♡ ₊˚.༄

𝐇𝐄𝐑 ── ◦'𖥸'◦ ── ℋℰℛ
𝗄𝖾𝗂𝗅𝖺𝗁 𝗐𝗂𝗇𝗍𝖾𝗋𝗌⠀𝗑⠀𝗁. 𝗈𝗌𝗍𝖾𝗋𝖿𝗂𝖾𝗅𝖽
𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟭 ╱ ╱ 🦢🤍 ˚◞♡

─── ❛ これは私のせいですか ❜ ───

実生活 // 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞

     "YOU CAN'T IGNORE ME FOREVER, KELLY." Luca Archambault finished reading the Instagram DM, placing his stepdaughter's phone on the kitchen island. His gaze trailed to her silent and stiff stance. "Why didn't you tell us about this right after you saw it?"

     Keilah avoided all the eyes on her, shifting uncomfortably.

     "There's no need to raise your voice," Amalia interjected, holding a hand out, indicating that she wanted him to stop talking. Angel Archambault, Luca's oldest son, and only son included in this family meeting furrowed his brows. Keilah did as well, equally confused as to why their mother would say that when Luca hadn't raised his voice in the slightest. It made sense, though, with her next exclamation, voice blaring, "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

     Everyone rolled their eyes in unison.

     "Nothing is wrong with me, Amalia," Keilah grumbled, not the biggest fan of having this conversation. It was going to happen at some time, though, and the latest message indicated that it would happen that week. It was too important not to talk about.

     "Then why didn't you say something?" Amalia huffed, giving her a soft but perplexed expression. Keilah briefly met her eyes but then glanced away. "Keilah, this isn't something we talk about days after they happen. We need to know the moment it happens. Our options and ways of keeping you safe slim down if we are left in the dark."

     Angel inhaled deeply, hating every second that went by. Each second only worsened Keilah's anxiety, and he could visibly see it on her face. She was terrified. Not scared— terrified. The mark Joshua Rosene left on her— emotionally, mentally, and physically— was profound. It wasn't something that could go away with the snap of one's fingers. No matter how much everyone wished it would.

     "Look, I'm of the belief that the longer you ignore a problem, the more likely it is that it'll go away on its own," Keilah defended, half-joking.

     Everyone cast her disapproving looks.

     "Keils, we all know that's not how things are resolved," Luca said pointedly.

     "Yeah, well, it wouldn't hurt if they were," she sighed, picking at the chipped nail polish on her fingers. "Ew. I really need to get my nails done," she muttered, face twisting in disgust as she took in the state of her fingernails.

     Angel sent her a deadpan expression that she didn't catch. Was she serious right now?

     "Keilah, look her me," Amalia demanded, tired of the avoidant games her daughter was playing. "Keilah Ana Winters Bianchi Archambault."

     At the sound of her full name, her head snapped up. "Hey now! There's no need to whip out my full government name," she exclaimed, holding a hand up to stop her mother.

     "I need you to pay attention and listen to me," Amalia said, giving her a firm look. Keilah huffed in defeat, gesturing for her to get whatever lecture she had prepared over with. "We need a safety plan. Joshua has sent you multiple messages and reached out to you through social media. That's evidence of him breaking the restraining order we have against him. Remember? No contact of any kind. We need to take screenshots of everything and report them to Detective Van Cardhall."

     Keilah nodded, tucking strands of knotted hair behind her ears. "I know. I've already called and talked to him."

     "And what'd he say?" Angel asked, speaking up for the first time since this meeting had started.

     "He asked me to email him the screenshots as well as the timestamps of when I received them. I did that last night. Other than that, there's not much the police can do until he's done something else other than reach out to me," she shrugged, resuming picking at her nail polish.

     Every second that passed by felt longer than the last. This was a nightmare with no definitive end, and she just wanted to wake up. Joshua Rosene was supposed to stay in her past yet here he was— back and just as invasive as before.

     "So, the police won't do anything unless he takes a dive off the crazy train and cranks things up to one hundred?" Angel retorted, sweeping his gaze to his parents for confirmation. They nodded solemnly.

     "Well, yeah. As of right now, he isn't a physical threat as he hasn't made any physical advances toward me, our family, our property, etc.," Keilah explained, motioning to the four of them and their house.

     Amalia pinched the bridge of her nose, taking in a slow breath. "That means the next step in the safety plan is to change up your routine in case he's been watching us or you and get you off of social media until this has been cleared up."

     The last portion of that statement caught the two teenagers' attention and they slowly turned their heads toward her. In unison, they stared at her as if she'd grown another head.

     "Get me off of social media?" Keilah echoed, raising her brows exceedingly high. Had she heard her correctly?

     "Yes," the woman answered matter-of-factly. "That means no posting, no liking posts/comments/videos/whatever, no following new people or unfollowing anyone. Just... what's that phrase teens use nowadays? Ghost... Ghosting?" She stared at her kids for confirmation, but they just blinked back at her. "Just ghost social media. No posting, nothing."

     Keilah's head reeled back an inch, appalled. "Not post on social media? Do you realize what you're asking of me?!" she exclaimed, scowling when Angel rolled his eyes at her dramatics. "Hey, watch the silent attitude, mullethead," she snapped, pointing a shaky finger at her step-brother. "Posting online is literally my job. I have legal contracts with brands that I have to uphold and videos that have to be uploaded because of said contracts, and if I'm not active, I lose revenue. How the hell am I supposed to help you guys pay off the house?! The school loans? And Mom's debt?! We can't afford for me not to post on social media. I'll spice up my routine and do whatever else I need to, but temporarily exiting social media is out of the question. I am not going to be taken to court by Audible because I ghosted social media and violated their contract by not posting a sponsored video."

     Luca sucked in his cheeks, lips pursed. She shouldn't have said that. She should not have said that.

     The particular bits of information regarding the family's finances hadn't been shared with Amalia for a reason. The woman absolutely detested the idea of her daughter assisting in her and Luca's financial situation. Luca did too, but after months of arguing about it and finding out that she'd been paying despite her parents' wishes for her not to, he proposed a compromise. Keilah continued to pay off their family's debt, and Luca would pay her back, dollar for dollar. At least, that was the original compromise. The new one? The new one would be that Luca paid the first year's rent when she eventually moved into an apartment and for her first five tattoos. It seemed like a small trade-off compared to what she was doing for their family.

     It wasn't that they were doing terribly. Luca and Amalia had great jobs that brought in enough income to support everyone and then some. The debt they'd collected when they were young adults was piling up, and it was taking a notable toll.

     Amalia gasped. "What?!" Her voice bounced off the walls of the living room. "Keilah Ana, we've been over this! You are not paying a cent of the mortgage, the loans, or my debt. Not a cent! That is for Luca and I to take care of. For me to take care of."

     Groaning loudly, Keilah ran her hands over her bare face. She hadn't put on any makeup because she was going to spend all day editing and responding to emails. It turns out that after finally showing her parents the DM from Joshua, they were going to have an impromptu family meeting. Minus Jules, who was upstairs studying for his upcoming finals.

     "Well, it's too late because all of your credit card debt has been paid off. And the student loans are one check away from being paid off, as well as almost half of the mortgage," she shrugged.

     Angel's jaw dropped. "Holy fucking fuck," he muttered, unable to close his mouth. "Goddamn. I might become a social media influencer myself."

     "Yeah, good luck with that. The only thing you got going for you is that you're blonde. An artificial one at that. You look like a wannabe SoundCloud rapper." Keilah scoffed.

     "Hey, knock it off, you two," Luca warned, pointing at them. The pair rolled their eyes at the other, flashing mutual middle fingers.

     At the front of the house, there was a loud knock at the door. From upstairs, Jules was able to hear it and a dramatic sigh left his lips. He pushed up from his desk and made his way downstairs, catching bits and pieces of the conversation happening in the kitchen.

     "Mals, we will address the financial piece of this later. All right? Right now, I think our main priority should be changing Keil's routine."

     "Or I could just hole up like a hermit in my room until I die."

     "Don't you already do that?"

     "Mind your business."

     Jules rolled his eyes at his siblings, reaching the foyer. Unlocking the door, he swung it open to see Harrison. A grin spread across his face. "Hey dude!" he exclaimed, gesturing for him to come on in. "Keils know you're coming over?"

     Harrison stepped inside and allowed his eyes to roam around the house he'd become increasingly familiar with. He'd been over twice before this. "No, I thought I'd surprise her before Tom and I leave tonight," he replied, slipping his shoes off.

     Opening his mouth, Jules stopped when he heard his stepmother's voice.

     "Luca, perhaps we should get everyone to change up their routine just in case. Joshua could be keeping tabs on any of us."

     "That's a good point."

     The sound of Joshua's name made Jules blanch, gulping as he realized what the boy next to him had just unknowingly wandered into. He had an inkling that something was wrong with his stepsister, but he hadn't expected to hear Joshua's name anytime soon.

     Furrowing his eyebrows, Harrison glanced at Jules. "Is this a bad time?" he asked, taking note of his appearance.

     "Would changing her number help?" Jules heard his brother ask.

     "Yes, it would. Keilah, we should call AT&T today and get that settled."

     Harrison shouldn't be here while they were talking about this. Jules wasn't sure if Keilah had told the Brit about Joshua yet, and if she hadn't, she'd kick his ass if she knew he was letting them stand there and listen in. So, he nodded his head in the direction of the kitchen, silently telling Harrison to follow him.

     "Can... Can we take a breather for a minute?"

     This conversation was slowly morphing into the one they had at the beginning of the year. It was bringing back a lot of memories for Keilah, and she was starting to feel overwhelmed. Her eyes were tearing up and she felt like she was shaking.

     Behind her, in the doorway of the room, Luca spotted his youngest son and Harrison enter. "We'll table this conversation for later, Keils," he forced a small smile.

     Puzzled, Keilah glanced over her shoulder to see Harrison standing there awkwardly. Quickly, she turned away and saw Luca jutting his chin toward Harrison. He was silently signaling that it was okay for her to go. It pained him to see the tears in her eyes and how her hands were shaking. He watched as she forced herself to nod before pushing herself off the kitchen island's edge.

     When Keilah passed by him, Harrison picked up on the glossed-over brown irises and how her teeth had latched onto her bottom lip. Even though they hadn't spent much time together, the thing she did with her bottom lip was quickly identified as one of her tells. It primarily gave away when she felt anxious or, in this case, was visibly upset. Blinking, he quickly followed her down the hall and upstairs. Not a word was exchanged.

     The atmosphere was tense and neither blonde knew who would break it first. Once they made their way to the second floor, they turned and proceeded to wander up to the third.

     Harrison Osterfield did not like this silence. It made him very uncomfortable, and he didn't like not knowing what was going on. Clearly, something was wrong. He'd just walked in on one of the most tense conversations he'd seen. Part of him wanted to ask what was up, but he was hesitant to. Every time he had before, Keilah had been quick to shut him down.

     Maybe if he asked again...

     "Kai," he hissed, nearly tripping on the final two steps. Stumbling, he managed to stabilize himself by leaning on the stairwell. A sigh left his lips. He was never going to get to ask her if he died by walking up a simple set of stairs. "Wait!" By the time he'd glanced up, the YouTuber was already gone. Likely tucked away in her room. He huffed.

     Why did she have to walk so fast?!

     With a shake of his head, Harrison hopped over the final two steps and steered directly into her white-painted room.

     "Hey, is everything all right?" he asked, closing the bedroom door behind him. Keilah's back still faced him. "Kai, I'm not stupid. You look like you've been crying for most of the day, your hair hasn't been brushed, and you brush it religiously. You've been pretending everything is fine when I can see something is hurting you. What's going on? You can talk to me. You can trust me. You know that."

     It took her a moment to respond, but when she did, it was in a tone of voice he'd yet to hear from her before.

     "I do know that, and I trust you," Keilah swallowed harshly, blinking back tears. Everything was piling up, and she felt like she couldn't breathe without the weight on her shoulders doubling. The conversation downstairs lingered in the back of her mind. She was relentlessly wringing her hands together. "But this has nothing to do with trust."

     Harrison frowned. "Then what is this about?"

     Staring up at the ceiling, she took in a deep breath. "This is..." she trailed off, the words she'd known for most of her life disappearing from her mind. It felt like she, all of a sudden, didn't know how to articulate herself. "I—" Keilah's voice cracked, and she briefly buried her face in her hands.

     This was the most emotional Harrison had ever seen Keilah, and he stood frozen in place. A sense of panic was slowly sinking in as his heart dropped.

     "Keilah..."

     Fresh tears stung Keilah's eyes as she got the courage to turn around and face him. She couldn't get out what she was feeling and couldn't explain why she was so upset without having to dive into the "Joshua Situation," and she wasn't there yet. She wasn't ready for that conversation with him. So, instead, she settled on choking out, "Can you just hug me?"

     The question was so innocent in nature, and Harrison felt a lump rise in his throat. Keilah had never asked him to do anything for her before. It always had been him who offered his help to her, but never the other way or had his help been requested. That didn't matter, though. She needed him and that was enough to get him to hurry forward and wrap his arms around her.

     Quickly, she returned the gesture and buried her head into his shoulder. Nothing but the sound of labored breathing could be heard for a few seconds before Harrison heard her whimper. The hold they had on each other tightened, and he frowned, pulling her closer.

     "I'm right here, love."

     "Please, don't let go."

     "Not unless you tell me to."

     For the longest time, Harrison had been wishing and trying to find a way to get Keilah to be open and vulnerable with him, but this wasn't what he had meant. Then again, though, he wasn't quite sure what he was expecting when he wished for that.

     It wasn't until he heard a sob that he blinked. Allowing his instincts to take control, he brought a hand up and ran it through her hair. In response, she leaned further into his touch as her body shook. Harrison repeated the action, pressing a quick kiss to the side of her head.

     Gradually, the sobs became quieter, and she stopped shaking. Her breathing slowed down, and the tears dried up. The feeling of Harrison's hand running through her hair and the sound of his smooth and even breaths helped her calm down. Her focus had shifted from recent events to the boy holding her and what he meant to her. The way he dropped the subject and held her without question meant a lot.

     It wasn't until Harrison began to pull away that the silence broke.

     "Ugh, no. No, don't. What happened to not pulling away unless I told you to? Now, you're gonna see my terribly ugly, puffy crying face and..." Keilah pouted when he peered down at her with an endearing smile. "Don't smile at me. I just cried all over your sweater— or jumper as you beautiful Brits like to call it. And no, that was not me calling you beau—"

     Her words were cut off when he impulsively tugged her closer to his chest and rested his forehead against hers. Eyes wide, she shut her mouth. A furious blush overtook her features.  She could feel his breath faintly fan over her lips and it took everything in her not to erase the little distance between them.

     "What..." she gulped, trying not to physically react as he cupped her face with both of his hands. "Harrison, what are you doing?"

     Her question was valid and one Harrison didn't have a fully clear answer to. "I um, I," he stammered, running his thumbs over her cheeks and brushing away stray tears. "I don't really know, but w-what I do know is that you don't look ugly and I don't care that you cried all over my jumper. Also, you definitely just called me beautiful." He couldn't help but glance down at her lips, lingering on them longer than he should have.

     Noticing where his gaze was directed, Keilah held her breath. Don't look at his lips... Don't look at—

     "This isn't exactly something friends do," she muttered, squeezing her eyes shut at her response. It physically pained her to say the words, but now was not the right time for this. Not with Joshua back around.

     Harrison winced but refused to budge. "I know, but who are you kidding by saying we're friends?" he asked, and they knew he had a point.

     "Myself. I'm kidding myself because I can not go there with you right now," she whispered, subconsciously wetting her lips. "I can not be with you like that right now."

     He nodded softly against her forehead, tilting his head to press a kiss to her cheek. The small act gave them a slight semblance of peace. "Okay," he whispered, pushing down the everpresent lump in his throat. "Can you at least let me in and let me help you with whatever is going on? As a friend."

     Keilah's face twisted as she tried not to break down in tears. "I can't," she whispered, despite wanting nothing more than to say yes. But, again, she wasn't ready or in a place where she was comfortable with accepting help outside of her family, Amandla, and law enforcement. Not with this situation... not when she still hadn't fully accepted what happened to her.

     "Kai..."

     "I will tell you everything, eventually. I promise. I just..." she sighed, feeling a sense of defeat wash over her. "I need time."

     Harrison forced himself to nod. "Okay. Time it is, then."

╰┈ ⊰ 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒚 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒔 ❞ ⑊ ⎯⎯ : ⊱˒ ♡

⌇ 𝘯𝘰 𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯⠀|⠀𝑛𝜊 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑠⠀꒱
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙

     hey everyone!! i hope you all enjoyed the twenty-first chapter!

     i promise i didn't forget that this story exists.

     i am so busy, lost motivation for this story, and have been prioritizing finishing one of my other books before working on anything else. i also haven't set aside any time to work on my other stories. i want to update more, but i won't promise anything such as frequent updates.

     i will say, though, that i am making an effort to work on this story. my plan is to pre-write at least more than half of this book before updating regularly. i want to pre-write as much as possible, perhaps finish writing this entire story, that way i can update either every day as i did with '𝐒𝐇𝐄' or every other day. i desperately want to finish this book and wrap up all of these characters. i've been writing about them for a very long time and although i love them dearly, as an author, i am ready to move on.

     ANYWAYS!!!!!

     i really like this chapter and the dynamic between keilah and her family. this was only a sneak peek into her family's background and morals. the archambault family is my favorite and such a funny unit.

     this chapter isn't the longest, but that's sort of the pace of Act One. however, things will get longer and more interesting in Act Two, which is only FOUR CHAPTERS AWAY!!!!! so excited to dive deeper into keilah and harrison's story.

     as a sneak peek of what's to come (and to make up for not updating since last year), i am sharing the list of all the remaining chapter titles for Act One and the first ten chapters of Act Two.

     22 / BROKEN
     23 / TIME AWAY FROM IT ALL
     24 / CHRISTMAS IN ALBANY
     25 / SOLO ON NEW YEARS
     26 / NEW YEAR, STILL FRUSTRATED
     27 / BREAKING BARRIERS
     28 / ON TODAY'S EPISODE...
     29 / THE JOSHUA SITUATION
     30 / A CHAPTER CLOSED
     31 / RUNNING IN CIRLCES
     32 / IF YOU DON'T GET BACK ON THAT PLANE
     33 / KEILAH AND HARRISON SITTING IN A TREE
     34 / THE HONEYMOON PHASE
     35 / FAMILY FACETIME

     𝐅𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐋𝐘 𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑: thank you all for taking the time out of your days to comment on this story. it means a lot and helps the story be spread to a wider audience &&& gives me the opportunity to grow as an author. all i ask is that people vote on each chapter, please. as a creator, it takes time to write and develop stories. especially social media-based ones because there's so much to take into consideration and the amount of time i've dedicated to finding graphics, screenshotting everything siena mirabella (and other characters) posts, making graphics, etc., is ridiculous. so please, vote on every chapter. it means a lot more than i could ever express.

     don't forget to vote & comment!