*~*~* Cate *~*~*
“Are you ready?” Liam asks as he sprays the window of the laboratory with hot water.
It was lunch time and Liam had roped me into doing the Physics project with him. He’d done the write up and had his method all planned out, so all we needed to do was photograph the light refraction and then we’d be done.
Today was surprisingly sunny in Hastings. Liam was excited by the sun and had forced me to forgo my lunch period so that we could photograph his physics phenomenon. His kept saying that we might not get another sunny day again and we should take advantage it. I didn’t disagree because I was getting itchy about starting my own project and needed to get Liam’s out of the way first. Ok, so Mr. Hall said that I’d pass if Liam passed, but I didn’t want a free ride. I wanted to get started on my own work.
“I’ll be ready as soon as I see a rainbow,” I say as I hold up my camera to show him. I watched as Liam got all his apparatus in line and stood back nervously. “Are you ok? You look a little on edge.”
“I just hope this works, that’s all,” he answers as he starts chewing on his nails. I swat his shoulder and frown at him. “Sorry. Nasty habit, I know, but I don’t want to fail, that’s all.”
I smile at him encouragingly. “You won’t fail, Liam. I won’t let you.”
We wait a few minutes for the light to refract and for a rainbow to appear, but it doesn’t seem to be working. Liam starts to anxiously pull on his hair and paces the room, muttering ideas to himself on how to improve his method. I shook my head as I watched him move. His theory was sound and his method was right. There was nothing wrong with the experiment. We needed more direct light, that’s all.
“How about we do it with a pan of water and a mirror?” I suggest as Liam does another lap of the room. He stops in front of me and looks horrified. “Trust me. It’s work. It’s basically the same experiment, but we don’t need to reply on the weather.”
“Fine,” Liam says. He huffs out a breath of air and starts collecting the apparatus we’d need. He sets up the experiment and holds the flashlight in his hand. “Ok. Get ready.”
I nod and take my position. Liam and I had already spoken about the way he wanted the photograph to look, and I knew it was going to take a lot of work on my half in order to give Liam the results he wanted. He requested a black and white photo where the rainbow colors were the only colors in the print. He told me to think of The Dark Side of the Moon album cover, and I would do great if I could recreate that in the photo.
Liam turned off the light in the room and flashed the light against the mirror. I had to get in close to the white paper that was propped up against the wall in order to get a glimpse of the rainbow, but even then, the colors weren’t as vibrant as they should be. I clicked nonetheless, but when Liam saw my face, his smile disappeared.
“It’s not working, is it?” He asks as he drops the paper and turns off the flash light.
“No, it is,” I assure him. He isn’t fooled though, and I offer him a weak smile. “Hey, you said you wanted to recreate the Pink Floyd album cover right? Well, correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t they do the prism experiment to get that photo? Dispersion of light?”
“Yeah?” Liam answers, but isn’t really sure what it is I’m trying to say. Eventually, the penny drops and he beams at me. He steps closer to me and places his hands over my cheeks as he kisses my lips quickly. “You, Cate Westbrook, are a genius.”
“You know I don’t like you like that, right?” I say quickly as I move away from Liam. He frowns at me and shakes his head in the ‘what are you talking about?’ kind of way. “I already have a boyfriend… there’s a guy… I mean…” My words become a big jumbled mess as I try to formulate something to say. I take in a deep breath and exhale slowly. “Liam, you’re my lab partner, and I think you’re my friend too, but I’m not interested in you like that.”
Liam stares at me, and then laughs. “Chill out, Red,” he says laughingly. “I know you’re with TJ and while I might have had a thing for you, I’m not stupid enough to tread on Rushing’s toes. And, yeah, we are friends. Just friends.”
I laugh nervously. “Good. We’re gonna need a dark room,” I tell Liam before contemplating taking him to my photography dark room. Eventually, I give in. “I’ve got the perfect place. Come on, grab everything you’ll need.”
While Liam set up the Dispersion of Light experiment in the entry way of my dark room, I sat in the inner room and pulled out my lunch. Before Liam had dragged me away with him, I’d managed to make it to the cafeteria and grab my usual salad. I ate slowly and waited until Liam called for me. I opened the heavy drape divider, my salad still in hand, and found Liam grinning like a kindergartner. His eyes flew to mine and they sparkled with excitement, until they fell on my lunch.
“Why do girls always think they need to be on a diet?” He asks before he turns back to his project. I rolled my eyes and refrained from telling him that I was any sort of diet. I turned to pick up my camera while setting my lunch down on the bench. I moved to join Liam in the cramped area and crouched down as Liam hovered above me. “Third time lucky, Red.”
He was right. When he turned on the torchlight and moved the light next to the prism, a small rainbow appeared. The lights were gorgeous and I immediately sprang into action, clicking away countless times from different angles as I tried to fulfil my brief. As I took my final frame, I knew that we had finally managed to get the photo in the bag. I stood and high fived Liam.
“Told you that you wouldn’t fail,” I say a little smugly.
“Oh, so you’re an ‘I told you so’ kind of girl, huh?” Liam said as he nudged my shoulder. “Did you get enough shots?”
“I got about twenty,” I said with a casual shrug. “Do you think that’s enough?”
“We’ll we only need one of them to be good,” he says before turning to me quickly and stuttering. He made zero sense to me. “I mean, of course, they’ll all be great but we only need one of them to be the one. You know?”
I nod. “I got you the first time, Liam. I’m not all that easily offended.”
Liam packed up everything we’d borrowed from the physics lab and returned them. Before he left, Liam gave me a thank you hug and asked if I’d had any ideas for my project. I just shrugged and told him that I’d think of something. He kindly offered his services if ever I needed him, reminding me that we were lab buddies and just friends. I laughed and told him I’d consider it before I waved him out of my dark room.
I checked my watch and saw that I still had ten minutes of lunch period left. Score. I could finish my lunch in silence and just think about nothing at all. Naturally, as soon as I tried not to think about anything at all, my mind went straight to TJ.
Now, was my mind playing tricks on me, or had I actually referred to him as my boyfriend earlier? That sure as Hell complicated things. I mean, yeah we were close and we knew each other really well- that game from last night proved that- and I definitely loved kissing him, but we just couldn’t work. Could we?
And where did that leave Theo? I haven’t thought about him in a while, and I hadn’t been searching him out either. Had I been right? Now that he and I were out of that bubble, were we still compatible? I’d been scared that in the real world we could never be together, and my fears were coming true.
Silver linings. Ok, so I didn’t have Theo, but I did have TJ. And I did like him… do like him. I very much like him at present and quite certainly I’d continue to like him in the future too. Those eyes, those muscles, those lips… TJ Rushing was just…
The bell rang, cutting into my day dream. I throw my salad pot into the trashcan and store my camera back in the bag before I head out of the Art building. I was halfway across the court, heading for the academic block, when I heard someone shouting out my name.
“Camera Girl!” Ok, so maybe that wasn’t my name, but I was the only student out here that could fit Coach Yeeles’ description. I spun to face him only to see him marching over to me. “Rushing’s girl, right? There’s a game tomorrow night, and I need you to be there. Bring that camera of yours. I’m formally inviting you to be a part of our soccer family. Not that you have much choice because I can be pretty scary when I don’t get my own way.”
I nod. Although, I silently add in my head- You’re always scary, dude.
“Good,” Coach Yeeles nods once. He stands before me awkwardly and frowns. “Well, by then, Rushing’s Girl.”
“My name is Cate,” I shout after him.
“If you say so, Camera Girl.”
*~*~* TJ *~*~*
“Are you ok to catch a ride with Grey and Georgie?” I ask Cate as we lean on the hood of my car. “I have a thing to do.”
Cate nods in understanding and tells me that she could just walk home. I tell her, in no uncertain terms, that she is not walking home. Knowing Cate’s luck, she’ll trip on a paving stone and break her leg or something equally ridiculous.
Ever since last week’s incident, and the one two weeks previously, I was doing everything possible to make sure that Cate didn’t get herself injured. I walked her to every class, made sure that no one bumped into her in the hallway and generally just kept her protected in my arms whenever we were together. Even now, just leaning against my car, I had her wrapped up in my arms, ready to shield her just in case something happened.
“I can walk home fine, TJ,” Cate protests. “What could possible happen in the fifteen minutes it’s gonna take me to get from here to there?”
“With you?” I say teasingly. “A lot.”
Moments later, Grey and Georgie come storming out of the school building. Georgie’s walking ahead of Grey and he doesn’t even try to catch up with her. They had been like this all day, and I sensed that Georgie hadn’t quite forgiven Grey for the game last night. From the looks of it, Grey would be in trouble for the next fifty years unless he treads very carefully.
Personally, I loved playing that Mr. & Mrs. game last night. Cate and I had been in sync as we answered the questions. Ok, so maybe our questions had been fairly straight forward and easy, but I still think that we would have won even if we had had Grey and Georgie’s questions.
“Which one of us do you think smells better?” I ask Cate. She laughs at the randomness of my question and shoots me a bemused glance. I point to the warring couple and explain. “It was their first question and I was wondering if we would have agreed on the answer.”
I hand Cate a blank piece of paper I’d torn from my notebook and handed her a pen, instructing her to write which of us smelt the best. I took a second torn slip of paper for myself and wrote my answer down too.
“Ok, second question,” I say once I see that Cate has finished answering the first question. “Which one of us is the funniest?”
Cate scribbles her answer. “Ok, and which one of us is the boss in the relationship?”
I smile at the fact that Cate called what we had a relationship. I could work with that.
I wrote my answer. “Let’s swap papers,” I say as I hand over my answers in exchange for Cate’s.
We had the same answer for the first question. Cate. I noticed under her answer she’d written a little note of explanation- I know you like to smell my watermelon shampoo :)
I did love smelling her watermelon shampoo.
Our second answers matched. TJ. Of course, I am a comic genius. Yeah, ok… I’m not. But Cate doesn’t really understand jokes. She looked at me really confused last week when I asked ‘How much does a hipster weigh?’ She looked equally baffled when I said ‘An Instagram.’ Then she asked what Instagram was.
Yep, I’m definitely funnier than Cate. Which just leaves the final question to be answered.
Who was the boss in this relationship?
Cate wrote TJ. I watched Cate carefully as she read my answer.
“Cate,” she read the words. “Because you rule my heart.”
“Too cheesy?” I ask as I pull her up to my chest.
“No,” she smiles, reaches up on her tip toes and kisses me. “It was just the right amount of cheese.”
“I have to go do that thing now,” I tell Cate as I walk her to Grey’s car. “See you tomorrow, ok? Grey, you better take make sure she gets home in one piece.”
I wave Cate off as Grey zooms out of the parking lot. Didn’t I just tell him to drive safely, and now he was driving like a NASCAR lunatic? We are going to have words later. But in the meantime, where is Spiller?
Hurry up, Colt. We need to get going- Theo.
So, I have a surprise for Cate. I can’t tell you what it is yet, but if I’m going to pull it off in time for Valentine’s Day, I need to get started now. And to get started now, I needed Colton Spiller to hurry the heck up.
Thankfully, five minutes after I message him, he reaches my car and jumps into the passenger seat, grumbling something about a Mrs. Al-Asiri and how unfair it was that he’d been partnered up with Megan Whittle for his English project. He reached over for my iPod and pressed play without looking at the name of the song that was on half playing.
“What are you listening to these days?” Spiller shouted over the sound of The Offspring’s Want You Bad track on Cate’s playlist. “You don’t like this crap. Jeez, Cate must really have you wrapped around her pinky finger.”
I laugh. “There’s nothing a guy wouldn’t do for the girl he loves,” I explain as I take the road out of Hastings. “Plus, they’re not that bad. You kinda get used to it after a few weeks.”
“Whipped,” Spiller shook his head.
We continued the drive in silence, until we reached San Francisco and Spiller had to give me directions to address we were trying to find. It was somewhere in a district called Dogpatch on Minnesota St, but Spiller- my navigator- wasn’t much help when it came to finding the right address. I pull over and park on the side of the road and got out to take a look around. Eventually, after five minutes of walking up and down the street, we finally found the address.
I climbed the steps and buzz on the door of apartment twelve. The building was a dark reddish-brown brick converted warehouse with large windows cut into the masonry. I waited a few minutes before buzzing again.
“Hello?” A woman’s voice came through the intercom.
“Hi, Anna?” I say more of a question than a statement. “It’s TJ, Cate’s…” What exactly was I, again? “Anna, it’s TJ. Can I come up? I need your help with something.”
“This is intriguing,” Anna cooed excitedly. “Come up. We’re on the third floor to the left.”
Spiller follows me as we climb up to the third floor. The building didn’t have an elevator and by the time we reached Anna’s apartment she was stood waiting at her door. She waved at Spiller before pulling me into a hug and ushering us inside.
Anna’s apartment was ridiculous. It was an open plan living area where all the walls were painted white. Some sections of the space had been cordoned off by vintage dividers, but the space was dominated by a high-tech kitchen with all the mod-cons you could imagine.
“That’s Sawyer’s thing,” Anna explained when she saw my eyes bugged out at the size of their stove. “He owns a restaurant called Catalano down the street. He’s also their chef, so this is his version of boys’ toys. No X-Box, but we have a great Kitchen Aid.”
I laugh. “Cool,” I say because what else could I say. I turn back to Anna and smile. “So, you’re a jewelry designer, right?” Anna nods suspiciously. “Well, Cate’s birthday is coming up and I want to commission a piece for her.”
“You want me to make my sister something?” Anna asks with a frown on her face.
“Yes,” I answer. I step closer to her and hold out a sketch I’d made this morning during my free period. “I want you to make her a necklace, but not just any necklace. I want it to be shaped so that it has twenty sides, and each side with different color stones.”
Anna blinks. “A twenty sided necklace? Is that even possible?” I push the sketch into her hand and she takes her time in inspecting my drawing. “It’s do-able, I guess. It’s gonna take a while, but I think I can do it.”
Anna motioned me to sit on the couch while she went to get her own sketch pad and drawing pencils. She returned and sat next to me, sketching a necklace that had me breathless. It looked perfect and I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my lips.
“So, gem colors?” Anna said as she looked up at me. “I can give you some suggestions if you want. Cate likes blues, blacks and yellows… sometimes even red.”
“What’s the birthstone for December?” I ask.
“I tend to use Tanzanite,” Anna says. “It’s blue-violet in color, but I know some jewelers that use blue topaz, turquoise and lapis. Why December, if I may ask?”
I smile. “It was the month we met.”
“Oh, cool,” Anna shrugs. “I just always assumed you met in January. So, we’re definitely going with blue. What other colors?”
*~*~*
I think there's a definite delay in me updating and you receiving the updates! So, from here on, I'm gonna time stamp the updates! I post every day, I swear.
So, yeah... I had this trouble before when I posted YH1NM, but it worked itself out in the end. So, fingers crossed it's just a temporary glitch.
Yeah, Cate is totally warming up to the idea of TJ.
Sarah, xx
p.s. Like I might have mentioned before, I don't proof read LoF. So if there are any mistakes, I'm sorry! :)
22:37 (UK time) Jan. 26th