Amongst The Water-Fresh Waters

Chapter 15: Goodbye. Hello! Part 1

(First Uploaded: March 2014 Dates updated: January or February 2018; October 31 2019; Jan. 23, 2020 1:27PM)

Kylie and Darla are in Kylie's room talking about their last day together before Darla and Jacob go back to West Virginia. Darla looks into Kylie's brown eyes. She notices the pain in her friends' eyes. "I know you don't want to talk about it Kylie, but I think it'd be good to let it out. You shouldn't keep it all in. It's been almost a week." Darla encourages her to talk about her and Jacob's breakup. Kylie sobs. Her shoulders shake. Darla draws her in her arms for a hug. She rubs her back consoling her. "Kylie I'm sorry Jacob has been distant and not himself lately." She apologizes for her cousin. Kylie pulls away from Darla. Kylie stops crying and wipes the tears off her face. "That's the thing, Darla. I think it is him now. Even when he was on his meds, sometimes he still acted like this." Kylie holds back another sob from creeping up on her. Darla looks at her concerned. "What did he do Kylie?" She asks. Kylie shakes her head mortified. "The same thing he did at Madison's party." She tears up again. Darla's eyes widen in concern. "What?! NO!" Darla reaches for Kylie's hands and holds them. Kylie looks at Darla. "But it didn't get as far as it did at Maddie's Birthday party and I wasn't drugged this time. We were still clothed." Darla lets out a sigh of relief. "Thank gosh!" She exclaims. "So why did he stop?" Darla asks. Kylie looks at Darla. "Finn saved me. He saw us having a picnic and overheard me tell Jacob to get off me and Finn came to my rescue." She smiles. Darla looks at Kylie concerned. "OH." Kylie looks at Darla's expression. She tilts her head. "What? He wasn't watching us. I promise you he wasn't. I know him. We are friends and he wouldn't do that. He's not some creep. He was on his way to a trail near the place Jacob and I were and saw Jacob pressuring me and heard me telling Jacob to get off of me." Darla puts her arms up in protest. "I never said he was. Kylie shrugs. "I'm sorry, but the look on your face said otherwise." Darla looks up and sees Jacob in the doorway. Kylie looks in Darla's direction. Kylie freezes up. Jacob's eyes feel like they are burning Kylie. No longer able to take it, Kylie gets off her bed and sits at her desk and gets on her laptop. Jacob looks at Darla. "So, our flight leaves in a few hours, and Kevin made lunch for us before he takes us to the Airport." Darla nods at Jacob and answers. "Okay. I'll be down in a few." Jacob looks at Kylie. "Will you be down and join too, Kye." Jacob asks nicely. Kylie stops what she's doing as her stomach does flips as she hears him call her Kye. She looks down at her keyboard. "I don't know." She mumbles. "Can you not call me that? It's...it's too hard." She says her voice cracking. She wipes her tears away. Jacob steps in her room and peeks around and sees her crying. He tears up too. He looks around her room taking in the many items that he got her or made her during their relationship. He focuses on a poorly made Christmas card posted on her Corkboard. He points at it. "I can't believe you kept that after so many years." Kylie turns around and looks at the Corkboard. "Yeah. That was the moment you said you had a crush on me." Kylie says. Jacob looks at her. "Yeah. At church during Bible School wasn't the ideal time to tell you. Especially since it was the only time I went to church with you." Kylie and Jacob both laugh. "Yeah, probably not. But Mrs. Michaels said it was sweet and the best card she saw made by a 7-year-old." Jacob shrugs. "And I told her that it was terrible. And not as good as Becky Bakers." Kylie laughs. "Hey! Becky Bakers is part of a huge art school family. She was probably painting in the womb." Kylie says. Jacob laughs. He looks at Kylie, enjoying this moment. Probably the last moment he'll ever have with her. After what he's done, she probably will never speak to him again. "I wish we could stay together Kye.." He stops himself. "I mean Kylie. I miss this. The laughing, the reminiscing." Kylie looks at her phone on her bed ringing. Darla looks at it and notices the name on the screen. She looks at Kylie curious. Jacob looks at the phone too. He rolls his eyes. "So he's calling you now too. First, you kiss him for something for school, then he stops us from making out, and now he's harassing you? Will he ever stop." Kylie looks at Jacob. "It's not like that Jacob. I told you we are friends and he's not harassing me. Why don't you believe me?" She asks. Jacob rolls his eyes. "Maybe because you told me the kiss for that play for school was for school but it meant more to you and you liked it and you are glad it happened." Kylie flinches, felling like someone punched her in the gut. Darla looks at Kylie shocked. Kylie looks at Darla. "That's not true!" She shrieks. She flinches at her own voice. "Well, the part of me being happy about Finn and me kissing. Because it killed me inside Jacob. I was still with you and here I was kissing someone else for a school play. It still hurts. But if we didn't pretend to put on a play during lunch, then I along with two of my friends would have been suspended. And those two friends actually would have been kicked out of the school for good because they are constantly at the wrong place at the wrong time during fights at school." Kylie says quickly. She sighs, relieved she thought of all of that so quickly. Is being a mermaid turning her into a lier? Or is she finally just getting the courage to stand up for herself? Jacob looks at her defeated and still slightly angry. He silently turns his back to his cousin and Kylie and walks out the door. Kylie's phone beeps. Darla looks at her phone. She nods toward Kylie's phone. "I think you should answer him." Darla says. Kylie looks at her phone. "Yeah." She walks over to her phone and texts Finn back. Darla looks at Kylie. "And please don't shut my cousin out. Just because you guys aren't dating anymore, doesn't mean you don't need each other. It'd be too hard for you both to just cut ties so quickly." Kylie sighs. "I know." Kylie sighs, her voice cracking. "But it's going to be so hard. I need you to help me." She starts to cry. Darla says. "I will." As she is consoling Kylie lying in her lap.