How We Began

by Sandra Corton

  She checked her outfit, a simple pair of jeans and a shirt. Her hands reached for a hat almost in automatic mode, before she lowered it back to her side. Her boyfriend and even strangers had told her just last night that she looked good. She didn't need to hide anymore, so she certainly didn't need the hat.

  She stared at herself before letting out a laugh. Without thinking, she had twitched her nose to keep her glasses higher on her face. Isaac had been right; she really did twitch her nose. She had no idea why that made her feel better, but it did. She dug her phone out of her bag to send him a quick message, before heading out to dinner.

  "Things Kayla McCrae didn't know about herself: I really do twitch my nose." She sent it off with a grin, and somehow that restored her faith in Isaac.

  When her father pulled the car up to the pizza restaurant that she loved, a grin filled her face. This day just kept getting better and better. She looked from Mitch to her Dad and felt filled with love. She wished her Mum hadn't gone to work tonight, but at least she had spent a lot of the day with them.

  "Let me guess," Mitchell rubbed at his brow, and waved his fingers as though doing magic of some sort. "Hawaiian pizza with lots of garlic bread,"

  "It's what I like idiot, so of course," Kayla rolled her eyes at him.

  "Maybe I was hoping you would venture out a little, be bold, and try something different." Mitchell teased her and she groaned.

  "You don't even understand subtlety, do you?"

  "Nope." Mitchell grinned, as he pulled the menu towards him.

  "You two always make me glad to be home," Ted said with a grin at his children.

  "That's because we are the most awesome kids ever." Mitchell's voice went into a squeal, and Kayla laughed, as she shushed him.

  She was pulling her first slice of pizza onto her plate when her phone finally beeped. A thrill drifted over her, as she took the first bite and reached for her bag.

  "Hell no! Family dinners remember." Mitchell made his voice all stern, sounding eerily like their father.

  "Let her check her messages, Mitchell, or she can ban you from checking yours " Ted told his son, as he grinned happily at them again.

  The excitement she felt as she reached for her phone turned instantly to dread when she checked her messages. There was nothing from Isaac, but a number that she didn't know had sent her some pictures that she didn't want to see.

  The pizza in her mouth tasted horribly like cardboard, but she forced herself to keep chewing. Her vision blurred a little, as her heart clenched painfully.

  The first picture in a long row of pictures sent to her was of Melissa at Isaac's front door. She felt apprehensive just seeing that one. The rest made her want to gag, as betrayal washed over her thick and fast.

  Pictures of Isaac's room with Melissa in it rolling up her shirt to show her stomach disgusted her. Then she looked like she was giggling, as she posed on his bed. At the last image of a sultry Melissa laying across his bed, she just couldn't take anymore.

  She could only guess that Isaac was the one taking the pictures. She knew now why Isaac hadn't sent her any messages; he had been too busy being his old self.

  Bitterness spread through her that she had believed in him. She thought he had changed. She knew that every moment of their time together had been false.

  Her whole body ached, as the fierce betrayal rushed through her. She admitted that he had deceived her. Isaac had never once been truthful with her, and that hurt deeper than anything ever had.

  Chapter 21 - Sadness and solutions

  "How could you have done this to her Isaac?" Hayley's voice screeched into his pounding head, and Isaac became instantly alert.

  "What? Huh? What's going on?"

  He sat up in absolute agony. Every part of him seemed to hurt, and he had a nasty taste in his mouth. He had no idea why he could possibly feel this bad. He tried to think, but that only made his head thunder uncomfortably, which in turn made his stomach want to heave. He dropped back onto his pillow with a groan.

  "Look at your damn phone you moron! I told you not to hurt her, and look at what you did," Hayley screamed with an unaccountable fury.

  "I haven't done anything. I couldn't find the charge cord for my phone, and I looked everywhere," Isaac said vaguely.

  "What are you saying?" Hayley forced herself to calm down and look at her brother.

  "My phones not charged, Hayles. I don't know what looking at it is going to do.”

  "Okay, okay, back up a little here and let me think," Hayley tapped her foot, which seemed to pound through Isaac’s brain. She spied his phone on the dresser, and sure enough, it was flat. "How did she get the pictures to Kayla then?"

  "What's wrong with Kayla?" Isaac’s attention latched onto his sister's worried tone.

  "Isaac, what happened last night?" Hayley's voice turned incredibly stern.

  "I feel like crape, and I don't know what you're talking about." He said, as he put his head in his hands.

  With concern, Hayley sat down next to him on the bed and examined him properly. She took his shaking hands from his face, and finally noticed his pale, pain filled features. His eyes were blood shot, and he looked like hell. She realised that something else entirely was going on here. It appeared that Isaac wasn't as involved as she had thought.

  "You know what just sleep for a bit, and I'll wake you up when Mum and Dad go out for that lunch thing that they had organised."

  "That would be good." He murmured, as he closed his eyes.

  Hayley watched him with a worried look on her face. She would have to stall Kayla, and maybe convince her of her brother’s innocence. She knew that wasn't going to be easy.

  Isaac jerked upright in bed at the sound of his door opening. His head began pounding less, and he was able to think without so much fog clouding up his mind. Hayley poked her head in the door with a small smile, and a glass of delicious looking water.

  "Here, these are for you," Hayley came in, and handed him the water and a giant sandwich.

  "Thanks, Hayles,"

  "Are you feeling better?" She asked and he nodded slowly.

  She waited until he had finished off the food she had brought him, before trying to find out the truth. He looked a lot better than earlier this morning, and she was relieved about that. Now, all she had to do was try to get to the truth of the matter.

  "What were you talking about earlier?" He asked, as he placed the empty plate on his bedside table.

  "I'll tell you what I know, but you need to not freak out on me." Hayley warned him, as she tried to keep her voice calm. She had been going around in circles trying to figure out what happened, but nothing seemed to fit.

  "Is Kayla okay?" He asked abruptly as snippets of their conversation came back to him.

  "No, not really. She thinks you've been disloyal to her, and at the moment she feels betrayed." Hayley said honestly.

  "What the hell! I haven't done anything." Isaac’s voice went hoarse before cracking.

  The doorbell rang, sounding like a death note to Isaac. He groaned, put his head back on his pillow and tried to think. Last night was nothing, but a huge blank space to him that he couldn't seem to fill with memories.

  "That's probably Kayla now. I told her to come over, and we could try to figure this out." Hayley said, as she grabbed his plate and headed for the door.

  "I don't even know what 'this' is." Isaac answered, as he rubbed at his still throbbing temples.

  Everything went quiet in his room, but he could feel tension in the air. The word betrayal went back and forth in his mind. What had he done last night? He was sure that he had decided to spend the night in, knowing that Kayla was busy with her family.

  "Kayla, I know you're upset, but there's something else going on here." Hayley's voice set of an anxiety in his chest that he hadn't expected.

  "Why is Kayla upset?" Isaac asked seriously, as he sat up in bed.

  His door flew open and banged against the wall. A groan escaped him, as t
he noise restarted the painful head pounding. He saw Kayla's face next, and shock followed by the need to comfort her filled him. She was furious, distressed, and miserable. Her eyes were red and he knew that she'd been crying.

  "What's wrong?" He repeated his words to her.

  "What's wrong?" She screamed out the words at him. "You should know exactly what's wrong, Isaac! I thought you had changed, I thought you were different now. I can't believe you did this to me!" Kayla's voice broke down, and he watched helplessly, as tears streamed down her face.

  "Did what?" He didn't have time to react, when her mobile phone hit him in the skull with a dull thud.

  "Dammit! My head already hurts like hell," he grouched, but still he picked up her phone.

  She sent him a deadly pointed look, as her foot tapped impatiently on the floor. He peered down at the black screen having no idea what he was supposed to be doing. With an aggravated grunt, Kayla snatched her phone and unlocked it.

  She tossed it back onto his lap, and the picture on the screen had him gasping. He picked up the phone feeling a disgusting sickness envelop him, as he took in the picture fully. He hoped that he had seen it wrong, but he hadn't. Why was Melissa at his door? He felt unsettled, as a terrible feeling of unease spread through him, knowing that he was nowhere in sight.

  "Oh, there's more, keep scrolling down." Kayla demanded, and Isaac felt his stomach clench at how cold she had sounded.

  He felt a sick amount of nausea grip him when pictures of Melissa in this very bedroom appeared. In one, she was lounging on the bed that he was sitting on, and barring her stomach for the camera with a sultry look on her face.

  "That's not... that didn't happen. I'm going to have to change the sheets now. What the hell was she doing here?" He blurted out, feeling violated from the images.

  "What? How could you not know that she was here?" Kayla's voice went shaky.

  "That's what I've been trying to tell you, Kayla. His phones dead and Isaac couldn't find the charger. He couldn't have sent them from his phone." Hayley came into his room, and he was happy that she was backing him up.

  "Is that why you didn't text me yesterday?" Kayla's voice softened the slightest bit, but she remained frozen in place, her movements stiff and filled with anger.

  "Yeah, I'm sorry. I still didn't find the stupid charger."

  "I know you didn't send me those photos, because it's from a number that I don't know." Kayla frowned, before peering intently at him.

  "I just don't get how she did this." Isaac continued to glare down at the photos feeling the invasion of his privacy.

  "You absolutely swear to me that you had nothing to do with this?" Kayla pointed to the phone, as she held her breath. She wanted to believe him, but she needed to hear him say the words.

  "I had nothing to do with this. I told you I've never had a girl in my room besides you, and that was the truth. I don't remember anything about this." He flicked back to the original photo of Melissa standing in the front door.

  "Okay, that is..."

  "No, wait, in the background on the couch, that's me! I'm sleeping, while she's in our house. What the hell happened?" Isaac interrupted her, his voice rising, as he felt a nastiness settle over his shoulders.

  "Show me." Kayla held out her hand, and Isaac placed the phone into it. He wanted to touch her, to soothe the pain that he hadn't truly caused. She refused to touch him. She grasped the top of the phone where he hadn't touched, and examined the photograph.

  "You're right; I can’t believe that I didn’t notice you sitting there. That means that you didn't take the photos." She let out the breath she seemed to have been holding since the previous night.

  "No, but the question is who did?" Hayley's voice intruded and they focused on her. "Did anyone come over yesterday?"

  "I don't know. Jay and I were here in the morning. I was watching television, when you left to go and see your friend. I can't really remember much more than that." Isaac's brow furrowed and Hayley huffed.

  “Tell us exactly what you did yesterday, Isaac.” Hayley encouraged.

  “Actually, now that I think about it Jay and some of the guys came over. We played some video games, maybe had a few beers, once Mum and Dad left, but that was it. I didn’t drink that much to forget the entire night.” He shook his head, and then regretted it when pain shot through his skull.

  "I reckon they managed to drug you somehow. We can go down and get a drug test at the chemist later. Someone must have added something to one of you drinks." Hayley's words left Kayla dumbstruck and feeling incredibly guilty, while Isaac gritted his teeth.

  “No, my friends would never do that!” Isaac exclaimed in defence. “Ah, hell, no… it couldn’t have been.” He went deep into his thoughts, as the girls argued around him. He realised there was something more important that he needed to know than whether he had been drugged or not.

  "No, we are going to the hospital now." Kayla ordered, as she went to call her Mum on the phone.

  "Whoa, slow down there." Hayley quickly snatched Kayla's phone from her. "Is this something we want to include parents in?" She sent a look between Kayla and Isaac.

  "If someone drugged Isaac, then yes, we do." Kayla insisted.

  "I agree we need to give some serious pay back to that nasty bitch and her photographer, but involving parents is going to make everything else much more complicated."

  "Stop it! There's only one thing that I give a damn about." Isaac's voice halted their argument.

  "What?" They both asked, but Isaac only had eyes for Kayla.

  "You know I didn't have anything to do with this? I don't want Melissa and I hate knowing that she's been in here," he shuddered, as he gestured around his room. "If you believe me then I couldn't give a damn that she drugged me, invaded my space, and took those pictures."

  "That is ridiculous, Isaac. She broke into our house, messed you up and she might have even stole things."

  "Shut up, Hayley." Isaac interrupted his sister's rant.

  Kayla looked at him properly for the first time that day. She finally took in how ill, and in pain, he seemed. Her heart went out to him, and began erasing all the doubt and betrayal of the previous day. His red rimmed, dark blue eyes pleaded with her in a desperation that she knew was the truth.

  "I believe you," she said softly, and Isaac let out a long breath.

  "That's all I need," he reached out a hand to her, and she took a step closer to him. She linked their hands together, and they both let out a sigh of relief.

  "We had better be getting some form of revenge here, or I'm going to kick her arse for you." Hayley snarled at them.

  "Don't worry, Melissa is going to pay." Isaac said the words softly, but the steel in them was undeniably real.

  "Awesome." Hayley rubbed her hands together, as she smirked evilly to her brother. "What are we going to do first?"

  "We need to find a charge cord for my phone. I have a feeling that I know who the photographer is, and I should have his number on my phone."

  "On it!" Hayley exclaimed, as she rushed out of the room so quick that Kayla let out a scratchy laugh.

  "Who do you think it was?" Kayla asked, as she calmed down.

  "I'm sorry." He said, as he clutched both her hands in his.

  "Okay, what for? I thought you said you had nothing to do with this." Kayla looked at him suspiciously, as she tried to tug her hands from his.

  "I didn't," he replied quickly, as he tried to hold her in place. "What I'm sorry for is that I ever dated her. She screwed everything up without me ever knowing about it." He let go of her to run a hand through his hair.

  "I'm not blaming you for this," she assured him. "Last night wasn't much fun, but now that I'm here and I know the full story. This definitely isn't your fault."

  "Found a cord, now what?" Hayley came racing into the room, and disturbed their intimate moment.

  "One would assume that you charge the phone, so it works." Isaac said dryly, as he managed a smile at his s
ister.

  "No, duh!" Hayley have him a glare, as she plugged the phone in.

  "There's going to be a lot of missed calls, and a few angry voicemails." Kayla admitted with a wince.

  "Don't worry about it," Isaac said with a swish of his hand. "More importantly, I need your phone to look at the number." Kayla handed him the phone wordlessly. For a long moment they were all quiet until Isaac’s phone finally turned on. "Okay, sleuthing time."

  "Who do you think it is?" Hayley was almost bouncing with the need to know, but nobody answered, all eyes focused on Isaac.

  "Damn, I was right!" Isaac muttered, as he went through his contacts. "It was Steve. He was here last night, and he was acting odd, but I just decided to ignore him. I guess he’s the one behind the drugs in my drink"

  "Steve? Do you mean the guy I used to tutor? The one that keeps asking me out?" Kayla asked in amazement.

  "Yep, the numbers match." Isaac showed both phones to them.

  "What do we do now?" Kayla asked, with uncertainty filling her voice.

  "We give them what they want." Isaac said with a sly grin.

  "What? Are we breaking up?" Kayla's voice cracked on the words.

  "No, of course not." He quickly grasped Kayla's hands, and sent her a soothing look.

  "Well in that case, I'm confused." She replied, as she crossed her arms and stepped back from him.

  "They did this to break us up, right?"

  "Yes and?"

  "So, we pretend to be broken up at school. They think they have got exactly what they wanted, we let them believe they've won."

  "This is not diabolical enough. I was thinking flesh eating bacteria." Hayley looked extremely miffed.

  "Seriously, Hayley! Where the heck are you going to get that?" Kayla let out a laugh.

  "Will you two let me finish." Isaac exclaimed in exasperation.

  "Sure." Hayley said and Kayla waved him on.

  "We make sure that they think Kayla deleted the photos. When they get all comfortably smug, then we use the photos. We send them to a few other people." Isaac explained with a smirk on his face.

  "Okay, that's much more diabolical. Though knowing Melissa, she'd eat up the attention." Hayley told him.