Beats of Life (Perception Book 5) (20 page)

Kylie

Two weeks Later….

Los Angeles.

“Are you okay?” Emily questions panicked the instant she walks into the bathroom. She rushes towards me and pulls down the wad of toilet paper I am holding under my nose. When she notices the blood pouring from my nose, she swiftly moves into the stall and grabs another large handful of toilet paper so I can replace my soaked through one.

“What happened?” she questions, her eyes filling with tears.

“Just some over excited fans,” I reply, mumbling through the wad of paper that is covering half of my mouth.

Some fans got a little excited when Marcus and Noah walked by that a group of around twenty women charged towards them. When I tried to stop them, I ended up coping a harsh elbow into my nose. My hand automatically lifted to numb the ache and when I lowered it back down it was covered in blood.

“I’ll organise someone to take you to the hospital,” she advises, moving back towards the bathroom door she had only just entered.

“No, it’s fine, I’m fine,” I immediately respond. The last expense I want to add to my already vast collection is a hospital bill. Emily halts her hasty retreat. When she turns around to face me, a single tears rolls down her cheek.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” I reply smiling softly, trying to lessen the look of guilt on her face. Although it hurts like a son of a bitch, I am fairly certain my nose isn’t broken.

“I would really feel better if you went to the hospital to have it looked at. You need to have it x-rayed to ensure it isn’t broken,” she says, her eyes pleading with mine to go to the hospital.

I take in a large deep inhale of breath before I quietly reply, “I can’t afford to go to the hospital,” my voice clearly showing my embarrassment. “I don’t have any health insurance,” I continue, my eyes darting away from hers since my pride just took a severe beating.

Emily is already aware that I am not covered by Destiny Records health insurance policy. It was the urgent thing she needed to talk to me about when we first arrived in San Francisco. They had sent her an email advising that my claim for health insurance had been denied and requested that I sign a waiver stating that I understood I was not covered through their insurance company, and that if I wished to remain employed with their company I would have to seek my own personal cover within the next thirty days. I haven’t been able to get any type of health cover the past two years. It was one of the reasons I had so much trouble securing a job. Anytime I was successful, my health insurance was denied and then not long later my position was suddenly made redundant. I have tried a few different options the past two weeks to get cover, but I have not yet been successful.

“You do have health cover,” Emily informs quietly, her voice barely a whisper. My eyebrows pull together tight and my gaze seeks hers, since her eyes darted down to the white tiled floor.

“Noah is paying for it,” she continues, her eyes slowly lifting to look into mine.

“Why?” I question softly, my heart rapidly beats and my eyes fill with tears.

She quickly brushes away a tear that has fallen from her eye, before her light brown eyes stare softly into mine. “The insurance company sent your full medical history with the reason why they denied your claim,” she explains gently.

I gasp, surprised. Normally they just deny my claim, they don’t inform potential employees the reason why they denied it. Now I understand why she has been looking at me differently the past few weeks. Why tears always form in her eyes when they dart between Slater and I.

“Does Slater know?” she questions worriedly. I instantly shake my head, which forces the unshed tears in my eyes to fall down my face. Her face morphs into sadness and her own tears stream down her face.

“Is it the reason you left him?” she asks quietly. My lips tremble and my jaw quivers as I softly nod my head.

“Oh Kylie, you need to tell him, he deserves to know,” she says softly.

“I’ve tried,” I reply, my voice sounding so weak that it barely comes out as a whisper. “He keeps telling me that he wants to leave the past in the past,” I continue quietly. She moves towards me and engulfs me in her tiny arms. Her hand rubs my back in a soothing manner while she whispers her apologizes in my ear.

Suddenly, the bathroom door slams open that fast it nearly comes off the hinges. Slater comes charging inside, his face is marred with panic as he rushes towards me.

“Kylie, are you okay?” he questions concerned.

Emily hesitantly pulls away from our embrace, her hand rubbing down my arm before she walks towards the bathroom door. Slater lifts my chin, his eyes quickly run over my face. He pulls away the wad of tissues I am holding against my nose. His nostrils flare as he intakes a large inhale of breath and his jaw ticks in anger.

“What the fuck?” he says angrily, his stern gaze turning to look at Emily. “You need to organise more security,” he instructs sternly. She nods her head in agreeance before walking through the door, closing it softly behind her.

Slater lifts me to sit on the counter, his face now marred with anger. He gently pulls the tissues away from my nose and I can tell that it must still be bleeding. Not just because of the slight trickle that runs over my lips, but because of the look on his face. He pulls out two paper towels from the dispenser and wets them in the sink before carefully rubbing them under my nose. The harshness of the paper towel running across my top lip reminds me of the scratching sensation his stubble normally creates when he kisses me.

The last two weeks have been like a fairy tale. It is like the last two years never happened and our relationship instantly returned to how we were before we spent the weekend at the cabin. We have been spending every waking moment we have together, trying to make up for the time we lost the past two years. I rode with him on his bike to Los Angeles, denying Emily’s pleads to go in tour bus with the girls. We stopped to take several photos along the way, taking full advantage of the beautiful ocean views along the highway. We had lunch at Nepenthe, the views of the ocean stretched for miles.

When we arrived in Los Angeles, Slater hesitantly asked if I wanted my own room again. I may have teased him for a little bit, pretending to seriously contemplate his question, before finally agreeing to share his room. It’s been perfect, everything I could have ever wished for. But no matter how many times I try to bring up the past, he shoots me down by saying he wants to leave the past in the past.

“Did she have an elbow the size of a truck?” he questions, his eyes firmly focused on my nose, making me smile softly. Once he has all the blood cleared away, he lifts his hands and uses his thumbs to gently push on each side of my nose.

“Sorry,” he apologizes quietly when my face grimaces in pain. “It’s going to badly bruise, but I don’t think it is broken,” he advises. I nod my head. I don’t think it is broken either.

“I thought you would have learnt by now not to get in the way of fans and their idols,” he replies cheekily, although I can still hear the anger in his voice.

When I giggle softly, the anger on his face lessens and a small smile forms in its place. He gathers all the bloodied tissues and places them into the bin before helping me down from the counter top. He pulls me in close to his chest and cacoons me with his warmth. The rapid beating of his heart clearly shows how panicked he is.

“I love you Slater,” I whisper softly. I have never stopped loving him, but this is the first time I have said it since we have been back together. He stiffens, before he slowly pulls away from my embrace. I hesitantly lift my head, afraid that I may have startled him by declaring my love so early in our new relationship. The huge grin on his face is adorable that I can’t hold in my own smile.

“I love you too,” he replies quietly, instantly making me freeze. He had never said it back. Not once. Not even when I begged him to say it back the night we stayed at the cabin.

I have always worried that he thought I had left him because of the fight we had over Jenni. But that wasn’t why I left him. It wasn’t even close.

“I didn’t leave you because of Jenni,” I inform staring directly into his eyes. He attempts to lower his mouth down onto mine, trying to render me speechless. He does it every time I attempt to bring up the past. I pull away from his embrace, forcing his pained eyes to dart down to mine. I don’t want to hurt him, but it is time for him to learn the truth. I want him to know. I need him to know.

“I didn’t leave you because of Jenni,” I say again.

“I left you because of Serena,” I continue nervously, triggering his eyebrows to pull together tightly and his face to morph into confusion.....

My eyebrows pulled together tightly as my eyes roamed over the photo Slater was holding in front of me. The photo was faded and looked several years old, but the girl smiling brightly in the picture looked so similar to Jenni it was spookily eerie. I gently removed the photo from his tight grasp to scrutinize it. The girl appeared to be in her early teens, she had beautiful light blue eyes that shone just as bright as her smile. Her lips and nose were nearly identical to Jenni’s, but instead of having Jenni’s strawberry blonde hair this girl had a large scarf wrapped around her head.

“That is my sister Serena,” Slater informed quietly. “She died nearly thirteen years ago,” he continued, his voice clearly showing his pain.

“I’m so sorry,” I instantly replied, my eyes filled with tears as the guilt for the way I had behaved rapidly built. “I should have never accused you. I’m sorry Slater. I am truly sorry for the way I reacted,” I pleaded.

The past several months I had been little apprehensive about Slater’s relationship with Jenni. The text messages they sent each other never seemed more than two friends talking, but they were constant and regular, normally once or twice a day. Then when I heard him tell her that he loved her and that he would look after her, I overreacted. I was already afraid of losing him, and it created even more doubt in my mind that he didn’t belong solely to me. I had been telling him I loved him for months, but he never said it back. Just from looking at the photo he showed me, his relationship with Jenni suddenly made sense.

“Don’t apologize, you didn’t know. I should have told you about her months ago,” he replied softly. He moved close to me and ran his hand down my hair before placing a soft kiss on the top of my head. His relief that I was finally believing him was shown all over his face.

“What happened to her?” I question softly, moving to sit on the end of the bed, unable to tear my eyes away from Serena’s photo. She was incredibly beautiful, but so young, and I hated that her life was cut short so early.

Slater moved to sit next to me, his arm gently wrapped around my waist and his eyes slowly glanced over her photo. “She had ALL, Acute Lymphoblastic--”

“Leukaemia,” we said at the same time. My heart thumped dangerously. My lungs fought for air and I struggled to keep my emotions under control. Tears fell down my face so hard and fast that my hands couldn’t keep up with them.

.

“She died six days after her thirteenth birthday. That photo was taken on her birthday,” he informed quietly.

“I’m so sorry,” I said again, except that time I was not just apologizing for his loss, I was apologizing for my appalling behaviour. “Please forgive me, I’m truly sorry,” I continued. My heart ached so much it felt like someone had placed their hand into my chest and was squeezing it tight. My lungs continued to fight for air that my breathing was shallow and panicked.

Slater’s concerned eyes roamed over my face before he gently removed the photo from my grasp and placed it on the bedspread. He pulled me onto his lap and encouraged me to take in some deep breaths. One of his rough hands ran down my back, while the other wiped away my tears. I tried to form words. I tried to say something that would tell him how sorry I was for everything I had done, but no words would form. The only sounds that came out of my mouth was my gasps as I fought for air.

“I know Jenni isn’t Serena, but I can’t help but treat her like she is,” he advised, making my guilt increase even more. I had thought Slater loved me, but it hurt when I heard him say it to her. Even though he showed me every day that he cared for me, I was selfish and I wanted to hear him say it as well.