Leap of Faith

Day Ten

I shot him a glare and frowned. “Traitor.”

I returned to Greyson’s car and retook the seat I had vacated, sitting behind the driver so I could get a direct view of Georgie. She smiled weakly at me and reached over to squeeze my hand sympathetically. I shot her a reassuring smile and buckled myself in.

With TJ sat next to me and with the car full, Greyson pulled away from the curbside and made his way out of Hastings. We only lived a half an hour outside of San Francisco and the drive up went by quickly. It would have gone quicker if I’d thought about bringing my iPod, but I’d left it on my desk and so had to suffer through the awkwardness of sitting next to TJ for the whole drive.

Naturally, he tried to talk to me, and naturally, I had ignored him. I could see he was getting angrier by the minute the longer I ignored him, and briefly I felt guilty, but then I remembered how he took Catherine’s side over mine and the guilt washed away.

Georgie tried to make conversation with me, and I answered all her questions and asked a few of my own, but we both knew that it was forced. Usually we could talk openly about everything, but being in the car with Greyson and TJ made it difficult and after ten minutes, we gave up.

“Ok, that’s it,” Greyson said as he pulled up at a deserted parking lot. He put the car into park and motioned for Georgie to get out. He unbuckled his seatbelt and turned to face the rear passenger seats. He pointed at TJ and I in turn. “You two need to get it together because I am sick of how awkward this is. Talk it out. Now.”

Greyson got out of the car and locked the doors after him. I tried to open my door, but it wouldn’t budge. It must be one of those expensive cars with ridiculous safety precautions. Or the child lock was on. Either way, there was no chance of me getting out of the car anytime soon.

“I hate to say it,” TJ’s calm voice laughed amusedly. “Grey’s right, Cate. We need to talk it through. I don’t get what it is I’ve done wrong. Just tell me so I can put it right.”

I shake my head, my hair tickling the side of my neck. “You should know what it is you’ve done wrong. If you can’t see it, then don’t expect me to make it easier for you.”

“Cate,” he groans out my name in frustration. “Ok, it has something to do with Catherine, right? Are you jealous? Oh, my God. That’s it. You’re jealous.”

“Jealous?” I yell at him, the fury inside me igniting something dark. “You think I’m jealous? That would suit you, wouldn’t it? Yeah, because I stole one boyfriend from her already and now she has a new one, I’m gonna go after you as well. You rumbled my plan, TJ. I am so jealous of her.”

The sarcasm in my voice was clear, and each word was laced with scorn. The last person on Earth I would ever be jealous of is Catherine Addison, and the fact that TJ thought I would ever be envious of her just made me angrier. I hated it when I got angry. When I was furious, I got defensive, and defensive always meant bitchy.

I hated being bitchy. It went against every nature of my being, but when I couldn’t run and I hide, I had to stand up and fight. And this was me fighting. This was me at my most vulnerable, and it made me nervous.