Sorry, it's been a while since I updated. This is probably the second to last chapter. My friend the review button feels lonely. Please cheer him up!
Famous last words. What a stupid saying. Kono sighed. Why was it that the most annoying sayings were always the ones that came true? Stupid universe. Go pick on someone else.
The day had started well enough. She had managed to get out of bed and get dressed by herself. Chin had been reluctant to go to out and leave her alone for the day, but Kono had felt like she was on a roll.
No prob, cuz. I got this.
She was pretty sure her cousin Louie had said the same thing when he was setting off fireworks. Next thing you know, he had burnt down the garage.
So yeah, she'd been feeling better than ever. Chin had been worried about her. The last week she hadn't been herself. Sometimes he would find her still in bed at three in the afternoon, which was unusual for her because Kono had never stayed in bed past nine in the morning.
Sometimes she wouldn't eat. Most times she couldn't sleep. She hadn't felt this depressed since when she had blown out her knee surfing. Chin was always trying to cheer her up.
FLASHBACK
"C'mon Kono, you have to get up."
She ignored him, burying her head under her pillow. He crossed the small room and sat on the end of her bed.
She tried to pull away from him. "Don't touch me."
"Kono, you can get through this. You've done it before."
"Don't give me that crap."
"What happened to my cousin who was unstoppable? What happened to the girl that proved them all wrong and got back up on a board?"
"Dammit Chin! This is different and you know it! Do you know how hard I worked to be a surfer? Then as soon as I find something different, as soon as I find 5-0 and become a cop and forget about it, this happens! You know what it's like to lose that, don't you? It feels terrible! But this is different because now I'm never going to surf again! I'll never be a part of 5-0 again! And what guy wants to marry a girl stuck in a chair? I've fucking lost everything, even my dignity! What's the point anymore?"
Tears streamed down her face, and Chin watched as Kono broke apart. He reached over and cradled her in his arms.
"What's the point?" she sobbed.
END FLASHBACK
She would never forget the look on his face. Normally, Chin was expressionless, but she could see the heartbreak in his eyes, the shake of his hands when he held her, felt the small tears that rolled off his face and landed in her hair. It made her feel like the lowest piece of shit on the planet.
It had been a rough two weeks for the both of them, and the only way Kono had pulled through was because her cousin had been there. They way he always had. She felt terrible that he had to baby-sit her like this, and had insisted that he take some time to himself.
She had made them both breakfast, and was currently cleaning up the dishes. A lazy breeze came through the opened patio door. The sun sat high in the sky, and all traces of clouds had been swept from the clear sea of blue.
Any other day, Kono would have been out on the beach surfing.
Stop it. Don't think about it. Just keep going.
If she didn't think about it, she wouldn't slip into the swirling black hole that seemed to have developed in the pit of her stomach. She just had to focus on other things.
She looked around, trying to figure out what Chin had done with the detergent box. Wheeling around the corner and opening a cupboard, Kono didn't hear the cat that had snuck in the patio door and was creeping up behind her. Rolling backwards, the wheel of her chair ran over the cat's tail.
"RAWRRR!"
"CRAP!"
Kono was thrown off balance in surprise, and the wheel caught on a corner, causing the chair to tip, and throwing Kono down the stairs of the basement. The cat took off with a shriek as Kono landed with a thump at the bottom of the stairs, wincing as the cement floor struck her still healing ribs.
Which brought her to her present situation. If it hadn't been for the fact that she was trapped under her chair, Kono probably could have dragged herself back up. But her whole body ached, and all the anger and fear and desperation she had been trying to hold back came crashing down on her and she broke down.
C'mon Kalakaua, you have to pull yourself together. Focus.
Kono looked around, and saw a bit of light poking out of the shadows of her basement. Her phone.
Dragging herself with her arms, she tried to reach for it. Army crawl, she thought. Steve would be proud.
Stretching her fingers out, she was able to brush the edge its plastic casing. Grimacing in pain, she made a desperate grab for it, but instead, she succeeded only in pushing it further away.
Dammit. Why did she have to be so helpless? This time she couldn't keep the tears back. Kono felt like a baby. What had happened to her? She used to be able to tackle any problem. She never broke down.
This was how Chin found her a few hours later, a small, broken person at the bottom of the basement steps.
"Hey cuz," she muttered weakly.
Chin scooped her up in his arms, and carried her to bed. What Kono didn't see was the muscle jumping in her cousins jaw and the guilt that lay heavy in his eyes.