lip, deliberating whether or not to share what she’s about to, and decides to press on. “Cailean was hurt pretty bad by his ex. She’d ended up betraying his trust by – you guessed it – lying to him. You’re the first person he’s started seeing since that whole fiasco went down.” “What happened?” Aislyn asks. “If it’s something Cailean wants you to know about, you’ll hear it from him.” Kim says, and Aislyn respects her loyalty. “Do you think Cailean doesn’t know there’s something up with you?” “Well, I thought I was doing a pretty good job of keeping him in the dark, but Cailean’s told me multiple times that the fact I don’t open up to him much bothers him, even if it’s to spare him any worrying.” Aislyn says and Kim laughs.

“But there’s a difference between saying, ‘Hey Cailean, I had a tough day at work today’ and ‘Hey Cailean, by the way I can see dead people, one of which is your father.’” Aislyn says slightly exasperated. Kim places a hand on her shoulder. “I’m not saying you have to tell him everything right away, but you should trust him enough to at least tell him some of the things you’ve told me so he can understand you better. At the very least about your accident, or your mom, if you don’t want to tell him about your ability just yet. I don’t know what you spend your phone calls discussing, but you’re still very much a mystery to him.” Aislyn nods and Kim draws her hand back satisfied.

“Maybe that’ll help close the distance he feels is between you and can help you bring on the sexy-time.” Aislyn furrows her brows. “He said he feels there’s a distance between us?” “Well if you want specifics he said ‘Aislyn is holding me at arm’s length,’ so yeah.” Aislyn could feel the guilt in her gut growing. “I’m rooting for you two so I trust you’ll do what’s best when the time’s right. That goes for helping Cailean’s dad as well.” Aislyn attempts to smile but can feel it doesn’t reach her eyes, she didn’t have even a fraction of the faith in herself that Kim had that she wouldn’t somehow make things worse in her attempts to make them better.

“I hope you’re right.”
___

6:49 a.m. | Tower Apartments, Unit 403
The sound of the door rattling open starts Axel awake. He’d fallen asleep with his head in his hand and his movement causes him to fall onto the table face-first. “Fuck.” He groans when his forehead makes contact with the wood. “Did you sleep out here?” He hears Desirée ask as she enters. “Well, I was waiting for you and you never showed.” He says as he rubs the sore spot on his face. “That’s because I was at my other place taking care of what you asked me to do.” Axel had given Desirée a heads up during his lunch with Aislyn yesterday that he’d most likely need her help that evening when scoping the warehouse out. He’d texted her when they arrived, and Rey immediately went to work going through the cameras and disabling them, it’s how Axel knew the place was deserted when he’d decided to look around with Aislyn. “Afterwards I had other assignments to finish that ate up the entire night. I’m exhausted.” Desirée says as she locks the door.

“I called.” He says as he turns to look at her. “Yeah, don’t do that again.” Desirée says angrily, placing a hand on her hip as she comes to a stop in front of him. “When I’m working, I drop off the grid. Answering calls puts me back on it. If I want you to contact me while I’m taking care of shit, I’ll give you the number to my burner. If not, that means do-not-disturb. Got it?” Axel nods. “Good.” She says. “I figured you’d know that considering you’ve never called me the other times you’ve asked for my help.”

“Things were different this time.”

“Ahhh.” Rey says with a glimmer of amusement in her eyes. “You mean because you brought along a date.” “I thought you disabled all of the cameras.” Axel says ignoring her statement. “Doesn’t mean I didn’t peek through them first.” Desirée says, looking smug. Axel rolls his eyes. “That doesn’t look like the face of someone who should be thanking me for ensuring his romantic snooping session went without a hitch.” “Except it didn’t go without a hitch, did it?” Desirée looks at him in confusion. “What do you mean? I checked every corner of that place through every camera they had. It was empty.”

“No, it wasn’t.”

“That’s impossible.”

“There’s a hidden floor beneath the warehouse. I was trying to reach you to see if you could tell me what exactly is down there.” Desirée shakes her head. “Whatever’s underground, there are no functioning cameras in it.” Axel presses his lips into a grim line. “Guess we’ve got to go about getting our answers the old-fashioned way.” “We?” Desirée echoes. “Me and my team at work, I didn’t mean you, Rey. I’m quite done asking for your help actually, at least in regards to this piece. Especially since I have a bad feeling about it now.” Rey crosses her arms.

“What if I want to help?”

“You can’t.”

She glares at him. “You can’t tell me what I can and can’t do.” “You’re right, I can’t. But you won’t be getting any more requests from me, and that’s final.” Axel says sternly. “In case you haven’t noticed, I deal with dangerous people on almost a daily basis, and I fare just fine.” Desirée says dismissively. “If something ends up going wrong, and you get hurt or in trouble, I want no part in being responsible for it.” Axel meets her glare. Upon hearing his words, her expression softens. She reaches for Axel’s hand, walks him over to the couch, and sits beside him.

“Axel, your concern is sweet, but I’ve been doing what I do long before I met you and I’ll continue to do so even after we eventually part ways.” Axel was surprised at how much he disliked hearing the latter part of her statement, and quickly shoves those thoughts out of his mind. “I’m not trying to undermine your skill, I’m just not comfortable with the idea, that’s all.” He says. “If you don’t let me help you, I’ll just go around and do some digging behind your back.” Rey smirks. “Fine.” Axel concedes, “You can help.” Rey smiles at him and for a second, behind the fierce, heavy make-up wearing, tattooed woman before him, Axel sees a young girl who looked pleased with being given the opportunity to do something helpful.

“I need to go get ready for work.” Axel says as he rubs his stiff neck. Rey places a hand on his cheek and tilts his face towards her. “Hmm.” She says thoughtfully. “What?” Axel asks, expecting one of her usual jests or suggestive comments. “You look nice without your glasses.” She says after letting her eyes drift across his face. Axel chuckles. “Is that a backhanded compliment intended to imply I look bad with them on.” “No, you look nice with them on too.” The seriousness of her tone makes Axel freeze. Without another word, Rey rises and heads to her room. Before she goes, Axel thinks he catches her blush, but she leaves too quickly for him to be sure.
___

7:00 a.m. | Aislyn’s Room
At seven sharp Aislyn’s alarm starts ringing and she quickly rolls out of bed to shut it off. She notes with some amusement that Kim doesn’t stir in the slightest. With a yawn, she drops back onto her sheets. After discussing all things boy-related, they’d chatted about work briefly before loading up a movie on Aislyn’s laptop and then staying up to watch it. Aislyn could tell Kim was making an effort to lift her spirits and she appreciated it.

Last she checked the clock, it was close to 3:30 a.m. There was no meeting with Silva this morning so if Aislyn was a little late, she supposed it’d be alright. Just as she’s about to fall back asleep, a warmth spreads over her that jolts her awake. She opens her eyes and sees J.D. leaning on the wall behind Kim.

“Looks like my spot is occupied.” He says with a smirk as he tips his head in Kim’s direction. “Where were you?” Aislyn says quietly, her voice thick with sleep. “I came back late last night but you and your friend seemed to be fawning over some actor in whatever rom-com you were watching, so I kept myself occupied around town.”

“You could’ve said something, Kim knows about you.”

“Does she now?” J.D. asks, cocking his eyebrow. Aislyn remembers just how much she’d yet to fill him in on regarding her very eventful weekend and Monday. She starts to get out of bed quietly. “Whatever it is you have to tell me, it can wait if you’re tired, Sunshine.” “It really can’t. I’ve been dying to talk to you since Sunday morning.” J.D. opens his mouth to protest, but Aislyn is already at the door.
___

7:47 a.m.
J.D. lets out a low whistle. “The one time I leave you to your own devices, all this happens.” “I know.” Aislyn was hoarse from all her talking. She’d started by telling J.D. about her chat with Gus at his house, her dinner with Cailean at hers, followed by her morning with Mrs. DeCarlo at the graveyard and evening with both Cailean and his father before lastly, her phone call with Kim, outing with Axel in Ravensburg, and most recent chat with Kim. “Well?” She says. “I don’t know what to say.” J.D. shrugs. “I’ve found myself wishing you were around only about a hundred times these past 48 hours so you’re going to have to do better than that.” She says in a near whisper. “It’s cute how your voice gives out any time you talk for more than two seconds because you’re so not used to it.” J.D. says, doing his best, and failing, to suppress his grin. “J.D!” “Okay, okay. I know you’re desperate to get advice from moi, the wisest guy you know.” Aislyn wishes she could nudge him. “But it seems to me like Kim’s been doing a great job giving me a run for my money as your confidant. So why does it matter what I think?” While he started out in a jovial tone, J.D. ends his sentence so seriously it catches Aislyn off guard.

“Why does it matter?” Aislyn echoes incredulously. “You really want me to stroke your ego that badly?” She jokes, trying to steer out of the odd atmosphere that had formed around them. “It couldn’t hurt.” J.D. says but his expression does not change. “J.D, you’ve said it yourself time and time again that you’re the only person who knows me, actually knows me. What was it you said? Better than I know myself. ” “Those were my words, yes.” Aislyn sees a ghost of a smile appear on his lips before fading. “You word all my troubles and fears so succinctly, and then make them seem so minor that I immediately feel like a weight’s been taken off of me just by speaking to you. I-” Aislyn pauses to swallow, more vulnerable than usual. “I don’t have a ‘happy place’ I can go to when I’m stressed. I have you. Whatever crazy idea I come up with, or terrible way I handle something, as long as you’re there, I know everything will be okay.”

J.D. looks at her with an expression so sad it makes Aislyn’s throat constrict. “But that’s a problem, Sunshine.” He says. “What do you mean?” “You being so dependent on me is not a good thing. I gave this a great deal of thought back when you were unconscious after your plunge into the river with Kim when you were kidnapped, and again when Maddie moved on. I won’t be around forever. Eventually, you’re going to have to mourn me, someone you never really got to meet, and then navigate this world without me in addition to that.”

“There was a time I did that you know. Before you came along.”

“Maybe you should go back to that. Constantly relying on me isn’t healthy for you.” Aislyn winces. What J.D. was saying was the last thing she’d expected, or wanted, to hear him say. Aislyn didn’t cry, but she was very close to it now.

The fact she was feeling this emotional would only serve to prove J.D’s point, and she was determined to not give him the satisfaction of doing so. She rises off the ground and walks to the balcony railing as naturally as possible. With a sigh she drums her hands on the railing to distract herself from the tears pooling behind her eyes. She had a feeling J.D. had caught on to her anyway, but he politely decides not to comment on her very visible distress. He instead joins her, and carefully continues to talk without meeting her eyes, which she was sure were glowing with tears at this point.

“I think this will be a good time for you to begin thinking about how to handle things, not on your own, but with people who can be there for you. And I mean actually be there for you in a way that I can’t. Hug you when you have a bad day, pick you up when you fall, wipe your tears when you cry-” “I don’t cry.” Aislyn interrupts, knowing how much she sounds like a whiny child. Her eyes were now burning with her effort to hold back her tears, and she was aware how ironic her words were. Beside her J.D. shakes his head. “That’s right, you don’t. But the rest of what I said still holds true.”

He turns to look at her and Aislyn keeps her eyes plastered on the water before her with the boat of a lonely sailor drifting by. “Perhaps some time apart will do you some good. Perhaps it’ll give you the chance to allow someone else, like pretty-boy or Kim, to become what I am to you.” Aislyn grinds her teeth together “I won’t be around forever, Aislyn.” He repeats. She finally turns to look at him. “I know that.” She whispers, and with a sad smile J.D. disappears.
___

8:59 a.m.
“You sure take long showers.” Kim says as she bites into a chocolate scone from the box of pastries her father had gone out and bought in the morning before heading to work with Nicole. Aislyn couldn’t stomach anything sweet and opted for some toast and cheese. “I didn’t know when you’d wake up so I took my time.” Aislyn reaches up to tuck some of her grown out bangs behind her ears. She’d spent nearly an hour crying in the shower after J.D. had left and realized that every word of what he said was true. Her dependence on him had become borderline unhealthy. After all, the last time she’d cried like that was when she was in her freshman year of college. When she had gazed at her reflection in the mirror she looked terrible, her eyes red and puffy. She decided to overline them and dab on some concealer to try and cover them as best she could.

“You wear his clothes, that’s adorable.” Kim giggles. “Huh?” Aislyn says, unable to follow Kim’s comment as her mind was jumbled with thoughts of J.D. “That jacket.” Kim says, tilting her head towards the one she was wearing. “It’s his, right? Cailean’s.” Aislyn looks down and realizes it was the one he had given to her during their Valentine’s date. She had absentmindedly put it on when she was getting dressed just because she’d wanted something warm. Aislyn couldn’t tell if it was just a cold day, or if she was simply feeling like it was because of J.D’s absence. “Oh. Yeah.” She says aloud. “Adorable.” Kim repeats as she begins sipping on her coffee.

“What are you going to do about work?” Aislyn asks. “I’m ditching today, called in sick.” Kim says proudly. “Are you not going to finish that?” She asks and Aislyn looks down at her half-eaten breakfast and shakes her head. “Not that hungry.” She says. “May I?” “Go for it.” Aislyn pushes out her plate and Kim picks up her sandwich, setting it down after a bite. “I haven’t really been here before.”  Kim continues. “And while talking to your dad and Nicole last night, they very kindly gave me a list of places to visit. I mainly plan on shopping though. I could use a new bathing suit, and Nicole was very helpful with that.”

“Shopping is Nicole’s specialty.” Aislyn says with her first genuine smile of the morning. It doesn’t last very long. “I still can’t believe you have an ex-supermodel as your step-mom, that’s so cool.” Kim says. Aislyn doesn’t answer and Kim looks at her in concern. “Aislyn? Are you-” “Sorry, thinking about work.” She interrupts, glancing at her phone to make her lie seem legitimate. “I need to head out soon. I wish I could show you around properly.” “Don’t sweat it. I’ll be back.” Kim says with a wink. “I appreciate you coming by.” Aislyn says as she rises, and she means it. Kim follows her gesture and pulls her into a hug before reaching down to pick up her dishes. “Remember, I’m here to talk when you need me.” Aislyn knew it wasn’t Kim’s fault, but hearing her say those words didn’t make her feel comforted, not in the slightest. Instead, she felt immensely sad.

—

Well, that probably didn’t go the way you expected when I mentioned J.D. would be returning, hehe. Quite a lot of little things went on here and there. My apologies for the lack of photos. Truth be told, I got kind of lazy and am diverting my energy to a later chapter. Because this ended up so wordy (I think it’s top 3 for my longest chapters ever 😬) I shall trim this ending note and simply say thank you for reading if you have made it to the end ❤ I actually have a little extra post/announcement thing that I plan to put out sometime this week, so you’ll actually be hearing from me again soon~ 🙂 Hope everyone’s staying safe!
Take care,
xoxo Amy