Everywhere, All At Once

Chapter 4 - Hectic Inside

One full bottle of wine, two shots, an ice pack to the back of her head, and three episodes of Gilmore Girls later, Kenna turned her phone back on. She'd turned it off right when she'd come inside her apartment. She hadn't wanted to see if James texted her apologizing again, or worse, demeaning or threatening her. Really, she just hadn't wanted to talk to anyone in general.

She waited a few minutes for her phone to fully load and connect to the network. She watched Lorelai beg Luke for some coffee on her TV. No messages and no texts. She was equal parts relieved and disappointed. Who had she thought was going to text her anyway? Her friends all knew she was busy tonight.

She smiled thinking of being at Mr. Reed's house. His silly, loveable, slightly crazy children; the way it made her stomach quiver when she made eye contact with him. Ever since the reunion, meeting his eyes set her nerve endings on fire. Back in high school and even middle school, she would look into his eyes and fantasize and melt a little bit, but she'd never felt anything back from his gaze until now. She knew she had to be imagining things but she thought maybe he looked at her a little differently than he had before.

Opening up a text message to Mr. Reed, she let the alcohol dictate what she wrote.

Hey I just wanted to say sorry for not thankig you before I left. I had such a graet time with you and the kids. Thanks ahain!

The text took her much longer than normal to type and her spelling wasn't perfect but she was beginning to nod off. She pressed send and put her phone down beside her as she spread out on the couch, wondering if he would even bother to answer her.

***

"Hello? Kenna, where is your head today?" Asked Kenna's soon-to-be sister-in-law, Jasleen.

Kenna shouldn't have been idiotic enough to drink so much the night before. She'd promised her mother that they would go out with Jasleen that morning to start planning her wedding and look at dresses for the bridal party. Why the hell she'd agreed to start at eight o'clock in the morning was a question for another time. Even on a good day, Kenna couldn't get out of bed, ready, and in the car by eight. Nine-thirty at best, and that was being optimistic.

Kenna snapped her head up to look at a dress her mother was holding up in front of her face. It was pretty. Normally she'd be really into the whole dress shopping and wedding planning thing. But she was, one, hungover, and two, distracted by her embarrassment at having texted Aaron Reed at two in the morning the night before. Even worse was that he hadn't responded and it was almost eight hours later. He'd probably blocked her number and contacted the police.

"Sorry, Jas. I'm just a space cadet today. I love the dress though. Not so much the color."

Jasleen accepted this assessment and she seemed to agree with her. Kenna looked to her mother for her opinion, but she was just scowling at her in that "just wait until we get home" way that she'd been doing to Kenna since she was old enough to throw a tantrum. It was actually a requirement to become a Puerto Rican mother. If you hadn't perfected "the look" by the time your kid was old enough to throw a tantrum, you took mandatory Puerto Rican Mothering classes that came with a complimentary chancleta to use on unsuspecting adolescent heads and a bowl of rice and beans to build strength.

Before she could tell her mother to chill out, her phone buzzed - a short one, so it was a text. Glancing down, she prayed it wasn't James.

It wasn't.

It was Mr. Reed.

Haha, we had a great time, too. Fiona hasn't stopped talking about you since she woke up this morning.