46 - BLOODY LIAR

I arrived at the bar Kyle was in about twenty minutes later, it was booming down here. The lights streaming outside of the club was pulsating and casting kaleidoscope colors against the dark night sky. As I made way through the throng of people to search for Kyle, the bass of the music reverberated through my veins boosting the anxiety that I was trying to curb. My eyes scoped the area and the beat of my heart rhymed with the beat of the music that I felt a sense of urgency grip my heart. It was extremely tight but I made my way to the counter, trying to fit a face to the voice I heard on the phone but each of the bartenders were sporting a frustrated look already, I wasn’t sure whom to approach. Still, I chose the one with the deepest frown – she seemed the most agreeable regardless and that scorn on her face wasn’t fooling anyone, especially not with the butterfly tattoo on her shoulder.

“Hey – I’m sorry – ” I started

“Talk fast hon” she shot back at me not in a cruel way but in a way that told me I was wasting her time with my unnecessary apology.

“I’m looking for my friend, tall probably dressed in a suit – handsome face and probably violent drunk” I explained and I waited for her to jog her memory which didn’t seem like the case because she was viciously wiping the counter.

“Oh!” she looked up at me, a stern face but when she talked I could see her gold tooth peeking out “I remember him, he got dragged out by a bunch of guys”

“What – what guys?”

“I don’t know, I’m not getting involved in shit like that” she told me before she whipped around and walked away and turned around with my head turning in circles. I looked around a scene, trying to find a clue that would help me find him but all I got was the mixed scent of sweat, alcohol and cigarette smoke. But amidst the chaos, my eyes scanned the crowd, searching for something familiar, a flicker of recognition that would lead me to him.

I moved through the crowd, the shadows of the night closing in around me, a sense of desperation gnawed at my soul. I lingered my way through until I found myself outside again, at the parking lot with the cool night air embracing me and I decided to look through, and calling his number at the same time until I heard a faint ringing sound around me.

“Kyle!” I yelled, breaths in ragged gasps as I raced towards the darkness – and my eyes fell on him, I held back gasp.

“Kyle!” I rushed to where he lay on the floor, his face bloody and his lip busted at the top – my chest tightened.

“What the hell happened to you?” the sight of him, battered and broken sent a surge of emotions coursing through me. Kyle groaned painfully, but his eyes fluttered open to look at me, and he sighed.

“Aria” he called drunkenly, but with a slight smile on his face “You came – you came for me”

“Of course I did – what happened? Who did this to you?”

“Oh, some guys Venzo sent. But guess what?” he looked at me like a child that was itching to tell a secret, so I asked him what.

“I won” he was smiling widely now. “The bastard thought I would give you up – I can’t bloody do that, I can’t afford to lose you again”

He was drunk and I knew it, but his words were reaching a part of me that I wanted hidden from him.

“I need to get you out of here – take you to a hospital. I could call an ambulance?” I said, my hands reaching out to touch his face, staining them with his blood, red and glaring at me like a crime that I didn’t commit.

“No – ” he said out immediately “Just take me home, I could call my doctor” then he brought out his car keys and pressed them into my hands.

I stared at them, unsure of what to do now and a sense of panic slowly setting in “I – I – can’t drive Kyle”

“Of course you can, I taught you how to”

“Yea, that was before the incident – ” I said quietly but I didn’t think he could understand what I was talking about not when he was this drunk, but instead he maintained that crazy smile on his face like he wasn’t bleeding and bloody beaten up.

“Come on, I know you can do it”

“Kyle – ”

He stood up now but with a deep grimace and leaning on me for support. Eventually were able to find his car and I helped him into it, while I ran around to the other side of the car. I sat before the steering with my heart pounding inside my chest. I closed my eyes, trying to ease the panic away but the images kept fluttering behind my eyelids – gunshots!

*Dad!
I love you baby girl

I fought the memories, but they seemed stronger than me until Kyle’s bloody hand met mine and I felt a tiny squeeze. When I turned to look at him, his eyes were closed but his hands were firmly fixed on mine. I took a deep breath and I pressed the ignition.

It wasn’t long until we reached his house and again, I had to help him out of his car into his house where I dumped him on his sofa where the air conditioner felt cool against my skin, a stark contrast to the heat that was radiating within me. His steps were unsteady, his movements labored, and there was now a strength in his gaze that belied the vulnerability that lay beneath.

I knelt before him, my hands trembling as I reached out to touch his bruised and battered face. The sight of his wounds stirred a mix of emotions within me and the fact that he got them trying to protect me – my heart sang and my stomach fluttered with butterflies. As I began to clean his wounds, the touch of my fingers to his skin sent a jolt of electricity coursing througme. The silence between us that very moment was heavy, a symphony of emotions danced in the space between us, tension pulsed in the air.

Kyle’s eyes never met mine and I couldn’t bring it in me to return his stare because I weak, I was weak to his charm even when he was trying. The intimacy of the moment, the closeness of our shared proximity, stirred something within me – a longing that threatened to consume me whole.

Then he held my hands just mid-air to his face, sending shock waves through me “Why did you come?” he asked. I had wiped the blood stains from his face and ice and he didn’t look so bad anymore, what was left was a shallow cut on his eyebrow and a bigger one on his lips.

“Because you needed me. That was what you said, that you needed me” I said back to him, taking the damp towel back to his face to wipe around his lips where the wound sat and he winced slightly.

“So you don’t hate me?”

“Of course I do – doesn’t mean I’ll abandon you if you need me”

He didn’t say anything and I didn’t either but I continued wiping his face until he broke the silence again, the same I was going to.

“I shouldn’t be here, and I shouldn’t have come at all” I said first and I saw his eys drift to Shawn’s ring on my finger, I saw the look of pain flash across his face which he could easily pass off as a wince from his wounds.

“I’m telling you officially now that I’m engaged to Shawn and we’re going to get married” the firmness to my voice was unmistaken.

Kyle’s stare was calm and his face now bore no reaction or emotion, it was a simply a stare with nothing attached to it and it was difficult to know what he was thinking but his words shot directly at me.

“Is that what you want?”

I didn’t want to stay quiet for more than a second, because hesitation meant doubt and the last thing I wanted was for Kyle to sniff the doubts out of me.

“Yes” I replied in the next millisecond without sparing a breath, he held my gaze like special study.

“Then I’m happy for you”

Like a sharp blade to the heart, cutting and tearing to pieces my already shattered hearts

*Bloody liar


*Hello to my special readers, thank you for your patience and riding with me on this delicate journey. I appreciate you all for taking out time to read my book, truly means a lot. I will give shout outs personally as time goes on.
I know we're all frustrated with Aria, but she's just a girl in love. The story is just starting.