The Nothings

Kate (Chapter Ten)

    Kate ended up getting home later that day after the roads started to be cleared, and her Dad made his way to Tabitha's in his big truck. Kate almost felt disappointed as her Dad pulled up and beeped his horn. She was sitting with Tabitha on the couch with a heavy afghan over them watching cartoons with Jamie, and they'd made big potato chip and turkey sandwiches for lunch along with some graham cracker cookies with icing they made out of powdered sugar which were Jamie's favorite kind of cookie. Now Kate's too.

  "Thanks... uh for letting me hang out," Kate said, and she felt a bit awkward as she grabbed her bag to leave.

  "No problem," Tabitha said with a shrug. "It was kind of fun."

  "It was," Kate admitted. "See you next week?"

  "I'll be there," Tabitha smirked. "Mostly because I have to but you know..."

  "I know the feeling," Kate said with a sigh, but she was smiling. "See you Jamie."

  "Bye!" Jamie hugged her goodbye although she felt a bit awkward about it as the kid barely knew her. "Thank you for playing with me in the snow and don't forget to send the picture to Tabby okay?"

 "I won't," Kate promised.

 "So where we were you?" Harper asked as Kate came into the house after the awkward drive back where her Dad complained about how slick the roads were, and how he almost veered off several times on his way there. Kate wanted to ask why he came to get her then when she said she'd be fine at Tabitha's for another night, but she didn't. He seemed to enjoy having something to complain about though so Kate let it go. 

  "At Tabitha's house," Kate explained. "You know, the girl I told you about who goes to group with me. She's the one who knits and has the dyed hair."

  "Oh, the weird one," Harper remembered.

  "She isn't weird," Kate said. She felt a bit defensive about her now that she knew the other girl was so nice. "She's really nice."

  "I'm just saying what you said," Harper laughed. "Oh, so are you guys best friends now?"

  "No," Kate smirked. "I was wrong about her. That's all."

  "Well, that's great," Harper said; looking sincere now. "I told you going to that group would be a good thing."

  "I don't know about that," Kate grimaced as she got up to go to her room; being around people for so long had been starting to get to her. She needed some alone time to regroup and relax. That was the only problem with hanging out with people even when she was younger. She couldn't spend the night without starting to get annoyed and want to get away after an hour or two. 

  She fell down on her bed, and she looked through her camera at all the pictures she'd gotten. There were a lot of Tabitha plus Jamie and his alien. It was kind of nice that it wasn't filled with just empty street shots for once.

  Kate found out a few days later that Harper had broken up with Kyle. Her sister told her all about it as Kate fixed herself a bowl of chili that her family had for dinner two hours earlier, but Kate had been sleeping. She never ate with her family. She always went up to her room. Harper was sitting at the kitchen island as she rested her head on her hand and the other hand slowly stirred a cup of coffee. She looked miserable as she told Kate what happened.

  She and Kyle had gotten into a big fight on Christmas because he hadn't bought her a present, and he instead bought himself a new phone. He said he didn't think he needed to get her a gift as he'd just given an expensive necklace for their anniversary last month. Harper said she was deeply hurt by this, and Kyle ended up calling her a bitch when she wouldn't let it go.