Atomic | Eddie Munson

10

Katherine awoke the next morning and immediately grabbed herself a cigarette. Some people start their mornings with coffee. Some people start their mornings with a run. Katherine started her mornings by increasing her chances of lung cancer.

Once she stamped out the butt of the cigarette, she removed the wrap from her arm, showing the burned skin. Sighing, she walked to the bathroom and put more antibiotic ointment on it. She didn't re-wrap it, deciding to let it breathe for the day. While in the bathroom, she brushed her teeth and put on her makeup. She walked back to her room and rummaged through her closet for something to wear. Eventually she decided on black jeans and a black t-shirt the she threw a large leather jacket over. Steve had given her the jacket for her birthday last year.

As she walked down the stairs, she clipped her hair back, allowing a few pieces to fall in her face. She grabbed the extra sandwich from the picnic and ate it for breakfast with a glass of iced tea. She checked the clock on the wall. 11:27. Maybe it was more of a lunch then. The front door opening got her attention, and she watched as Mike walked inside.

"Long time no see Michael," Katherine said from the kitchen, causing Mike to jump. He had a hand clutched to his chest.

"Oh, it's just you," Mike said, catching his breath. Katherine looked around, exaggerating it a bit.

"Yup, just me," Katherine confirmed. She allowed her brother to walk off to his room. A lot of their interactions were like that: short and to the point, but often funny.

The Wheeler family may look picture-perfect on the outside, hell the family portrait hanging in the living room even made it look that way, but they were far from it. Katherine and Nancy, though twins, couldn't be more different. They were pretty convinced that their parents never loved each other, only getting together in the first place to have the so called picture-perfect family, and now only staying together for the kids. Ted Wheeler didn't often show affection to any of his kids, other than Holly, who the entire family adored. Holly was a surprise baby, but had the entire Wheeler family wrapped around her little finger. Mike, Nancy, and Katherine did love each other, at least the best way they knew how.

However, never really receiving love from their parents made it difficult to accept or even reciprocate love. Nancy was probably the closest to ever being in love, but she never loved Steve. She claimed to be in love with Jonathan, but Katherine would never really know. She thought that Mike was in love with El, but often had a hard time expressing it to her.

Katherine had never been in love. Sure she had platonic love for her friends and family, but never a romantic love. Not even with Andy. Even if she ever did fall in love, Katherine wasn't sure that she would even know how to express it. Liking someone was easy, but loving someone, that's a whole different ballgame.

Katherine finished her glass of iced tea before going to grab her bag and her shoes. She slipped her notebook and book into her bag before slipping on her shoes. She grabbed herself another cigarette while she waited for Eddie to pick her up.

She ran down the stairs once she heard the music blaring from Eddie's van. She opened the front door before Eddie could even knock. His hand was raised to knock, and he almost hit Katherine in the face.

"Morning," Eddie said, lowering his hand. He pushed past Katherine to walk to her kitchen and open up her fridge. Katherine looked back at him with an eyebrow raised.

"Uh, good morning," she responded. Eddie pulled out a soda and cracked it open. As he took a sip of his soda, he noticed the cake sitting on the counter. He pulled off the cover and looked at Katherine.

"It's a blueberry and lemon cake. You can have some if you want," Katherine said. Eddie was about to respond when Mike barged into the kitchen.

"Eddie? What are you doing here?" Mike asked.