Who We Are

"Are you really going to tell me what is going on?" Emily asked as he sat cross-legged on my bed, "Or are you going to give me half of the truth?"

I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair, looking to Nate as he stared at me intently. "I'm going to tell you what I can tell you, Emily," I stressed, knowing I couldn't tell her about the Radke's lives, since it wasn't my place.

Emily sighed loudly in frustration. "What does that even mean, Kat?" she questioned loudly, throwing her hands into the air. "You never make any sense anymore."

I bit my lip lightly and thought about where to start, knowing that she'd just be asking questions anyways that I'd have to stop frequently and let her get caught up to speed. "Well..." I murmured, looking around my room, "Ronnie Radke has lived next door to me since we were kids," I stated, watching as she and Nate stared at me blankly.

After a moment Emily rolled her eyes. "Obviously," she stated, "He didn't just happen to move in next door to you within the last year."

I nodded my head, glad to know that she wasn't as dim as I had assumed. "Well, he kissed me today."

Those were the words that finally shut Emily up. She sat across from me, gaping like a fish out of water as Nate looked between us with his eyes just slightly more dilated then they were before I dropped the news on them.

"You mean," Emily blubbered, "Ronnie Radke kissed you?"

I rolled my eyes like it wasn't a big deal and nodded once. "Yes. At school today."

Emily shouted, "Where was I?" and jumped closer to me, unable to hide the look of disgust from showing on her slim and perfect features.

"Getting lunch," I told her honestly, "Gwen had came to find me and we found Ronnie fighting some guy. I don't really know what it was all about," I added.

"Then his mouth really touched yours?" she asked, unable to move on from that.

I growled under my breath and threw my arms out in front of me. "Yes, Emily, that is how a kiss works! Gosh, not that you would know."

Emily stopped rambling and looked to me. "Sorry," she said, although I knew she wasn't really sorry. She just wanted me to apologize as well so that she'd believe that I'd taken back the words that had just flown out of my lips. I didn't apologize.

After a minute Emily asked, "Did he kiss you that day Monica walked in on you two in the bathroom, is that why she was so mad?"

I shook my head. "Today was the first time," I said simply.

Emily looked baffled. "But why?"

I bit my lip and shrugged. "I honestly don't know."

Emily shuttered dramatically. "You should go wash your mouth out," she said, "And brush your teeth. That's just gross. He probably has an STD."

I ignored her and moved my gaze to her brother, who had been silent through out every word. "What do you think, Nate?" I asked, biting my lip as I thought about what he could possibly say.

But he shrugged. "What is there for me to say?" he questioned, finally looking up to me. "That Radke kid wanted something and he took it."

My eyebrows laced together as I thought about his words. "What do you mean?" I inquired, "What did he take?"

Nathaniel folded his arms over his chest. "He took your first kiss, Kat," Nate said simply, like it wasn't embarrassing for me to hear out loud.

But I didn't think the actual event was all that big of a deal. "It's just a kiss," I told them both with a shrug of my shoulders, "I'm more concerned with why he would bother."

Emily looked at me and shrugged. "I don't know," she stated, "There are plenty of girls out there who are perfectly willing to give him what he wants." She tucked a stray hair behind her ear before continuing. "Maybe he thinks it's a game. To see how far he can get with a girl who is known to be a total prude."

I looked away from her as her words met my ears. "Thanks Em," I murmured, thinking about the brunette boy who had lived next to me all my life and wondering if what Emily was saying could be true. I honestly had no idea.

I sighed and pushed my blonde locks out of my face. I bit my lip again and looked up to the Henderson siblings. Emily was now staring straight in my eyes. "Did you like it?" she asked, unable to contain the feint sound of disapproval that slipped into her tone.

I automatically shook my head, causing my hair to fall back into my eyes again. "Of course not," I defended, glaring at her accusations, "Why would you think that?"

Emily shrugged and moved onto her own topic once again. "I didn't even know you talked to Ronnie Radke?"

I shrugged. I couldn't tell her that the raggedy boy and his equally raggedy younger brother had spent the last two nights on my couch and floor. I couldn't tell her that my father had taken them in like refugees. And I definitely could not tell Nate or Emily that Ronnie, Riley, and Max were cute children from my past that embodied my mother's every hope and dream. It would be too much for her, them, to understand. Like an accidental overload. So instead I just shrugged, hoping it would be enough to subdue her.

She just murmured, "weird."

I just nodded my head.

"So," Emily said, "What did you say when he... kissed you?" she asked, her lips and tongue stumbling over the words like they were too incomprehensible.

"I asked him what he was doing."

"You asked him what he was doing?" Nate repeated, a small smirk on his face. "And what did he say to that?"

I shrugged and replied, "He said he was kissing me."

Nate chuckled as Emily scoffed, rambling on about the male egocentric attitude and the 'I can do what ever I please' attitude of the 'lower-class'. I didn't even bother to remind her that she was sitting in the house next door to that so called 'lower-class' and that this house belonged to me and my family.

"This is just barbaric," Emily repeated a short time later. "I can't believe something like this could happen to you. At our school nonetheless."

I nodded my head and cracked a smile when Nate said, "It's a public high school, Em, not the White House. There isn't security by every door and corner."

Emily just huffed and folded her arms over her chest. "Well there should be," she said, sending her older brother a glare as he grinned back down at her.