Where Two Collide

Chapter Sixty - Cat

Chapter Sixty

Cat

I stood quickly, like I was about to rush out of the room. After a moment of just kind of standing there, I slid back to the floor. "Erm, how do I do that exactly? My life is not some cheesy romance. She's not heading for the airport so I can't chase her down. She isn't about to get married, so there's not wedding to stop. And I don't know where she lives so I can't just turn up outside her house and play her some music until she comes out..."

Alice chuckled. "Yeah, I guess not... maybe you should just start by calling her and seeing if she answers?"

I nodded and clutched my phone in my hand. "What if she answers?"

"Then ask her to meet you somewhere?"

I got to my feet again, phone in hand. As I went to leave the room, Alice pouted at me.

"Don't I get to listen? I want to see how it ends," she said.

I didn't laugh, just rolled my eyes at her. "You can find out later, this part is private."

I wandered outside the house and started walking down the street as I dialled. Addie answered on the second ring, surprising me. I'd thought she'd have been mad at me for ignoring her.

"Cat?" Addie's voice came through the phone, questioning and less joyful sounding than usual.

"Uh, hey," I mumbled back at her. That wasn't right. I tried again, forcing my tone to sound more upbeat. "Hey Addie, I was wondering if you could meet me somewhere, right now actually, if that's okay?"

There was silence for a moment, and I thought she was going to say no. She was definitely going to say no, why would she say yes.

Then she surprised me once again and her voice whispered, "Okay, I'll meet you."

We met outside of Mi'ladys Velvet Room. It was still daylight outside and many hours away from being open and alive. The sign above the door was off and without the multi-coloured lights feeding through it, this place was practically invisible. At least, it didn't much look like anything at the moment.

The good thing about the entryway, was that it was quiet and out of the way. Nobody came down this way unless they meant to.

I arrived before Addie, having already been walking in this general direction when I'd called her. She was dressed more casual than I had ever seen her, just in jeans and a hoodie and barely any makeup on. She'd clearly just been chilling at home when I'd called and come straight over as she was. It was nice to see her so casual, like I was getting a peek into another part of her life. And damn did she look cute in that hoodie too.

My heart did a little flip as she approached, arms crossed and her expression firm. She looked mad, and I couldn't blame her with the way I'd been acting.

"What happened Cat? You flipped out on me again. I thought we agreed you were going to stop avoiding me and being weird," said Addie, her eyes fixed on mine.

I gulped, and it must have been audible because she arched a brow at me. "Yeah, I know I promised." I brushed a hand through my hair, I was hoping I'd have worked up the nerve to talk to her by the time she got here, but now that she was here I realised that was never going to be the case. She made me nervous, she didn't even have to do anything, say anything. It was just her presence that sent ripples of undue panic throughout my entire body.

She threw up her hands. "Then what happened? Why have you gone all silent on me?"

I couldn't stop thinking about seeing her with Sammy. "At my party," I began, averting her gaze "I came to find you and you weren't where we said we'd meet. You were dancing with Sammy and I-I don't know, I just didn't know what to do."

Addie pulled a face. "A girl asked me to dance, I said yes, and you react like you're what... jealous?"

"Yes, I was jealous," I breathed, and watched as she wrinkled her nose. My heart started doing that weird flipping thing again.

"Girl, you know that having other people around doesn't make you less of my friend, right?" She tilted her head to the side and gave me a look of sympathy which felt as painful as if she'd cat-scratched me across the cheek.

That's not what I meant. I sighed in frustration, turning completely away from her now. Was I misreading things with her? Maybe I just wanted more than she did, maybe I thought more of her touch than her touch was meant to mean.

"That's the problem, Addie," I protested quietly, but she heard and came closer, putting her hand on my arm and spinning me to face her.

"What's the problem?" she prompted.

I looked into her honey-coloured eyes and felt my pulse begin to race. "What if...what if I like you more than a friend? What if when you kissed me, it meant more to me than it did to you? What if... when I saw you dancing with Sammy, I was jealous because I thought you liked her, and not me?"

It all came out in a rush of words. I wasn't even sure what I'd said had made any sense. Was it even clear how I felt? Did she understand? I looked into her eyes, searching for some kind of clarity.

"You like me?" Addie asked tentatively. "I thought you were into boys. I thought, well, that Travis guy-"

"He's just a friend," I interjected. I thought about my practice kiss with him and blushed. "Just a really good friend. I'm... I'm gay." I said it again. It was the second time I'd said it today and it felt like a release. The good kind, like when you've been craving the chocolate you have in your fridge all day and you finally get to come home and eat it.

"Oh," she said pursing her lips.

Oh my god. She thought I was a crazy person, an absolute lunatic. I mean here I was telling her I was into girls, or more specifically into her and she'd been telling me this whole time we were friends. Why hadn't I got that? She'd been clear from the beginning. We were just friends. I was so stupid.

"I'm sorry, I thought that, well I don't know I guess I thought maybe you might have been interested too," I babbled, biting at my lip nervously. "I should know better than to think just because a girl is nice and touches you a lot and stuff it doesn't mean they are being flirty."

Addie reached out and traced circles with her fingertips on my arm. "You mean, when I do this?"

A rush of electric fire burned up my arm. "Yes, that." My blush deepened and I lowered my gaze to the floor willing it to go away. "I was seriously misreading the situation. It must be because this is the first time I've had these kinds of feelings for anyone. I probably just was looking for something that I wanted to see. I'm an idiot-"

Then she kissed me. A very effective way of shutting me up. She tasted like coffee and hot chocolate; she had probably been drinking mocha before she got here, I smiled against her lips at the thought of the café where we'd shared our first kiss.

I kissed her back, parting my lips to let her gently deepen the kiss. Her hands were on my back and in my hair, our bodies pressed together. My breathing was fast as I gasped against her lips, the kiss becoming more urgent. I forgot how self-conscious and nervous I'd felt moments before, lost in the thrill that was her.

When we finally broke apart for air, she stayed close to me, so close that I felt the brush of her eyelashes against my face.

"Just for the record," she whispered, her tone sing-songy and as breathless as I was. "You weren't misreading anything."

Smiling, I pulled her back toward me, placing a soft, lingering kiss on her lips.

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