Natalie's Diary

[08] Hostility

HOSTILITY

My books spread out in front of me, I attempted to multitask over lunch. If I could get homework done over my adobo, that was one less thing to worry about.

Honestly, the distraction of school was welcome. Anything that wasn't thinking about Natalie was welcome.

Though, if there was somewhere private, I would take the opportunity to nap instead of plugging numbers into formulas.

"Jane?" Kate leaned into my peripheral vision, inching tentatively closer and closer until she was across the picnic table from me.

As if to make up for yesterday, she looked especially doll-like now. Perfect dark curls contrasted against her porcelain pale skin, lipstick in a color I didn't know people could actually wear to school, and just the right shaped face made her look like she would fit in on a little girl's shelf. Kate Haumann might've looked like she would readily slap Rhys across the face last night, but now she had the right expression of innocence and concern to remind me of painted porcelain faces.

"You feel better today?" I asked.

"I'm fine," she insisted, like I hadn't watched her run out of a haunted house, "I have a ... I need to do something but I probably shouldn't go alone."

"Okay... you want me? Not Dean?" Rhys was a perfectly fine option too, but I wouldn't blame her if she didn't want to talk to him at the moment. Or ever again.

"What about Dean?" Innocence turned to defensiveness in a heartbeat.

"Nothing! You've just known each other longer, that's all," I replied. That logic could easily be reversed. She could not want Dean along precisely because they knew each other longer.

Kate finally sat down, folding her hands in front of her. I hoped it wasn't another trip underground for Kate's sake. The dread of last night wasn't on her face, but she didn't exactly looked relaxed.

"I'll go, if that's what you want," I said, trying to finish my lunch to give myself something else to think about.

"Thank you." Kate nodded. "I can't go today, but tomorrow?"

I was flattered she would think I made other plans, as if people looked at me like anything but the outsider who found Natalie Driscoll dead.

"Are you going to tell me where we're going?" I asked, half-expecting the same treatment I got from Rhys yesterday.

"To talk to someone who might know something. I don't know..." Kate stopped herself. Did she not know if it was a good lead? Did she not know whether or not it was a dead end like the Greyview Inn?

"We'll see what happens," she finished her sentence.

What would make her put herself through this?

The question Rhys posed rattled around in my mind. What pushed Kate forward?

"Is that what's in your chapter?" I asked.

"Yeah, essentially..." Kate nodded, staring off at something in the distance, "so after school tomorrow?"

"Okay."

"Great," she said, taking a deep breath as she stood up, "great..."

No further explanation or words, Kate just walked away rubbing her arms like she was cold.

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"This is between us," Kate said as we walked down the street, already a few blocks from the school.