Perchance to Dream- Book I

Chapter 5: Katie

"She's coming," Billy said simply. Tori was coming after all.

Turning around to pull his jacket off, he hung it on my coat rack. He wore this thin teal t-shirt that was like saran wrap around the muscles on his back and arms.

"She's downstairs picking something up for you because she wanted to be a nice guest and thank you for the dinner you're making us. Damn Kat. I've been with her off and on for like five years. Enough is enough. I want this pettiness to stop."

I slammed the door shut, ready to go off on him. I was not the one who cheated on him with Owen, not to mention lying to his face for months about it. He never had a problem complaining about it to me, though, every goddamn day in high school. Yet still, she was an angel in his eyes.

"Pettiness? You like being lied to, then? Deceived?"

"Kat, we were kids." His heavy-lidded eyes closed for a moment. "Let it go. I have."

"Once a cheater, Billy..."

He groaned. "Where the heck is dinner?" he whined, ignoring me like he always did whenever that word came up. Brushing against my shoulder, he stomped through the apartment like he lived here.

"Ugh, you can be such an asshole sometimes," I muttered. I followed him to the kitchen, hearing his sniffs and sighs as he got closer to the food.

"Oh!" He turned to me, the irritation that had tightened the muscles across his back loosened. "You made it!"

I shrugged, hurrying in front of him before he reached the stove.

"Be patient." I slapped his hand away from the handle. He whined again like a child, frowning. I laughed at him. "You do wish to be a gentleman and await your lady's presence before eating dinner, yes?"

"Fine, fine. You will try not to be a bitch to her, yes?" He opened my refrigerator door, pulling out three bottles of Cokes.

"When have I ever been one to play nice with someone I despise?"

"Kat!" He slammed the Cokes down on my counter. "Grow up! You think I like half the folks in town? Or the jerks at my label? Heck no! But I smile and joke with them just to appease them. It's what adults do when they care about something or someone- suck it up and be the better person."

Rolling my eyes at him, I snatched a Coke from his hand. I yanked off the cap with a bottle opener. He reached for the bottle opener, but I tossed it in the sink.

"You can be such a bitch, sometimes," he said, laughing, going after it.

"Well, it is my apartment, isn't it? I can be however I want. And if she doesn't like it, then she can go to hell."

He shook his head, taking a swig. "She really makes me happy. Don't you see that? I don't think I'll ever meet another girl like her."

"What are you talking about? You're only 19 and she's 21. You don't know what else could be out there for you." I downed half of the bottle.

"I don't have to know," Billy murmured, sadly. "And almost 20... in a couple months."

"Billy-"

"You don't understand what it feels like yet." He stared down at the bottle in his hands. "You've never been in love, Kat."

God, that hurt. He was right, but that didn't matter. She betrayed him. How could she do that if she loved him?

"I would never do that to someone I loved, Billy." I tried catching his eye by leaning in. "You wouldn't either."