We Could Make It Right

Katie

“Katie?” he said softly. I moved my head so I was facing him, slowly realizing that half his shirt was soaked in tears. “Maybe we should head back inside? It’s gone quiet.”

I nodded and jumped off of the counter top. He followed, taking with him the food that I collected earlier. “Hey Gare?”

“Yeah?,”

“Does it look like I’ve just poured my eyes out?” I giggled, wiping one of my puffy eyes.

“Do you want the truth or some made up bullshit ?” he said, not holding back anything.

“The truth would be nice”

“You look like an emotional wreck”

“Well aren’t you sweet Garrett?”

“You wanted the truth, I gave you the truth” he smirked. I hit his arm jokingly and let out a little scoff.

“I’m a girl, you’re not meant to tell me how ugly I am no matter how true it is!” I snickered.

“I never said you were ugly..” he tried to say below a whisper.

“What?”

“Nothing” he said automatically becoming more alert. “Nah, I kid Katie.” He tried to assure me. A little smile crept onto my face. It wasn’t a smile that showed off my teeth, but never the less a smile. “You’re beautiful Katie, even if you do have runny makeup and have the mouth of a sailor”

I felt my cheeks flourish by the second. It was apparent he noticed by the way he looked at me. “N-No one’s ever called me beautiful before”

“What? Really, not even an ex-boyfriend or something?”

“Funny story, well not really but—”

“You’ve never had a boyfriend ?”

All I did was nod. Nod mainly in embarrassment, but it normally doesn’t get to me, but now it just felt weird admitting it. “You try having a protective older brother.” I paused for a few seconds and took in a deep breath. “He may be really protective, but I love him so much..despite the fact he’s named after a dick”

After I said that last part, he let out a little chuckle and started to speak again.

“Over-protective brothers? Been there,” he laughed. “My brother Trey? The guy you met last weekend? Yeah he was like that”

“He doesn’t seem like that type though”

“Yeah, well he still kinda is and that’s because you met the ‘Trey that’s nice to Garrett’s friends’ ”

“Makes perfect sense” I jokingly agreed with him.

We eventually made our way back into the sitting room where the tension was incredibly harsh. The television was on some station that specialised in showing the crappiest of crap imaginable, followed by the news. Everyone was comfortable in their different positions, but Vee and John were yet again in angst.

“Guys we come baring food..”

“Yes!” Pat exclaimed, running the short distance to us to grab some of the potato chips that Garrett was holding.

“You’re just in time to join the quiet moments after Violetta Stephenson and John O’Callaghan have another fight” Jared stirred the two of them.

“Joy” Garrett laughed.

“Shut up guys,”

Vee looked at me and motioned me to come sit with her. But before I had the chance to move from my current position and sit with her, she decided to speak up again.

“Why are your eyes puffy and why is your makeup runny?” she questioned, getting out a tissue from the coffee table situated centimetres away from where she was originally sitting on the floor. “Since when do you wear makeup?” she whispered, wiping the mascara marks off of my face.

“Just for something different” I replied, giving off a little laugh.

“And your eyes? , they’re puffy because?”

“It—”

“Garrett, what did you do?”

From his spot on the couch, he moved his hand to his chest and finished chewing whatever he originally started to eat. “Why do you take on me whenever something happens?”

“You’re generally the conveyor of bad news so maybe that’s why”

He stuck out his tongue carried on with eating. Kennedy however looked like he wanted to speak up to defend Garrett. “I know you said not to say anything Gare but I need to” Kenny spoke as he stood up.

“Vee, it’s not Gare’s fault that Katie’s upset.”

I felt a little queasy considering I had no idea what he would've said next.

“Guy’s, Katie over here is homesick,”

“Sorry Katie” he said, sitting back down.

Everyone started to look at me. Some looked like faces of pity while the others looked comforting. The comforting faces, being Pat, Jared and Vee came over to me and gave me hugs; which felt a bit strange but I wasn’t going to deny them. John looked over at me sympathetically. “Why didn’t you just say you were homesick? We could’ve had a Brit’s day or something”

“Sorry” I said with my original accent that thankfully never left. I put that little smile back on from earlier on my face again to assure that I’d be fine. Even though what Kennedy said wasn’t the truth, it wasn’t far from it.

Garrett

“What are you doing here, kiddo?”

“Kenny..I’m only two years younger than yo—”

“Yeah but still, shouldn’t you be in class or something?” he said just above a whisper. We were in the library, I had a free period – thanks to the printer’s fuck-ups. I’m not complaining though.

“Shouldn’t you be in class?,”

“Touché” he replied. “Take a seat Gare”

“I’m only kidding though, I’ve got a free..just thought I’d let you know” I smirked.

“Nice, so tell me Gare..”

“Tell you what ?”

“Vee’s house – Monday, what was really going on between you and Katelynn ?”

“W-Wh-What ?” I firstly chortled. I then felt my cheeks blush at the thought. “Nothing was really going on between us”

The librarian looked at us and gave us an instant warning. I looked back at Kenny and he was giving me that look.

“Spill it Nickelsen”

“There’s really nothing to ‘spill’ Kennedy”

“Sure thing pretty boy”

“Katie called me that the other day..”

“Excuse me? I think we just admitted to something”

I rolled my eyes, giving myself a mental facepalm. This was literally the last thing I wanted but yet again I wasn’t thinking. At first I was scared to admit to Kenny of what happened between Katie and I straight after the party, then it all came to me naturally, like it all happened before. Truth be told, that event in time was the first time in my life – I was that close to a girl.

“You my friend, need to sort your shit out,”

“What? What do you even mean?”

“Garrett, Garrett, Garrett, young and naïve Garrett..”

“Get to the point, Kenny I haven’t got much longer left in this free—”

“Make some type of move” he eventually said. “I don’t know if practically being on top of her was enough proof but god just do something already if not - her..”

The bell for next period went off , so I didn’t exactly get a chance to answer his statement or whatever that could’ve been. For the rest of the day, I couldn’t keep focused on Kennedy’s statement at all. It was hard to focus on that, when she’s in practically all of my classes. Her and Rachael, just to sum it all up.

I get home and the first thing I’m doing is running straight up to my room. Sammy the trouble-making dog is comfortably laying on my double bed, leaving little bits of fur all over it. I switch the lights on and get out my macbook and go straight onto skype.
Double-clicking on Vee’s screen-name, I’m starting to think that what I’m doing, I’ll probably regret, but I need one of the very few people that knows Katie better than anyone. Well I don’t, but I know for one thing Katie does.