Blue Eyes Don't Lie

I load my words with care
and aim them at the desperate
just to check if they can still hear
as my innocence disappears

~ You Me At Six
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I didn't hear from Jordan during the days following our date, which was kind of nice since I was still quite sick of relating almost everything to him and I had a feeling that seeing him again only would increase that. I had a couple of calm days where the only time I was active was at work, otherwise I stayed seated in front of the tv. It wasn't too bad since they were airing marathons of Friends and Full House, and I had stocked up on ice-cream and chocolate.

Just as I'd entered the kitchen to retrieve my tub of Ben & Jerry's from the freezer again (that was the only bad part to this, I had to go back and forth between the kitchen and living room since the ice-cream melted after a while), the doorbell rung. Now, I knew it wasn't Karen since she never had any trouble when it came to using her own key or just barging in if the door was unlocked.

I didn't really know who else it could be which I know makes it sound like I only have one friend, and that's not true. They're just not the kind of friends that show up unannounced at 7:30 pm. The only other person I could think of was Jordan but I hope to God that he doesn't know where I live since that would mean that he was either stalking me or researching me online somehow. I shook that off and went to open the door where I was met with quite the unusual sight.

"Mom?"

Yes, seeing my mother at my doorstep with a shitload of bags and an animal travelling cage was not something you saw every day. Not even every month.

"What are you doing here?" I asked as she walked past me into the apartment. She put down the cage and turned to me.

"Honey, could you be a dear and bring those bags inside for me?"

Rolling my eyes and sighing I did as she asked me and placed the bags just inside the front door. Once that was closed, Mom reached down and opened the door to the cage, letting out her precious ball of fur. Notice how I said her? I swear, that cat has had something against me since my Mom first bought it after her and my Dad's divorce. That cat together with her boy-toys are actually the only bad things the divorce brought along. I know I must sound like some horrible daughter who's happy her parents are divorced, but my parents really weren't meant for eachother.
They are eachothers opposites and not in the whole 'opposites attract' sort of thing. They were way to different for their marriage to work out and I suspect that my brother and I are the only reasons they stayed together for so long.

The only thing I want is for the both of them to be happy, which they are in their separate ways. Dad re-married Erin, a very nice woman in his age with her own three children, while Mom entertains herself with boyfriends of different ages and that heap of fur and bones she calls a cat while I call it the devil.

Yeah, I do not like that cat.

"What is that doing here?" I asked as I pointed at the furball, which hissed at me before disappearing underneath the couch. Great, we'll never get it out of there.

"You'll never believe this, sweetheart! George asked me to go on a cruise with him!" Mom exclaimed and bounced up and down, you'd think she thought she was still a teenager. And just to clear things up, George is her newest boyfriend who's only like two years younger, I think.

Act as if you're happy and surprised for her, Hayden. "Wow! That's great, Mom!"

That made her squeal as if she was Karen that'd gotten too close to a Staal. And I mean a Staal, didn't matter which one.

"Isn't it, sweetie? Since I'll be gone for a while, will you watch Kitty for me?"

I'm not kidding, she literally named the cat Kitty.

I frowned, not too big on the idea. "Why can't Will watch it?"

Mom, who was now on all fours in front of the couch trying to get her precious cat out from underneath it, smiled sadly up at me. "You know that he would have if Callie wasn't so allergic."

While I don't really like my sister-in-law, I have to admit, she's pretty smart. She's actually not allergic, she just hates the bastard as much as I do.

"Yeah, of course. How could I forget that?"

My dead tone wasn't noticed by Mom since she'd finally extracted Kitty from underneath my couch. The lack of protests seemed to have been understood as a 'yes' in my mother's ears and she left just a little while later after pushing Kitty into my arms and a kiss on the cheek for both me and the cat.

The moment the door was closed and Mom was bouncing down the hallway, Kitty hissed and scratched everywhere she could reach until I dropped her onto the floor. Which was as quickly as a hot potato.

"Ow! Son of a bitch!"

The worst part wasn't the stinging scratches on my arms and chest, but the fact that the God damned feline sat down in front of me and just stared, as if it was mocking me.

I glared right back. "Listen up, you little she-devil. First and foremost, no more scratching! Second of all, I don't want you here more than you want to stay here so let's stay away from eachother as much as possible. And lastly, I will not call you Kitty. If you got a problem with that, stay away." It was only when I didn't get an answer that I realized that I was talking to a cat.

"I'm loosing my marbles."

The cat didn't make me feel better by making an agreeing sound.
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I was not a happy camper when I went to work the next morning. When I'd tried to deal with the cat it scratched the hell out of me, but I managed to keep most of the damage to my arms, something Jules noticed as I pulled off my jacket.

"Hayden. You know that I'm here for you if you want to talk, right?" Her voice was low and also worried. I stared at her for a few seconds before realizing what she meant.

"Jules, I am not suicidal."

Frowning she grabbed my arm and held it up, closer to her eyes. "Then what the heck happened to you?"

"My mother dropped of her she-devil of a cat yesterday. Short story very short, we share a mutual hatred towards the other."

To my irritation and Jules' amusement, all my other colleagues gave me similar speeches as well. And they weren't the only ones.

"What happened to your arms?"

I looked up to meet the curious gaze of Pascal Dupuis. Seeing him pick up the kids was quite unusual since it was usually done by their mother.

"My mother's cat, Kitty otherwise known as the she-devil."

He started laughing at my nickname for her while helping his daughter with her jacket. "Not a cat person?"

"At least not that cat," I answered with a shrug.

Duper changed the topic so quickly I didn't register what he said at first. "I heard you went on a date with Staalsy."

"... It was a twenty minute lunch, that's all. And you heard it? From who, a little birdie?"

Once again he laughed. "Something like that."

Duper and the kids left soon after, little Zoe waving at me as she followed her father.
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Six days after our date and I still hadn't heard from Jordan. Half of me was disappointed, for some reason that my other, wiser half couldn't understand. She was happy and slightly relieved that Jordan hadn't called about another date, this was because she felt that something was strange about him. I think it's pretty easy to guess which side I was on and which side Karen was on.

"Why don't you just call him, Hayd? I know I would."

We were sitting in our favourite Chinese restaurant, we couldn't be over at my place since Karen was allergic to Kit (my new name for the she-devil since I couldn't continue calling her that). Sitting on the opposite side of the booth, she wore an expression of confusion as if she couldn't understand my reasoning.

"Yes, I know you would, but I'm not you. Besides," I continued and took a sip from my drink, "I don't even have his number."

"What?! You didn't ask for his number? The hell's wrong with you?" Karen hissed and tried to kick me underneath the table, only succeeding in hitting the bottom of the booth and then driving her knee into the table, almost spilling both of our glasses.

"Smooth, Karen. Very smooth."

Glaring at me, Karen didn't have the time to do anything else besides open her mouth before our waitress came back with the food. She didn't stop glaring at me as we accepted the food and were left alone again. I'd just taken a bite out of my noodles when Karen looked over my shoulder and smirked.

"What?" I asked after swallowing.

"Well, well, well. Who do we have here?"

Damn you, Karen. Damn you to hell.