Page 79 of Save Me
After a tearful farewell to Mum the following day, I slink inside the confines of my house for one. Xander had already snuck out this morning while security changed over. A faceless man by the name of Felix takes over from Leo each and every night. Being that I’m usually in bed, I’ve never actually seen him. Not that it matters who he is, just that he is here to make sure I’m not up to anything I shouldn’t be.
Suddenly, the room before me feels dark, alien, and altogether unfriendly. I quickly switch on the TV to find something ridiculously silly to watch, like a cartoon, an old film, or a comedy sketch show. Anything to take my mind away from the fact that I won’t be going to pay my last respects with the rest of my family.
My thoughts have me slipping into a state of sadness whereby I can’t even face getting dressed. Instead, I flick through the channels, wearing my old dressing gown, and lying in a stale heap on top of the sofa. Tea in hand and chocolate in the other, I give into the confines of my slovenly hovel for one, when suddenly, the doorbell rings.
At first, I groan while inwardly berating Leo for not letting whoever it is in, then immediately feel like the laziest human being on the planet. I have to force myself to actually haul myself up to open the door. It strikes me on the way there that I must look like a complete pig, and probably smell like one too.
“Kai?!” I gasp, shocked to see him here after everything that’s happened to him.
He tentatively smiles, looks to Leo, then gives me pleading eyes to let him come inside.
“Oh, sorry, come in,” I say, before moving aside and flapping my hand in a rather ungraceful, come-hither motion.
After I close the door, Kai covers his face with his hands and sinks down onto the sofa, as if getting ready to let everything out on my chocolate wrapper seat. I run over and wrap my arms around him, letting his shoulders fall against me as they shudder with grief-stricken tears.
“I’m sorry,” he sniffs, “life is pretty shit at the moment, and I guess I couldn’t go without coming to see you first.”
“What do you mean ‘go’?” I ask, furrowing my brow while being thoroughly afraid of the answer I’m about to receive.
“We’re broke, Beth!” He looks at me and I see the despair in his teary eyes. “We’ve got nothing…nada!”
“Kai, no!” I gasp in shock for him. “What the hell happened?”
“My father had saved nothing! Put that with his dying business and we’re left with debt and zero income!”
“Shit!” I reply breathlessly. “So, what are you going to do?”
“Mom says we’re moving to New York to live with my grandmother,” he replies with a sad shrug, all the while staring at our sad, little Christmas sapling. “Apparently, she’s not doing so well being on her own, so I guess it’s a ‘win-win’. Well, that’s how Mom sold it to me and my sister, anyway.”
“You can’t go!” I say rather selfishly. “I’ve only just found you. You’re my best friend!”
He ignores my self-centered statement and instead, turns to hold onto me, stroking my hair, even though it’s gross and straggly.
“You’re still my girl, Beth,” he mutters inside of my ear with both of us now crying onto one another’s shoulders. “I love you, babe!”
“I love you too, Kai,” I sniff and look up into his eyes. “When do you go?”
“End of the week,” he replies with a sad laugh, “the bank is taking the house. Can you believe that?”
“Holy shit!”
“Yeah, I know, but I did get you something,” he says as he pulls out a wrapped box with a delicate bow on top. “My sister helped me wrap it,” he explains, and I smile and nod with understanding.
“Hold up, let me get my gift for you.”
I leap up and grab the small parcel that is still sitting on the lower branch of the Christmas tree. At the same time, I notice Oliver’s professionally wrapped gift and begin to descend into a mini heart attack. I completely forgot! I’m surprised he hasn’t called to give me shit about it, or even worse, turned up on my doorstep to personally deliver his own form of corporal punishment.
I hear Kai cough from the sofa, probably wondering why his crazy-haired friend is now staring at her pathetic excuse for a Christmas tree. I decide to ignore it for now and to store a mental note to open the insidious little gift later. Instead, I focus my attention on my best friend, who is here now, but only for a short time. It suddenly hits me like a devastating blow to the head that I don’t know if I’ll ever see him again.
“Here,” I say when I finally turn to give him my gift, which in all honesty, is as badly wrapped as my mother’s efforts. He laughs over my weak attempts, but it appears to lighten him up, if only for a few moments. We then look at each other with completely ridiculous grins on our faces, before he asks, “Together?” I nod enthusiastically and count to three before we start ripping the paper like a pair of giggly kids on Christmas morning, too impatient to unwrap them logically, and making a huge mess of it. It most likely took us longer to succeed in our task than Xander and Mum’s cheeky, slow-motion unwrapping, but this was much more fun.
“Shit, Beth!” Kai gasps when he pulls out the small silver keyring that is engraved with the message, Your girl forever, Beth x. “Come here!” he says, and we practically lunge at one another before he pulls back to stare at it with a huge grin on his face. It’s a smile I hope to mentally hide away for harder times. My beautiful friend!
“This,” he announces as he wobbles the shiny keyring at me, “will stay with me forever!” I grin a little too widely, all the while trying desperately hard not to cry. I want this to be a happy memory for both of us. A fleeting, light-hearted moment to last us through the shitstorm ahead.
When I eventually look down at his gift, I am a little confused, and fail to look anything but, prompting him to laugh at me. It’s a mobile phone that looks cheap, basic, and functional.
“I’ve already put my new number in it. I sold my iPhone and got a cheaper one. I want you to keep this one secret from Oliver,” he explains. “It’s pay-as-you-go, so you can control your credit and contact who you need to. I’m guessing he will have some way of screening your calls and messages with the one he gave you. With this one, he can’t.”