*~*~* Cate *~*~*
“Wake her up,” I hear someone whisper.
“I’m not waking her up,” another voice says incredulously. “You wake her up”
“She’ll maul me to death,” the first voice counters. “You do it.”
“What so she can maul me instead?” The other one asks. “No thanks. I have a wife and kid to think about.”
“Technically you’re not married yet,” Sawyer’s familiar voice points out. “And you kid hasn’t been born.”
“Then I think I’d like to stay alive so I can get married,” David’s voice become louder. “And see my child coming in to the word. Now, man up and wake Cate.”
I throw the covers from over my head and stare at the two men who are stood hovering over me. They both step away when they see I’m awake and I’m pretty sure Sawyer hid behind David and pushed my future brother-in-law closer to me.
“Why are you waking me at nine thirty am?” I ask neither in particular. When I don’t get an answer, I get up and make my way past them and into the bathroom. For some stupid reason I thought that they might have gone by the time I came back out, but they were both stood in the same spot. “Seriously, what do you want?”
Sawyer pushes David forward, but David just spins and runs behind Sawyer and pushes him towards me instead. Both men know that I am not a morning person, and if they had just let me sleep a little longer, they wouldn’t have to be so terrified of me right now.
TJ didn’t bring me home until two am, and I was a little unsteady on my feet from all the alcohol David and Sawyer kept giving me. My head was slightly fuzzy this morning and I could feel the blood pumping around my brain. It was a weird sensation… but then again, that could just be the start of a pounding headache.
“Um…” Sawyer says carefully. He looks to David for moral support, but David’s more fixated with my carpet than the conversation. “Well, here’s the thing. We kinda lied to your mom and now we need you to help us get out of the bind.”
I laugh. These two were idiots, but they were my kind of idiots. Sawyer always thought up some stupid idea that David would always back, but then once they’d dug themselves a huge hole, the plan never looked so good anymore. I’d lost count of the idiotic things these two had gotten themselves into. For two people who hadn’t met until three years ago, David and Sawyer were two peas in a pod when it came to finding themselves in hot water.
“What did you do?” I ask with a roll of my eye as I walked to the iPod docking station and turned on some morning music to fill my room. If you could class Dead Kennedys as morning music. “And where do I fit in to the whole plan?”
“You’d be proud, Cate,” Sawyer beams. I highly doubt I’d be ‘proud’ but I want to hear the plan nonetheless. “Ok, so, your mom and Libby and Anna want to go on this couples excursion thing that may or may not involve a drive up to Napa.
“David and I, and I suspect your Dad too, do not want to go,” David shakes his head behind Sawyer in agreement of the statement. “So, we may have, you know… said that we were going to do some guy stuff here with your boyfriend.”
I blink. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“Well, as of an hour ago, you kinda do,” Sawyer says quickly before diving across my bed to hide in the opposite corner of my room. “You need to call TJ and get him to come over here and pretend to be your boyfriend.”
I blink again. Then promptly launch myself at Sawyer, wrapping my arms around his neck as I jump on his back and punch him feebly with my tiny fists. Somewhere in the middle of the on-sided fight, we fell and Sawyer had me pinned to the ground as he tried to get me to stop kicking him. His pleads to David for help went unanswered, and I took the opportunity to kick his knee… the one he injured a few years ago when he thought it was a genius idea to go on the big ski slope, instead of the kid friendly ones that he should have been on.
When Sawyer rolled over onto his back and was screaming profanities, Anna and Libby walked in to the bedroom. Both my sisters stopped talking when they saw the scene in front of them, where Sawyer was practically disabled on the floor, me with my disheveled hair looking like a grumpy lion, and David lying in my empty bed reading last month’s issue of Cosmo.
“Do I even want to know?” Anna asked as she folded her arms across her chest. She looked down at her boyfriend and sighed. “I don’t know what you did to piss her off, but I’m sure you deserved everything she did to you. Sissy.”
“You’re not even going to help me up?” Sawyer pouts at Anna. When my sister walks over to him, he stretches his hand out to her, but she ignores him and comes to my rescue instead. Sawyer grunts. “What the Hell? Chicks before dicks, is it?”
“Sisters before Misters, actually,” Anna smiles sweetly. “Just out of curiosity, why are two grown men alone in a seventeen year old girl’s bedroom unsupervised?”
When both men refused to tell Anna why they were in here, I proceeded to explain. Naturally, my sisters agreed with me that the guys had finally lost the plot, but they had to concede that it wasn’t all that ridiculous really.
“Apart from the fact that you’re not dating,” Libby said as she traced circles on her stomach while lying on my bed next to David. “You could ask TJ to come with us. That way, we’ll all be coupled up.”
“No,” Sawyer butted in. “The whole point of us asking TJ to come over isn’t so that he can come with us to Napa. We want him to help us get out of going to Napa.”
I look to Anna, and then to Libby, all of us nodding as we telepathically communicate our plan.
“I’ll message him,” I finally say with a smirk. I type out a quick text and send it. When his reply comes through, I laugh. “He’s on his way over. He says I can’t wait. I love Napa. Should be a good trip.”
Sawyer’s mouth opens, but it’s David that groans. Both men look at each other and quickly realize that they’ve been played. Seeing as they were so desperate to not go, I thought it was only right that I did everything possible to make sure that they did go.
“Why, Cate? Why would you do this to us?” Sawyer begs dramatically. “You know you’re going to be just as miserable as us.”
I shrug. “Maybe,” I smile a little too sweetly at him. “But just knowing that you’re more miserable than me on this trip will more than make up for it.” I make my way to my bathroom and just before closing the door, I turn around and point to David and Sawyer. “Maybe next time you’ll think twice about waking me up at stupid o’clock on a Sunday morning. Think of this as karma with a helping hand.”
I showered as quickly as possible, and by the time I exited the bathroom with a towel wrapped around my body and my hair in a messy knot, TJ was already here. He was sat at my desk, scrolling through the pages of ESPN. He turns briefly to smile at me, but when he sees that I’m not appropriately dressed, he blushes crimson and goes back to reading up on sports.
I head for my walk in closet, and find a pair of blue denim jeans. I pull them on and roll up the bottom so they fit better, and then find a sleeveless tank top to ware. I grab a sweater and pull it over my head, and accessorize with a drop necklace. I dry my hair quickly, strap on a pair of tan colored wedge heels and grab a matching purse before heading back in to my room.
“Are you sure you want to come?” I double check with TJ. He spins in the chair to face me. “I mean, I was just trying to mess with Sawyer and I don’t want to force you to come with us if you don’t want to.”
“No, I’m good,” TJ smiles as he makes his way over to me. He looks at my outfit and smiles. “You look nice, by the way. So, about messing with Sawyer? Wanna take it up a step?”
I smirk. “Well, what did you have in mind?”
*~*~* TJ *~*~*
We’d spent the last six hours at a vineyard in Napa, where apparently Libby and David were going to use as their wedding venue. For the whole time we were up there, Cate and I had played a picture perfect couple, always embracing and hardly spending any time apart. Everyone kept commenting about how ‘cute’ we were together, and after a while, I started to believe it. The way we were together, the way we looked at each other, the way we just were… It felt natural, like this was meant to be.
Only that it was just make believe. I guess Cate and I were better actors than we gave each other credit for.
Now that they think we’re a couple, I think it’s time to burst the bubble. TJ xx
For the past ten minutes Cate and I have been messaging each other, even though only inches separate us in the back seat of Anna’s car. When we left the Westbrook’s house this morning, Sawyer had insisted Cate ride along with him and Anna, which secretly worked out pretty well for what Cate and I had planned for him.
Like your style, Thomas Jefferson. C xx
I wink at Cate, which doesn’t go unnoticed by Sawyer, who has been watching us carefully in the rear view mirror. I’m not a driving expert or anything, but I’m pretty sure when you’re in the driving seat, you’re supposed to be paying more attention on the road and not on what’s going on in the back seat.
He’s watching us again. What do you suppose we do? TJ xx
Both our cell phones were on mute so no one but us knew we were messaging each other. We’d been in and out of vocal conversation throughout the drive just to keep up appearances, but our main way of communicating was through texts.
I don’t know. You’re the guy… what do guys do when they’re with a girl they like? C xx
Ok, this shouldn’t be that hard to answer, seeing as I was with a girl that I liked, but I’m not sure that Cate would be too keen if I reached over and kissed her. We’re only pretending to be dating, so I don’t think kissing should factor in to this plan. Unless…
They kiss the girl. TJ xx
I watch Cate carefully as she reads the message, her cheeks flushing as she looks up at me from under her eyelashes. She bites her lip and then, as if she knew how that drove me crazy, she stops and turns away to face the window. I can see a smile working its way onto her lips in her reflection, and my heart skips a beat.
We probably shouldn’t kiss. Might get awkward. Plus… there’s a guy that I like and even though it’s super complicated, I don’t want to betray what we have. C xx
“There’s another guy?” I say out loud as I read her message. Both Sawyer and Anna turn around to stare when they hear his piece of information. The car swerves into the other lane before Sawyer’s attention goes back to the road. “Who?”
I vaguely remember Cate saying something about a guy that she’s kind of almost dating, but since she hasn’t mentioned him in a while, I thought it had fizzled out. I mean, she was talking about Chris Theoris, after all, and they had ended any flirtation that they might have had. Unless the guy wasn’t Chris Theoris. In which case…
“Who the hell is he?” I demand, my voice rising to gain Cate’s attention. She turns to look at me with a cold glare in her eye. “Is it Chris? I thought you two were done… It’s not Liam Lexton, is it?”
I’d heard through Colton that Cate had been drafted in to tutor Liam Lexton in Physics, and to say that the news hadn’t sat well with me, would be an understatement. Like, seriously… Cate and that guy? No, I couldn’t have that. Not in a million, million years. Never. No way. NOT HAPPENING. Not on my watch. Not a snowball’s chance in a fiery red Hell. Just… No.
“No, it’s not Liam Lexton,” Cate says with a shake of her head. “I’m just tutoring him. And why are you getting riled up about Liam anyway?”
“Why?” I yell, my voice echoing around the small space. “Because…”
What is up with you? This is just pretend… no need to get so angry about it. C xx
I read her message and a new anger boiled up inside of me. She thought that this was all part of the act?
I’m being serious here, Cate. Who is the other guy? TJ xx
My phone vibrates with a reply. I can’t tell you that. C xx
I frown. Why not? TJ xx
Cate hesitates before she starts composing her message. She types it out, then frowns at the words and deletes it. She starts over, but each time she just sighs and backspaces the words out. Eventually, she writes something and presses send.
Because I don’t know who he is. C xx
“Huh?” I say out loud.
You don’t know who he is? TJ xx
Cate shakes her head. Nope. Like I said, it’s really complicated. C xx
“Explain it to me,” I tell her. She steals a glance at the front seats and sighs. I reach over for her hand, and gave it a light squeeze. “Cate, please. Explain it to me.”
She smiles weakly and takes her phone in her hand.
Ok, I’ll tell you. But don’t interrupt and no passing judgment until you hear the full story ok? C xx
I nod in response. “Ok.”
You’re gonna think I’m crazy. But…
I met this guy at New Year’s Eve and we hung out for a little while.
I’ve never been the type of person that can make friends easily. I mean, that’s why Georgie is my only friend.
Actually… you’re my friend now, too, but that’s a different story.
Getting back on track- we talked.
About a lot of things. I told him some stuff that hardly anyone knows about, and he just took it in his stride.
He confided in me too, and we just clicked, you know?
I’ve never felt that with anyone else before… it was easy. Being with him was easy.
So, yeah. We hung out and talked and got to know each other.
By the time we stopped talking, I knew.
I loved him.
I stare at her words, and my heart sinks in my chest. She loved this guy? I was potentially going to compete with a guy that had already stolen her heart? There was no way I could contend with that.
“What happened next?” I ask when Cate’s story comes to a stop. “How come you aren’t together?”
Reality kicked in, I guess. C xx
“So, now what?” I question.
“I don’t know,” she wipes a stray tear from her cheek. “I wait?”
“You shouldn’t wait, Cate,” I tell her as I pull her in for a hug. I pat down her hair and kiss the crown of her head. “You should be happy, and if this guy had any decency, he’d understand that.”
“But I want to be happy with him,” she sighs sadly.
I don’t know who this son of a bitch is, but already I hate him. If Cate ever dated him, I don’t think I could sit around and pretend to like the guy. I would try, for Cate’s sake, but it would take a lot of patience and tongue biting on my part. The guy was a straight up asshole for making Cate feel like this. She shouldn’t look this sad.
“Have you considered that maybe you could be happy with someone else?” I ask.
Cate’s body stiffens, and she suddenly starts to shake. Her breathing becomes labored and I can feel her burning up. I shout to get Anna’s attention while Sawyer swerves off the road and almost winds up in the ditch. Both get out and come to the back seats, with Sawyer pulling me out the way as he and Anna try to get Cate to communicate with them.
I pace the side of the road and tug at my hair. What on Earth is going on?
“Oh, shit,” I say as my mind goes in to overdrive. I rush back to the car and slide in next to Cate while Sawyer is on the phone to someone. Anna’s slapping her sister’s face, but Cate doesn’t respond. I take her face between my hands and look at her. “Catherine? Can you hear me?”
Cate nods.
“Baby,” I say softly, hoping that she can hear me. “What do you call a twenty-sided shape?”
Anna stares at me like I’ve gone crazy, but I just shrug her off. After a few beats, Cate answers.
“Icosagon.”
“You know this guy, the one you met on New Year’s Eve?” I shake her shoulders to make sure she’s still awake. Her eyes look heavy, as if she’s about to pass out, but she’s coherent enough to nod at me. “What was his name, Catherine?”
I feel my heartbeat racing, and I hope to God that she doesn’t say it… Please don't say it...
“Theo,” she whispers weakly before passing out.
Oh, shit.
*~*~*
So, what's gonna happen next? Thoughts?
Sarah, xx