IN TOO DEEP || Liam Dunbar [3]

SEVEN

A/N: it would mean the world to me if you guys could go show my other more recently posted fanfics some love. In the last month or so I've published:
—Daryl Dixon x fem!OC
— Finnick Odair x male!OC
— Rosalie Hale x fem!OC
— Scott MCall x fem!OC
— Isaac Lahey x fem!OC
— a Character Bank
also part one of this story is gonna be short as fuck, god damn I'm sorry about that
alsoalso I'm aware that this one is shorter than usual, but my cat scratched my eye just after Christmas and I was trying to write something for you and it started hurting so this is the best I can do

Katherine didn't know how long she'd been in the way station now.

She'd seen several people come in and reconnect with loved ones, and within hours the riders would show up and she would have to hide again; somewhere new each time. She still clung to her brother whenever she could but tried not to suffocate him, since that wasn't exactly fair on him, but she was still terrified that at some point she was going to wake up in that bed at Eichen again, and people would be telling her he wasn't a real person.

After a while the way station had become a normal sight, almost comforting; because at least when everything was in it's eerie silence she wasn't at risk of being removed from existence completely, and she could think. She mostly thought about Hayden, and what she'd say to her the next time she saw her because honestly? What could she say that could make up for what she'd done?

As far as Katherine was concerned, there was never any excuse for kissing someone else's significant other; nothing that could justify it.

The guilt of kissing Liam, whether his girlfriend knew it or not, was eating her up inside the longer she had to live with it, so she often tried to move her thoughts to Brett so she wouldn't think about Liam, but wound up feeling guilty over him too. Even though he already knew she still wasn't over Liam, which was why she had turned him down, she knew full well he wasn't expecting her to go ahead and kiss him.

Thinking about his reaction — how he would feel about it when he found out, what he'd have to say to her about it — made her want to cry as well so she wound up just thinks of Hayden all the same.

In all the time she'd been on the platform, she still wasn't sure how she would even start that conversation. What was there that she could say to ensure she wouldn't end up breaking someone's heart?

Even if she still did want to be with Liam, this wasn't how she'd intended it to happen.

Not at all.

Unfortunately, that conversation came sooner rather than later because when Katherine was leaving the radio room and saw a flash of a tall brunette with tan skin standing behind a slightly shorter dark-skinned boy, she froze. "Mason?" She whispered out softly, eyes wide.

He turned and stared at her for a moment, jaw dropped.

Then, in a flurry of tears and arms and legs his arms were wrapped around her and he was crying into her shoulder, sobbing out something about Corey. She rubbed his back comfortingly and met Hayden's gaze over her shoulder, and was almost hesitant to continue looking her in the eye. But she knew that she owed her at least that much.

To her surprise, Hayden didn't even look mad. A little bit bitter, sure, but it almost seemed to be more aimed at herself rather than aimed towards her.

He let her go to wipe his eyes, and she took that time to hug Hayden. The moment her arms were hooked around the taller girls neck, she turned her head so her mouth was next to her ear. "We need to talk," Katherine murmured to her.

Her heart broke when she felt Hayden nod. "I think we do too."

Part of her had been hoping that she hadn't been there to see her kiss Liam, so she wouldn't have to live with that image in her head, but she knew that it would make the next however many minutes just that much easier to live with.