Burnt Ramen

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

"I'm sorry that I didn't catch you before you had to leave," Finn tells her as he enters Kate's room later that day. "But I brought dinner." He holds up a bag of Chick-fil-a.

"Don't worry about it," Kate says, smiling when he pulls out a chocolate milkshake. "Here, come sit." She clears away the homework she had been doing, and pats the spot next to her on the bed. She pats it again when Finn raises his brows as if to ask 'are you sure?'

Walking over, he sets the bag of food down between them and plops on Kate's bed. "I got two fries and a big pack of nuggets to share, if you're okay with it," he adds quickly.

"It's perfect," she tells him, picking up a large waffle fry and taking a bite out of it. Truthfully, she's absolutely starving and very glad Finn brought dinner. "Thanks."

"No problem," he says. "I actually didn't want to use the kitchen 'cause the floor's pretty sticky. Carson did a crap job cleaning everything up."

"He did fine." Kate takes the opportunity to brush her hand against Finn's shoulder. She really likes the way he immediately focuses his attention on his own milkshake.

"S-So what were you up to today?" he asks quickly.

"Not much," Kate confesses. "When I got home I just started all my work. I finished everything a couple minutes before you got home."

"That's good," Finn says, letting them fall into a silence while eating their meals. Once they finish, he stands up and takes their trash with him to dispose of in the kitchen.

Surprising Kate, Finn reenters her room with a determined look. "I kinda need your help," he admits.

"Well sure." She brushes some crumbs off her lap and sits up properly. "What do you need?"

"You," he says. "I need a model for my photography project, and I was hoping it would be you." Anxiously he looks at her face, nerves peeking through in his expression.

Truthfully, it shocks Kate that he would consider her. She could picture him trying to film Carson smiling and goofing around, but she's not sure what sort of role she should assume in this.

"Yes," she decides, delighting in the relived smile appearing on his face. "I'd love to help out."

"That's great!" he exclaims, his face lighting up. Quickly, so quickly that Kate has no time to react, he pulls her up off the bed and into a hug. Shocked, she stiffens before relaxing into his warm body. She's not sure how long it lasts, but it must be enough that both suddenly become hyperaware of their actions and jerk back quickly. Matching spots of pink adorn both of their cheeks and Finn mumbles something about homework before dashing out.

Model.

Kate knows the word, of course she's heard it before. Previously she hadn't cared too much about it, but now, as she sits down on her bed, she's reconsidering possibly everything about it. She knows nothing about modeling. And on top of that, she has to somehow master it for Finn. Because yeah, she really wants him to get a good grade, but also...she'd kind of like to impress him.

She can search it up later, Kate decides. It's not really worth worrying about as of now because Finn hasn't even told her when they would start the project.

Snuggling into her white comforter, Kate pulls out her phone to try and reach Alice. She expected it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt when Kate falls asleep without ever hearing back from her best friend.

*

"This is so exciting," Carson whispers into her ear Saturday afternoon. Currently, the two are located at some sort of park and swinging side by side on the playground. Finn is setting up his camera and looks happy already; Kate feels a bit bad that she hadn't known before how much he was into photography.