Kendall doesn't like the way Scarlett lingers around Kick. Some might say she's just being a jealous girlfriend, but they're not the ones who are in a relationship with him. They're not the ones who have to watch how Scarlett changes from friendly to flirtatious whenever Kick is around.
She doesn't know if Scarlett's been made aware Kick is in a committed relationship, but Kendall doesn't like it and she needs the flirtatious comments and overly friendly touches to stop. But she's aware that if she goes in, guns blazing and ready for a fight, then the backlash will likely affect her relationship with Kick.
So, she decides to talk to Kick instead, Scarlett is his friend after all, and tells him how it makes her feel uncomfortable and anxious. He listens patiently and after she's finished, he tells her that he hadn't noticed but that he'll talk to the red-head.
It eases the knot inside her, because she worried that maybe he would brush her off, would say she's imagining it. Or maybe he would've acknowledged her words but refused to do anything about it.
She's glad Kick is a good man.
Immediately following the conversation, Scarlett stops, and things are ok for a while. But then Kick off-handedly mentions running into the woman, almost as an afterthought, and Kendall feels that anxiety once again. The first few times, she tries telling herself it was just a coincidence. But then Gunther, Jackie, and even Brianna mention seeing them, and they tell her how Scarlett always leaves right after someone else joins them.
She knows Kick isn't Renaldo, but who can guarantee Scarlett isn't trying to worm her way into Kick's heart? Isn't trying to slowly convince him that Kendall is too much (too smart, too loud, too nit-picky...) so that he'll leave her behind. She's not sure how she would handle that, seeing the man she envisions a long future with... leaving for someone else. It had hurt so much before, when it was only puppy-love, and already she can feel something twisting inside her chest and strangling the air from her lungs.
And she decides she can't live with this uncertainty, her own mind turning on her with scenario and after scenario till it feels like she's drowning. Kendall pulls herself from the nightmares she's inadvertently creating, and confronts Scarlett. It shows just how much she's matured and how much she trusts her boyfriend that instead of "claiming her territory" or threatening Scarlett to "stay away from her man", Kendall simply asks for respect of a committed relationship.
Less than a week later, she sees Kick and Scarlett kissing.
Jackie drags her away and its all Kendall can do to keep walking. For so many weeks she's felt anxious and angry but now… now… it's like she doesn't even have the energy to feel. Its not till Jackie squeezes her hand in comfort that Kendall is pulled back to reality, and all of a sudden it's like a dam bursts inside her and it's all she can do to keep from drowning in a flood of betrayal and heartbreak.
Some functioning part of her rationalizes that she can't stay with Kick, that even though it hurts she has to let him go for the sake of her own well-being. And while she knows they're very different people, her experience with Renaldo taught her that it's important to have proof.
Proof that she's sure Jackie has.
And when Kendall tries to be strong, her oldest and dearest friend sees right through her, pulling her into a hug that opens the floodgates yet gives her the strength she needs to meet with Kick. And his easy smile upon seeing her nearly breaks her resolve.
But Kendall's always used her anger as armor, and old habits don't fail her as she wraps herself in it once more.
"Why did you lie to me?"
He has the audacity to look confused for a moment, and part of her understands that she wasn't exactly being clear, but she absolutely no patience to explain when he asks what she's talking about. Instead, she silently hands him the pictures and watches as his face grows pale.
"I can explain-!"
"Oh, you can?" And she makes sure her voice sounds extra sweet in a way she knows he hates, "Because of course there's a perfectly logical reason you were kissing a woman who isn't your girlfriend."
"It didn't mean anything!"
"And yet you still kissed her."
"She kissed me!"
"Oh, and that just makes it so much better!" She sneers, finally expressing her anger. "You did nothing- nothing! – to stop her. Honestly, I would've thought you'd have the decency to end our relationship instead of cheating on me!"
"I didn't cheat on you!"
"Liar!" And although she keeps the tears from falling, Kendall can't stop her voice from breaking, "How would you feel if I did the same to you?!"
"It's different!"
"How!?" She demands, "How the hell would it be any different? Because I'm a woman and you're a man?!"
She knows Kick doesn't think that way, but she can't for the life of her understand why he'd say such a thing? Regardless of whatever pathetic explanation he's trying to give, it doesn't change what he did.
"Kendall-!"
"Stop." She hisses, "I don't care what reason you had, what you did was wrong and nothing you say will change that."
Kaia wakes up to find her bed of seagrass dying and misery in her heart.
She barely finds the energy to tend to the reef.