More Than This (More Than, #1)(19)

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Lisa ends up staying for dinner, Julie is spending the night at a friends house. Dad apologizes to Kayla again and has assured her that he’s explained the situation to Julie. It might be a little hard for an eight year old to comprehend but he did the best he could. I know Kayla appreciates it.


Lisa and Mom make plans to catch up again the next day to organize some more things. I think Lisa is glad someone is there to help both her and Kayla, and I know Mom doesn’t mind, especially now that she’s found out she knew Kayla’s parents.


After dinner, Lucy and Heidi arrive. I rang them earlier and told them about her clothing situation, the fact the she doesn’t have any, aside from underwear.


I get them to wait in the family room while I run upstairs to get Kayla, she’s been holed up in my room since dinner. She didn’t eat.

I don’t know how she’ll feel about me telling them, and them being here.


I knock on the door and wait for her response.

She opens the door and peeks out. I can tell she’s been crying from the puffiness of her eyes.

“Hey,” I say.

She fails her attempt at a smile.

“Umm, I really don’t want you to get mad, but uh,” I rub the back of my head, nervous habit, “Lucy and Heidi are downstairs…”

“Jake, I don’t-"

“It’s my fault, I rang them earlier. I just, you need clothes, and probably other girl things, and I didn’t know what else to do…”

Her eyes are cast downwards, but when she hears my explanation she looks up at me and a small smile breaks through.

She opens the door wider and steps out of the room, grabbing my hand as we climb down the stairs.

We stand at the door of the family room and Lucy and Heidi both turn to us. At first they see our hands locked, then they look up at us and smile.

Lucy speaks first, “We’re really sorry about what happened Mikayla. If you need anything at all… just let us know, okay?” She’s standing in front of Kayla looking straight into her eyes.

Kayla nods.

Heidi stands up and positions herself next to Lucy, “We just bought some stuff over that you might need, Jake mentioned you can’t get back into your house. So… we just bought the essential stuff. I know it’s not much Mikayla-"

“It’s more than enough,” Kayla interrupts. “And my friends call me Micky.”

I smile at her, let go of her hand and use it to bring her head to my lips, I kiss her on her temple. I love doing it and she doesn’t seem to mind, so I’ll keep doing it until she tells me to stop.

“I’ll get some drinks,” I tell them, as I walk out of the room.


  Chapter 11


Mikayla


Heidi and Lucy have come by to let me borrow some things while I’m here, seeings as I can’t get into my house, crime scene and all that.

“I just got you some stuff you might need, girl things. Jake didn’t really know what you needed. It was kinda adorbs when he rang, all awkward and shit,” Heidi pauses. “Micky…” she waits until I’m looking at her. “Jake… he’s good people y’know. I’m glad it was him you ended up with last night.”

I nod slowly, “Me too.”

“Anyway,” Heidi continues perking up, “I just bought some toiletries, body wash, shavers, toothbrush, lotions. I didn’t know what you liked so I just packed whatever I had. I bought some clothes too. I mean, we didn’t know how long you’d be staying so we really didn’t know what to pack. We figured we’re all about the same size though.”

“You guys, whatever you’ve got will be perfect, I’m sure.” I smile, it’s a genuine one, because these girls, they don’t even know me, and they’re doing what they can to help.

I still haven’t heard from Megan. Nothing.

Lucy pipes up. “I packed some clothes too, obviously Heidi and I don’t dress the same, so at least you’ll have a choice of what to wear,” she chuckles to herself. “Umm, I also bought my spare e-reader for you. I don’t really know…” She looks to the ground, her voice getting softer. “I don’t know if you’ll want to read, or if you can concentrate on reading… I just… it’s there if you want it.”

“Thanks, book best friend.” I tell her, and she beams back at me.

Theres a few moments of silence.

I can’t even imagine how awkward this must be for them, trying to console a girl they don’t even know.

“So…” I start, “Justin Bieber’s your jam, Heidi?”

They both laugh, and the awkwardness leaves the room for the moment.

“It’s kind of an inside joke,” Heidi says through giggles.

“Not really,” Lucy smirks at Heidi. “Heids here had a wee little obsession with the Biebs when he first blew up. She went a little too stalkerish when he was in town once, his security had to detain her and her parents had to pick her up.”

“No way!” I say, eyes big in disbelief.

“Yes, way.” Jake interrupts, as he walks in with drinks for all of us. He places the tray on the coffee table between us.

“The next day at school everyone knew about it, people were calling her ‘wannabeiber’. She didn’t care though, she wore it proud, like a badge. I still see Dylan's eye twitch whenever he hears Justin Bieber.”