Another Messy Ending

I was sprawled out across my bed, dead asleep, when my phone started blaring out it obnoxious chiming noise. I clawed the hair out of my face and started blindly reaching around for my phone only to realize I was sleeping at the foot of the bed. The clock on the end table said it was exactly 6:00 in the morning. Considering I didn’t tear off my clothes and crawl into bed until 3:00 in the morning, this was not my ideal hour of awakening. My vision was blurry, but I could see my phone lighting up right next to the clock. I untangled myself from my blankets and picked up my phone without looking at who was calling.

“Hello,” I realized I basically just yelled into the phone. “Sorry, hello.”

A familiar chuckle came from the other line, “Hey, babe. Happy birthday!”

“Aww, thanks, Zane!” I yawned. “You know its six a.m., right?”

“Sorry, Ken. I totally forgot about the weird time stuff.”

Oh, well maybe if you called more often, you’d remember. I decided to keep that thought to myself.

“I was just getting ready for work and thought I’d call you now because I don’t know if I’ll have time later.”

“It’s alright, baby. It was still sweet of you to call.” I fell onto my pillows. “One thing’s for sure, you’re the first to wish me a happy birthday.”

Zane laughed again, “I just wish I could be there for your 21st. I miss you, babe.”

He hasn’t said that in a long time. It was nice to hear. “Yeah, I miss you too.”

“Listen, I’ve got to go so I can take a shower before I go to work, but I’ll be thinking of you.” I could practically see Zane’s sly grin through the phone.

“You better,” I giggled.

“Only if you think of me when you get in the shower,” I heard water running on his end of the phone. “You promise?”

I rolled my eyes, “Yeah, I promise.”

“Good, you better. I’ll try to call you later, Ken.”

“Alright, babe. Hopefully we’ll talk later.”

“I love you.”

I hesitated without meaning to. I was sort of in shock. “I love you too, Zane.”

“Have fun tonight. Bye, babe.”

“Bye.”

That was weird. He just called and acted like everything was fine. I wanted to tell him it wasn’t fine so badly, but I couldn’t make myself do it. He was acting like the old Zane again. I’ve missed that side of him. I stared up at my ceiling fan until I could fall asleep again. I had a big night ahead of me and I needed all of the rest I could get.

Later in the day, after a lovely shower and putting on some make up, I met up with Ben and the boys to have dinner before the club. They didn’t want to go to the club due to their unspoken feud against my friends, so they decided that I would have my birthday party with them on another day. The dinner was surprisingly nice. All of them even managed to shower before we went to eat which I deeply appreciated. Ben even walked me to the club afterwards. I was all but begging him to come inside with me, but he flat out refused. However, he told me that he got me a present and that he would give it to me the next day. Even though I told him the day he found out when my birthday was that I didn’t want a gift, it was cute that he got me something. I handed him the rest of the cigarette I’d been smoking and we kissed before I went inside the club.

The first person I ran into was Jason. I could barely hear him, but I saw him mouth “happy birthday” to me, so I gave him a big hug. His hand rested on my back in the middle of the huge cutout in my mint green dress. Jason cupped his other hand around my ear and said, “Kieran!” He pointed up to the DJ booth and waved for me to follow him.

When we reached the booth I waited until Kieran looked like he wasn’t doing anything and wrapped my arms around him from behind. He spun around with a confused face and then looked really relieved when he saw me. He gave me a proper hug and did that weird hug, handshake thing with Jason.

“Come here, come here!” Kieran put his arm around my shoulder and picked up the mic. “Ayo, everyone say hi to my best friend, her name is Kenzie.” The crowd roared so loudly, I’m shocked that the room didn’t shake. “I know, she’s fine as hell, right?” The crowd started cheering again, loudest being Jason, and I buried my face in Kieran’s arm. “Alright seriously though, it’s Kenzie’s 21st birthday! She’ll be over in the VIP, so show her some love… but not too much love! I don’t want to kick anyone’s ass tonight. Well, I won’t kick anyone’s ass, but our boy Jason will. Alright, now it’s time to get extra crazy! Everybody get moving!” He worked some kind of magic on his laptop and started playing one of his mixes.

“Are you gonna be up here all night?” I yelled to Kieran.

He shook his head, “Nah, I’m good in like 5 songs. Then I’ll be down.”

“Okay,” I gave him another hug before Jason and I left for VIP.
The VIP room was like a balcony that was over the dance floor. When we got there I saw that they bought me a four tiered cake with sparkler candles and all I could hear was my girl friends squealing. They all ran toward me as I walked in. Alice, Andy, Becca, Henry, Jake, Samantha, they were all there dressed in ridiculous party hats.

“Happy Birthday!” They all screamed and group hugged me.

“You look great!” Andy said as the hug dispersed.

Becca pranced forward, “Yeah, your eye shadow is to die for! Is that gold? It’s super cute!”

“Aww, thank you guys! You’re amazing!” I hugged Andy and held Becca’s hand. “Where do I go to get a drink around here!”

“Oh, no you’re not paying for a thing today!” Alice walked up smiling. “Jason and I already bought bottles, so you’re all set!”

“Alice, you and Jason are too sweet. I love you two!”

“Enough of the cuteness, let’s do shots!” Alice announced to the crew as she led us over to the table. She lined up about 20 shot glasses. “What do you want, vodka or whiskey?”

“Whiskey, duh!” I giggled.

Alice went to pick up the bottle, but Jason beat her to it, “No way, little lady. I bought this one, so I get to pour it. You’re a shitty bartender anyways. I don’t need you spilling the whole bottle on the table.”

“Alright, asshole.” Alice smacked his arm playfully.


Of course Jason perfectly poured all of the shots, “Here, take three. That’s good for a starter.” He smiled and pushed three glasses toward me.

We all raised our glasses and we danced and after a little while Kieran joined us. Everyone laughed together as we stumbled around the VIP room. I had to snatch the vodka bottle from Kieran more than once. All of us, we were so happy. That was the last day we were happy together for a long time.

Around one in the morning, while we were all still at the club, I got a phone call from Ben. Answering while I was inside would have been pointless so I hung up and texted that I would call him back in a second.

Becca stopped me on my way to the door, “Are you going to the bathroom? I have to pee so badly!”

I giggled, “No, I’m going to smoke a cigarette, but the bathroom is on the way out.” I don’t know why I lied, but I did.

“Can you carry me out?” She laughed and slung her arms over my shoulders. “I’m just kidding, Minnie! Look, I can walk.” Becca’s always had a childlike innocence about her. It’s weird considering her not so childlike actions.

When I got outside I lit a cigarette, so I wouldn’t feel like I was lying to Becca. I needed one anyways. I found Ben’s name in my phone and hit the call button. The phone barely had time to ring before it was answered. All I could hear was a jumble of giggling and yelling and music before Ben finally spoke.

“Jenna! Fuck, you have to get over here!” It sounded like a girl was talking to him. “I’m coming to get you!”

“I’m not leaving my birthday party, Ben!” I said stumbling over my words.

Ben didn’t sound any more sober, “You’ve been there for hours! At least come over for a little while!”

“I’m going to be with you tomorrow night! You’ll be fine!”

“No, you don’t understand. We bought E and sex dice and this girl trying to fuck me is gross, but I’m not going to have another option unless you get over here.”

“I don’t think she could be any grosser than you are, Ben.”

He started whining, “Jenna, can’t you just come over? Are you really going to make me do this?”

Now he was starting to annoy me. Nobody was going to make him take ecstasy. Nobody was going to make him sleep with that girl. Even if we’re not really together, it was really shitty of him to call me telling me to leave my birthday party or he’s going to fuck someone else. So I snapped. “If you want to fuck some slut then that’s your business just don’t call to tell me about it. I don’t care.”

“Woah, chill the fuck out, princess. I didn’t even have to ask you to come over. I have no problem with fucking whatever this girl’s name is; I just thought I’d see if you were interested first.”

“Do you realize that you sound like a complete dick right now?” I yelled and scared some people that were walking past.

“Alright, I’m hanging up.”

“Ben!”

“I’m gonna go do drugs and have sex. See you tomorrow.”

“If you think—“ I was prepared to cuss him out and say I wasn’t going to see him tomorrow, but he had already hung up.

My head almost exploded with anger, but I made myself relax. It was my birthday. A bunch of people that I loved were inside and I was too drunk to spend more than ten seconds being mad at Ben. I marched back inside, ready to head back to the VIP area when I saw a familiar face.

Natasha was the most beautiful human being that I had ever met in real life. Her long black hair fell in silky waves around her gorgeous face. Her eyes were impossibly green and were made even brighter by her tan skin. She was my height, but she had curves to die for and a beautiful smile. I remember that I could barely speak the first time I met her. The reason I know Natasha is because she dated Kieran for four years. Looking at them next to each other, they didn’t look like they would ever be in a relationship, but apparently it was love at first sight. I wouldn’t know because I didn’t know them when they were together, but Alice filled me in on everything that happened.

Natasha started going to Kieran and Alice’s high school halfway through their senior year. From what Alice tells me, Kieran ran into their third period class late one day while Natasha was being introduced to the class. Apparently, Kieran froze in his tracks as soon as he saw her and their teacher had to tell him to take a seat before she could continue. For a little while, Kieran was afraid to talk to her, and being speechless isn’t normal for him as I’m sure you’ve noticed by now. He would talk to Alice about how he didn’t think Natasha would like him because she’s this sweet, beautiful girl and he’s “just nobody”. So, Alice became friends with Natasha with the intention of setting the pair of them up and it worked.

It turned out that Natasha and Kieran were basically perfect for one another. Although they were opposites style-wise, they had similar personalities and senses of humor and liked an insane amount of the same things. She told him that when she saw his face she couldn’t stop herself from smiling. Kieran was actually the one to take her virginity. They never argued and they always stuck up for one another. Natasha did a lot of fighting for Kieran when a bunch of the jocks would try to start fights with him because they didn’t understand why she would want to be with him over one of them. They loved each other. At one point, Kieran actually talked to Alice about asking Natasha to move in with him. They would probably still be together today if it wasn’t for how Kieran gets when he drinks. Kieran has always been a drinker, but it didn’t get really bad until he became of age. He would go out all the time and had bottles all over his room and he would even show up at Natasha’s house belligerently drunk while her parents were there. For the last six months of their relationship Natasha would end up in tears every few weeks, begging Kieran to stop drinking. To his credit, Kieran would try to stop every time, it just never lasted long.

Natasha used to hang out with our group of friends a lot even though she and Kieran were broken up. However, one night things got really tense between the two of them and I guess she just felt like we were friends with Kieran first so it wasn’t her place to stick around. I missed her hanging out with us.

When I got closer to Natasha, I could see that she looked upset. I made sure to be extra kind when I spoke to her, “Natasha, hi!”

It was like I shook her out of a trance. That beautiful smile popped onto her face and she immediately gave me a hug. “Kenzie, it’s so good to see you! Happy birthday!”

“Aww, thank you! I’ve missed you! Are you here by yourself?”

“Well I – Um, actually I was here with my boyfriend, but I don’t… I think he’s… um,” She stammered, trailing off. Her smile faded away as she looked around the room.

It broke my heart to see her look so sad and helpless. “Did he leave you here?”

She just looked at me for a second, “Well, he has to work tomorrow. I think he was just tired.”

I felt so bad for her. Apart from being beautiful, Natasha is also one of the sweetest people I know. She doesn’t deserve to be treated like that. “Hey, you should come to my party! It’s in the VIP room!”

Natasha shrugged and looked at the ground again, “No, you don’t have to do that. I was just going to leave anyways.”

“Natasha, I want you to come! I want you to party with me and be happy!” I took both of her hands in mine and she smiled. “Will you please come do a shot with me?”

She giggled, “Yeah, that would be great!”

I grabbed Natasha’s hand and led her up the stairs. There was no way I was going to let her walk home by herself; especially not when she was upset as she was. When we got up to the room I dragged her to Kieran. It probably wasn’t the best idea, but I was drunk so I didn’t realize that at the time. Kieran was sitting on the lounge couch with Sam and Henry. He had a drink in his hand that he immediately threw down when he saw Natasha. His eyes went wide and he stood up when we got to the couch.

I laughed, completely oblivious to how awkward it must be for them to see each other, “Kieran, what’s wrong with you? Look, I found Natasha when I was on my way back!”

Kieran seemed to turn into a teenage boy again. His face looked so innocent even with the tattoos all over it. He bit his bottom lip before finally speaking, “Hey, Tasha.” He even managed to smile. “How’ve you been?”

“I’m okay. I have a boyfriend, I mean not like that means any—“

“No, it’s cool. I mean you’re happy, right?”

Natasha and I exchanged a glance for less than half a second and then she replied, “Yeah.”

“Well, that’s all that matters.”

She smiled back at him looking relieved. I stood there watching their conversation; making this situation even more strange. “I was here for your set! I loved it!”

Kieran put his fingers in his hair mostly just to hide his face behind his hand, “Aww thanks, Tash.”

“I mean it, you were really great.” She looked at the ground.

“Me and Natasha were about to go take shots! Do you want one?” Once again, I’m drunk and I’m dumb.

He shrugged and let his hand fall to his side, “No, I think I’m alright actually.” Natasha looked at Kieran with a small smile.

“Well we’ll be right back then!”
Natasha and I took three shots together. Kieran didn’t take any after she showed up. Everyone who was at the party was now on the dance floor. The guy who was DJ-ing was a new friend of Kieran’s and he kept announcing that it was my birthday, so people kept giving me drinks. I took them for a while, but eventually I got too drunk and started passing them around to my friends. I’d never seen Natasha that drunk. Eventually she had her arms wrapped around Kieran and they were dancing with their faces so close together that I kept watching them to see if they would kiss. I was dancing next to them with Jason, but we weren’t dancing like them. We were jumping around and laughing and doing stupid, old dances. Jason even had to hold me up a couple of times because I was so wobbly. They were way more intense.

At some point, everything changed. We could hear yelling in the crowd and everyone was looking around to see what was happening. The crowd shifted and this big, pissed off, fraternity-looking “bro” came bashing through the crowd. He seemed even more drunk than I was and he was furious.

Suddenly Natasha yelled, “Josh!”

Josh didn’t say anything back, he just lunged at her and Kieran. He knocked Kieran off balance for a second and the crowd parted before he lunged himself again, this time shoving Natasha to the ground. Her head slammed hard onto the floor. Jason and I rushed to help her so she didn’t get trampled, but she was totally out of it. Jason picked her up as gently as possible and carried her away to the couches. Kieran turned to check on Natasha but Josh wouldn’t stop fucking with him. Next thing I know, Kieran is screaming at this guy.

“What is your fucking problem, you punk ass bitch? You just fucking hit a girl!”

Josh got in Kieran’s face, “Are you trying to fuck my bitch?”

“Your ‘bitch’? Listen, if anybody’s a bitch it’s you. Now get the fuck out my face!”

“You gonna do something about it? Huh?” The slurring made him much less threatening. “You wanna go outside?”

Kieran actually laughed a little, “How about I just make you my bitch? I bet you have a great ass.”

The guy was beyond furious now. Everyone could hear him over the music, “I’m gonna fuck you up!”

“Actually, I’m normally a top, not a bottom.” Kieran informed him calmly. Josh went to do a weird tackle thing at him, but Kieran slipped away. He seemed to get more and more angry as he continued to speak. “You really want to fight me right now? Let’s go outside then. Let’s fucking do this! You want to hit Tasha? Then we can fucking fight!”

I grabbed Kieran’s arm, “Kieran, please don’t do this.”

“Don’t worry about it, Kenz. I’m gonna be fine,” he said as he walked toward the exit. “Look at him. I’m gonna destroy him.

“Kieran, no—“

Kieran didn’t respond to me. He just threw the door open and yelled “Whose ready to party?”

I turned to Josh to try to stop him, “Please, you don’t really want to do this! You’re just drunk!”

“Get out of my way, bitch!” He followed Kieran out the door and I chased after them as did some random people who saw what was happening.

Josh immediately went to swing at Kieran, connecting weakly to his shoulder. “Is that it?” Kieran laughed. “Come on, your girlfriend has hit me harder than that.”

“Fuck you!” Josh charged at Kieran to try and knock him over and ended up in an awkward headlock. He got a couple punches into Kieran’s stomach and suddenly Kieran went insane.

He unwrapped his arms from around Josh’s neck, pushed him to his knees and laid a devastating punch into his jaw. The crunching sound was sickening. I let out an involuntary yelp and covered my mouth with my hands as Kieran hit Josh again and blood dripped from his mouth. Kieran stood over him, cradling his bloody hand as Josh tried to make his way to his feet.

Suddenly, Natasha burst through the door. I could hear Jason calling after her before he appeared. She looked miserable. Her hair was matted with blood that also stained her dress. It was obvious that she had been crying, but still she tried to make her way through the crowd as Jason tried to stop her.

“Josh?” Natasha called out in search for her boyfriend and I could see how much that hurt Kieran.

Breathing heavily, Kieran shoved Josh onto his back and kneeled on his shoulders. He started screaming, punctuating each word with a punch. “Don’t!” Punch. “Ever!” Punch. “Hit!” Punch. “Tasha!” Punch. “Again!” He grabbed Josh by his hair. “Do you fucking hear me?”

Natasha finally made it to the front of the crowd and she broke down in tears, “Kieran! What did you do?” She knelt down next to Josh and started pushing feebly at Kieran. “Get off of him!”

Kieran stood up, looking at Natasha like a lost puppy. He stood there and watched as she wept over Josh and wiped the blood off his face and tried to stop the blood gushing from above his left eye. Jason went to pull Kieran away from the situation, but he wouldn’t move. “Tasha,” He took a step toward her.

“No, Kieran, get away from him!” She cried.

“Your head,” he said softly.

Natasha looked at him like he was crazy, “Look at what you did, Kieran!”

“He hit you, Tash! What else was I supposed to do?”

“You should have let me handle it!”

“You were barely conscious!”

Natasha wiped tears off her face and looked from Kieran to Josh. “Please, just go away,” she choked out.

I stepped in to try and help Jason drag Kieran away. He fought us for a moment, probably hoping that Natasha would change her mind or at least say something else to him, but she didn’t. Kieran looked shattered. After we got a couple blocks away from the club, Kieran started walking in front of us. He never said a word.

Notes

Sorry for all of the stuff and thingsss
I'm sure there are a lot of typos and stuff (ugh)
I hope you all like the chapter!!!
I really like writing about Kieran, so I thought I'd give you a little bit of his background story!
There will be a lot more of Ben and the boys next chapter
So see you then :)