Chapter Thirty-Six
Tegan
After spending a lot of time locked away completing schoolwork I went to my first counselling session.
Kai’s mum, Melanie, was so nice. She didn’t push me to talk about something if I found one of her questions too hard, which I mostly did. The session was more of us chatting than her questioning me but I had a feeling she got a lot more information out of me than I realised.
She led me out of her office and I almost bumped into Carly and Elle. They were grinning a little too much. “So, you wanna see some embarrassing things from Kai’s childhood?” Elle asked.
Like she needed to ask. “Definitely,” I replied. I followed them down the hallway to what I guessed was Kai’s old room. Melanie came along, too, shaking her head at her daughters.
His room was dark blue and black and pretty plain, probably because he didn’t live here anymore and took most of his stuff with him. It didn’t look like his house now, though. His house was light and inviting. This was so an angry teen’s room.
I sat down on the bed with Carly and Elle while Melanie went to get some photo albums. I wondered what he was like when he was a teen. It would’ve been interesting to have known him then.
“His room sucks, right?” Carly said. “Mum won’t redecorate it.”
“Why not?”
“Keeps him grounded.”
I frowned but had no time to ask why as Melanie came back. How could a dark room keep you grounded? It made no sense.
“Ooh, show her the space phase ones first,” Elle said. Yeah, I definitely wanted to see those.
Apparently, when he was five and six he was obsessed with space, to the point where he covered objects in his room in foil and made himself a helmet. I could imagine a smaller version of him pretending he was flying a shuttle. It was so cute.
After many more stories, a lot of them involving space and astronauts, we went downstairs. Kai and his dad, Rob, were in the lounge. “Hey, spaceman,” I said and sat down next to him. He shot a dark look to his mum and sisters, who didn’t even try to hold back on laughing.
“I can’t believe you told her!” he said, sounding annoyed but not at all surprised.
“Oh, they didn’t just tell me. I saw pictures.” His mouth hung open. “You look so cute in that foil hat.”
“Right, we’re leaving,” he said, standing up and pulling me along by my wrist. Laughing as I was hauled towards the front door, I caught a glance at a picture of him on the wall. He was really young, maybe five or six and had a big toothless grin.
“Hey,” he snapped, pulling me forwards again. Okay, I really loved it when he was embarrassed.
I was almost thrown into his car and for the whole way home he ignored me. Partly because I made space and astronaut jokes the entire time but he was still being a little bitch!
***
I spent the next day hanging out at home and the evening with Sophie. Friday finally rolled around and it was time for my date with Lucas. I’d spent ages getting ready, or it just took ages because I was getting ready around Netflixing another episode of Orange Is the New Black.
“Tegan,” Ava shouted up the stairs. “Lucas is here.”
‘Bout time. He wasn’t even late but I was impatient.
“Be right down,” I called, grabbing my phone and ruffling my hands through the roots of my hair. He hadn’t even got out of his car by the time I was downstairs. “Don’t wait up,” I said to Mum and walked out of the house.
“Hey, shorty,” he said, walking up the path and holding his arms out for me.
I walked straight into him and curled my arms around his waist.
“Hey, yourself. So,” I said, pulling back, “where are we going?”
“I’m not telling you.”
Not cool.
“Why?”
“Because it’s a surprise.”
I smiled. “And what if it wasn’t a surprise?”
“Then I could tell you, but this is so…”
Dropping my arms, I pouted. He really did need to understand that I did not enjoy surprises.
“Fine. Let’s go somewhere then.”
He was pretty amused as he watched me stomp to his car like a child.
“What’re you doing?” he asked, shutting his door and grinning at me.
“You know, when you think about it, you’re basically kidnapping me right now.”
His mouth kicked up at the side and he started the car. He just looked sarcastic. “Right. Damn that consensual kidnapping.”
“Have I told you I hate you recently?”
“Yes, I think that was with the last surprise.”
“So, when’re you going to catch on?”
Seriously, you know someone doesn’t like surprises, don’t surprise them!
When he stopped at the bottom of a hill I glared. “Lucas…?”