Page 13 of You are the Reason

Kyle and I are getting ready to go to footy when Kinsley comes running into Kyle’s bedroom. We both look over at her standing in the doorway; one of Ky’s old Greenswood football club hoodies on, her intentions of coming with us today being made very clear.

“I’m coming too,” she says, placing her hands on her hips.

Neither of us say anything, Kyle looks at me and rolls his eyes and I give a chuckle.

“Give us a minute, we’ll meet you out front,” Kyle says, and Kinsley leaves the two of us alone again.

Kyle looks at me and I know what he’s going to say before he even opens his mouth.

“She can’t know,” he says. “Please Jesse, what we found in that file of my dad’s —”

I cut him off, “I know, and you have my word. But I still don’t think this is a good idea, we should take the information we have found to the police. Let them handle this!” I’m pleading with him now, we are two thirteen year old kids. There is no way we can take down grown ass men, especially criminals.

Kyle laughs, “We won’t be storming in there, I just want to go and see what I can find. Watch them from a distance. See it with my own eyes. You can come or you can stay home, the choice is yours. I’m going though – tonight.” He turns his back to me and walks out of the room.

Chapter Nine

Kinsley

It’s cold outside and my teeth rattle, the full moon is bright lighting up the whole staff car park out the back of Twisted Sister. I finished work fifteen minutes ago and I had hoped that Jesse would be waiting for me, but he still hasn’t shown up. It’s been one hell of a week since I’ve seen him. Normally we would see each other almost every day, every second at least, but as much as I hate to admit it, I’ve been avoiding him.

Reaching into my back pocket to pull out my phone, he enters the car park. I’m so desperate to flee the cold that I tug open the door and throw myself into the passenger seat.

“I’m so sorry Kins,” he whispers. “I wanted to be here when you finished but —”

I cut him off, “You asshole, you fell asleep didn’t you?”

A guilty chuckle slips through his lips as I swat his shoulder with the back of my hand. I’m not really mad at him, but I’m going to let him have it anyway.

“Jesse! I’ve been standing out here for nearly twenty minutes. If I had ordered a cab to be waiting, I would already be at your place!”

“C’mon, don’t be like that.” He leans over and ruffles my hair. “I’ll let you play DJ on the way home.”

With those big green puppy dog eyes he passes me his phone and revs the engine, leaving the car parkand my shitty moodbehind us.

“Lou-loo!” I yell in greeting as Jesse’s golden retriever barrels towards us. Her front paws land on my stomach and I snuggle into her head.

“You’re encouraging her bad habits,” Jesse grumbles.

The drive from the bar to Jesse’s house is about thirty five minutes, he got us here in twenty though, God only knows how he hasn’t lost his driver’s license. When we made the decision to move away from our hometown he didn’t want to move right into the CBD like I did, instead he tiptoed into suburbia.

Neither of us are ‘city kids’ and I can definitely see us moving back out of the chaos eventually, but for now we are both where we need to be. I’ve got the bar and access to more information here than I did at home and Jesse is doing his Grad Year, teaching at a primary school. We are doingnormalstuff. Things people in their twenties do, right?

I lead the way through the house, my heels tapping on the wooden floorboards.I’ll definitely have polished floorboards in my home one day, they provide a much warmer feeling than the tiles in my apartment.Jesse slips into the lounge whilst I enter the kitchen in search of some food.

“Movie or footy?” Jesse calls from the couch. I’m not a huge footy fan, but I need to vent so football for background noise will be easier than a movie.

“Footy,” I say. “Whose playing?” He laughs, knowing full well I don’t give a shit about who is playing.

The kitchen leads into an open plan living space, with a lounge area to the left and a U-shape couch surrounding a TV that has been mounted onto the wall. Jesse’s place has a homely feel to it, even though he still hasn’t decorated and there really isn’t much here other than the essentials.

I place the leftover pizza I found down on the coffee table as Lou-loo jumps up and makes herself comfortable at one end of the couch. Jesse sits smack bang in the middle with his arms stretched across the back and I take a seat between him and Lou.

“Something on your mind, Meadow?”

I sigh, sometimes i forget that he can read me so well. “Where do you want me to begin? Your choices are, the phone call or some dating advice?”

“It depends if it’s dating advice for me, or for you?” he says, with a sparkle in his eye.

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