To Kiss Kate

21. the finale

Jackson Michaels' Point of View:

It had been a week since the party. Two since I had had a real conversation with Kate. It was brutal. I was miserable, and everyone knew it.

I had reached out to her, called her, texted her, showed up to events without notice just so she would show up. She refused, going so far as to banning me from Duke's.

I felt crazy, but her friends truly seemed to believe she would soften up. It felt good that they had faith in me, in us, even though I knew that ultimately they were on her side. Brad and Ashton were coming for the weekend, one of the last before heading back to school and I was trying to stay positive. However, there was no chance in hell I was going back to school without fixing things with Kate.

There was another party tonight, as usual, and I was praying it would finally be the night Kate spoke to me. Especially with Brad and Ashton on my side, she would be practically falling into my lap.

My phone buzzed with a text response from Landon. I had asked the chances of Kate going to the party.

Landon:
She'll be there. We've been talking to her all week, but she's set in her ways that you did this to her. I'm sorry man

I tried to not lose confidence. I understood. I didn't deserve her trust, but I craved it. I hadn't done anything to break the trust, and being suddenly ripped from her hurt like hell. My only faith was that I knew she was feeling like shit too.

Hannah and Genny had stopped by in the middle of the week for an update. They said she refused to discuss it with them, but had been spending most of her time in bed besides when she was dragged to peoples houses. It had almost made me feel better, we bad as it sounds. It gave me hope. Hope that she would take me back.

"Wassup Jackson!" I looked up at Brad as he followed Ashton into my room.

"Hey guys." I smiled, but I hadn't tried hard enough to make it realistic.

"Oh cmon. Since when does Jack get so distraught over a bitch?" Ashton chuckles and rolled his eyes. Brad looked like he knew Ashton had fucked up.

"She's not like that. It's Kate. You met her. She's different." I growled at him. He lifted his arms in surrender.

"My bad. Just trying to lighten the mood." I ran my fingers through my hair and stood up from the chair in my room I was sitting in.

"Thanks. Sorry, man." I gave them both a one arm handshake hug. "Just really fucked up over this." Brad shook his head almost in disbelief as he set down his bag.

"How about we just get fucked up instead?" I smiled, they made it sound like a much better idea than it was. They lightly cheered and we got ready to head to the beach.

We got beer out of Ashton's car and put it in the "beach yeti" as my mother called it. A pale blue cooler she had "invested" in as she liked to call it. It was only a size larger than her "pool yeti" and a size smaller than her "yard yeti." All various colors of course. I grabbed a few chairs from the garage and Brad brought the speaker. We walked through the house and back out the door and down the patio. The beach. I usually didn't enjoy the beach as much as other things, but with Brad and Ashton it was different.

We met and invited an approaching group of people our age and spent almost the entire afternoon with them.

By 10 o'clock, I was feeling much better. The sun had set and I was walking into the party with Brad, Ashton, and our new friends from the beach. I felt like all that ever happened in this town was party after party, but I didn't mind especially now.