Don’t Forget To Take A Breath Before You Fall

Katherine dragged her body out of the soft white sheets she had been lying in for way too long. What time was it anyway? She looked at her baby blue coloured analogue clock that sat on her tiny bedside table. 2:15pm.

Katherine groaned when she saw this. How long had she been sleeping anyway? It’s not like she was some thirteen year old craving for sleep because her body needed to grow. Well, more like she didn’t need to grow anymore. She already stood a great height of five foot nine.

Katherine gripped the door handle and turned it. As soon as she pushed the door open, a bucket of green coloured liquid spilled all over her. She looked around and saw her three brothers laughing. She immediately knew who the mastermind was behind the prank.

“Joe,” she gritted. “You are SO going to pay!” She then turned around and walked back into her room as her brothers gave each other high fives. It was probably best if Katherine didn’t even get out of bed at all that day – well, then she wouldn’t be covered in green.

Half an hour later, Katherine found herself walking her youngest brother, Frankie to a nearby park. Because of today’s prank, Denise stopped to get more equipment for the spills of the slime. Of course she wasn’t too pleased at the mess and made Kevin, Joe and Nick clean the mess up while Katherine was forced to take Frankie out for a walk by her mother.

So here was Katherine, at the nearest park sitting on the bench all alone as she waited for Frankie to finish playing on the playground, which right now, at the moment, felt like never.

“Hey,” a voice came.

Katherine looked up and found herself staring at a pair of familiar looking blue eyes. “Oh, hey, Damien?”

The blond nodded and sat down besides her. “I didn’t know you were here,” he said. “I thought you guys would be at the next state by now.”

“Oh, um, well Joe decided to spill some slime around the bus,” she said, looking down at her green coloured converse. Correction: Joe decided to spill slime on her.

“You were great last night,” he complimented. “I don’t see how all of your brother’s fans hate you. Well, I mean you’re a fantastic songwriter and I’ve heard all of your songs and they’re simply wonderful.”

She felt her cheeks turning a shade of red. “Thanks,”

“Are you here alone?”

Katherine shook her head. “Nah, I’m here with my younger brother,” she answered. “Bad idea though, I don’t think he’ll ever stop playing on the playground.” It was true, seven-year-olds and playgrounds were like, a fat kid that loves ice cream.

“I really like you,” he said suddenly.

“Ah,” she was speechless.

“I’m really sorry,” he frowned. “I know I’ve freaked you out already but maybe we should get to know each other.”

Katherine hesitated. “Uh,”

He chuckled. “Look, it’s not like I’m going to give you your number to the world,” he promised, giving her one of his killer smiles.

And immediately, Katherine felt weak at the knees. “Okay,” she smiled, handing him her blackberry.

As soon as they exchanged numbers, Katherine took Frankie back to the bus where her three other brothers were finishing up cleaning the green spills.

“Is it warm outside?” Nick asked, as soon as he saw Katherine’s red face.

“No,” she said, completely clueless. “Why?”

“Because you’re red in the face,” Kevin said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Oh,” Katherine said, scrunching up her face. She needed to think of an excuse real quick. It’s not like she was going to tell her brothers that she met a boy in the park today and exchanged numbers – absolutely, not. They’d probably end up bashing him for all she could know. “I, uh, went for a jog.”

And unfortunately for Katherine, Frankie had heard every single word that had come out of her mouth.

“No you didn’t,” he said. “You were with that guy from last night at the fan signing.”

“Frankie,” Katherine muttered angrily under her breath.

“Who is this guy?” Joe said immediately.

“It’s no one, okay?” she said. “It’s not big deal. We didn’t exchange numbers or anything.” Lie. She walked back into her room and pulled out her phone from her pocket. As soon as she did this, her phone vibrated in her hand.

1 new text message

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Hey, meet me in New York City tomorrow?

Katherine looked down at the sender’s name. It was Damien – was he asking her out on a date? She liked the idea of this and smiled to herself. She was in love.