Thin Love (Thin Love, #1)(97)
“She does not hate him. You don’t… you don’t know…” and then Kona went for her guitar. Keira moved fast, tried wrestling it out of his massive hand, but he held her off.
She could only step back in shock, hands over her mouth, tears flooding her eyes as Kona held her father’s Hummingbird by the headstock. “Please. Oh God, Kona, please don’t—”she heard the crack and fell to her knees, catching the guitar before it fell to the floor.
Keira cradled it, held the loose strings in her hands, shuddering when she saw how the headstock dangled from the neck, the silver pegs loosened. Her father was in those strings; he was in every fret, every worn groove and Keira ran her fingers over each one, hopeless, vision blurred and foggy with the thick cluster of her tears. The first man she loved died all over again and no matter how much she tried to pull the strings back, no matter how she moved the headstock back into place, it was ruined.
Kona knelt beside her and Keira closed her eyes not wanting to see the tortured way he looked at her. His refrain of “baby, I’m sorry… I didn’t mean it” was a screech to her ears that made her sick and when he tried to touch her, Keira jerked his hand off her shoulder, pulled the broken guitar closer to her chest.
“Just go,” she said, bending her forehead to the cold neck. “Please just go.”
And for once, Kona didn’t argue. For once, he left Keira alone with her tears.
“There’s something I’ve been wanting to tell you for a few weeks.” Mark’s breath beat into the phone and Keira stopped on the first flight of stairs of her building. He was a friend, would never be anything more than that, but he kept calling her, kept up with whatever stupid thing she and Kona were arguing about on any given week and informed her of every drunken gripe her mother made to his. Those usually included more than one reference to Keira. But the way Mark hesitated, how he flirted around his words, had Keira worried that he was trying work up to something that made him anxious.
When only silence met her on the line, Keira sat down on the stairs, pulling her bag between her feet. “Mark? Whatever it is…”
“I know. Hell, I don’t know why I’m so nervous to tell you.” He laughed then, clearing his throat. “It’s not like you’ll judge me, I know that and it’s not like our mothers schemes are gonna work out.”
Keira smiled, the first time in the week since Kona broke her father’s guitar. “Okay then, so why are you nervous?”
“I’m kinda new at this shit. Hell, I um, wanted you to know that I have a date this weekend.”
Keira rolled her eyes, adding her own laugh to Mark’s. “Dude, that’s good. Did you think I was waiting for you to ask me out again?”
“No, that’s not… Keira, my date, well, I’m going out with Robert Miller on Saturday night.”
Robert was a kid Keira remembered from summer camp. He was nice, big brown eyes and thick blonde hair and he said “please” and “thank you” to everyone, even at eight. Then Keira blinked, realizing what Mark was really saying.
“Oh.” Her breath fogged against her phone and Keira rubbed it dry with her coat sleeve. “Oh,” she said again, trying to gather her thoughts. “Well, Mark, that’s good. I mean, I’m surprised. I had no idea…”
“I know and I’m sorry I didn’t mention it before.”
Keira scooted against the wall when two girls she recognized from the team house walked down the stairs. She didn’t bother watching to see if they glared at her. “It’s no big deal and, let’s be honest, we were sort of doomed as a couple to begin with, right?”
“I guess we were.” In the background on the phone Keira heard the noise of the hospital and she wondered if Mark would reveal anything to her stepfather. She doubted Steven would be welcoming or understanding. Knowing him, he’d likely fire Mark on the spot. A door closed and the sounds of the hospital went silent. “Sorry. I had to sneak into the break room. Listen, I don’t know why I’m telling you about this. I guess hearing my mom on the phone with yours the other day had me worried about you, but I didn’t want you to think I was trying to work up the nerve to ask you on another date.”
“It’s fine, Mark, really.” She didn’t like that her mother was gossiping about her, but really Keira didn’t care that much what she and her friends thought. “Listen, I’ve got to get back to my room. Finals are coming up and I’m gonna spend the weekend locked in my room studying, but thank you for telling me. I guess it can’t be easy, not even in New Orleans.”
“No, but I’m sort of getting to a point where giving a shit isn’t really important to me anymore.”
Keira admired Mark. She loved that he was fine with who he was and part of her was jealous at how he was embracing this discovery about himself. But it wouldn’t be easy, not with his parents, not with anyone they’d both grown up with. “Have you told your mom?”
“No. Not yet. I’ll do that after the holidays. My internship will be over by then. If I told her now, she’d go blabbing to your mom and we both know what will happen then.”
“God yes.” Three more girls ran up the stairs and Keira stood, making room for them on the landing. “Listen, I’ve gotta go, but you let me know if you need anything. if you just need to vent, or anything. And Mark?”