Page 15 of Best Served Cold
“By better you mean…you, right?” Natalie commented, cackling over the speakers once again whilst Kat stared directly into Lee’s eyes, silently begging for a way out. Both Lee and Morgan had known for a while now exactly how Kat felt about Sienna, and just like Natalie was oblivious to Morgan’s own distaste for her, she was also oblivious as to Kat’s true emotions.
Kat was an odd one, Lee had deduced sometime back. She couldn’t necessarily be pigeonholed into a personality category. Her small frame housed dozens of tattoos and a lip piercing, and her mouselike quietness didn’t match her aggressive tastes in heavy metal music. And yet, when the pair of them met, Lee knew within minutes that she was going to like her. Following that minute, she decided an hour after meeting her that she would defend her for as long as she still had breath inside herbody. “That’s not funny, Natalie. Maybe you should go and check on Sienna.”
Natalie huffed. “Fine, but just so we’re clear, I was only joking.”
Morgan leaned forward within the booth, moving her drink out of the way so as not to spill it, placing a hand on Kat’s tatted one. “Are you okay?”
This was the side of Morgan that Lee had fallen in love with. She didn’t always wear her heart on her sleeve, but she always showed empathy when it mattered. Morgan had been correct during their conversation in the bedroom—good people do bad things, and bad people do good things. At present time, much like Kat, her girlfriend couldn’t be put into a category, certainly not one as simplistic as virtuous or evil. Morgan simply…was. Just as Kat simply was. Just as she was.
Natalie returned with a swift thud to the table, leaving the question lingering in the air and Kat’s emotional stability up to debate. “We have to leave. Sienna’s having a panic attack outside.”
Morgan grabbed her jacket on the back of the booth, taking Lee’s handbag with it in order to speed their departure along as much as possible. Kat was already out the door before Lee could even set down her glass.
The bitter air pricked at Lee's eyes as they stepped outside, and she came to the rapid conclusion that the alcohol inside her was not nearly enough to keep the evening chill at bay. Alas, there were far more pressing concerns at present time, as the group huddled around Sienna, whom of which was currently gasping for breath. Kat was now standing on the right side of Sienna, a small, pale, wiry arm holding onto Sienna's own tanned one.
Lee Holmes replicated the action on the left hand-side of Sienna, offering a supportive squeeze simultaneously. Meanwhile, Morgan, still holding both her jacket and Lee'shandbag, walked directly in front of Sienna in order to face her, before nodding towards Lee and Kat as if to silently indicate that they back away for just a moment. “Here,” she said, wrapping the bomber jacket around Sienna before holding out Lee's handbag in order for someone to take it. “Could you try and tell me three things you can see right now? Anything at all. I'll start. I can see the half-broken lights of thePhysiksign outside the club.”
Sienna locked eyes with Morgan, desperation painted on her face as she held a fisted hand over her chest. “The…” she said, pausing for a moment as she tried to gain any ounce of breath. “The trees…behind you.”
Morgan Finch nodded, offering a calming smile in the process. “That's perfect,” she said. “Now just two more,” she emphasized with two fingers as she held them up, the other hand supportively rubbing Sienna’s arm.
With Sienna's eyes no longer on Morgan, she gazed around at her surroundings, her breathing ragged as her head tilted from left to right. “The red…car parked on the curb,” she said, locking eyes with Morgan once again. “A man with a bowler hat smoking a cigarette.”
Lee Holmes was no stranger to panic attacks. It was the loss of control that scared her most, as if her body had betrayed her by taking away all of her autonomy and replacing it with fear. And yet her girlfriend had a way of extinguishing the terror inside of her, reigniting it with pleasing colorful sparks. Watching her help Sienna ignited something deep within Lee's inner-core. It couldn't wash away everything that had happened between them, but it quelled the desire to do so, at least for now.
Placing a hand back on Sienna's arm now, Lee watched a once fiercely animated girl steady her breathing in gradual increments, until being met by a steady rhythm. After a few minutes she exhaled with force, as if expelling the fear. “Thankyou,” she offered, looking at Morgan first. “All of you,” she continued, looking around at the rest of the group.
Kat squeezed her shoulder supportively whilst sporting a rather concerned look upon her face at the same time, her eyebrows furrowed, and her lips pursed. “Would you like to talk about it? Only if you're comfortable, of course.”
Sienna sighed theatrically, half smiling in Kat’s direction as she shrugged, despite it not meeting her eyes. “I don't know. It's difficult to talk about. I'm relatively certain by now that I don't even need to say what the issue consists of out loud for you all to know what, orwho,” she emphasized, “it concerns.”
For the first time within the conversation outside, Natalie made her presence known with a groan followed by a “fucking Dylan.”
If looks could kill, Morgan would have likely killed Natalie with hers. Fortunately for Natalie, they could not, and so, instead, Morgan interjected. “Whether this concerns your boyfriend or not, it's up to you as to whether you would like to get it off your chest.”
Feeling much like a spare part, Lee chimed in simultaneously. “If it does concern Dylan, you are more than welcome to stay with Morgan and I until you both figure it out. Our couch is all yours.”
“Or Natalie’s or Kat's. Their space is bigger so you might feel more comfortable. That's all,” Morgan commented, seconds after Lee had finished speaking.
Lee Holmes was rather taken aback by the comment. After calming Sienna down, her deferral to both Kat and Natalie seemed mismatched alongside her previous actions. She decided, however, to shelve the thought for now and focus on her friend instead.
“He hit me,” Sienna blurted, the entire group becoming laser focused on Sienna now. “Hasbeen hitting me,” she continued.“I've been trying to calm him down over these last few weeks and for a couple of days I thought it might be working. Turns out…” she huffed. “I was being naive.”
Kat's eyes turned to glass as she pulled Sienna in for a hug. She held onto her tight, gripping her with her thin tatted arms. “It's going to be okay,” she whispered, raising one arm now to stroke the back of her long black hair. “Thank you for telling us. Now that we know, we know how to help you better.”
Lee Holmes could see her girlfriend, Morgan, grinding her teeth as she clenched her jaw, her gaze darkening underneath the fluorescent lights outsidePhysik. Now, however, was not the time to focus on Morgan, but rather, her close friend, Sienna, who had just revealed a truth darker than all of Morgan’s gazes put together. “Oh sweetheart,” Lee said, placing a hand on Sienna’s back when she retracted her body from Kat’s. “You are the farthest thing from naive. You put your trust in someone who betrayed it. And despite him being undeserving of your love, you gave it to him anyway. Trying to see the good in people doesn’t make you naive.”
Natalie chimed in again, this time offering a far more sensible comment than her previous one. “I know now might not be the right time, but I just want to ensure your safety. Does he know where you are right now? Is he waiting for you at home?”
Sienna offered another half-smile directed towards the group, one which didn’t quite meet her tear-filled eyes, just like before. “He knows I’m out clubbing but he doesn’t know specifically where, despite him asking me a dozen times. He’s waiting for me at the house now. He texted me just before I went outside a moment ago telling me to come home immediately. He assumes I’m cheating on him with somebody else simply because I wouldn’t tell him the name of the fucking nightclub.”
Kat nodded, hooked on every word, taking it all in as she assessed the situation. Whilst they were no longer hugging, sheremained clutched onto one of Sienna’s arms. “How would you feel about coming to stay with me tonight? My sister is about your size; we can borrow some clothes from her room. She’s backpacking in Europe with her boyfriend at the moment. She wouldn’t mind. You could sleep in her bed whilst she’s away.”
For the first time since they had stepped outside, Sienna had stopped crying, and her smile felt genuine and unforced. “I think I’d like that.”
Before Sienna could change her mind, Lee booked a taxi on her phone. “Shit,” she said seconds after requesting the ride. “I forgot to change my default settings, so we’ve got a regular sized taxi coming. Unless someone wants to climb into the trunk, we won’t all fit. I’m so sorry, I wasn’t thinking,” she huffed, her frustration only escalating as she attempted to exit out of the app in order to cancel the ride. “Morgan and I will call another taxi. Let’s just focus on getting you somewhere safe first, Sienna.”
Morgan interjected by holding up her hand and shaking her head. “There’s no need to cancel it,” she said. In doing so, Lee, in turn, placed her phone at her side now in defeat. “Go with Sienna, Lee. Get her settled in at Kat’s. I can call my own ride home.” She retrieved her phone from her pocket and held it up theatrically, just as she had done with her hand seconds before.
