Beautifully Broken

Chapter 26

I could smell the ocean before I could hear the waves. Waking up, I remembered we were in a motel room in Point Campbell. It was dark when we arrived last night, so I didn't realise just how close we were to the ocean. I reached my hand out to feel the other side of the bed before opening my eyes, seeing it was empty and cold. That meant Tyler must have been up for some time. Searching for my phone I checked the time, 8.32am.

Sitting up now, I rubbed my eyes taking in the room. Coffee was sitting in the small kitchenette, Tyler wasn't in the room, but the sliding door to the balcony was open, the sheer curtain blowing from the slight ocean breeze. I got out of bed, my hoodie long gone last night after pizza, Tyler had made me feel much more comfortable silk pyjamas, showing me just how much he appreciated them. 

I pushed aside the curtain, stepping onto the small balcony, seeing Tyler on the lone seat just staring out to the ocean.

I have seen him like this many times before. Nearly every single day when I first arrived at the house, he would do this every morning. That was until we got closer and he opened up to me, knowing he had someone to confide in and support him endlessly. As I stepped outside, he looked at me, a small smile appearing on his lips, he gestured for me to sit on his lap.

"Good morning baby" he said, kissing the top of my head as I sat sideways on his lap, "sleep good?"

"I always sleep good beside you" I replied softly, snuggling into his chest.

We sat like that for a moment, just enjoying being close to each other.

"What time is the meeting?" I asked him after a moment.

"11am, you are coming with me, right?" He asked, seeming worried.

"Of course I will" I said, before lifting my head from his chest and looking at him, "Are you ok? Being back here can't be easy, I want you to make sure you talk to me about how you feel Tyler. Don't bottle it all up"

"There's a lot of memories being here. The people here, they all know what happened, I can't hide. Right now, I'm ok. I nervous to see the house, but it's important and you will be there. I couldn't do it without you."

It felt nice to be so needed. The whole situation isn't ideal, I wish that our paths had crossed in better circumstances, without so much hurt and trauma surrounding our lives. But that isn't that case, and I have to believe that we were meant to come together, that we needed each other to learn how to live a new normal.

At 10.55am we pulled up to what was very obviously Tyler's mother's house. I immediately noticed the police tape still across the front door. There was a squad car and another sleek black SUV parked in the driveway, two uniformed officers and another man in a suit who I assumed was the police prosecutor. They turned towards us as we pulled up to the curb.

I reached over, taking Tyler's hand in mine. "You can do this Tyler, I'm right here by your side ok"

He turned his head towards me, giving me a weak smile that didn't even come close to meeting his eyes. I pulled his hand to my mouth and kissed the back of his hand, before letting go so we could both exit the car.

"Tyler James?" The prosecutor asked Tyler, who nodded in response.

"Thanks for coming I appreciate you are no longer local, I'm DA Gregory Martin, I've been handling the case against your mother. I will try to make this quick, I understand this is probably the first time you have been back here." He turned briefly to me, "Girlfriend?"

"Yeah, this is my girlfriend Kayla, she's here for me. I'm not sure I really understand what you need from me" Tyler questioned.

"We just need to confirm your statement. It was given to us on the night in question, things were still very traumatic then. We need you to recount your statement and a walk through of the house might trigger some details that you missed in the original statement. We want to make sure we don't miss anything important."