Lost & Insecure

Six - Beautiful Nightmares

Katie sat in her room come Saturday morning, typing away on her computer at her desk when her mom knocked on her door. "Katie?" She called from the other side of the door.

"It's open," Katie said, sitting up slightly.

"Jesse called," Katie's mom walked in with Katie's cell phone in her hand and sat on the edge of her bed. She spoke softly, and with a tone that made Katie feel as though she was guilty for hiding something.

"I know," Katie responded, not breaking her stare with her computer screen.

"Six times." The phone in Pamela's hand began to ring, "Correction: seven times."

Katie grabbed the phone and pressed the decline button before tossing the phone on her bed. "I know."

"What happened?" Pamela sighed, genuinely concerned.

"Another fight." Katie answered shortly.

"Over?"

"Nothing." Katie spun around to face Pamela. "Look mom, I don't want to talk about this. Ashley's picking me up soon, so I better get ready." Katie grabbed clothes and went into her bathroom, which was conveniently in her room, to take a shower. Pamela sighed again and left the room, walking downstairs.

Katie listened to her voicemails as she got dressed. Jesse was begging Katie to answer and let him explain himself. He pleaded in every message for her to forgive him. Katie's only response was to erase the messages, not thinking twice about the boy who left them. She kept an eye out her window for Ashley's car and ran outside as soon as she spotted the ecofriendly electric car. She climbed into the passenger seat, ready to get away, but Ashley turned the ignition off and locked the doors. "So, you want to tell me what you and Jesse fought about this time?"

"It was stupid." Katie slouched.

"Isn't it always?"

"He was already mad for not playing in last night's game, but then he found out that I was the one who told Principal Bates that he initiated the fight." Katie explained to her best friend.

"Wow. Well that's all fun and all," Grace's voice from the back seat startled Katie and made her squeak out a scream, "but I'm grounded and my parents are only gone for a couple hours so I only have limited time out of the house."

"Grace? How long have you been back there?" Katie dumbly questioned.

"Clearly the whole time, now let's go," Grace whined with a mischievous smile.

Ashley started the car and they drove to the small, local mall. Going to the mall was one of the few things they could do in their small town, so it tended to be a reoccurrence amongst most of the high schoolers. When they walked in the front door, Dana was leaning against a store window, looking down at her phone. "Hey look," Grace pointed Dana out and bounced over to her with a smile.

"Yeah," Katie held onto Ashley. "Let's just act like we don't see her and walk away," she proposed.

"Sorry Katie, no can do." Ashley linked arms with Katie and led her in Dana's direction. "Grace and I invited her." She smiled shamelessly, dragging Katie beside her.

"Oh," Ashley stopped the three of them so she could speak, "Dana I completely forgot to follow up with you. Are you free to come tonight? It'll just be the four of us spending the night at my house."

"Yeah it should be fine. I have no other plans," Dana agreed.

After Grace dragged everyone into the majority of the stores and found an excuse to spend too much money, she pointed out that she had to leave. "Sorry guys, I have to beat my parents back so I can convince them I'm a model citizen and deserve to go to Ashley's tonight. If not, I'll just sneak out again." Grace beamed at the thought of her plan and the other three couldn't help but release a few chuckles.