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Twelve

Friday, February 14, 2014

Kit stared at her phone, hoping for an indication that she'd received a new text message. Nothing. She tapped through the messages, ensuring once again that the message to Kevin had gone through. Of course it had. She sighed; rereading her request that he come over for dinner and wondering if she sounded like the overbearing girlfriend he so insistently demanded she not be. She thought it sounded okay, but Kevin's idea of acceptable behaviour and Kit's differed greatly.

She crossed her arms across her chest and let out a long sigh. Truthfully, spending Valentine's Day with Kevin wasn't what she wanted to do. She knew what she wanted to do, but her circumstances, thoughts of unworthiness and painful insecurities made it her only option. The only thing worse than not spending the day with the person she wanted to spend it with was spending it alone, so Kit had planned a traditional Sunday roast dinner for Kevin. She'd bustled around the kitchen, guiltily pretending she was cooking for Harry as she prepared dinner. Her Yorkshire puddings had risen beautifully, and she wished someone was around to appreciate them. Shed texted a picture to her mother, who replied with a nauseating picture of fuzzy red handcuffs – thankfully still in the box but it didn't take a genius to figure out what antics Jim and Penny Carrington would be getting up to to celebrate the holiday.

With another sigh, Kit hesitated for a split second before hitting the call button, pressing the phone to her ear as she waited for Kevin to answer. The phone rang several times before he finally picked up, but it still took him a moment before he greeted her.

"... hey..." came Kevin's voice, sounding distracted.

"Hey!" Kit greeted back, hoping she sounded nonchalant. "Uhm... did you see my text?" she asked, mentally kicking herself. Of course he had. Kevin was never one to be away from his phone for long. He was intentionally ignoring her.

"What?" he asked, sounding annoyed. The television noise in the background hindered his hearing, but Kit noticed the volume level didn't fade.

"I said, did you get my text?" Kit tried again, talking louder this time. She withheld her sigh as she walked out of the kitchen, not wanting to look at the wasteful dinner any longer.

"What text?" Kevin asked. "Oh," he continued before Kit could answer. "Yeah, no. I'm gonna pass."

The fact that he didn't even try to fake an excuse to her hurt Kit more than she thought it would. If he said his car wouldn't start, or he wasn't feeling well, she wouldn't have believed him, but at least it would have shown that he was trying to appease her feelings. But he didn't care about Kit's feelings, not a bit.

But did she care about his?

"Oh... well... okay?" Kit answered, unable to keep the questioning tone from her voice. Didn't he realise what day it was? "I mean... are you sure? I made a roast..." she added, realising she would have to throw the entire slab of meat into the garbage.

"Yeah, Kit! I said I'll pass," Kevin reiterated to her, his tone sounding annoyed. "Save me some, I'll have it tomorrow."

"I'm not... I have plans tomorrow night, remember?" Kit asked him. "With Hannah, from school?" she added, sheepish at how easy it was getting to lie about Harry.

"Sunday, then... whatever," Kevin said exasperatedly. "I gotta go. Davey's showing me this YouTube video of this guy lifting this fucking car. It's sick."

"I'll bet," answered Kit, though it sounded unimaginably boring. For a brief moment, she wondered if there was a reason Kevin would rather spend Valentine's Day with Davey and not her. But, no. Kevin was straight as an arrow. He was just inconsiderate. "I, uh... guess I'll talk to you tomorrow..." Kit added slowly, waiting for him to clue in as to why she was so eager to have dinner with him.