Leap of Faith

Day Nine

I pierced a leaf of lettuce and chewed on it slowly, as the boys talked over me. From the way they talked I guessed that they were talking about the girl TJ was talking with this morning. She of the long blonde hair, skin thin frame and perfect smile variety.

“Who?” I ask as I finally tune in to the conversation.

“TJ has a crush,” Colton laughs as he dodges TJ’s fist. “Her name is Catherine and she’s the love of his life.”

My heart stops. “Wh-what?” I stutter, my heart beat racing in my chest. “Catherine?”

“Catherine,” Colton smiles, ducking so the fry TJ threw careens over his head. When Colton looks up, he whistles and motions his head sideways. “Here she comes.”

*~*~*

Her name is Catherine Addison and she is without a doubt the girl of my dreams. I’ve never met anyone as perfect as her, and I don’t just mean that based on her looks, although she’s pretty perfect in that department too.

After meeting her yesterday, and speaking with her, I felt this connection to Catherine that I could only compare to how I felt when I met my Catherine. We got talking about music, seeing as that’s how we both ended up in the music room, and she knew the song Bankrobber- the song Catherine and I sang together in the closet.

It was like kismet. Fate. Exactly like Catherine said it would happen.

“Hey,” I smile at her as she approached the table. I stood up to hug her and motioned for her to sit. “I’d like you to meet my friends, Colton Spiller and Cate Westbrook.”

“Hello,” she said politely to Colton. When she turned to Cate, I felt the atmosphere change instantly. Her voice was colder when she spoke to Cate and the animosity was clear to see. “Cate.”

Cate shot me a glare, but I just shrugged it off. This argument between the girls didn’t involve me so I kept out of it. My reluctance to get involved didn’t go down to well with Cate, who quickly gathered her things and rushed from the cafeteria. Spiller and I stared after her.

“I’ll go check if she’s ok,” Spiller announced. “See you around, Catherine.”

I nodded appreciatively to Spiller. I’ve never seen Cate act like that before- not that I knew her well, but her attitude was uncalled for. So what if Catherine wasn’t Cate’s biggest fan, the mature way to deal with it was just to plaster on a smile and suck it up. Cate is my friend now and I had hoped that she would be chilled enough to be around my girlfriend… or potential girlfriend.

“What was that about?” I asked Catherine curiously.

“She stole my boyfriend from me,” Catherine said in a low voice filled with sadness. “I’d been with my boyfriend for a few months and then Cate came along and went behind my back with him. I’m sorry but I can’t sit here and pretend to be nice to her.”

Cate was a boyfriend stealer? I couldn’t quite see it, but the hurt that flushed Catherine’s cheeks was hard to fake. I studied the girl before me, the tears filling her eyes as she told me the shortened version of the story, and felt the instant need to protect her.

“Well, it’s like they say,” I start with a smile. “It’s always the quiet ones you’ve got to keep an eye on.”

Catherine laughed. “Cate isn’t as innocent as she seems. You shouldn’t be friends with her, TJ.”

I considered Catherine’s statement. Ok, so I haven’t known Cate for long but I think I’m a pretty good judge of people. So what if she stole Catherine’s boyfriend? The boy must have wanted to leave if he’d gone so easily, and it might have been just poor luck that it was Cate’s arms he ran in to. Was it really a friendship ending revelation that she had gone after another girl’s boyfriend?