The Secret Life of Katherine James

Chapter VI

"All I'm saying is that you should avoid punching him. You don't know what he'll do." I said as David and we walked up to the front door.

"Don't know what he'll do?" He said dramatically giving me a shocked, hurt look. "I know exactly what he'll do."

"Oh?" I answered, not liking where this was going. "And what's that?"

"Nothing." He said, giving me more sass than I thought was really necessary. "He'd be out cold. I mean really Kit. Remember when I punched that one kid? I broke his nose and gave him two black eyes."

"Back in middle school?" I was trying to play it off like I didn't remember the details. I didn't want him to know how much that day still meant to me. He called me on my bluff.

"Don't." He said it so matter of factly, I was caught off guard.

"Don't what?" I responded. It came out sharper than I meant it to.

"Don't pretend that you don't remember the exact date that I punched Tommy Shelling in the face to try and protect you."

"Well I-" I was going to say well I'm not pretending, but he interrupted me instead.

"I do." He said looking at me from the corner of his eyes and letting his hair fall in his face the way he always does when he's emotionally open with me. "I remember everything about that day. C'mon, we're at the door." He jogged up the three steps and rang the doorbell.

"David I-"

"Shhh, someone's coming."

Sure enough, Matt opened the door. He took one look at us, standing almost equal height and giving him some really dirty looks, and said, hooking a thumb over his back, and nodding to the back door. "It's in her car. All her stuff I mean."

"Thanks." David answered, making it clear that he was anything but grateful. We both turned to walk away.

"Can you please tell her I'm sorry." His voice hit my back and I stiffened. "And that I made a mistake." We both stopped, not turning around. "Please, tell her that if she can find it in herself to talk to me, I would spend the rest of my life apologizing and trying to make it better. I really do love her. Please, if you could just tell her that."

I looked over at David, his eyes were hard, trained on a point in front of him, jaw set, teeth clenched, fists balled up so tight his knuckles were turning white. I put my hand on his back, which was tense from anger, and moved him around, getting ready to walk to the back of the house. As soon as we heard the door close, he shrugged my hand off his back and stormed away. I kept pace pretty easily, opening my long-legged gait to match his. When we got to her car, he opened the back door, making sure that everything was as it should be. Seeming satisfied that nothing was ruined or missing, he pulled the luggage from the back, popped the trunk with the keys he'd found in the ignition, then threw all her stuff in like it burned his skin just to touch it.

"David," I said trying to get his attention. Nothing happened. He didn't even acknowledge my voice. "Just relax, okay?" I tried again.

"Kit," He said after a moment, slamming the trunk shut, warning and anger in his voice,"that guy, is an ass whole. I cannot believe that she would ever spend a second with him, let alone a weekend." He took a moment to try and calm down but it just seemed to give him more time to rage. "God, we can not tell her what he said. She'd just go right back with him waving around a promise like that."

"David." I said, my temper flaring now, "that's not your choice to make."

"Not my choice?" He turned to me, glaring hard like he had so many times in the past. "Then who's choice do you think it is?" He didn't even give me time to answer. "Kit, I practically raised Angel after our dad left. And you know what? When he walked back into our life, promising basically the same thing as that guy, she didn't hesitate to go right back into his arms. And when he left, you saw what happened, she fell apart inside."