Finding Hearts

Chapter 16

CALLUM

I kissed Kate Blake.

Again.

And this time not on a stupid kiss cam, but because both of us wanted. Talk about this day being the best day ever.

Only ever since our talk at Nelly's something changed. Katie got more quiet. She is smiling, but that smile doesn't quite reach her ears like it did hours ago. She keeps talking, but her thoughts seem to be somewhere else.

And as closer and closer we get to her house, I realise what is going on.

I'm losing her.

"You can stop here", she tells me as we get a block away from her house. "My Mom and Aaron are at home."

Her words hurt more than any punch I could ever take.

"Kate...", I breathe. She must have sensed it in my voice that I'm breaking, for she looks at me. I notice the tear rolling down her face.

"I really like you, Callum", she begins. And it's then I know I won't like what comes next. "I really do", she keeps going on. "Yet I won't be able to offer you what you deserve. You deserve a girl who can be with you a hundred percent. A girl you can take out without having to park your car miles away so that her brother won't see you. You deserve someone who can be there for all your moments, not having to make you feel scared of getting caught. You deserve all that." Another tear rolls down her face. "And I'm not all that."

I'm glad the car is already stopped cause I can cup her face in my palms and press a kiss on her forehead. "But I don't need all that. I just need you."

"Cal...", she shatters.

I lift up her chin so that her eyes can meet mine. "I want you, Katie. If we have to hide, we'll hide. If I'll have to act like I don't know you at school but be able to call you mine in private, then I'll do just that. I just need you, Katie. And I'm willing to take whatever you'll offer me."

"Cal...", she repeats. I can see it in her tone she wants to convince me otherwise. To tell me I shouldn't date her. Make me believe she isn't the one for me.

That ship sank. I don't care if her brother will make my life hell, I am not giving her up.

"No, Katie. Don't do this. Don't do this again, babe. Don't run away from us just because they want to. I don't care if no one apart from us will know. I don't care if I'll have to wait for another few years before I can convince you that I'm not going anywhere and that you are the one for me. So I'm just asking you, to give us a chance. Don't run away. Not from me. Not from us."

"You'll regret this", she cries.

I wipe away her tears with my thumbs, all while shaking my head. "I won't."

"You'll see that I am not the right one."

"You are the right one. So again, I won't."

"We'll end up breaking each others' hearts."

"Are you going to break my heart, baby?", I ask her, trying to meet her eyes. She looks up as if she felt that, and I have to hold back the growing wish of murdering Aaron for having to make us go through this. "Because I have no intention in breaking yours. Quite the opposite. I fully plan on making your heart so happy, that you'll end up feeling like you live in one of those songs you like."

"Heart of glass is about love being a pain in the ass", she mutters between tears.

"Not that one. Cupid's Chokehold? I bet you like that one. I'll keep your picture in my wallet, baby, cause you're the only one I got. Or I Want It That Way? You are my fire, the one desire, Katie." A smile tugs on her lips, and something in me settles down. "You like that? I knew it. I'll make you shut up and dance with me in the kitchen, on the streets..."