Finding Hearts

Chapter 9

KATE

"I just love this place", I say, looking at the walls of Sweetheart Delights. Images of Callum sitting at a table with me, his gorgeous brown eyes staring into mine, telling me how he'd like to kiss me again flash through my mind and I have to swallow hard.

I really fucked up.

Cue the very long sip from the milkshake.

"Too pink", Avery mutters. With her black short skirt, black boots and headphones around her neck and a large Lana Del Rey hoodie, she doesn't seem to fit the picture. "Wow, so are you", Vee points out, looking at me. I think she means the pink crop top I'm wearing, the sambas or the pink ribbon I tied to my baggy jeans, but she is actually meaning my cheeks. "Our little hockey guy really twisted your mind so badly?"

"Nothing about that guy is small", I reply, yet it's then I notice my mistake. I cover my mouth, while Vee's eyes dart open. She takes a sip from her Coke, not to comment.

"Anyway, tell us about your date, Katie", Liv encourages me. She's in a pair of short pants, a TVD large sweater and some white sneakers. I notice stains of paint on her fingers, and I have to swallow hard. Liv always paints. But she always paints when she's sad. She hasn't painted in a while, ever since she started dating Aaron. The fact her fingers now have color on them, means something is wrong. Not necessarily with Aaron and her, but something is wrong. I have to press my teeth hard to not burst out crying. Liv has been through hell and back, and she's only sixteen. I'm sixteen too, and if I would have been through half the stuff Liv has been through, I'd probably lock myself in the room and never come out. But she always wakes up in the morning and carries herself through the day. She finds the power to survive.

Avery must have also noticed the paint, since her expression grows worried at the same time mine does. Yet Olivia doesn't seem to want to talk about it now. And she needs a happy moment. Hence why both Vee and I pretend to have seen nothing, and I start telling them everything about my not 'date' with Callum Slade.

"That sucks", Vee comments as I come at the end. She even makes a move to steal from my cheesecake. I let her, since I'm too confused about the whole Cal thing to stop her.

"Yeah, it really does", Liv agrees. "I'm so sorry, Katie." She takes a sip from her dark coffee, another sign something is wrong. Liv only has dark coffee when something is wrong. Her drink of choice would be lattes, any types of lattes. But she always has dark coffee when her nightmares are so bad that she can't sleep. Or when she spent the whole night worrying. Vee and I shared a side-eye as we saw the order, and Liv tried to calm us down saying it matches more with her cream cheese bagel.

Neither Vee or I commented.

"Want me to try to talk to Aaron, see if I could make him change his mind?", Liv offers, and I'm pulled back to reality. I put on a fake smile that I do my best to make it look real, so that she doesn't get I'm worried about her. Because that's the thing about Liv. Her world could be coming down, yet she still insists us to act normal. Act like nothing is going on. I guess she's craving for some normality. Which was part of the reason why she moved here from D.C a few years ago.

"No", I let out convinced. "Aaron will never say yes, and you know it."

Liv nods shy, but agreeing.

"Well, Aaron doesn't have to know", Vee suggests. "Fuck, no one has to know. Liv and I know, for obvious reasons, but if you like the guy, go snatch your man." She softly hits me in the rib cage. "He obviously likes you."

"How do you know that?", I ask, my heart currently staring in a firework show.

"He kissed you on that kiss cam", Liv is the one to answer.