"Daddy, are you okay?" A little blonde girl tugged on her dad's shirt.
He mumbled for her to go away, but as she took a step away, she looked back at him, sitting in a chair and looking out the window, with several tears cascading down his face.
"Daddy?" She whimpered.
"WHY DID YOU LET THIS HAPPEN, HUH!" He began to yell and violently curse out the window.
The little girls' tears began to fall, just like her father's, and she ran to her mother's room. She looked at her mom through the doorway, and watched her sit on the edge of her big bed, with her head in her hands.
"Mommy?" She whispered.
Her mother looked at her, revealing the tracks of her tears that were permanently marked upon her cheeks.
"Don't ever fall in love, Katherine." She said quietly."It's not real."
A tear slipped, and fell down my cheek. As I listened to him lightly breathing beside me, I silently let the rest of them fall, leaving a small wet stain on his pillowcase. I slowly sat up and crept out of the bed, looking at him sleeping soundly. I grabbed a pen off of his night stand and found a piece of scrap paper.
'I'm sorry.'
"Say cheeese, Katty!" John smiled, flashing his dad's polaroid camera.
She smiled, both of her hands gripped tightly on the rope of the home made swing in John's front yard.
"How many times have I told you not to call me that?" She asked, giggling.
"A billion and one times. But I like that name, and no one else calls you that. So that's what I wanna call you." John grinned proudly.
Katherine rolled her eyes, forcing a small smile across her face.
"Ooooh! The picture's dry!" John said excitedly. He looked at it, and smiled."I'm gonna keep this forever."
"That's creeepy." Katherine laughed, rolling her eyes.
John blushed, but shrugged her words away and got behind Katherine, beginning to push her.
I walked out of his apartment, saving my sobs until I quietly closed the door. As soon as I did, I let them out loudly, and walked down the hallway of John's apartment building, walking towards the elevator. I pressed the button, watching as it glowed, and waited.
"Kat?" John asked, seeming nervous. He was patting his hair down, and his cheeks began to turn a light shade of pink.
"Yeah?" She asked, looking up at him.
He looked away immediately, not being able to take her eye contact and say what he needed to at the same time.
"Do you think that you would maybe want to go to dinner tonight?" He asked, still fiddling with his hair.
"We get pizza all the time John, why are you nervous?" She asked,confused.
It had always been just her and John, all the time. She didn't need anyone else, just her best friend. She never really told him a lot, she just kept to herself, she had came to convince herself that she was fine alone.
"I mean, like, go to a real restaurant. Like on a date." John spit out, taking a deep shaky breath and waiting for her reply.
"Oh." She said thoughtfully.
She had convinced herself of this lie that being lonely was satisfying for all of her life, but Katherine was beginning to see reality more clearly.
"Yeah, I would."
"Really?" John asked, shocked, but grinning from ear to ear.
"Yes."
The elevator dinged, and I exhaled shakily, entering through the opening doors. I tapped the L button, sticking my hands in my pockets, and looking at the ceiling. As I gazed at my reflection, I saw black smudges running down my cheeks. I saw rings around my red, swollen eyes. And I saw the memory of my mother's tear tracks.
"Kat." John said, looking a little scared.
"What's wrong?" She asked, looking at him with wide eyes.
John exhaled, chuckling a little.
They sat on the edge of a cement water fountain, and as the sound of the water falling echoed behind them, John closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"Kat, do you know how I feel about you?" He asked.
She looked into his eyes.
"I know that we care about each other very much." She said quietly.
Katherine was afraid of what would happen next. She didn't know how she would respond, if she would be able to respond.
"I do care about you very much. And I love spending time with you. And I've known you since we were nine, and I'm always thinking about you. And Kat, I love you."
Kat closed her eyes, pushing the strongest memory she had out of her head, and plastering a smile on her face. She opened her eyes and looked at John.
"I love you too."
As the elevator doors opened once more, I walked out and into the lobby, with my head down. I walked towards the glass door, mumbling thank you to an employee who opened it for me and descended the cement stairs. I walked straight ahead, looking up at the running cement water fountain in front of me. I made the effort to wipe some of my tears away, as I sat down on the side of the fountain, but it was useless, they kept on falling.
"Katherine, your dad and I are getting a divorce." Her mother told her when she was seven.
"What does that mean?" She asked her mother, terrified.
"It means love doesn't exist." Her mom muttered, sniffling."And there's no exceptions."
I looked up at the sky, searching the clouds for an answer.
"You mean the world to me." John whispered in her ear.
She smiled, and jumped a little. Chills ran down her back.
Katherine looked into his eyes. His truthful, loving, and beautiful eyes.
She smiled, and kissed him.
"You're wrong." I whispered. "It does exist."
I stood up, breaking into a sprint back to the glass doors. Thanking the doorman loudly this time, I ran past the elevator, and opened the door to the staircase, preparing myself for seven flights of stairs. I ran up all of them with determined speed, and breathed heavily as I reached the seventh floor. I pushed open the heavy door, and ran to room 13. I opened the door, and saw John fast asleep in his bed, just as I left him. I smiled, thankful, and walked over to him. I picked up the paper off of the table and crumpled it, shoving it in my pocket. Picking up the pen that I had used, I opened his drawer on the night stand, and gasped. A polaroid of a nine year old blonde haired little girl with missing teeth laid there alone, collecting dust. I let one last tear fall as I closed the drawer, but this time of pure bliss and realization. I laid next to John in bed, and felt him stir next to me.
"Kat?" He whispered.
"I'm here." I said.
"Is everything okay?" He asked quietly, concerned.
"Yes." I said truthfully, mostly to myself. "You're the only exception."