A Week with Katherine

Day Seven

That Sunday had been different than most.

My mom was probably even more upset with me than she had been the day before. Both for sneaking out while we had guests over but also because just like our guests yesterday my mom knew I had been lying.

She couldn't understand why I would risk everything to cover for some girl I barely knew.

"This Katherine girl is not your friend. Friends don't drag you into their trouble, Jameson." My mom had said before punishing me with the task of cleaning the entire house.

My mom told me that she wanted the house spotless by the time she got home from work, there was some emergency at her job and she had gotten called in.

I was in the middle of cleaning the kitchen when there was suddenly a knock at the door.

I remember the feeling of my stomach dropping.

I don't know how to explain it but I was almost scared that it was Katherine. I even considered not answering the door.

At that point, I wasn't sure if Katherine had really ever been my friend at all.

Since the moment we met, all I had done was follow her lead.

If she asked me to let her cut my hair then I let her cut my hair. If she asked me to skip school then I skipped school. If she had asked me to jump then I would have jumped.

And, I was sick of it. This wasn't an "adventure". This felt like it had all just been some game to her. And, I wanted out.

At least, that's what I thought at the time.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by a second knock at the door.

So I went over to the door to answer it ready to give Kat a piece of my mind.

But, when I opened that door all the anger I felt just disappeared because it was Katherine and she was smiling at me.

"Is your mom home?" That was the first thing Kat said. I shook my head 'no'.

"May I come in then?" Kat asked weirdly formally. I opened the door wider letting her in.

"Are you gonna say something or are you that pissed at me?" Kat asked, watching me as I shut the front door.

I sighed. "Is that your way of apologizing?"

"That depends, are you actually upset with me?" Kat asked. Her smile slipped off her face as she became serious.

"A bit," I answered honestly.

"I'm sorry, let me make it up to you?" Kat said nervously. If she was acting strange before then she was only starting to get stranger as her hands nervously played with the end of her thigh-length dress.

"And, how do you plan to make it up to me?" I had asked playfully, trying to lighten the mood.

Whenever I was with Katherine, I felt like I had to try and make things feel lighter than they were.

Katherine let out a shaky breath before suddenly pulling her dress off her body and over her head.

Katherine just stood there in her bright blue underwear with her dress in a ball gripped tightly in her hand. "We could have sex," Kat suggested just as randomly.

I forced myself to look away from her. My eyes locked on a photo of my grandparents and me from the last time I visited them in Korea.

"Egh...ttsghu," I mumbled trying to form a sentence and coming up with nothing.

It was like my mind was racing a million miles an hour and was somehow still too slow.

"That's not funny," I managed to force out.