Page 66 of A World Apart (Between Worlds #1)

“ I think I should go,” Ben said, nervously eying me.

“Wait-” Becka reached out to stop him, “your shirt-”

“Keep it, I’ll put my jacket on.” He moved around the sofa, never turning his back to me, grabbing a leather jacket I hadn’t noticed when I came in off the counter next to me. I followed his movements, turning to keep him in my line-of-sight watching as he pulled on a pair of sneakers.

“I’ll call you,” he said to Becka over my shoulder, before looking me in the eyes for the first time. “Nice to meet you, Kaiya.” He opened and closed the door faster than I could think of anything appropriately threatening to say.

As the door snicked shut, I turned back to Becka, slamming the tumbler down on the counter.

“You got some ‘splaining to do Lucy.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh chill out, I was much cooler than this when I caught you and Jihoon butt naked in here.”

“That’s not the same, and you know it!”

“It’s not that much different,” she muttered, pulling her trousers back on.

“There are a couple glaring differences,” I said, argumentatively .

Becka held her hands up to cover her eyes as she took a deep breath.

“Can we talk about this in the morning?” She slid her hands up into her hair and it was then that I saw how red her eyes were.

“Have you been crying?” I asked, horrified. “What did that fucker do to you? I’m calling the cops-”

“For fucks sake, Ky!” Becka shouted, startling me and pausing me in the process of pulling my phone out of my pocket.

“Just… fucking stop. He didn’t do anything. Nothing I didn’t want him to do, anyway.” She sat down on the sofa heavily. I moved round the sofa, but opted to sit on the coffee table in front of her. Because, well. Ew.

“Tell me so I understand. Because I thought we hated him.”

“We do!” she cried. “I think. I don’t know anymore.” She started crying, shoulders-heaving, ugly crying sobs. Ignoring my ick, I moved to sit beside her so I could pull her into my arms.

It took her a while to get it all up, or at least as much as she had the reserves for right now.

Through her sniffles, she began to talk.

“He just showed up, not long after you’d left. Jose must have let him in, you know how much he always liked Ben. Or, I guess you probably don’t know that, because you weren’t here,” she smiled, but it was watery and weak.

“So, when someone knocked on the door, I thought it was you, that you’d forgotten something. I opened the door and almost fell on my ass when he was standing right there.

“I was just so shocked, you know? I haven’t seen him in more than a year, and he’s just standing there, like he never left. He asked to come in and I… I didn’t have it in me to say no.” She hiccupped and wiped her face, the tears coming slower now.

“I didn’t know what to say, I swear. The first thing to come out of my mouth was, “Where the hell have you been?” She laughed.

“And then, I don’t know what happened. We just talked. For ages. He’s been living with his mom and he started up his own business and he just kept saying he’s not the same Ben anymore, whatever the hell that means.

“And then we opened a bottle of wine and… I don’t know, it was like it was before.

We were talking about the old days, and he kissed me.

It just felt right, and believe me , I know that’s crazy, but I can’t explain it.

One thing led to another, and then I guess we fell asleep.

” She shrugged, and I could tell she was trying to make light of it, but her eyes were pinched from all the thoughts she was trying not to have.

I knew her well enough to know when she’s doing mental gymnastics.

But, now was not the time. It was late, we were both tired. There would be time tomorrow to dissect this.

“Come on,” I stood, “bed.”

She looked up at me and nodded, rising to her feet and shuffling off to her bedroom. At the door to her room, she turned. “Hey,” I turned to look at her. “Did you have fun tonight?”

I smiled at the memory. “I really did.”

The next morning, we both got up late. I’d woken to several messages from Jihoon asking if I’d gotten home safe, and then to say he was going to the after party and then several selfies of him with multiple celebrities.

I especially liked the photo-booth of all five members of GVibes, four members of a punk-rock band and Haley all shoved into a space designed for maybe half that many people.

All wearing props, hats, or some kind of mask .

At least they’d been having fun, whilst I’d come home to find some dudes junk all over my sofa and my best friend in tears.

I felt my ire rising again. I had to take several deep breaths just to be able to get out of bed.

I needed to be cool about this. Becka had never told me much about their breakup, but I now suspected it was because she didn’t really understand what had happened.

One day he was here, the next day he wasn’t.

I don’t know how a person gets over that.

I decided right then that I would be the supportive friend she needed, and only maybe make occasional comments about the sofa.

Becka wasn’t in the living room when I opened my bedroom door, but a quick glance round the corner into her room confirmed that while she was still in bed, she was sat up, reading a book. I knocked on the door to get her attention.

“Knock-knock. Room for one more?”

She looked up at me before putting down her book and patted the empty side of the bed. I walked over and flopped down next to her.

“Clumsy oaf,” she said, smiling down at me.

“Sofa slut,” I replied with an easy smile.

Becka groaned and threw her head back against her pillows as I snorted.

“Odds of you letting up about that this side of the apocalypse?”

“Not high,” I admitted with the kind of smile you might see on a TV presenter’s face along with the words, ‘and here’s what you could have won.’

“That’s what I get for riding the forbidden pogo stick on a shared sofa.” She sighed. I just nodded.

We were silent a few moments more before I said, “Wanna talk about it?”

Becka looked up at the ceiling, taking her time to answer.

“I’ve been thinking about it. And while I don’t know how I feel about actually feeling it ? I’m big enough to admit that the love is still there.

” She shrugged. “I… still love him. I do. I thought I was done with it, I wanted to be done with it, you know?” She looked at me, frowning.

“I just can’t get there. I’m still pissed, oh man, am I royally fucking pissed, but it doesn’t override the annoying fact that I love the bastard.”

“Do you want to try again with him? ”

“I don’t know,” she said, cocking her head to the side, eyebrows furrowed. “I’m vengeful, you know?” She offered a half-shrug. I didn’t try to disagree with her. We all had our character flaws and this was one of hers.

She was like Mr Darcy; once her good opinion has been lost, it is lost forever. Usually. Maybe not in Ben’s case, as it was in Mr Darcy’s case with Elizabeth Bennet.

“He needs to tell me what the fuck happened, that’s for damn sure,” Becka said decisively. “And then I think, maybe, I need to see if that makes a difference.”

“What if it’s something unforgivable, like he cheated?”

She winced before slowly saying, “I think that would make it easier for me to decide, but I don’t think it would turn it off. Not immediately, anyway.”

I nodded, understanding what she meant. Emotions are not appliances.

“When are you going to see him again?” I didn’t try to pretend that she wasn’t going to, we both knew she’d decided to long before I came in here this morning.

“He said he’ll call me, so let him do the leg work. For once,” she added darkly.

I sat up and shrugged. “You’re a big girl, Becka. But if you need me to break his legs, give me some advance notice so I can get my alibi straight, yeah?”

Becka snorted. “Yeah, you and my Stanley cup, a formidable pair.”

I nodded seriously. “Proper insulation is no joke.”

We shared a look before dissolving into giggles. I don’t know which of us reached out first, but we ended up in each other’s arms all the same, the laughter giving way to the silence of shared space.

“I’m going to miss you so fucking much.”

“I know. You’re going to clean that sofa.”

“I know.”