Oh, Calamity

“Your mother is dead.” She can’t be.

“Kat?” How can she be dead?

“Katherine!” My mother was gone. She was no longer apart of this world. I snapped out of it enough to bring the phone back up to my ear. I got the details from the man on the phone and decided I needed to get out of here. I needed to get to the hospital. Screw Thanksgiving dinner, I needed to be with my mother.

“Jack, drive me to the hospital.” I said, not making eye contact with anyone.

“Okay,” Jack said, voice heavy with concern.

“I’m coming too.” Alex stated and Jack nodded. We all got into Jack’s car and he sped to the hospital. I couldn’t even worry about how fast we were going because of the shock. Everything just seemed like a gigantic blur. Time slowed down dramatically and it felt like five years had past before we were finally at the hospital. I jumped out of the car as soon as Jack parked it. I ran, but I couldn’t feel my legs moving. I kept moving forward, but I didn’t pay attention to whomever I was pushing out of my way.

“Where is Kate Evans?” I asked frantically. The lady at the desk looked through her information, only to give me a frown and a sad look.

“She’s in the morgue and the doctors are trying to figure out how she died. If you go to the third floor, room 34B is on the right. Wait outside and I’ll notify them that you’re waiting to find out what happened. I’m sorry for your loss.” I didn’t let her finish. I bolted to the stairwell and ran up the stairs like my life depended on it.

“34B,” I breathed and sat on the bench outside. All I had to do now was wait until they came outside of that room to tell me why my mother was dead. I was told that these things could take a while, even weeks. It didn’t seem like they were that busy though, so they just had to come out soon. They just had to. Where was I going to go? Would Alex’s mom let me stay with them indefinitely or would she kick me out? I didn’t have anywhere else to go. How can I function without my mother? Who was going to protect me from my father? Who was going to tell me everything was okay? What about when I finally get married? Who will walk with me down the aisle? My father certainly isn’t.

“Katherine Evans?” I looked up. “Hi, I’m the pathologist and we just got done analyzing your mother’s situation.” He gave me a sad frown.

“What happened?” I croaked. I hadn’t realized I’d been crying until I spoke. “Please tell me.” From the corner of my eye, I saw Alex and Jack finally walking over.

“She sustained critical injuries from a car crash. She was pronounced dead about five minutes after we had gotten to the scene of the crash. Her last words were that someone followed her and purposely crashed into her. The impact also killed the man who killed her.” The doctor put his hand over mine. “The last thing she said was to tell you that she loves you and to tell you that you’d be okay.” I was crying with every ounce of my being. My whole body was shaking; I was hiccuping and sobbing, my breathing is short, rapid breaths.

“Do you know who killed her?” I managed to choke out. Please don’t say it was him. Please, please dont say…

“It was Richard Evans, your father. He escaped from prison with help. Police have cased this as a murder-suicide. I’m so sorry about your losses.” My father was dead? He killed my mother?

“My father was a bad man,” I said. “I feel no remorse for him because of what he did to me.” I had calmed down within the minute his name was said. I was still upset, as anyone would be after losing their parent or parents, but I was mad. Furious. All I could see was red.

“Do you have a place to live? A close family friend?” The pathologist asked.

“She can live with me.” Alex chimed in. I looked up at him.

“You’d really do that for me?” I asked, about to cry again.

“Sir, I’m not sure if that’s possible.”

“I am the closest thing she has to family. My mom will do all the paperwork and my parents can be her legal guardians until she turns eighteen. She’s been living with me anyway, so just send the paperwork to my house or set up a thing to make this happen.” Alex argued and my heart did little jumps. I didn’t know he cared so much.

“Alright, I’ll send you home with all the required paperwork.” The pathologist said, standing up and leading Alex down the hall.

“I didn’t know that Alex would do that.” I said as Jack sat next to me.

“He’s your friend and if you’re already staying with him, it’s pretty reasonable.” Jack wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “I’m so sorry, Kat. I know how excited you were to see her.” He pulled me into an awkward side hug but I welcomed it. I needed all the comfort I could get.

-

An hour later, I was finally back at Alex’s. This was going to be my new permanent home. Jack kissed me goodnight at the front door and I went inside feeling absolutely exhausted. I cried so much that I didn’t have anymore tears left in me and it tired me out. I trudged up the stairs, feeling like my body was held down with weights. Instead of going into my room, though, I walked into Alex’s and closed the door.

“What’s up, Kat?” He looked at the closed door. “What’s with the door being closed?” I smiled a tiny bit.

“Just wanted to thank you privately for what you did.”

“Oh, yeah. No problem.” He said before looking back to his notebook.

“I guess we’ll be living together from here on out.” I said, trying to get him to talk more.

“Yep.” He kept writing in his notebook and didn’t look my way at all. He was barely acknowledging me.

“That’s cool, in a way, right?”

“Yeah, Kat.” He sighed in frustration. “I need to finish this, can you leave?” He asked, rather harshly. I was already having a bad day, and Alex was making it worse. A bad day was even an understatement.

“What the hell, Alex?” I said, nearly shouting.

“What?” He looked up from his notebook.

“When we first became friends, you were open to me and you were friendly. Then one day, just out of the fucking blue, you act cold to me. You barely talk to me anymore and just when I thought things were going well between us again you do this shit to me! You won’t even look at me, Alex! I thought we were friends.” I was frustrated with him and he was finally hearing it. “I cried over that shit. I cried when you started being cold to me. I cried that night at the party and I cried after I had gotten back from the hospital. I’ve done nothing wrong, Lex.” Alex stood up and walked over to where I was.

“I know, Kat. I’m sorry.” He sighed. “You haven’t done anything wrong, but I just can’t do this. I can’t just be friends with you.” What the fuck?

“Why not Alex? We were friends before and now all of a sudden you don’t even want to be friends? Why the hell are you being this way? Why the he-” Alex had kissed me and cut off my words. His lips were on mine and they were so soft and warm. It brought butterflies to my stomach and made my knees go weak. Jack couldn’t even do this to me. Alex pulled away before I had a chance to retaliate.

“That’s why, Katherine. That’s why I can’t be friends with you.” He said. My face was pink and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. “I have feelings for you, Kat. I have for a while and I tried hiding them. I started acting cold towards you to try to get rid of those feelings. It didn’t work and now I’m just trying to hold back from doing something stupid.”

“Like kissing me when I’m dating Jack?” I asked, looking at Alex.

“Yeah, like that…” Alex looked down and I realized how close he still was to me. I backed up into the door and winced at the doorknob hitting my hip. “Kat,” Alex started.

“Alex, I’m with Jack.” I said, moving so I could get my hand on the knob. “I’m sorry.” I turned around and opened the door running out and into my room, slamming the door behind me. I threw myself onto my bed and groaned. My lips felt tingly and my stomach still had butterflies. How could Alex do this to me, but not Jack? Jack was my boyfriend, not Alex.

“What am I going to do?” I sighed.