Not Letting Go

Chapter 12

Later in the day, Kate left her therapist's office. It was located in a commercial building one bus transfer away and housed dozens of similar establishments. When she came out into the generic and sterile hall, Kate was staring off blankly. Each step she took was automatic and she only realized that she walked down the wrong hall when she reached a dead end instead of the stairs down. Before the blonde moved to head in the right direction, she got out her phone. She went to her favorites list, with Max on the top and stared at it. It took her over a full minute to call her friend, as she paced back and forth, but she stopped when the ringing started. It rang a couple times and then Max picked up.

"Hey, Kate," Max began cheerfully. "How did it go?"

Kate spoke evenly, saying, "Oh, um...fine. It was fine. Actually, I wanted to talk to you about it. Something came up that you might actually be able help explain for me, but I rather talk to you more about it in person."

"Oh. Yeah, sure. My mom wanted to talk to you more anyways before they had to leave." Her voice went to a whisper and Kate could tell she was moving around from the background noise. "When she talked to me alone at The Hot Spot, she tried to make me agree to come back with them, but I just told her more about...well, how much we care about each other and need each other..."

Kate started snapping out of her frazzled state and added her other hand to hold her phone, making sure it was close to her ear so she didn't miss a word from Max.

The freckled girl also noticed her own tone was becoming intimate, more than she intended to reveal, so she slipped back into a regular inflection. Her parents were not that far away and it was not the time or place to reveal her deeper feelings for Kate. The brunette continued, "I think I somehow got through to her, but after my dad talked to her later I knew for sure we convinced them to let me stay. I don't know what he said to her, but she seems okay with it now. It just seems like my mom wants one final check with you or something. My dad's on board though, so we're halfway there. Don't worry about my mom though. She just needs a reminder of how we..."

Kate finished Max's sentence, saying, "...belong together?"

The brunette shyly confirmed, "Yeah..."

Just then, Kate felt her phone vibrate against her head.

"Sorry, hold on a second," she said before lowering her phone over to look at the screen, just barely hearing Max say, "'Kay."

It was her mom.

Mom: Kate, we'll be picking you up sometime around 6 for dinner.

Kate groaned inside her head, frustrated how her mom was always commanding her, never asking. What if I had plans? Would it matter to her? Probably not. Kate was sure her parents knew they would be there sooner than just now, but they just expected her to go along with their orders seemingly at whim.

Far worse was how her mom had been treating her since the incident at the Vortex party. Her mother did not directly say it, but Kate knew she blamed her for getting drugged and the video of her kissing all those boys. She was still her mom though, so Kate told herself that she forgave her mother's harshness. It just never seemed it would end though. She turned away from the dark thoughts though when an idea came to her.

Kate began typing back. After she stared at her phone for a half a minute waiting for a reply, Kate spoke into the receiver end and said, "Sorry, Max. Almost done." The text finally came and she quickly returned one of her own. After sending it, she returned the phone to her ear and said, "Hey, Max?"

"Yeah..what's going on?"

"Did you...I mean, do you want to meet my parents too? They're having me over for dinner. I'm sure they wouldn't mind you tagging along. They still haven't met my angel."