Chapter 36: Forgive me

Kimora's POV

I'm there but I'm not.

I'm trapped, I'm trying to break free. I hear voices calling out to me, crying. I want to reach them but I can't. I can't move.

I can't breath.

Everything is murky and bleary. I feel like someone placed my body in the middle of a life sized jello. I can't hear anything, I can't see anything, I can't even feel anything.

Kimora

Kimora wake up

I'm trying! I'm trying got damnit!

Eventually I just give up trying and sink back into the darkness.

~~~~~

Freshman Year:

The school loomed over me, tall and imposing. My prison.

Geeky little me, a sheep about to step into the den of lions. I was so nervous my stomach hurt.

All of the girls, looked more prettier and fashionable than me. There was one in particular, she had fiery red hair and blue eyes. She was so gorgeous I actually got jealous. There was a pink haired girl standing on her left and a brunette on her right. Other people gawked at them or smiled when they walked past. I was guessing those were the popular girls.

Taking a deep breath I climbed the front steps and stepped into the school.

Wow.

The floors where shiny, the halls bright and filled with students. I found my locker and stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do. Everyone had their group of friends but then there was me, the new girl.  I'd already reviewed my schedule over twenty times.

There was still time before first period so I went to the cafeteria to try and get something to eat.

Big mistake.

If I thought I was an outcast before it was nothing compared to now. Even if I got breakfast where would I sit? There was no room anywhere.

I quickly got in line and tried to look like I belonged. I chose French toast sticks and got apple juice. Then I kinda just stood there hoping a solution would come to me.

It came in the form of a girl.

"You lost?" She asked. Her hair was very curly.

"No I mean-I'm new," I smile sheepishly.

"Cool. I'm Cheyenne Woods."

"Kimora Hyung."

"You can sit with me outside if you want?" Cheyenne offers.

"Sure!" I try not to act too excited but I can't help it.

We sit under a tree and she studies me while I eat my French toast. This girl is intense.

I look around and try to find a conversation starter. That's when I see him.

There's no other words to describe him with other than just...hot.  His eyes are a deep emerald green. His lips are full and pink, his hair a luscious looking mop of messy curls. He's toned in all the right places and he carries himself with an air of confidence. I notice half of the female student body openly checking him out.

"Who's that?" I whisper starstruck.

"Not you too," Cheyenne rolls her eyes. "That's Reese Mendez. He's half Puerto Rican, half Brazilian. He's also a Spanish speaking notorious womanizer who'll hurt your feelings without a second thought."

Wow. There's no way I'd even have the guts to talk to him.

The bell rings and Cheyenne stands. "Well I'll see you later."

"Bye," I wave to her retreating figure.

~~~~~

When lunch rolled around I was a little afraid to approach Cheyenne again. However when she saw me she waved me over to her table.

"The french fries are the best thing in this school," she steals one off my plate. "Hope you don't mind. I ate all mine."

"Go ahead," I was too nervous to eat anyway.

I looked around at the chattering smiling students. My eyes couldn't help but wander to Reese who was standing at the entrance to the cafeteria frowning. Even frowning he was sexy.

Then he started walking in our directions.

"What the hell?" Cheyenne said with a mouthful of fries.

"Hello ladies," my jaw dropped as he sat next to us.

"Cómo estás?"

"What?"

"How are you?" He translated.

"I'm-"

"Why are you sitting with us?" Cheyenne snapped. "I hope you don't think your gonna get in her pants just because she's new."

"Relax," he drawled out. "She's not my type."

Ouch. Cheyenne wasn't kidding when she said he'd hurt your feelings without a second thought.

"You've kinda got a whole grudge thing going," he gestured to me. "Quite frankly it's a little scary."

I didn't know how to respond to that.

"Lay off," Cheyenne smiled at me and I think it was the first time I'd seen her do so. "I think you're beautiful Kimora. I wish my hair was that long."

"Thanks," I appreciate her attempt to redeem my self confidence.

"What ya eating?" He pulls my tray to him. "Ooooh French fries!"

"Don't you have any friends?" Cheyenne glares at him.

"Nope. Not here anyway."

How did this gorgeous human being have no friends here?

"Wanna be my friend Kimora? I think you'll be safe since I'll never want to get with you or anything." He smirks.

"I'm not sure we'd be very good friends." Translation: He's way too much for me to handle.

"Sure we can amigo. I'm not so bad once you get to know me."

"He's lying," Cheyenne said.

"Ummm," I'm a little flustered. He wants to be friends with me. Nerdy little me.

Am I dreaming? 

"Well maybe-"

"You."

We turn at the sound of a sharp voice. It's the red headed girl I saw this morning. Her friends flank her sides.

"Here we go," Cheyenne mutters rolling her eyes.

"Name please?" She asks smiling sweetly, too sweetly.

"Kimora Hyung."

The brunette scribbles it down on her clipboard. What the heck?

"Race?"

"I'm-"

"Chinese?" The brunette guesses.

"Actually I'm Japanese."

"Oh," she frowns.

"What's this all about?" I finally ask.

"We keep a catalog of every student at this school," the redhead explains. "You know, in case we have to look someone up."

"Oh."

"I'm Krystal Parker," she holds out her hand for me to shake and just when I reach out she pulls it back. "This is Rosie," she gestures to the one with pink hair, "and this is Alexis."

"I know you're new and all so just a little tip: don't get on our bad side and you'll have a great school year!" Her smile is saccharine. "Toodles!" They all spin around at the same time and saunter off.

"Kill me now," Cheyenne groans. "I hate Krystal Parker! She's such a bitch!"

"But she's hot," Reese chimes in. "I'd totally tap that."

"Please, she'll never even give you the time of day. She's rich, your not, end of story. Plus she's dating Josh Green."

"A damn shame," he shakes his head.

"Can someone please fill me in!" I'm starting to get frustrated. Cheyenne looks at me solemnly.

"A word of advice? Steer clear of Krystal Parker."

Reese's POV

I gratefully accept the cup of coffee Kimora's mom has bought for me. She sits next to me while I sip on the hot drink.

"I didn't understand why Kimora would want to be your friend," she spoke and I immediately tensed. "But she insisted she saw something good in you. She sees the good in everyone," her mom sniffled. "At least she did. I just don't understand where I went wrong."

"It's probably not my place to say so, but do you even know anything about Kimora?" I ask. Her mom looks at me.

"Of course I know about my own daughter. What kind of question is that?"

"Then what does she want to do with her life after she graduates?"

"Go to college and become a doctor."

"Wrong," I blow on my drink. "She wants to take a year off and travel, discover what she really wants to do since you never gave her the chance. From a young age it was drilled into her head that she would go into the medical field. You never left her an option."

Her mom stares at me wide eyed. I continue on.

"Kimora's favorite tv show is Scooby Doo, she prefers strawberry cream cheese on her bagels, her favorite subjects are English and history not math and science, and her favorite band is My chemical romance. But you probably already knew all that."

"I-I-" her mother stutters and looks down. I hear the tears drip down before I see them. "I didn't. I don't even know my own daughter." She covers her face and cries.

"I know this may be hard for you to hear, but maybe if you hadn't been so controlling and actually spent some time with your daughter she wouldn't have turned into the person she did. Maybe if you were more encouraging and supportive, maybe if you had just listened things wouldn't be like this."

My phone rings and I excuse myself to answer it.

"Hey babe," I greet Krystal. "You doing ok?"

"Besides the fact that it feels like my back is going to break then yes I'm doing ok. How's Kimora?"

"The same," I sighed. "Nothing's changed. She's not getting better or worse. The doctors say at this point it's up to her to wake up."

"She will," Krystal says firmly. "I'm sure she will."

"Me too. I miss you."

"I miss you too. But I can-"

"Nope," I cut her off. "You stay on that bed or I'll have to strap you down."

"You suck."

"And you swallow."

"Reese," she gasps and I smirk. "That is such an inappropriate thing to say!"

"Don't act innocent Krystal."

"I'm hanging up now."

"I love you."

"I love you. Now bye." I chuckle to myself as she hangs up.

Sebastian's POV

"So are you and Cheyenne back together?" Haley flops down on the couch next to me after not speaking to me for a week.

"No. We're just friends."

"Ugh. You guys are doing that friend bullshit again? Just be together already!"

"It's not that simple."

"Of course it is you guys just complicate things," she rolls her eyes.

I open my mouth then close it, not feeling like going into detail. My phone chimes with a text.

Charles: meet us @ park?

I pause and contemplate. I'm not mad at Charles anymore and it has been a while since I've spoken to the guys. With that in mind I stand up.

"Tell dad I went out."

"Where are you going?"

"To the park. I'll see you later."

"You can't avoid the situation forever!" She yells as I close the door behind me.

I'm surprised to see Josh when I get there. He looks better than when I last saw him, and when I last saw him he was getting beaten to a pulp.

"Hey," I sit next to him on the bench. Charles, Jacob, and Benjamin are sitting across the grass. "How's your uh...how's your everything?"

"Well my nose hurts less," he says monotonously. "My eyes are less swollen."

"That's good."

"But how are you really?" Jacob asked.

"Well I'm angry, I feel like an idiot, and I'm hurt. I constantly want to punch something. I actually want to kill Reese."

"Understandable," I nod.

"I hate to be that guy but I kinda did tell you so," Charles says. "K-"

"Don't even say her name around me," Josh growls. "She fucks me over but somehow she gets a happy ending?"

"What can you do?" Benjamin shrugs. "It's life man. At least now you've learned some valuable lessons."

"Yeah like never trust females? Oh I've leaned that alright."

"That's wasn't what I was going to say..."

"I don't want to talk about it anymore," Josh turns to me. "How about you? Alexis aired some of your dirty laundry too."

"It was bad at first," I admit. "But I think we're starting to get back on the right track."

"I'm glad. At least you have a good girl. So what'd I miss?"

"That Kimora chick overdosed," Jacob fills him in.

"Damn. She alright?"

"She's in a coma as of now," I explain.

"That sucks. So much shit has happened this year. And to think we still have to go through it one more time before we graduate."

"Don't remind me," Charles groans. "Senior year hasn't even begun and I can't wait for it to be over."

"I'm sure it won't be that bad," Jacob says in that good natured way of his. "Football season again am I right?"

"I guess."

We stay and talk for some more before parting ways.

Cheyenne's POV

"Hey," I enter Kimora's hospital room and set her favorite candy, Cow tails, down on the table before pulling up a chair next to her bed.

"I miss you Kim. I miss you a lot. That fight we had, it was so stupid. So so stupid and I'm sorry. Please just wake up. Even if we go our separate ways please just wake up. It's one thing to not be your friend and know that somewhere in the world you're still alive. But it's another thing to know we never made up and you're dead." I stop talking because my voice chokes up.

"Remember," I wipe my eyes. "Remember when we first met? You were so lost back then, so unsure of yourself. I think maybe you were a little afraid of me honestly. But I guess that's what drew me to you in the first place. You were honest, an open book. I liked that about you. I needed someone honest in my life. Remember sophomore Halloween when we went to the school haunted house? You went as Velma from Scooby Doo, Reese went as Shaggy, and I went as Daphne. You were terrified and Reese and I spent the whole time laughing at you while you screamed at every little thing. Then afterwards we still went trick or treating even though we were too old to." I laugh at the memory.

"We had so many good times Kim, and maybe it's selfish of me, but I don't want you to go yet. There's still so much you, we haven't done." I take her hand. "So please, you have to wake up. You have to fight. There are so many people here who care about you. Maybe you don't see it but it's true."

She remains still, the only indication that she's alive is the steady sound of the heart monitor.

"If I could go back in time I would. I'd make sure that we'd never fought. That we'd talked it out instead." I finally crack and my eyes water. "But I can't. I can't go back and change things. So you have to pull through.  You can't die. Not now. Not yet."

The tears fall then, some onto her hand and I think the really desperate part of me hopes that'll wake her up. But this isn't a Disney movie where the heroine cries on the dead person and their tears magically bring them back to life. This is reality. And the reality is Kimora is still comatose.

No matter how many tears I cry.

Krystal's POV

I'm due any day now. It's gotten to the point where I can't even stand for too long anymore. My feet are swollen and my back- my back hurts like hell.

The baby has been furiously kicking and I think even he or she is about ready to come out. I still don't know the gender or have a name.

"I know, I know, you're ready to come out. I'm ready for you to come out too," I rub my stomach. My room door opens and Reese sticks his head in.

"Can I come in?"

"What's the password?"

"Reese is the greatest?"

"Nope."

"Aw come on!"

"Fine you may enter," I smile.

He kisses me slowly before pulling back.

"Hey."

"Hey. I thought you'd never leave the hospital."

"Well I kinda needed to shower," he admits. "And come see you."

"I'm glad you did."

He lays down next to me and lifts up my shirt. I raise an eyebrow at him. "What're you doing?"

"I wanna hear the baby."

On cue I feel the sting of tears. He lays his head on my stomach and listens intently.

"Try talking."

"What?"

"Try talking. Usually the baby responds  if he or she hears the voice of their parents."

"Ok ummm," he thinks. "Bueno, esto es un poco raro pero es tu papá."

There's a soft kick and he looks up at me with wide eyes. "The baby kicked!" He exclaims excitedly.

"Yeah," I wipe my eyes. "It recognized your voice." He speaks again.

"Mamá y papá te quieren, a pesar de que tengo miedo de ser un papá."

This time there's a flurry of kicks. I can't describe the emotion I get seeing the look of wonder on Reese's face.

All I know is I'm happy.

Hello my lovelies💚

This chapter was short but hopefully sweet!

So I'm back in school😒 kms 😑🔫 buuuuut this book is almost over anyway so don't even worry about updates because I gotchu😎

It's very important that you stick around after the epilogue because I have some stuff planned and I want you all to be involved. Plus don't you wanna hear about my next story (or stories)

Two more chapters left😱 and of course I'll double update cause I love you guys so much

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