Beautifully Broken

Chapter 14

I entered the kitchen the following morning expecting it to be empty because the house was so quiet. Instead, Harry was sitting alone at the breakfast bar, no signs of Tyler, which was odd because he was almost always first up. Maybe he had gone for a surf.

When we got home from the hospital Harry and Mason had all gone to Jason's house for a "guys night". Tyler and I watched a movie and had an early night. We didn't speak anymore about Madi, his mum or the awful events that tore his family apart. We didn't really talk at all. 

"Hey Harry, where is everyone? This feels... oddly quiet?" I made myself a coffee and sat beside him, stealing one of his slices of toast as he tried to swat my hand away.

"Make your own!" he said jokingly, but in truth, he probably wasn't going to eat it anyway. 

"The guys finally went to their own homes last night after Jason's. They will be over later to help set up for the party tonight. Tyler hasn't come downstairs yet. I was actually just thinking about him now, it's strange for him to not be up yet. Did something happen yesterday when you guys went out?" Harry asked. 

I figured Harry knows all about what happened, so there was no harm in telling him the truth, plus he cared about his cousins.

"We went to the hospital yesterday" I said quietly. 

Harry's head turned so fast towards me, I thought he might get whiplash.

"He saw Madi? Did he tell you? He took you to see her? How was he?" he said all at once, not able to decipher a single thought process. 

"Wow, Harry, slow down. Calm down." I said, placing my hand gently on his forearm.  

"Yes, we saw Madi. Afterwards he told me everything. He broke down Harry. Everything he had been holding in, but I think he needed to. I'm worried though, seeing Madi was hard on him."

"Yeah, it would be. He has been closed off since it happened. I'm glad he finally spoke about it. I tried the first few days, but he wouldn't talk." he admitted sadly.

"It can't have been easy. What happened, it's traumatic. He might never be ok again, that kind of thing never goes away. You can't fix it, but you can learn of ways to cope with it." 

"You're right. You sound like you speak from experience though Kay." Harry seemed to be trying to get something from me about what I had going on. I wasn't ready.

"We all have pasts. Some of us got it harder than others." I said, as I got up from the breakfast bar, heading back into the kitchen. 

"I'm going to take him a coffee and check in on him."

Harry nodded, seeming to understand that I didn't want to discuss this topic anymore. 

On my way back upstairs he said, "I think you might be good for each other Kayla."

I smiled, but I wasn't so sure. I so badly wanted that to be true, but part of me couldn't help but wonder if we would be detrimental to each other. Two broken people will either heal each other or destroy each other beyond repair. It's a risk, a leap of faith and I'm pretty used to things not falling the way I want them to.

I knocked softly on Tyler's door, repeating his actions from the previous morning. I heard him welcome me into the room. 

I hadn't actually seen this room before. There was a queen size bed against the same wall the door is on with a bedside table on each side. It had a soft upholstered bedhead. The bed was unmade, a few clothes strewn across the floor leading to the walk in robe. 

Tyler was standing with his back to me, by the large floor to ceiling windows that looked out onto the ocean. I gulped at the view of him. He was wearing only basketball shorts that hung low on his hips, clearly having slept in them, or pulled them on as he got up. I had seen him shirtless plenty of times at the beach, but there was something beautiful and raw in this moment, or maybe it's because of the way I realised I feel about him. 

I tried to shake off any thoughts about him in THAT way, he needed a friend, he needed me mentally.

"I brought you up a coffee." I said, placing it on the bedside table and sitting on his bed, bringing my feet up so I was cross legged.

"I'm just thinking about what you said about the ocean yesterday. I had never thought of it the way you put it. It's always been where I feel the most free, gliding across the water on the board." he said, with his back still to me.

"I know, I've seen it on your face." I remembered the day I watched him mesmerised, until I was knocked over by the wave.

He turned around, smiling at me, like he was reassuring me that he is in fact ok. I didn't believe him. He came and sat with me on the bed.

"Are you ok? Like I know you aren't, well I know things aren't ok, but like you aren't going to turn into a hermit and never come out of your room again or something?" I rambled, "Does that even make sense?"

"I'm as ok as I can be. Madi needs me to be ok."

"I need you too. As selfish as that is." I said shyly, looking down at the bed.

He leaned over, lifting my chin up so we were looking at each other. Tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.

"We need each other Kayla. Neither one of our experiences cancels the other one out as being worse than the other." He said softly.

I slowly nodded my head, still looking into each other's eyes.

"You're beautiful Kayla, even with the pain and worry that is evident looking in your eyes. I want to be here with you, I want to look into your eyes and one day see happiness, preferably me making you happy" 

I was a goner. No one had ever said words like this to me before. 

I was even more of a goner when he leaned closer. It felt like an eternity between realising what was happening and the feeling of his lips crashing onto mine. 

I had been knocked over by a wave all over again, this time in the form of Tyler's lips on mine. 

His left hand on my face and his right on my thigh, our lips moving in sync. I moved my arms to drape them around his neck. No kiss had ever felt like this before. I don't know if it was the emotional turmoil that we shared the past few days or if this is what it is like kissing the person who is right for you. Your other half. 

Eventually, we pulled away for air, leaning our foreheads against each other.

"That was better than I imagined it was going to be" he whispered.

I giggled as we pulled further away, he was still resting his hand on my thigh, "You imagined kissing me?" I said cheekily.

"I'm only human" he shrugged with a smirk on his face, "I'm also still a teenage boy, it's basically my right to think about kissing the beautiful girl who is living 2 rooms away."

"Is that so?"

"Yep, and I think I liked it enough to do it again, if you don't mind?" He grinned now. 

I didn't mind one bit. I put my hand around the back of his neck, pulling him close to me. He took the cue perfectly, this time laying me back on the bed, kissing me with a more passion than before. Like he was hungry, and I was the perfect snack. 

Kissing him felt right. Whether or not this was a good idea, it was happening.