Dysfunctional Lover

35.

"It's better to understand a little than to misunderstand a lot."

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All my anxiety of the past half an hour vanishes in an instant when I spot my mom and Kai coming out of the restaurant together. The strange thing being, she had a slight smile on her face.

As always, Kai won over another person. My mom at that. There's a bitterness behind that thought. I should've been happy but some part of me wanted him to suffer. The longing has turned into anger now.

The cab driver has always been here for over 10 minute and is losing his patience now.

"We will get going now." Mom announces.

I start proceeding with them towards the cab but mom grabs my arm.

"Where are you going? We are going back to the hotel. You have to go back to your dorm." She looks over my shoulder at Kai. "Young man I can trust you get my daughter back to her dorm right?" The smirk is palpable in her voice.

Wtf did Kai Swan do to my mom.

"Yes ma'am." He says, replicating her smile.

The weirdness of the situation is making me physically uncomfortable.

Soon after, my family leaves and I'm left alone with Kai Swan.

We look at each other. And there are so many things I want to say. So many things I want to do. All this while, all I wanted was him.

But now that he's here. Rage fills me up inside. He made me suffer so much.

"Elena..." He starts.

"I'm taking a cab back home." I declare and start walking the other way.

"Elena wait." He jogs and blocks my way. "Let's talk." He says and takes my hand in his.

"Oh now you want to talk!?" I shout, anger radiating off in ripples from within me. "21 missed calls, 7 voice notes and uncountable texts over the past 4 days Kai!" I show him the call logs.

People are starting to stop and stare at us.

"Please. Come with me. I'll explain." His voice almost cracks as he pleads. I'm still fuming and almost say no again when he says, "Please Eleanor."

I give in. We walk to his car in silence and then rather than sitting in the front, I choose to sit in the back. He opens his mouth to protest but then decides against it.

I know its childish. But I cant let him off easy this time, I won't.

The whole ride is silent and I avoid him totally by focusing on the ebook in my phone.

When the car stops, it's not in the setting that I'm used to. Its parked in the parking lot of a hotel. A posh one from the looks of it.

"This is where I've been living for the past few days." He answers the question that I didnt ask.

"You were supposed to take me back to dorm!"

"We needed to talk. And the dorm wouldn't be very convenient for that purpose." He replies.

I mean, it makes sense, but just to irritate him I say, "I'm going back to the dorm." And starts walking in the opposite direction. Hell I dont even know where the exit is.

His grip on my wrist halts me. Its tight. "Elena stop being so stubborn." He says through, clearly ticked off. "You are coming with me even if I have to carry you inside."

I still stay stubborn and try to walk away. To that, he simply just picks me up and starts walking towards the lobby.

"Kai! Stop. Put me down." I whisper hiss as we become the centre of attention. When he shows no intention to do so, I say, "Okay I'll come. I'll go with you. Just put me down."

He does so without a word and we step inside the elevator.

I smile to myself remembering the last time he carried me like that. Which also makes me tear up a bit cause I dont know where tonight's talk will take us.

He takes me to his room and once the door is shut, he envelops me in a tight hug.

I struggle against his arms for some time before giving in to the comforting warmth that I craved for this entire time.

I finally gather the strength and push him away from me. "Why? Why did you do this to me Kai? To us?" I feel pathetic as a sob breaks my voice.

"It was the fear in your eyes Elena." He says, more like a whisper, and lowers his head.

"What do you mean?"

"That day. The day we had the fight. I lost control. And I saw how you got scared of me. In that moment. That broke me."

He falls to his knees in front of me. I've never seen Kai so vulnerable ever.

"I don't wanna turn into my father Lena. I don't want to see that look in your eyes that I saw in my mother's." Tears strain his cheek and I can see the effort he is putting to keep his voice from breaking.

All my resolve breaks down. I kneel down in front of him and pull him into a hug. He cries silently in my arms.

"I love you too much for that... and because of that... I'm willing to let you go if that's what you want."

"Shhh. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not leaving you Kai." I hold his face and make him look at me. "You should've just talked to me. We can work through this. I know for a fact that we can."

"You were already going through a lot with Chris and... I didn't want to put more stress on you. The guilt was too much for me bear."

In that moment, with him laying down his everything in front of me and being the most vulnerable he has ever been, crushes me and makes me love him more than ever.

I kiss him. It takes him a split second to realise that I meant what I said and kiss me back.

"I missed you."