Sick Little Games

Katherine Murphy sat in the kitchen of her mother’s home, looking through the old picture album. Her mother went to work hours ago, so she had the house to herself—or, well, to Christine, Lucy, and herself. As she looked through the pages, she remembered clearly all the memories, even the page that showed Alex holding his plastic cup. She almost smiled looking at it, but then grimaced at the thought.

“Katherine?”

Katherine flipped the page quickly as Christine entered the room, trying to cover up the fact that she had been looking at the same page for minutes on end. Christine smirked as she saw right through her act, but Katherine shook her head as if saying not to mention it, and nodded for her to continue.

“What would it take to get you to go over to Jack’s with me?”

Katherine almost spit out the coffee she was drinking, “Yeah, right!” She said sarcastically, and waved Christine away.She knew if Christine continued to beg, she would give in.

“Pleaseeee?” Christine whined, and Katherine rolled her eyes.

“No, you know Alex is going to be there, and I’m not putting myself through that.”

“What happened to not running?”

Katherine groaned as her familiar phrases were used against her. “Why do I need to be with you to go to Jack’s?” she asked, closing the picture album and standing up to put it back in its rightful place, “And who’s going to watch Lucy?” She looked at her daughter, who was completely unmindful of the conversation that was taking place, for she was playing with her dolls in the corner of the room.

“Lucy!” Christine cooed, “Want to go see Alex?”

The joy in Lucy’s eyes was so evident as she shook her head up and down a million times. Katherine couldn’t bear to see it. She glared at Christine as a wave of anxiety hit her system. She couldn’t take Lucy to Jack’s! She couldn’t risk the questions they both had. She couldn’t see Alex again. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t.

“Please?” Christine and Lucy asked in unison.

Katherine felt like she was going to explode. She felt like she was sitting in the middle of a television show, where all the voices of different people surround the character, until they just blurt something out to get it all to stop. She felt a whirlwind of voices and memories rushing through her, but the voice heard most was her very own. She wanted so badly to go, to see Alex, and to talk to him again. She wanted so badly not to go, to face her problems, and to face rejection. Her head was spinning. She couldn’t handle all of this, but just like a television show, she found herself exclaiming, “Okay!” as she took a deep breath to calm her thoughts.

Christine and Lucy grinned as they dragged her out the door.

-----

Alex Gaskarth knew he needed to man up. He was fully aware that Katherine was not worth his time, trouble, or moping and so, he was set on his revenge. The only problem was that he was not so good at revenge. However, he was great at songs.

“Come on, we can’t release this! She’s going to know it’s about her,” Jack stated, scanning the lines of Alex’s messy scrawl of lyrics, set out on the notebook besides him.

“Let her,” Alex shrugged, “We’re playing it on the tour weather you like it or not. Rian and Zack already agreed to it."

“What?” Jack exclaimed. Tour started in two weeks and he was completely unready. “I don’t even know how it goes!”

“Better get working then,” Alex shrugged again, “Unless you want to look like an ass in front of the crowd. Did you know most of the shows are sold out?” he smirked.

“Fuck you,” Jack grumbled.

Alex just smiled, walking into the Barakat living room, kicking his shoes off, and sticking his feet on the table in the middle of the room. For the first time in a week and four days, he was in a good mood. He almost forgot what it felt like.

A knock on Jack’s door brought him out of his thoughts.

“Who’d you invite over?” Alex called to Jack, but Jack was too busy running to the door to catch Alex’s question at all.

Alex shrugged, walking over to greet the visitors at the door. But before he could reach it, he saw her. He rubbed his eyes; he couldn’t believe them at that moment at all. He stood in the middle of the hallway, watching the conversation going on between Christine and Jack, as Katherine just stared at her feet. It was then that Alex realized the other presence besides her, a little girl. Lucy, he remembered, and his heart sunk a few feet lower in his chest. So many unanswered questions filled his head as he thought about her. Who was the father? Was Katherine still with him? Did Katherine still like him?

“Oh fuck,” he muttered, realizing how stupid he’d been for even trying to get with Katherine at all. She wasn’t as innocent as she seemed to be, and Alex really should have understood that she had a lot of much deserved secrets. He didn’t know shit about this girl, and he was wrong for trying to barge right into her life.

Alex ran back to the couch in the living room as softly as he could as the four made their way into the house, to hide that he had been staring.

Neither Alex nor Katherine said a word as she entered the living room; their eyes did all the talking.

Alex couldn’t handle the hurt present in them.