When Kaya Perry graduates college, the last place she wants to go back is Layton, the town that she left behind. She left that place with bad memories and no friends, so there is no way she's looking to go back. So it's really a bummer when the job...
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The rest of Kaya's vacation passed in a blur. She joined Lauren at her job a couple of times, learned more about her friends than she ever thought possible, and explored New York as much as she could. She visited the Statue of Liberty, took a two-day trip to DC to visit the Holocaust Museum, and just enjoyed being a tourist and not having to worry about any clients. It was the freest she'd felt since graduating high school.
Along the way, she, Lauren and Olivia researched and explored possible business names. Some of the ones that they came up with were Kaya Perry Productions, Kaya's Studio, Perry Productions, and Perry Studios, but they finally decided on KP Studios, which Kaya thought was short, sweet, and to the point.
With Olivia's help and Lauren's input, Kaya started researching possible business licenses and all of the details of what she was going to do. She set up a rough business plan and made a note to ask Ty to talk to the lawyer he kept on retainer. She found this incredibly fun as well as incredibly stressful, as she learned in those two weeks that creating a personal brand took a lot of work. It was rewarding, though, to finally have an idea of what she wanted to do.
Two nights before she left, Kaya finally allowed Lauren and Olivia to let her get drunk. Lauren's poison of choice was Hennessey—which Kaya regretted immediately—and she couldn't remember that night at all. According to Olivia, Kaya was never to have even a drop of Hennessey again. Kaya agreed after looking through Lauren's phone and seeing a bunch of photos from that night. A lot of the photos were blurred, as if Kaya were running toward the camera, and there were even some videos of her twerking, Olivia's laughter sounding in the background.
Saying goodbye to her best friends was hard. High school Kaya would never have imagined having not just one, but two best friends that made her feel welcome and validated. She thought that she would have ended up a lonely spinster somewhere. She was almost overwhelmed with feeling as she gave Lauren and Olivia one last hug.
"Call us when you land," Lauren said. "And text when you get home. Love you, okay?"
"Love you too," Kaya said, picking up her carry-on. "And I will. See you later, guys."
She had just gotten home when she saw Julian sitting on her doorstep, looking like a kicked puppy. Kaya looked around, noting that none of the neighbors were watching, and approached the man.
"Are you okay?" she asked. "What...what are you doing here?"
Julian looked up at Kaya and she noticed that his eyes were bloodshot. His face was ragged, as if he'd been put through the ringer. There was stubble on his face, strain on his lips, and despair in his eyes. He looked sweaty and exhausted and rumpled, something Kaya had never seen on the man. It was jarring, to say the least. Julian had always looked the picture of perfection. Other than Kaya's apparent success, nothing ever seemed to ruin his day.
Julian smiled, looking even more like a kicked puppy than ever. "I need a friend." It was almost physically painful to see Julian like this, to reconcile him with the man she'd seen before. It was as if the world had ended for him, and a wave of pity washed over her, although she didn't know why.
Kaya felt her shoulders sag. "With the way you've treated me," she said, "I can't really count you as a friend."
Kaya saw his Adam's apple bob, and squatted down in front of him, balancing on her luggage. "But I can sit here and listen, if you need me to."
Kaya could clearly see the hurt in his eyes as Julian blinked once. Twice. Three times. Then he nodded. She could practically see all of their past encounters running through his head as it finally dawned on him that Kaya was right—he couldn't really be counted as her friend.
But as it turned out, Julian really did need a friend. Kaya had rushed him into her house and sat him on a couch. She almost offered her shower, but then figured that it was too much for that moment. From there, she alerted her friends that she had arrived home and texted Ty, telling him to come over as soon as he could. There was no answer, of course—he was on a shoot and typically left his phone on silent while working. Then, not knowing what else to do, she cooked Julian some food. Her luggage sat by the door, waiting to be unpacked.
Of course, the only thing she had in her kitchen was pasta. She ransacked her pantry for something to throw together—diced tomatoes, half an onion from her fridge that needed to be used, parmesan cheese, and a host of other seasonings—and threw it all together once the pasta was done cooking. The food smelled heavenly, and if she weren't so worried about Julian she would've taken some for herself.
When she finished, she brought a bowl to Julian and sat across from him.
She watched the man devour the pasta, get up to get another bowl with her insistence, and then attempt to calm himself down, dragging his hand across his face before taking another deep breath and sighing. She wondered what could have happened to make him like...like this.
It was weird, worrying about Julian. He'd spent the last few months making it known that he wasn't happy with her success, or at the very least envious. Sometimes, it made her wonder if there was more going on in his life than he made known. Kaya had noticed that as time passed, Julian's mood was getting progressively worse, and sometimes it made him hard to be around. Ty hadn't said anything as to why—but he wouldn't, because Julian was his best friend and he would've made it known to Julian before anyone else, and he probably already did.
As far as Kaya knew, Julian had a good life. His father owned the town's only auto body shop, which was expected to be passed on to Julian, and the family had the backing of Alison's family. Julian was well-known throughout the town, as he helped people repair things and was great with computers, which he worked as a tech support part-time at the high school. Because of these things, it was assumed that, because of Alison and Julian—the golden couple, the two brightest people in Layton—the families were close. There was nothing to prove anything otherwise.
And with the way Julian was here, at Kaya's house, looking like he needed a hug, she knew it had something to do with Alison. She didn't want to assume the worst, but she had a feeling what was going on. The last place Alison would want him to be was with Kaya.
Julian placed his bowl on the coffee table, finally finished eating. "Thank you," he said, his voice uncharacteristically small. "I needed that."
"What happened?" Kaya asked, her voice soft.
Julian looked at her for a moment, gave her a sad smile, and hung his head.
