All The Shadows We Made

Chapter 22 - February - Jamie

February

Jamie

"Hey, baby!" Kat chirps. She runs up to me, boots crunching through the snow, and gives me a hug that's weirdly enthusiastic for a random Friday morning in mid-February. Certainly too much for eight a.m.

I hug her back anyway, because what kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn't, and I almost don't catch the little inhale she does around my face. It's the same one she's done every day since the morning I don't remember when I came to school wasted. The smelling me for signs of booze thing was sweet the first couple of days, but three weeks later? It's plain annoying.

Kat steps back, looking relieved. I've been trying to do better. I'm back to a couple beers at night and maybe something heavier on the weekends instead of all the time. I don't think Kat believes it, though.

She takes my hand and practically skips back to the picnic table. Maggie is holding a heart-shaped box of chocolates. Not the dollar-store kind either. The kind that cost more than a 12-pack of local beer.

"Where'd you get those?" I ask Maggie. The chocolates remind me of something I was supposed to do today or maybe Thursday of next week, but I'm blanking on what it is.

"Mickey," Maggie says. She's trying not to smile, but she couldn't be more obvious if 'Happy' was stamped across her forehead.

"Mickey?" I'm confused as hell. Mickey has always given everyone shit for buying their girls stuff like that. Said flowers just die and chocolate shouldn't cost so much. Even on...Shit. Valentine's Day.

Kat's looking at me with that girl look that clearly says whatever I got her, it damn well better be cooler than what Mickey got Maggie.

And then I remember having a drunken conversation with Kat, I'm not a saint all the time, okay?, about how she loves Valentine's Day and I'd said we should go to lunch at school because Valentine's Day is on a weekend this year and she won't be able to come into town.

That was next week, though. I think. I hope so, because I, as of right now, have nothing to give her other than a kiss, and I have a strong feeling that wouldn't be enough. Kat would have reminded me, though. Right?

Normally I'd say yes, Kat would have absolutely reminded me, probably every night for a week, but Kat's been being strange lately. She's either all over me, happy and loving and making plans for our future, or she's sad and quiet and looking at me like she ran over my dog. The last week or so has been a ran-over-my-dog sort of week.

Today looks like it should be all right, though. Kat laughs with Maggie as they pull chocolates out of the box one by one, take tiny nibbles, and arrange them back in the box by flavor. Girls are so weird sometimes.

"Want one, baby?" Kat shoves a half-eaten truffle in my face. "I think it's raspberry. Might be cherry, though."

I accept the truffle. You don't turn down free chocolate when a cute girl offers it to you. Even if that cute girl has spent the last week moping around and following you everywhere and basically annoying the crap out of you.

I know I shouldn't bring it up, why poke a sleeping bear, but I can't help it. "You're in a good mood today," I say as Kat, Maggie and I walk towards the school.

Kat tucks a piece of truffle into her left cheek like an adorable squirrel and looks at me like I just said the stupidest thing ever. "Well, obviously. Today is going to be a good day, right?" She gives me a peck on the cheek and her breath smells like cocoa and coffee.

I'm forgetting something. I am definitely, one hundred percent forgetting something. I'm thinking I'm screwed here, totally screwed, and then I get to metalworking and forget all about forgetting. Thinking about girls and welding at the same time is bound to get you into trouble.