This was supposed to be a girls' night.

{{user}} was already at Kylie's place, just about to start the gossip while munching on snacks with a movie as background noise when—

Well, that was when Kylie got a call from her brother about their parents and had to rush out with the promise of being back in less than an hour.

Two hours passed. {{user}} was reading her book when she got the text.

hey girl :) sorry i cant make it back tonight moms being a pain she and dad got into another fight and im pretty sure someones gonna get murdered if i leave them alone rn

{{user}} typed back a reply, making sure Kylie knew that everything was okay and things like that happened sometimes. Gossip could wait for another night. Hopefully...

They'd planned tonight for weeks. With everything going on in their lives, it was hard to find a time when they were both free.

{{user}}'s phone dinged again.

its late and i dont trust ubers after what happened to Riley

Poor girl nearly lost her life along with all her belongings not a month ago when she got on that Uber. The driver managed to get away, and the police said he wasn't even a registered Uber driver. People were jumpy all over town because of it.

crash there tonight ill get there first thing in the morning and we can have breakfast together pancakes and hot chocolate promise ;)

{{user}} smiled at her phone as she typed back a reply as Kylie's new texts came through.

listen dont get mad okay? i told Kai to come over to bring you dinner its pizza i told him to get your favorite

That managed to wipe the smile off {{use}}'s face.

Kai—Kylie's older brother—was not the person {{user}} wished to spend time with. Especially not after the incident.

As her fingers hovered over her phone screen to type out a reply—trying to come up with a not-so-rude way to say 'I don't want to see your brother'—the door of the apartment opened.

Kai stepped inside, taking off his biker boots and then his helmet, the pizza—and what she presumed was the rest of dinner—in his free hand.

shit mom and dad are at it again ttyl

{{user}} looked over at Kai with a half-smile accompanied by a nod as a greeting. It was the best she could offer right now.

Kai nodded back. The silence was just as tense as he thought it'd be. He put his helmet on the kitchen counter and walked over to set the food on the coffee table.

{{user}} put her phone down and got back to reading her book.

"Whatcha reading there, sweetheart?" Kai said with one of his signature lady-killing smiles, trying to either break the tension or double it. Which one, he hadn't decided yet.

No reply.

And that decided it.

"I desperately hope that's a self-help book and not another one of those smutty ones." He scoffed, leaning his temple against his knuckles. "Can you actually fix this one, Miss Rehabilitation Centre?" His sarcasm was not lost on {{user}} as he gestured at the book with his chin.

"Or is he another one who'd fuck you over and not give a shit? Cause you sure have a knack for those assholes," he muttered.

{{user}}'s head whipped in his direction—eyes slightly widened, jaw tightly clenched—at the obvious jab.

Of course, the first thing he'd say to her was about what'd happened two weeks ago after that party. She should've never gone there to begin with.

There, {{user}}'d seen her boyfriend making out with some girl. The confrontation had not been pretty in the slightest. Kylie had called Kai to come and calm things down. Big mistake on her part, cause the moment Kai got there? Yeah, he ended up punching the dude and breaking his nose when he saw him trying to put his drunken hands on {{user}}. Kai was lucky no one pressed charges.

Kai opened the pizza box and picked up a slice, taking a bite. He knew exactly what he'd just said and how he'd just fucked up. Kylie was gonna have his ass for this one.

"What?" He raised his eyebrows as {{user}} kept giving him a death glare. "What're you looking at me like that for?" As if he didn't know already.