EIGHT LETTERS || Liam Dunbar [2]

TWENTY

"You're sure you aren't mad at me?" Katherine asked hesitantly as she pulled her skirt down at the back before following Liam up to the club door. "Because I don't want you to—"

"—I'm not mad at you, Kat," Liam chuckled lightly, turning his body slightly to face her more. He was staring at her and smiling, nothing different than the way he usually looked at her, but Katherine noticed it now. Really noticed it. And it made her blush. Just a little bit. "If you want to go out with Brett you can, it's fine."

"But I wasn't going out with him like that," she protested immediately, not wanting him to get that idea in his head. "He was trying to help me figure some stuff out, and I needed an unbiased opinion to do that because Isaac wasn't as unbiased as I thought he would be." That was partially a lie, but she didn't want him to think she was going to Brett for advice now instead of him.

"Katherine," he laughed as he turned to face her. His palms landed flat on her shoulders and moulded immediately to the shape, and she did her best to pretend that there wasn't a swarm of butterflies losing it in her stomach. "It's okay, really."

"Are you sure sure?" She asked nervously. "Because you seemed kind of mad about it when I told you yesterday, and you were still cranky about it this morning and now you're acting like it's totally fine, so I'm just a little concerned about your mood swings."

"Kat, I pinky promise you it's fine, okay?" He grinned slightly. "I was talking to Mason at lunch and he made he realise how crappy of a best friend I was being to you, and that isn't fair. So like I said, it's fine."

"Okay," she mumbled quietly.

Somehow, they managed to get into Sinema without any issues surrounding the fact that they were both underage, and Katherine kept a tight on Liam's elbow. He'd promised that he just wanted to pay her back, then they'd be able to hang out at the club (he'd keep an eye on her if she felt like drinking) or they could go somewhere else and get food before dropping her back off at home.

It didn't take them long to find Hayden, since she was one of the few people in the room who didn't reek of alcohol. He stopped abruptly so they didn't run into her, but Katherine walked right into his back while trying to avoid being beaned on the head with a flying glowstick. Immediately he reached behind him and steadied her, knowing that even though she'd taken self defense classes with Isaac all summer she was still unbelievably clutzy. She was just able to twist before it went down the front of her shirt.

Katherine glared in the mans direction, rolling her eyes an scoffing when he just smirked at her. Disgusting, she thought to herself. You're literally thirty years old, dude, that's just under double my age, piss off.

"Forty three dollars," Liam stated, holding the money out to Hayden.

"And since the glowstick are $5 each, here's fifteen bucks for three so I can go and shove them all directly up that guys—"

"—Katherine," Liam interrupted her awkwardly, knowing just how capable she was of doing exactly what she wanted to do in that moment.

"I said I don't want your money," Hayden snapped irritably, clearly not having a good night and not wanting to deal with the conversation any longer.

Liam grabbed Katherines wrist and held on to it when she moved to go and punch the man, earning himself a huff, but he didn't take his eyes off Hayden. "You said I owe you 200," he countered.

"Liam," Hayden breathed out, her tone giving way of just how much patience she was using to refrain from smacking him. "Just forget it, please."

The power flickered of and Hayden groaned in frustration. Then she closed her eyes and pulled her composure together before opening them again. "Perfect." Without another word to either of them, she stalked off beyond the curtain of string beads to bring the power back on.