Kenzie felt a wave of nausea build up inside her. Luckily, that wouldn’t be morning sickness because she’d been safe. But just the thought of that made her feel even worse.
She dashed to the bathroom and hopped in the shower, which she hadn’t gotten last night, to wash away her grave mistake. Why did she have to woohoo with Austin? Why did she have to get her feelings back for him after all these years? Everything would have been fine, they could have just stayed friends, and she wouldn’t have to feel this way. But no, her stupid heart had to fall for him again. At least, that's what it felt like?
And what about Logan? She’d basically forgotten she already had a boyfriend. She scrubbed her body even harder after that, disgusted with herself. What was wrong with her?
Guilt just kept building up inside Kenzie like a volcano about to erupt. Never in a million years had she pictured herself to be the kind of girl she now was. The kind of girl who’d have an affair with someone else. She never wanted to be that girl and had told herself she never would be.
But now, here she was, a victim of her own lust. She was supposed to be solving a case and this is what happened. How pathetic and weak was she?
Stepping out of the shower, she threw on some clothes, not caring what they looked like, and didn’t even bother with makeup or styling her hair (though she did run a brush through it). She felt more ugly inside than she’d ever feel outside, so what did it matter? She collapsed against the wall and covered her ears with her hands, trying to block out all the guilt that was swirling around in her mind.
Finally, summoning all the courage she could muster, she walked out of the bathroom. Austin was now awake, and he was smiling.
Smiling! Like he didn’t realize what a horrible mistake they’d made!
“Listen, Austin,” Kenzie began in what she hoped was a steady voice, “we need to talk.”
“Are you all right? You don’t look too good.”
Before Kenzie could answer, there was a sharp knock at the door.
“Oh, who could that be?” she wondered, feeling as though she might crack from stress.
Austin got up, put on his boxer briefs (why in the world didn't he just get fully dressed?), and opened the door…
…and Kenzie felt like she may throw up for real this time.
Because standing on the other side of the door, looking very agitated at the spectacle before him, was none other than her boyfriend, Logan Hawkins.
“What is this?” he asked in an angry voice.
“Uh…” was all Austin could get out. Real smooth.
“Logan,” Kenzie stepped forward, realizing belatedly that she’d never even sent a picture of Logan to Austin. He had no idea who was glaring at him with such vehemence.
And Kenzie couldn’t say that she blamed him. Here she was, in her hotel room, with a guy in nothing but his underwear. A guy who wasn’t her boyfriend.
“Logan,” Kenzie said again, “I can explain.”
“Explain what?" Logan demanded as he shoved into the hotel room and slammed the door behind him, which rattled the windows. "That I ditched school to come see you and make up with you after that fight we had, and when I get here I see some other guy in your room with you? In his skivvies? I think we’ve already covered that.”
“It’s…wait. Why are you ditching school to see me? Why didn’t you just write me? And how did you even figure out which room I was in?”
“Well, I would have written you, but obviously you were otherwise detained, since you haven’t been online for a while. Plus your cell phone’s probably dead by now, because I can’t get through on it either. As for your room, it’s pretty easy to tell which one’s yours because your car’s parked in front of it.”
Kenzie checked her phone quickly, and saw that its battery had indeed died. She’d been too preoccupied the night before to charge it.
Guilt stabbed at her like a thousand knives. She was really in a mess now.
“Logan, I’m sorry…”
“You know, after a couple has their first fight, most of the time they have makeup woohoo. But it seems someone has already taken care of that for you.”
Logan shot Austin the death glare. Austin was hastily gathering his clothes from the floor, looking skittish. Logan probably outweighed him by ten pounds, though his muscles came from chasing criminals as a bounty hunter and going to the gym. Austin’s muscles came from manual labor on a farm for years, and they were still being put to use at his own place.
Of all the things to go through her mind at that moment, it had to be the muscles of her two lovers. She almost slapped herself, but she had bigger problems than images flashing through her mind.
Because at that moment, Logan stormed up to Austin and said, “Who do you think you are?”
Austin, who finally managed to put his clothes back on, and whom Kenzie thought would take a tentative step back, stared Logan in the eyes and said, “I’m the guy who’s giving Kenzie the respect she deserves. And you must be Logan, the guy who didn’t even believe her when she told you about a unicorn. Funny, I thought boyfriends were supposed to be supportive.”
“What would you know about being a boyfriend? Oh wait, I remember. I thought you looked familiar. I did a little research. Kenzie said her friend that was giving her all this help here in Appaloosa Plains was named Austin and that she knew him from high school. I looked up Kenzie’s graduating class from Riverview High, and what do you know, there was an Austin in the list. There were also pictures from that nice senior prom you two went to. Getting down on the dance floor as I recall.”
Kenzie’s jaw dropped. Logan had looked up her high school? Now she knew Jillian was right – this guy was controlling. His actions construed those of a stalker. He’d somehow hidden it from her back in Twinbrook. Either that, or he didn’t have a reason to show his true colors until now.
“Wait a minute,” Kenzie cut in, “you said most couples have makeup woohoo after they fight. Is that why you came here? You could have emailed me or left a voice mail, but you actually physically came here, just to apologize? No…that’s what’s wrong with you. You’re having woohoo frustrations.”
“Call it what you want, I was hoping for that, but no, I did want to apologize to you. I was going to say I should have known you’d never lie to me. But wow, look at that. You’ve been lying to me the whole time you’ve been here.”
“How have I lied? I told you…”
“Yeah yeah, you told me you had an old high school friend who was going to help you navigate through the town and talk to the people. You failed to mention that friend was your high school boyfriend.”
“What difference does that make? So what, we’re still friends.”
“Seems to me like you’re even more than friends. I don’t know of any adults who have sleepovers, especially with members of the opposite gender, and who sleep in their undergarments. You told me the other night that you didn't think I was the type of person to be insecure. Well, I never took you to be the type of person who'd cheat, Kenzie.”
“Now just a minute,” Austin interjected. “Listen here pal, you have no right talking to her like that. And in her defense, it was my fault. I pushed the issue, and I shouldn’t have. But don’t take it out on her.”
“Well, if you pushed the issue, and it was your fault, isn’t that, oh, I don’t know, illegal?”
“No, it wasn’t illegal,” Kenzie said glumly. “It was consensual. I’m sorry, Logan. It was a mistake.”
Clearly this isn’t what Austin was expecting Kenzie to say. He looked at her in bewilderment as she hung her head in shame.
“Well, I don’t much care who started it,” Logan said, “but it happened. And now we have to deal with it. Oh, by the way farm boy, since you admitted it was your fault, I have a little something for you.”
Before anyone could react, Logan’s fist slammed into Austin’s face. Kenzie gasped as Austin teetered backward.
“Stop it!” she said, but her requests were futile. Austin swung back and struck Logan in the stomach. Then the two got into an all-out brawl, starting on the bed which caused Kenzie's roses to fall over. The two young men then fell right off the bed, fists still flying and legs kicking, knocking things off the nearby table. They got dangerously close to breaking a hole into the bathroom wall at one point, and it was when they were headed toward the window that Kenzie finally shrieked at the top of her lungs, “Knock it off!” while hurling a shoe, which she'd extracted from one of her suitcases in the closet alcove, at the persistent wranglers.
The flying shoe was hardly a deadly projectile (it wasn’t even high heeled), but it got Logan’s and Austin’s attention. Shaking, she barked, “That’s enough out of both of you! I can’t take this! Austin, I want you to leave. Go check your pets and make sure they haven’t been stolen.”
Austin looked hurt while Logan looked smug. She expected him to say a snide comment, but he refrained as Austin put his shoes on, gave Kenzie one last apologetic look, and exited out the door.
Kenzie then looked at Logan and said, “And you. We need to talk.”
“You think?”
“I’m not in the mood for your sarcasm. You really hurt me, not believing me the other night. But that’s beside the point. There’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about for a while, and I think it’s time.”
“What? You think you’ll beat me to the punch by dumping me?”
“That wasn’t what I was talking about. If we can calmly and rationally discuss this, maybe we can get some issues resolved.”
“Whatever. Give me your best shot.”
Kenzie let out an agitated sigh before pulling out the desk chair and sitting in it. Logan sat on the floor at the foot of the bed, probably in an attempt to avoid any "remains" of what had happened the night before.
Sighing again, Kenzie said, “My mom’s going through a midlife crisis right now, and one of the things she keeps mentioning is whether or not she’ll see me get married and have kids someday. You and I haven’t even discussed those subjects, and I think we should. Forget what just happened, I want your general opinion on both.”
Logan pondered that before replying, “Well, to tell you the truth, I’m all for commitment, but I’m not big on the idea of marriage or kids. Girlfriend and living together, awesome. But a huge wedding ceremony just for a piece of paper? And kids? Can you seriously see me being a dad?”
Kenzie looked down. She had her answer. If she wanted a family, Logan wasn’t the guy for her. Then she realized something else.
“Logan, I’ve been in Appaloosa Plains for three days, and Austin already told me he loved me. Which, by the way, you haven’t said to me once.”
“It’s not a phrase I throw around.”
“And it’s not a phrase you say if you don’t mean it.”
“What are you saying?”
“I think you know what I’m implying. I don’t think you love me, and I don’t think you ever really will.”
“So you’d rather be with farm boy from high school than me? Is that how it is?”
“Logan, I don’t want to be with someone else instead of you. What I want is to be happy. And right now, I’m not happy. Face it. We both want different things in life. We jumped into this thing way too fast. I only knew you for a couple of days and suddenly we were a couple. I can’t do this anymore.”
Logan stood up and faced Kenzie. “So that’s it? We’re done?”
“I’m sorry, Logan. I think we have different priorities in life, and I know we have different goals and views. It just wouldn’t work out. It’s best to break away now before we get in too deep. Besides, you just said something about 'beating you to the punch' with the breakup. Now we can say it was a mutual decision, because I think you agree with me.”
“Fine, if that’s how you want it, that’s the way it is. I just wish it hadn’t ended like this.”
“Believe me,” Kenzie said as she stood up, “so do I. I’m sorry. But we can still be..."
"No, I've got enough friends. I think we should just forget everything."
Logan didn’t say anything else. He didn’t even bother giving Kenzie a parting hug or kiss. He just swung the door open and trudged out to his truck without looking back.
After he left, Kenzie closed the door and sunk onto the floor. Hot tears streamed down her face, and if she were in a cartoon, she was sure they’d form a puddle on the carpet. What had she done?
********************
When Kenzie had finished crying her eyes out, she patted them with a cool washcloth before cleaning up the mess left behind by her two squabbling lovers (that sounded so bad), and then retired to her laptop. Sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed (she didn't want to get back in it to remind herself of her senselessness), she buckled down and began seriously working on the case. If nothing else, it would hopefully keep her mind off what had just transpired.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work immediately. Kenzie's first thoughts drifted to Austin and Logan, and what would have happened if she’d been forced to choose between them. Either way, someone would have gotten hurt and she’d feel bad, so that would have been a lose-lose situation. Then she thought about Logan and how foolish she’d been back in Twinbrook. Had she really been that starved for male affection that she’d fallen for Logan’s advances like a love-struck fool? Apparently so. Her mother had told her that she had good judgment when it came to people. It turned out that she couldn't have been more wrong.
And what about Austin? He’d said he still loved her after all this time. But she wasn’t entirely sure she felt the same way. She thought she was, but now she wondered, were they falling in love with each other, or with the memories of their past? She remembered when she’d had walls built around her heart, and Jillian had encouraged her to knock them down. She’d wanted to knock them down, but perhaps she’d become too trusting of guys again. In fact, maybe she was too trusting of everyone. Look at what had happened with Jillian herself. She'd gotten mixed up with a gang. Kenzie always thought her best friend would grow out of her phase of falling for the wrong guys, and she'd trusted her to make smarter choices. And maybe she trusted Logan too much - she'd only known him a couple of days before becoming his girlfriend (which was at his not-very-subtle suggestion).
Kenzie pushed those thoughts out of her mind as she began hacking the Wolfson Hospital and Research Facility’s database. If something was going on in there with unicorns, surely there’d be a file on it.
There wasn’t anything about unicorns in the science database, but Kenzie did find something else that was more interesting – something called Project Metamorphosis, and it listed Austin Crowley being in charge of it.
Kenzie opened the file, decrypted it, and began reading its contents. It stated that the program was meant to actually transfer people’s minds from one body to another. Its initial purpose was to allow people who couldn’t hear or speak, and some that couldn’t see or walk, to be able to do so by placing their mind inside another body.
Kenzie’s eyebrows went up as she continued reading. Austin had intended the program to be used to help people, but there were subfolders buried within Project Metamorphosis’s file. Kenzie hacked into those...
…and felt even worse than she already did. Because inside those subfolders were more files, each one containing an animal subject. And the animal subjects matched the descriptions of the missing pets.
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