Red/Wolf (Working Title)

Chapter 27: Can We Talk Kenyon

Chapter 27: Kenyon

I didn't expect to fall asleep with the day I had. It was beyond words. I lay in my bed with a permanent smile of contentment spread across my face. She actually said 'yes'. I still could not believe it. Sorrell Garnett was my girlfriend. I was excited just saying it.
Then my phone began to ring, I let it rind a couple of times, thinking that it was Aunt Talya, or the wrong number. I looked over at the clock it was 10:32. I remembered that Aunt Talya usually called the house phone, and if someone would call so late that maybe it was important. I picked my phone up off of the night stand, and studied the lit up letters that appeared on my phone and my face lit up. Sorrell.
I quickly hit the answer button, hoping she did not surrender and hand up, she just caught my voice mail.
'Hello?" I eagerly said into the receiver. I waited a moment, but I heard nothing. "Hello?" I repeated. I was about to hit the end button when I picked up a steady breath from the other side of the phone. "Sorrell is that you?"
"Yes, it's me." My heart turned somersaults in my chest, hearing her soft voice, on the receiver. "I'm sorry for calling you so late. I was just about to hang up and call you tomorrow."
"No, it's fine." I assured her. "I was just thinking about you. I just didn't want to call you so late,and upset you or your dad."
"So it is late. I'll call back."
"No. Please." I begged. "It is really okay."
"Are you sure? I don't want to upset your family."
"Don't worry about it! My Aunt Talya is out of town for the weekend and Randy…" I looked over at Randy's bed. He was buried under his covers sleeping quietly, or was he? I thought. "Will you hold on a minute."
"Ok."
I ran down stairs and decided to lock myself in the den for some privacy. I made myself comfortable on the sofa. "Are you still there?"
"Yeah, I'm still here."
"Great. So what's on your mind?"
"I guess I just wanted to hear your voice." She said. "And let you know that I made it home safe."
"That's great." I sat up. "I hope your family enjoyed it here. I hope Satordi didn't tell too many embarrassing stories."
She let out a soft laugh. "No, not at all. They couldn't stop talking about being on Satordi's boat. Especially, my dad. That is why I am calling so late, they just wouldn't shut up about it."
I had to laugh. I had to admit. I looked up to Satordi, he was an awesome guy, so I expected nothing less. "That's good." I said. "I'm glad they enjoyed themselves."
"Thank you for having us." She said. "And thank Satordi, for us."
"I will." I promised. "What about you? Did you have a good time." I could almost hear her blush through the phone.
"It was really nice."
"Just nice." I chuckled. "That was my best material."
"So that is what it was 'material'?"
It took me a moment to realize what she meant. I realized that because I had to date a different girl every two weeks, I seemed like some womanizer to her. "I was joking. I would never game you Sorrell."
"I know." She said. "I was kidding."
I was shocked. She knew. Did she know how much I loved her? That was impossible, but she knew I was sincere, meaning that she trusted me. That was a good sign.
"Good." I responded. "So tell me about yourself."
"What do you want to know?" she asked.
"Everything."
She laughed. "How long do you have?"
"All night."
She went through her life, even when she lived on the south shore with her family and her and her brother went to the school that I went to. She even talked about me as a little boy, it didn't respond I just listened. I was glad to know that the day that I left, it gave everyone else the courage to stand up to the bully and he and his family ended up moving away as well after everyone had given him a taste of his own medicine.
She then went through her mother's career as a blues singer, and struggles with alcohol, and her death. I could hear her crying over the phone, and wished I had been there to hold her.
When she was finally done, she asked, "Are you still there?"
"Yeah, I'm still here."
"I figured I had bored you to death."
I laughed. "Never!"
"Yeah whatever." She laughed.
"I mean it." I assured. "besides my life is probably ten times more boring than yours." I chuckled knowing it was probably untrue but, hoping it would make her feel better.
She laughed.”Says the guy that got a horse for his birthday and lived on a ranch the size of ridiculasness. Sure. Kenyon!" She paused."So tell me about you."
I thought a moment. "What do you want to know?"
"Everything."
Could I tell her everything? "Can you handle 'everything’?"
She laughed again. "I think I can handle everything!" she said. " Tell me about your dad. You said he went crazy."
I paused.
"I'm so sorry. If you don't want to talk about it, I understand."
"No." I assured. "It is not that at all. I just can't believe you remembered."
"Well, I'm a good listener."
I smiled. "Yes you are."
"So tell me about you, anything that you want to tell me."
That was actually comforting that she said that, because I knew the biggest things I wanted to tell her, I couldn't tell her, but I wanted to tell her as much I could in between. "My dad did go crazy. It was because my mom mysteriously disappeared." I thought about that last statement, thinking that it might have implied 'magic' but I continued. "My dad went looking for her and couldn't find her. Everyone tried to convince him that she was dead and he just lost it. He's incoherent, he is a regular sedative regimen, and no one can bring him back."
"That's terrible."
"He even tried to kill me, thinking that I had something to do with my mom's disappearance."
"Kenyon, I'm so sorry."
I was fighting with a lump in my throat. "It has been years since I have even seen him. They actually think that he would try and kill me and my brother if he saw us again."
"Kenyon, I didn't-" I could tell she was getting teary again. I again felt bad for making her cry.
"It's okay."
"Kenyon, I'm so sorry!"
"It's really okay. One day my dad is going to snap out of it." I wondered if I could really believe that myself, but I really did not want to make her cry. It killed me, hearing her sob. I was taken aback buy my protectiveness over her, both physical and emotional. I was even ready to beat myself up for making her cry.
"What about your mother?"
I shook my head. "I don't know. I guess I want to believe she is alive on one hand and on the other hand-" I paused.
" You don't want to believe she abandoned you."
"Right." She hit the nail on the head.
"My dad served my mother divorced papers in rehab, Kenyon. When she needed him, she needed us. I can never forgive him for that."
That explained a lot, the way acted in her father's class. It made sense her being angry at him.
"You have to forgive him, sometime Sorrell. He loves you, I am sure he never meant to hurt you or your mother."
"I have a hard time believing that."
I sighed in surrender. "Alright Sorrell, but being angry won't bring her back. I used to get angry and blame myself, for my mom leaving. I used to tell myself that my dad was in half is right mind when he tried to kill me, because I made her leave. I had to forgive myself , and that is harder than forgiving another person."
She fell silent. I was hoping I had given her something to think about. I did not want her to live with the regrets I did, and the unsaid words.
"Sorrell just think about it. I am not trying to upset you."
"No, you're right." She said. "I will think about it."
"That's all I ask." I had a thought. "What are you doing tomorrow."
"It is kind of a me and my brother Russ day. We never get to spend time together since we go to different schools, but I can-"
I cut her off. "No, it's fine. I don't want to get in the way of that. I will just see you at school."
She sighed. "I really do want to see you."
I thought about phasing, and finding my way to her house just to hold her as she slept, but I resisted the urge. "I really want to see you too but I know that it's important to you." I had an idea. "Why don't I pick you up for school Monday?"
"That would be great." She said with glee.
"Ok. Then I will see you first thing Monday morning."
"Are you tired?"
I shook my head. "No. Not at all."
"Will you stay on the phone with me?"
"Of course."
And we talked on the phone all night. It wasn't until I heard her cut off in midsentence, and heard heavy breaths, that I knew she had fallen asleep.
"A thousand times good night." I kissed the receiver."I can't wait for the day that I can tell you how much I love you." I whispered. I hit the end button on my phone. I laid back on the couch and I dozed off into a blissful dream.