One week later, and Kathy was still alive. Not only that, but things were starting to look up again. Her punishment had ended early, she'd scored the highest on her latest chemistry test, her studying was going well, and Donnie had apologized profusely for being a total dimwit for the past weeks.
On the night of their anniversary, he'd shown up at her house with a huge bouquet of yellow roses. Kathy thought her mother would faint with delight. It was obvious once she gave Kathy a hundred dollar bill to spend on their special night out.
It was lovely to hang out with Donnie without Pete and Jackson around. He took her to a nice restaurant, then to the nearest club for dancing. It was a little awkward since Donnie wasn't exactly the dancing type, but he knew she liked it, so she swung her hips and threw her hands in the air and allowed herself to have fun.
But her favorite part had to be when he parked about half a mile from her house and walked her home, her arm wrapped around her shoulders.
"I hope you had fun," he whispered.
"I did! Thanks so much, Donnie. It was wonderful. You were wonderful."
"I still am," he said with a grin. "And I will continue to be."
"I really want that. I finally feel like we're us again."
He stiffened at her words, but his steps didn't falter. "Yeah. Us. I'm sorry about all the time I've spent away from you. It's nothing personal." They stopped in front of her house. "I just... Well. You're lovely, and safe. Like my home. But sometimes I just need to go for a walk, you know?"
She didn't know, but she guessed she could be overbearing at times. But if he kept acting like this, she felt she could unwind as well.
"I just want us to be like this forever."
He gave her a smile, then leaned over and kissed her goodnight with such passion that he swept her off her feet.
"Goodnight, sugar. I love you."
"I love you, too," she whispered.
And just like that, he went home. They'd managed to have a wonderful date and a wonderful kiss without her virginity being mentioned.
After their date, it only got better. Donnie started hanging out with her even at school, without the constant shadows of Pete and Jackson. Kathy had no idea where they were and what they did when they weren't glued to Donnie's heel, but she was glad for a break from them.
Even now, as she picked the yellow rose tied to the handle of her locker, Kathy couldn't help but grin. She and Donnie had been a bit rocky for a while, but it now seemed they were back to reading each other's thoughts.
Cecily Howard's laugh drew her attention from the rose. Another good thing about her week was that Cecily had ignored her completely. Which was the only type of attention Kathy wanted from the likes of her.
She now bounced down the hallway, Kyle by her side, her hoard of admirers behind her. Kathy raised her eyebrows and turned back to her locker.
It had been shocking to find out that Kyle was actually a senior, just like her, and went to the same school. It made the fact that she hadn't noticed him around even more surprising. But she usually stuck to her small circle and refused to look beyond it.
Even if he was basically there every day, it was still rare to see him and Cecily together. And even when they were, they surprisingly weren't one of those annoying couples who forced PDA down everyone's throats. The most she'd seen was Kyle's hand on the small of Cecily's back as he led her through the crowd.
As expected, Cecily ignored Kathy. Kyle's eyes lingered on her for a few moments, then he grinned and gave her a wink, as if they were sharing a private joke. Kathy nodded back, though she sure he was aching to call her Goldilocks again, just to annoy her.
Deciding to ignore high school royalty, Kathy pulled out her geography books for her final class. After that, she would head out for her next studying session in the library since Donnie had football practice.
Even if the school's football team was terrible, he insisted on still being on it. Kathy didn't mind. It gave him a regular workout and time with his friends, and she could study with Kelly.
"Ready?" Kelly asked, approaching her with her own stack of books.
"Yup." Kathy closed her locker.
"You know, I was thinking." Kelly stopped in front of Kathy, balancing her books on her hip. "The library is really boring. Why don't we go somewhere else to study after class?"
Kathy raised her eyebrows. "Where?"
"There's this little café just around the block. It's close to school, and I've heard they have delicious cappuccinos and good, relaxing music, perfect for studying. It's more like a study café."
Kathy squinted at Kelly, trying to find the catch, but the idea of a cappuccino to fuel her studying had already won her over. Donnie was going to be a while and be didn't like coffee anyway, and as long as she stayed close to school, she didn't see the problem.
"Okay. But they'd better have awesome cappuccino, because now I'm craving."
The smile on Kelly's face assured her that the cappuccino must be incredible.
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Kyle raised his face, his eyes closed, and let the full force of the shower hit him. It was just what he needed after a challenging basketball practice. The way his muscles loosened under the hot water managed to stifle his adrenaline rush in a pleasant, non-disappointing way.
"So, you up for studying?" Joey called from the next stall.
"Don't talk to me while I'm in the shower," Kyle mumbled, trying to get his zen back and forget Joey was there.
"Why not?"
"Because it's weird as hell. And if you're looking over the divider, I swear to God I'm pounding you, Ashley."
"Ha, ha!" Joey said sarcastically. "Stop calling me Ashley. No one gets the stupid pun anyway."
There was apparently no shutting Joey up. Kyle sighed, opened his eyes, and turned off the shower. "You get it, and that's all that matters." He wrapped a towel around himself and stepped into the changing room.
"You know," Joey said, turning off his own shower. "One of these days I'm going to let slip that you're not getting the reference from the movie, and you've actually read the book."
Kyle shrugged. "So what? It's a classic."
"It's a chick book!"
"A chick book that got me an A in history. How much did you get then?"
"Shut up," Joey mumbled.
"Yup, that C's still waving at you."
"The civil war is stupid. We should study about wars where America actually won. Like World War II when we helped your ass because you got plowed in like two weeks." Joey came out of the shower, grinning, a towel around his waist.
Kyle, who was already half-dressed, threw his towel in Joey's face. "What do you mean my ass?"
"You're half-French aren't you?"
"A quarter French," Kyle replied automatically. "Where are you going with this, Ashley?"
Joey gritted his teeth, but didn't make another remark about his nickname, and started drying his hair. "I was thinking we could go to this hip new place for studying."
Kyle raised his eyebrows. "Did you just use hip in a sentence?" He then narrowed his eyes. "You're not taking me to some gay little study café, are you?"
Joey touched his chest, his mouth open wide in mock-offense. "You don't have to be so offensive. Gay people are people, too."
"I know. And I like gay people. My best friend is one."
"Since when is Vincent your—" Joey scrunched his face for a second. "Hey! I resent that."
Kyle laughed. He had nothing against anyone, especially gay people, but pushing Joey's buttons was so much fun. "So, you were saying something about studying."
"Yeah, I know this cool new place close by. Wanna take our math homework there?"
Kyle squinted at him. Joey really wanted something from this café and he was curious to find out what.
"Okay, sure, let's go to this place."
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Kathy had to give Kelly props for picking the place. It was cozy, the coffee was amazing and there was enough space to stretch out all their books, which didn't really explain why Kelly insisted they took up a table for four. The relaxing music Kelly mentioned turned out to be sappy old love songs, but Kathy didn't mind.
She was halfway through her second cappuccino when she switched from geography to her math homework. It was the bit she looked forward to least and not because she didn't like math in general, but because their teacher was very strict and their homework usually took longer than anything else.
"Ready for math?" she asked Kelly who was bouncing her knees up and down and twirling her pencil between her fingers.
"Mhm," Kelly mumbled, though she didn't seem to be done with her geography homework. Half of her map of the Rocky Mountains was bare.
"Are you okay?" Kathy asked worried. Kelly bit her lip and didn't answer. "Is this about Joey not calling?"
"Oh, no. Of course not." Kelly didn't look at Kathy. Her eyes were glued to the door and her knees bounced worse than ever.
"What's going on? Why do you—" The rest of Kathy's question was no longer necessary.
Kelly's face lit up in a smile, and when Kathy turned towards the door, she understood why. Joey and Kyle had just entered the place, books under their arms, both of them looking way too good in just jeans and t-shirts. Joey looked around for a second, spotted them, then grinned at Kelly and made his way towards their table.
"Hi there," he said joyfully. "Didn't know you'd be here."
Yeah, right, Kathy thought. And by the way Kyle pursed his lips, she guessed he thought the exact same thing.
"Hi, guys," Kelly said excitedly. "What are you up to?"
"Oh, here for some homework," Joey said, nodding towards his stack of books.
"Us, too!" Kelly said as if it was the most amazing coincidence.
Kyle rolled his eyes, but said nothing about the obviously awkward conversation. Kathy half expected him to smite everyone with his sarcasm.
"Would you like to join us?" Kelly asked, and Kathy aimed a kick at her under the table.
She did not want to be in study group with Kyle. Not after Cecily's threat. And couldn't Kelly sense the danger? Why was Joey even hanging out with him outside the band?
"Ouch. What?" Kelly mouthed to her.
"Sure, we'd love to," Joey said, though he sounded a bit unsure. "Right, Kyle?"
Here it came. Kathy could basically feel him preparing the most scathing answer possible. But as his gaze moved to Kelly, he only gave them a weak smile.
"Sure. The more the merrier."
Um, what? He could be civil and nice?
"Awesome!" Kelly scooted over to make room for Joey on the half-circle couch, which left Kyle to sit across from Kathy, on the other end.
Joey and Kelly started talking about homework immediately, reciting what subjects each of them had to do. Kyle bit his lower lip as if to stop himself from laughing and put his books on the table. Math.
Kathy pulled her own books closer to make room for them and opened her notebook. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to do. She finally decided to mind her own business and pretend she was alone. It wasn't hard. Kelly and Joey only had eyes for each other and Kyle was focused on his own homework.
He had homework. This was so weird.
Praying this didn't count as touching or talking or anything that would anger Cecily, Kathy started off. For a few minutes, it worked. She got lost in the complexity of the exercise until she hit a dead end.
After searching the books and her notes from class, she realized she was completely lost. She'd reached a point where she had no idea what to do next. Normally, she'd ask for Kelly's opinion, but she was now busy debating with Joey how important it was to be a cat or dog person.
Kathy glanced over at Kyle and did a double take. He seemed to have the exact same exercise as her. But he wasn't in her class. She peeked at his notes. Even if he wasn't done yet, he was further along than her, scribbling away casually. Kathy craned her neck as discretely as possible.
"L'Hôpital," Kyle said, not taking his eyes off his notes or stopping from his writing.
Ah, crap, he was right. She gave him a short nod and got back to work. The rest of the exercise flowed smoothly and when she was done, she instinctively glanced at Kyle's notebook. He had a different answer. Frowning, she rechecked everything, but could find no mistake.
Praying he wouldn't call her out on it, she glanced over his exercise and managed to find a mistake. A heavy weight plunged into her stomach. He'd helped her, she couldn't just leave him like this. But correcting him meant talking to him, and talking to him was a big no-no. Plus, he might get pissed that she checked his homework. What to do?
As she pondered on this, she found herself analyzing his arms. He didn't have any prison tattoos or anything, but he obviously worked out. Maybe he was forced to in jail to keep the other convicts away. Was he even in juvy or what? Though given how tall and well built he was, she doubted many people picked on him.
She lifted her gaze and her heart shot to her throat. Kyle was looking at her questioningly, his eyebrows raised.
"What?" he asked.
She even forgot why she'd been staring at him in the first place. "I, um... you made a mistake," she mumbled.
He frowned and looked back at his homework. "Where?"
"Here." She pointed on the page then drew her finger back quickly and waited for the explosion. "You misread the one for a seven."
He just stared in shock. "Damn, my handwriting sucks. Even I can't understand it." He fixed his mistake and corrected everything along the way. "Thanks."
Kathy let out a sigh of relief. "No sweat. And it's not that bad." Hell, she could read it upside down.
"I'm not going to call you Goldilocks again," he said, still scribbling. Kathy stared at him and he smirked at her. "I got the memo the first time. Oh, wait, you said I was a jerk, didn't you? Scratch that. Go back to ignoring me."
She tried her best not to laugh or squirm. "Oh, I don't think you're a jerk."
"Huh. That's not what you said last time," he said, though he sounded amused.
Kathy stared at him. How could he be so normal? "I said I was sorry."
"You said thank you," he corrected her. "But I said we were cool. So I'm not sure why you're so tense around me. I don't bite." He hesitated as if he realized he actually did.
She opened her mouth and closed it, unsure what to say. Not like she could admit she was fascinated by his jaded past and that she had a million questions and wanted to know what he did. Why she wanted to know, she wasn't sure.
She decided to discuss something much safer. "Did you know about this?" She nodded discretely towards Kelly and Joey who were now discussing common classes.
"What, that they'd drag us here to pretend to study just so they could see each other?" Kyle asked. "Nope. But it's painfully obvious."
Kathy nodded, her eyes back on her finished homework. "How come we have the same homework?"
"Jacobs has two honors classes this year. I'm just in the other one." Kyle looked at his watch. It was one of those awesome things with a thick leather belt that looked stylish and amazing. "As much as I love blossoming romance, I have to go. Got target practice in half an hour." He glanced towards Joey and Kelly who were laughing together. "Need a ride home?"
Kathy was immediately distracted from asking about target practice. No way was she getting home on a motorcycle again. "No, thanks. I have to get back to school. Donnie will finish football practice soon and we'll go home together."
"Evel Knievel plays footbal?" Kyle asked and Kathy didn't like the lift of his brow at all.
"Yeah," she said, trying to keep any sign of hostility out of her voice, but she wasn't sure she'd managed it. "And could you please stop calling him that?"
Kyle huffed. "Trust me, my first choice was Jackass, but I was trying be nice."
Kathy hated herself for wanting to laugh. She just pouted and crossed her arms over her chest.
He sighed and stood. "Suit yourself." He nudged Joey. "I'm done with homework, Ashley. Let's go."
Kathy bit her lip hard not to laugh when Joey turned to him, his mouth open, his eyebrows bunched, obviously outraged that Kyle dared use that name in Kelly's presence.
"Gone with the Wind reference?" Kathy asked.
Kyle smiled at her and seemed to unwind. He really did have a gorgeous smile. "See, people get the pun."
"Stop using it," Joey mumbled, gathering his things.
"I have a feeling we'll be seeing each other soon enough," Kyle said, and as he and Joey left, Kathy cursed herself for actually looking forward to it.
She wasn't Donnie. She didn't need thrills in her life. Because that's what Kyle was. A dangerous risk.
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Greetings.
Did everyone forget about the Donnie - Kathy relationship after Kyle came into the picture? Just curious.
I so love how confused Kathy is at this point and how she's both scared and fascinated by Kyle. So, how did you feel about their interaction?
Thanks for reading. I love to hear your thoughts, so don't shy away from voting and commenting.