Everywhere, All At Once

Chapter 18 - At Least We Were Electrified

"So everything's good now? I mean it's been over a week since you guys went to that wedding."

Noelle asked this question over breakfast at her favorite deli while shoveling eggs into her mouth.

"I think so. We haven't talked about what Kyle said again, so it's fine."

"Fuck Kyle. I'll fucking kill him if I ever see him again."

Kenna sighed, but smiled. She'd more or less felt the same way since that night, but hatred was exhausting. She knew she would probably never see Kyle again, at least not enough to matter, and she was working on letting it go. The trouble was, even though Aaron had adamantly insisted he did not care about anything she'd done in her past, she couldn't stop hearing the things Kyle had said to him when he'd thought Kenna wasn't listening.

'She was fucking nuts', Kyle had told Aaron. That part wasn't so bad. She was a little nuts. Aaron had seen her dance around a room to songs from Disney movies, recite full scenes from Mamma Mia, and weathered a couple of her temper tantrums, and he'd still been coming around.

'She caused so much drama for my boy Juan.' That was what had really pissed her off. Ever since finally breaking up with her high school boyfriend, once she'd finally told her friends that he'd been physically abusing her, Juan been denying it like his life depended on it. He'd tell anyone who would listen that he'd never laid a hand on her, that she was being overdramatic, trying to ruin his reputation, et cetera. And people actually believed him.

It didn't help that he was charming and charismatic and had never so much as raised his voice at her in front of anyone else. So she'd seemed like a woman scorned to almost everyone she had considered a friend while she was in school, nevermind the fact that she'd been the one who'd broken up with him.

It was mind-blowingly frustrating to have been the person that was hurt - physically hurt - by someone else, repeatedly, and then not even be believed when you finally had the courage to tell your story. It did something to your trust in others. It did something to your trust in yourself. Kenna didn't tell that story to anyone anymore.

  At least Noelle and Nelson had believed her back then. That had been enough to keep her sane while she'd tried to recover from that horrible part of her life.  

"Okay, so I have an extremely important life-or-death question since all that drama is done with now," Noelle said.

"Okay..."

"How's the sex?" Noelle asked around a mouthful of toast.

Shit.

"Well... About that -"

"Oh no, bitch, you are telling me every nasty detail whether you like it or not."

"It's not that," Kenna said. "It's just that... we haven't had sex, yet."

"Seriously?" Noelle said, eyebrows raised. She looked so concerned. "How long have you been dating this guy?"

Kenna shrugged, counting in her head. "I don't know, like a month and a half, or something?"

"And you haven't fucked him yet?"

"Jesus Christ," Kenna hissed, looking around to make sure no one had heard her. "Keep your voice down, asshole. We're in public."

"Okay, well why not? What's wrong with him?"

"Nothing's wrong with him," Kenna snapped back, affronted. "We're just taking our time. I don't know."

"You must be dying," Noelle said, smirking. "You're dying inside, I can tell. Why don't you just have sex with him?"

"We haven't - I don't know - gotten there yet. Geez."