How to Deal with Anxiety ☹ a.f.i. • a.u.

4: "I always apologize for faults that aren't mine."

Despite a relaxing evening, the following hours swiftly turned for the worse. When Kat's down, so am I.

The drive back to her place was just perfect. We had been listening to our favorite songs, and to each others' random tangents. Kat nearly fell asleep on my shoulder before we arrived home, as well. As soon as we stepped through her front door, however, our mood shifted.

"-can't believe you!" I first hear her mother shout in an acrid tone, obviously directed at her father. I knew immediately, without needing to look at her, that Kat's heart is shattering once again.

"It's just one week, Jodi! I don't understand why you're making such a big deal out of this." Her father, an unusually tall man named Travis, sighs, trying to appease his flustered wife.

Her parents often sparred, yet they typically found a way around the fights. They love each other. They love each other hard. At least, that's what they always tell themselves.

Travis is a truly kind-hearted man. He has always, for as long as I've known him, had a sharply kept goatee. His eyes mirror Kat's precisely.

His dark brown hair is balding on top, and I swear every time he and Jodi fight, the bald spot grows a bit. While he is kind, he can sometimes be impulsive and quick to anger. He works in our local hospital as an X-ray technician.

Jodi on the other hand is a short, skinny woman with lighter hair that she never grows past her shoulders. She works as a college professor, and always has to stay late to tutor some of the slower students, which stresses her out, leading to complications such as these. Jodi is almost as sensitive as Kat, and this doesn't bode well for when she and Travis get in these bitter fights.

Kat hates when they fight. She is physically repulsed by it.

"That's the week of Katherine's Prom! What if she gets asked to the dance? You need to be there for your daughter if that happens. Plus, that weekend I wanted to take a small visit to my parents without the kids! You know this, Travis!" Jodi raises her voice slightly, still not noticing the two high schoolers that walked in on this heated discussion.

Out of the corner of my eye, I seen Kat shrink. Her face flushes a dark crimson at the mention of her name in such a discussion. I want nothing more than to wrap my arms around her and cure her discomfort, but Kat doesnt like affection at such times, and I respect that with all my heart. In addition to her mother's comment about Prom, Kat hates when her mom calls her Katherine.

It's as if her mom is scolding her for getting into trouble. As if she's a child.

"This is the only time that my friends are going to be in town! We've been planning this trip for months!"

"And you gave me no clear warning? Travis, this could be your daughter's best week of high school and you'll miss it." Jodi argues, not seeing us through the hardly cracked kitchen door.

Kat whimpers, and her small pale hand, littered with scars from nail biting, clutches mine. Hard. She's internally panicking. My stomach drops.

"I don't think it will be a problem, Jodi." Travis says with a slightly pained tone, like the words taste acidic against his tongue.

"Why wouldn't it be?" Kat's mother is clearly flabbergasted at her husband's words.

"Jodi...she's never gotten asked before. You know that...I would love to support her if something did work out, but, hun, I just don't think it's going to happen..." Travis' voice remains soft and careful, as if his words could break glass.

The words didn't. They merely broke a heart.

Kat takes a step back, still holding my hand as if I was the only thing keeping her on the earth, shaking terribly. The fighting, the harsh words, the mention of her insecurities, it was all too much.