When Opposites Attract - Chapter 25

My stomach lurched, and my heart rate accelerated while an uncomfortable hotness crept over my face. I instantly started thinking of excuses, all of them sounding ridiculous. My lips trembled, started forming words that I did not voice aloud. I could only stare at Selene.

‘How – how could you even -?’ She broke off and started shaking her head in distress, pacing around in circles.

An immense guilt overwhelmed me, and tailing along came something else I couldn’t quite put a name to – desperation? ‘Selene,’ I started, and though I didn’t mean to, my voice came out pleadingly. ‘I didn’t mean to –‘

‘You didn’t mean to WHAT, Kaia?’ she shouted, spinning to face me with unadulterated fury surging in her eyes. ‘You didn’t mean to what?’

I was shocked, and I was sure it was clearly written on my face. Selene never shouted, and when I say never, I mean never. It just wasn’t anything she’d do. Except for now.

‘How could you, Kaia?’ Her chest heaved with each angry breath she drew in. ‘How could you lie to me like that?’

Against my will, my eyes started to water and my lower-lip started to tremble. I hated Selene being angry with me. Hated it. And it just had to be in the most unfortunate of situations.

‘Kaia,’ her voice turned quite. Deadly. ‘If you ever, ever lie to me like that again, I will make sure –‘

Selene was cut off by the shuffle of footsteps making their way into the kitchen. Rhys stood there in the doorway, along with Claire, both of them wearing confused expression. ‘What’s goin’ on?’ They asked in unison.

Selene just looked at them, saying nothing.

I realised that I should probably be the one to say something, and my voice cracked as I said quietly, ‘Nothing guys, just…nothing.’

Selene stared at me coldly, and I cringed and bit my lip to fight the tears I knew were going to come soon. Then she turned to face Claire and Rhysa, said, ‘It doesn’t matter. Just…go outside. Somewhere. Just go take a walk or something.’

They looked baffled by this request, but did not fail to oblige.

‘Kaia,’ she said quietly, her eyes looking somewhere to the right of my head. ‘If I ever hear that you have once more interacted with that…that, then I will not hesitate to lock you in your room.’

I gawped. That was out of line. I understood that I had done something she considered wrong, but I was seventeen!

My temper flared in spite of my guilty conscience. ‘No,’ I spat out. ‘You won’t do that, because I won’t let you! You can’t keep me from him!’

Her eyes widened in shock, an emotion I rarely saw on her flawless face. But then her eyes narrowed and her jaw clench. ‘I can do whatever I want! You are not old enough to make decisions like these, and you’re misinterpretation of that boy just proves my point!’

And now I was furious, my easily-triggered temper bubbling and boiling way over the surface. ‘Just shut up!’ I screeched, taking her aback. ‘Shut up! You can’t tell me what to do! You don’t know how I feel!’

Our argument was beginning to sound like one of those typical mother-daughter arguments. But Selene was not my mother and I was not her daughter and she was acting like it and this was not a normal situation.

Disbelief replaced Selene’s anger. ‘Kaia,’ she said. She sounded hopeless. ‘Don’t say that. I know how you –‘

‘No, you don’t!’ I screamed, my fists clenching at my sides as I hurled my words at her. ‘You don’t! Don’t pretend you do! You don’t care how I feel! You only care about yourself!’

She flinched away from me, bit her lip as tears welled in her eyes. ‘That’s not true.’

In another situation, I would have definitely felt great remorse for the pain I knew I had caused her to feel. I would have said sorry and we would have made up and everything would have continued as normal.

But this wasn’t another situation. ‘Yes, it is!’ I was fuming, white hot fury pouring out of me, possessing me. ‘Yes, it is! You don’t care! You don’t care that he loves me and I love him and –‘

‘No, Kaia!’ She suddenly cried out, and I was startled to see that she actually looked like she was going to cry. ‘No, Kaia, no, you don’t understand! He’s using you! He’s using you because his –‘

It was too much for me. I knew that if I couldn’t put a lid on my strong emotions, then things would start to happen, or so I had been told. But I had never been told what would happen until I saw the results with my own eyes. Selene’s glass of water that sat on a coaster on the breakfast table suddenly exploded, fragments of glass flying everywhere. Water puddled on the floor and all over Selene and me. This did not stop me. ‘Stop it!’ My voice was shrill even to my own ears. ‘Don’t say that! Don’t ever say that. You don’t know what you’re talking about!’ And then tears were dripping over my lower-lids, tumbling down my cheeks and clumsily skimming my t-shirt. I angrily brushed them away with the back of my hand.

Selene looked…horrified. Truly, she did. I knew that she never liked seeing or making me cry, so it must have hurt her. But I didn’t care. I wanted to hurt her.

‘Kaia,’ she whispered, her hand outstretched as she slowly moved towards me. ‘I didn’t mean it like –‘

I didn’t want to listen to her, and I started back away, my lip trembling dangerously. ‘No,’ my voice came out muffled and shaky. ‘D-don’t,’ she made to lay a hand comfortingly on my shoulder, and I stumbled away from her. ‘Don’t.’

She looked hurt, her dark brown eyes filling up with something I couldn’t quite put a name to. ‘Kaia, I –‘

But it was too late. I spun around and flung myself out of the kitchen door, Selene’s cries doing nothing to stop my hurried pace.

At first, I walked. Then, I ran. And before I knew it, I was sprinting so fast everything around me was a blur.

I knew where I was going.
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I dried my eyes before I knocked on the smooth white door; I didn’t need nor want any sympathy.

Kian answered the door, and his eyes flew wide, but shock was quickly replaced with delight as his lips crept up at the corners. ‘Hey Kaia,’ he said, always the friendly guy. ‘What are you doing here?’

I managed a weak, wobbly smile, forcing my mind not to return to the just recent events. ‘Oh, I…I was just wondering if I could come in and maybe…speak to Matt?’

He grinned. ‘Sure. Come on in.’

I stepped over the threshold, breathing in the familiar scent of lemon, aftershave, and complete masculinity.

I was greeted by other surprised exclamations of ‘Kaia!’ and ‘Hey, blondie, whatcha doin’ here?’ and ‘Kaia, this is a surprise.’

The last one came from Leion, and I managed a weak smile as he moved towards me.

He assessed me searchingly, and I twisted uncomfortably under his gaze. ‘What brings you here?’ He asked after a while, his hair, the exact same shade of yellow as mine, shimmering in the light.

‘Well,’ I said. ‘I just…I just wondered if I could speak to Mateo.’

His face relaxed into a smile. ‘Of course. He’s upstairs, in his room, I think.’

‘Thanks.’
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When I opened his door and stepped inside, I found Mateo lying on his bed, his hand moving across a diary that was laying on a pillow.

His eyes flew upwards, then grew wide as he saw me standing there. ‘Kaia.’ He jumped off the bed, his arms encircling me almost immediately, and I fell into his embrace gratefully. I buried my face into his neck and clutched onto his shoulders, allowing myself to let go.

‘What’s wrong?’ His voice husked in my ear, and I hesitantly looked up at him. I didn’t know how he would take the information I was just about to share with him, and I didn’t know whether I would like his reaction. My eyes closed briefly, and I blew out a breath I hadn’t known I was holding. ‘She knows.’

His arms grew still around me, and I could practically feel the temperature around us cool. I forced myself to look him in the eye. ‘What?’ He whispered. He knew as well as I did what I meant. ‘What are you talking about?’

I took in another deep breath, pressing myself against his chest as if that pressure alone could stop the turmoil that I once called my head. ‘Selene, she…she knows about…us.’

All was silent for moments longer, but then his arms were tightening around me, his lips pressing into my hair. ‘We’ll find a way through this. I need you.’

I looked up at him, and for the second time that day, my lip started trembling. ‘I need you, too.’ I whispered.

And it was true.
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‘Do you want me to take a walk?’ He murmured into my ear.

We were standing just outside of his bedroom door, with him leaning against the wall and holding my hand in his comfortingly.

I smiled gratefully. ‘Yeah, I do.’ I added in a whisper. ‘Thankyou.’

‘Come on, then,’ he tugged at my hand, made to move down the stairs, but I stopped and said, ‘Oh, do you mind if I clean up first?’ I gestured helplessly at my face, feeling a blush creep onto my cheeks. I hated him knowing that I had cried..

‘Sure. I’ll meet you downstairs.’

The bathroom was white, every inch of it glistening to within an inch of its non-existent life. I glared at my tear-stained face in the mirror above the sink. ‘You. Are. A. Mess.’ I splashed water on my face, and then patted my cheeks dry with the hand towel. With a deep breath, I made my way downstairs.

Even before I had set a foot on the first step on the stairs, I heard voices coming from downstairs, inside the dining room. This usually wouldn’t have bothered me. But what they were saying did. I quietly crept down the stairs, my heartbeat accelerating.

‘…can’t just use her like a toy!’ Mateo’s voice was clear to me as it rung out of the room. I frowned from where I was standing, concealed behind the door. What were they talking about? ‘You know it’s not like that anymore. I want–‘

‘Mateo,’ Leion’s voice cut him off. ‘You have to do this. For me. Please. I can’t…I need this to–‘

‘I don’t care!’ Mateo’s voice was bordering on a shout. ‘I can’t do this anymore! I need to tell her. I’ll tell her and she’ll know that I never meant to–‘

‘Of course you didn’t!’ Leion burst out. ‘It wasn’t supposed to happen this way, Mateo! I asked you a simple request. You failed to do it. It wasn’t ever supposed to go this deep. I need Kaia to know that–‘

‘No!’ Mateo roared. ‘You can’t hurt her like that! I won’t let you get –‘

‘Mateo,’ Leion’s voice cut sharp. ‘I need you to go on as normal. Selene knows, but she doesn’t have to know that –‘

‘No!’ And I could hear the pure desperation in Mateo’s voice. ‘I can’t hurt her. I won’t hurt her. You can’t ask me to –‘

‘Do you think that you’re the only one that cares of the outcome? I do, too, and I won’t have–‘

‘No! I won’t do it. I can’t do this anymore. Selene knows now and she’ll tell Kaia that I was ordered to do this just like you–‘

‘You will not.’ pure Ice. ‘I will not have you telling her anything. I ordered you to gain her trust, I ordered you to tell me of the happenings between the two of you. I never expected that it would–‘

I gasped, my eyes widening as my lips trembled What? What were they talking about? Mateo was…ordered to…ordered to do everything he had done for me? He was ordered to make me fall for him? He had…he had told me that he loved me and it had all been a lie? No, my brain refused to accept it. No, no, no. I was frantic, my breathing accelerating as my mind desperately clutched onto the reality I knew and loved.

‘What was that?’ Leion said in a hushed voice.

With a start, I realised that I was still standing behind the dining room door, which was closed. And then someone was wrenching the door open, Kian, I saw, who was staring at me with wide eyes.

They were all in there, all of the coven, save for the girls that I hadn’t been introduced to. Leion was sitting on a chair that leaned back against the far wall, and Mateo was standing up, staring at me, while the other members were sitting on the floor or the couch. They all looked at me.

And it was then that it hit me. Really, really hit me. Hard as a ton of bricks. He never really loved me. All the breath flew out of me, and my hands covered my mouth as Mateo stared at me in horror.

‘How could you?’ I breathed, not paying a thought to the fact that every single one of them was listening in. ‘How…how could you…?’

‘Kaia…’ Mateo whispered, and for all the world he looked as if his worst nightmares had just been confirmed. ‘No, I – I didn’t…you don’t understand –‘

I backed away from him, backed out of the door, backed out of the room. I didn’t want to be anywhere near him.

‘Kaia,’ Leion started, getting up from the chair and moving towards me, as was Mateo. ‘Please, let me explain–‘

‘No!’ I screamed. I have to get out of here, I thought frantically. I have to get out! I spun around and sprang to the door, flung it open and started sprinting as fast as I could, and all the while desperation was playing clearly in my head. No, no, no, I was inwardly sobbing, and as my footsteps gained faster speed, I realised that tears were flowing freely down my cheeks. But I loved him.

‘Kaia!’ A desperate voiced called out behind me. ‘Kaia, please wait!’

No. I pushed myself faster, my breath hiccupping as I realised that Mateo was chasing after me with a speed I could never match up to. But my anger and my desperation, my fear and my anguish made my body feel like it had no limits. I couldn’t let him catch me

I jumped over the fence that Mateo had helped me over so many times before, sprang over the kissing gate that we had kissed between. It was getting to me, everything was pushing me down and I couldn’t take it.

And then I was being spun around, and my eyes widened as adrenaline pumped fast through my body.

It was Mateo, of course. ‘Kaia,’ he said in a broken voice, still holding onto my wrist. ‘I –‘

‘Let go of me!’ I shrieked. ‘Let go.’

His hand fell limply to his side, and when I glared up at him, my heart almost shattered to pieces at the expression he was wearing.

My body was shaking with cobs that I refused to let him see, and I backed away from him with my eyes closed. I didn’t want to see him.

‘No,’ he said. ‘Kaia, don’t. Please let me –‘

‘Let you what?’ I screamed, my eyes flying open. ‘Let you explain? What is there to explain? I thought you loved me!’

His eyes widened, his face equivalent to the expression a man who had been told that his mother had died might wear. ‘I do,’ he whispered, reaching out a hand to me, and he flinched when I backed away fearfully. ‘I do. I love you so much, and I never meant to hurt –‘

‘You never meant to hurt me?’ I shouted. ‘What did you expect? I loved you and I gave you everything I had, and I’m sorry it wasn’t enough for you –‘

‘It is!’ He cried out, rushing forwards to me, his eyes frantic and pleading. ‘You mean everything to me, and I need you and I love –‘

‘Don’t say that!’ I screamed. He didn’t love me. ‘Don’t you ever say that again. I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!’

If his face looked broken before, it was nothing to how it looked after I said those three words. ‘No,’ his voice broke. ‘No. You….don’t hate me, please don’t hate me.’

‘I do,’ I whispered as I moved further away from him. ‘I hate you. I let you touch me. I slept with you and it was all a lie -'

'No,' he said fiercely, and for the first time I could detect steel in his eyes. 'Don't say that. Don't you ever call that a lie.'

'Well, it was!' I shrieked. 'It was a lie! All of it, and I regret every, single touch you ever gave me!

And I started crying, deep, angry, anguished sobs that shook me to my very core. I cried because I loved him and I cried because he betrayed me, because I knew we could never be anything again, and I cried because I knew that I could never hate him.

‘Kaia,’ my tears seemed to hurt him; he moved forward with his arm outstretched.

‘Don’t touch me.’

And when I looked at him, just one glance, I saw that he was crying, too. What a brilliant disguise.

‘I’ve got to hand it to you, though,’ I said bitterly. ‘When it comes to pretending that you care, you win the gold medal. You really do.’

That seemed to hurt him even more, and the tears that were silently rolling down his cheeks increased in pace. ‘Kaia,’ he hiccuped through his tears. ‘K-Kaia, p-please, I l-l-love y-you –‘

‘Well, I don’t love you,’ I said harshly, and even when I tried my hardest, my falling tears would not stop. ‘I hate you.’

And then I started running again, and this time, unlike all the others, he didn’t chase after me.