The Crimson Letters

7. "Confess What?"

KATHERINE'S P.O.V

After the funeral Peter, Jules and I drove back together. We dropped Jules at her house. After a moment of silence, Peter spoke up.

"Are you alright, princess?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I smiled a little.

"So all the mysteries of your life are solved, I suppose?" he said, making a half-funny-half-dumb face.

I chuckled, for the first time in days.

"Yeah, you could say that."

Soon we arrived at my home.

"You wanna come in?" I asked.

"Yeah, there's nowhere else I have to be right now."

"Cool."

We entered the door and sat on the couch.

"I have a question. Why do you call me Princess?" I asked.

" I don't know. It just comes out of my mouth every time I see you. It's involuntary, really."

I smiled, but it faded away as I realised something. I had to tell Peter the truth.

"I need to confess something." I said.

"Confess what?"

"That day, when I came to your place for the project, I heard some part of the conversation with your mom. I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to eavesdrop or something, I just..."

"It's okay."

"Huh?"

"Actually, I don't mind that you heard it. The truth is, I've always wanted someone to talk to. Kent and Kevin are good friends of mine, but I don't feel comfortable talking to them about my dad." he said with a strange expression on his face.

"Hey, we don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"No, no. Katherine, I can't tell you how much my life has changed since the day we met. I've become a better person. I'm so sorry for being a jackass to you when we first met."

"I know you are. It's okay."

There was silence, but it was comforting.

"You know, it was my 10th birthday. Mom, dad and I celebrated it together. The next morning when I woke up and went downstairs, I saw my mom sitting on the couch, sobbing. My dad was gone. He just left us, right after my birthday."

"I'm so sorry that you had to go through all that. Good people like you don't deserve such things."

He smiled faintly.

"You're a good listener. Honestly, I feel better now that I've shared this with you." he said.

"I'm glad."

We talked about random things for some time and then Peter got a call from his mom.

'Come home now, or else you're doing the laundry for a week.' were her exact words. I laughed so hard when Peter jumped up and sprinted towards the door. He stopped at the threshold.

"You're going to be fine, right?"

"Yeah. Thanks."

Peter stepped forward and did something unexpected. He kissed my forehead.

"Take care." he said, smiling.

"You too. Bye." I replied, trying to hide the blush.

Going to school was pretty fun now. The five of us — Peter, Kent, Kevin, Jules and I had become great friends, best friends even.

One day, when Jules and I were walking down the hallway, Britney came up to me.

"Katherine." she smirked.

"What do you want?" I slugged lazily. I was in no mood of talking to her.

"So now you're 'Best friends' with Peter Anderson, huh?"

"None of your business." Jules said.

"You two need to stay away from Peter."

"Oh yeah? And who are you again?" I growled.

"Listen, Forbes. A dumb, ugly and a good for nothing girl like you doesn't deserve to hang out with Peter Anderson."

By now, Jules was practically trembling with rage. I felt like she was about to punch Britney in the face.

"Go get a life, Britney." I said and pulled Jules away to stop her from killing that bitch.

The rest of the day was about normal.

Our mid-terms were nearing and we needed to start studying, immediately. I could never study alone. I would always need a group to study with. Jules was a go-to. After getting home from school, I called her.

"Hey, you up for studying? I could come to your place."

"Yeah, actually I have a family thing today. We can meet up tomorrow, though."

"Oh, okay. Tomorrow then."

"Yeah, bye!"

"Bye."

As soon as I hung up, I got a call from Peter...