A/N: So I decided to make a sequel to the one-shot Falling, only this is also a one-shot. Enjoy :)
Disclaimer: 10 Things I Hate About You belongs to ABC Family: a new kind of family.
Summary: Out of all the pranks, tricks, violence, bickering, and fighting that had gone on between us, this hurt the most.
Category: TV Shows—10 Things I Hate About You
Genre/s: Romance/Hurt/Comfort
Story Type: One-Shot sequel to Falling
Character Type: Slight OOC
POV: Kat
Rating: T for sensuality, suggestive comments, and crude language.
Pairing: Katrick
Happiness
The top down in the summer sun
The day we met was like a hit an run
An I still taste it on my tongue
The sky was burning up like fireworks
You made me want you oh so bad it hurt
—Love Drunk, Boys Like Girls
One-Shot
"Better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all."
—Saint Augustine
Math was going slow—too slow. Every tick of the hand on the clock seemed like an hour passing by. My eyes darted back and forth between the clock and the door.
Three.
Two.
One.
The sound of the bell rang throughout the classroom and I was out the door before anyone had moved an inch.
I was going to be super late meeting Patrick by the football field for lunch and I already barely had any time with him.
I ran as fast as I could, taking all the short-cuts, and even going so far as to pushing a kid with a broken arm out of the way…but looking at my watch, I was still twenty minutes late.
Only forty left. Seemed long. Felt short.
He was right there under the bleachers like he said he would be, his hands in his pockets and his legs crossed while leaning on a cold, silver pole.
I hunched over on my knees in front of him, panting, for a few moments before I could say anything.
"I'm pant sorry I'm so late, math isn't pant exactly near here."
He smiled at me before stepping away from the pole and bringing me into his arms.
"That's alright, I just got here myself," he said in his deep, velvety voice.
Always polite. Obviously lying.
We spent the next fifteen minutes talking about the stupid idea the cheerleaders came up with for raising money for a new gymnasium.
"Honestly, a car wash? How stupid can they be? The only reason they'll even make money in the first place is because they'll be in bathing suits!"
We were lying on the grass, the back of his head resting on his arm behind his neck, my body lying diagonally with my cheek on his thigh.
He chuckled and I could feel the vibrations travel to his abdomen.
"If you were helping out, I'd pay three hundred bucks for just one wash."
I blushed.
"Wouldn't that seem a bit strange to people?" I asked condescendingly.
"Not if every guy in this town did the same thing."
I rolled my eyes. Sometimes he tended to over-exaggerate.
"Right, and I'm sure you'll show up in your bikini too!" I exclaimed sarcastically.
After our short bickering and a long, comfortable silence I spoke up.
"Patrick?"
"Hmm?" he asked, acknowledging me.
"What if you really did show up to the carwash for me?" I asked, my bottom lip between my teeth.
He propped his torso up on his elbows so he didn't disturb me and squinted at me a bit.
"What do you mean?" he asked slowly.
I gulped silently, and I didn't dare sit up—knowing him, this wouldn't go over too well—in fear of seeing his reaction.
"I mean…what if we went…you know…public."
I was met with silence.
I squeezed my eyes shut tightly, mentally scolding myself for even suggesting it.
"Never mind," I said dismissing it quickly, "it was a stupid idea anyways."
I knew he didn't want to go public—whether it was because I was his girlfriend or because he had a girlfriend at all I didn't know—and I shouldn't have pushed it.
"Kat—"
"I have to go, I'll be late for English," I said, interrupting him before he could say anything that would make this whole situation worse.
I got up without looking at him, grabbed my knapsack, and mumbled a goodbye before racing off the field and into the school building.
I hadn't cried since, I don't know how long, and I especially have never cried in public except at my mom's funeral. And I wanted to make damn sure I didn't start now.
I all but ran to the nearest girls' bathroom, locked the door from the inside and waited until I was in a locked stall before I let the tears fall.
It was embarrassing really, knowing that your boyfriend didn't want people to know you were a couple. It was even worse that it was Patrick Verona.
I skipped my next three classes and before I knew it, kids were leaving school to go home, teachers were cleaning up their classrooms from the day, and not once had anybody come looking for me.
It was sad. I had Mandela, and I had Patrick, or some of him anyways, and that was it. Nobody else noticed. Nobody else even cared to notice.
Mandela was probably off with pervert boy having a good time, Bianca had late practice today, although why she stayed on the squad I'll never know considering she was the mascot and they treated her like chicken shit, and Patrick…well, only god knows where he was.
I unlocked the stall slowly, my feet shuffling slowly to the sink. I looked in the mirror and nearly screamed when I saw my reflection, or what seemed to be me anyways.
The girl in the mirror had red, puffy eyes, dried tear streaks down her face, and had hair like a bird's nest. Her face was all blotchy and the tip of her nose was irritated from all the tissue blowing.
I splashed some cold water on my face and dabbed it dry in hopes of making myself look more presentable, but it didn't help much.
Instead I only sighed and unlocked the bathroom door, walking out into the empty halls.
That night, I barely slept a wink.
Every time I shut my eyes, I would see the look on Patrick's face I pictured him having when I suggested…my idea.
And whenever I had my eyes open, it seemed like the dark was just trying to swallow me whole into a bottomless pit of depression.
Out of all the pranks, tricks, violence, bickering, and fighting that had gone on between us, this hurt the most.
And it wasn't until now that I realized what I was feeling; why I felt so sick to my stomach that I wanted to puke up my guts, why I wanted to be invisible for the rest of eternity just so I wouldn't have to show my face every again, and why I really, really, really wanted double chocolate-chip mint ice cream right now.
Rejection.
It was like a grenade: once it hit, it was inescapable.
Finally, after hours and hours and hours on end of trying to fall asleep, I did…only to be woken up again by my 7:30 AM alarm.
Wasn't life just peachy?
I managed to drag myself out of bed, take a shower and get dressed, eat breakfast, and still get to school by 8:15.
When I walked into the school building, a hush fell over the crowd and started up again as if nothing had happened, but I could feel millions of eyes stabbing into me, their stares following my every footstep.
People were whispering in each other's ears, sending furtive glances my way.
When I reach my locker, one kid was openly gaping at me so I slammed his locker shot and told him to go fuck himself.
That got him away.
I sighed in annoyance. I could still feel the stares.
"You're just imagining it, Kat," I murmured to myself, "you think everyone's staring at you because of what happened yesterday."
But I knew that wasn't true. Now I just had to figure out why people were staring.
"Talking to yourself again, Kat?"
I turned around and came face to face with Bianca.
"Bianca? Aren't you supposed to be somewhere else? Say, I don't know, kindergarten?" I sneered.
I was so not in the mood.
"Didn't you hear? I graduated!" she said with cheerful sarcasm. "Anyways, before you insulted me, I was about to tell you congratulations!" she squealed.
I raised my eyebrows.
"What—"
"Seriously, I'm super happy for you! It couldn't be more perfect!"
I stared at her like she had three heads.
"Anyways, I have to go—cheerleading practice. You better spill all the details at home! Bye!"
She started walking away and then stopped, sighing happily.
"Now Daddy can't say no to me dating!" she exclaimed.
And with that she just walked away like she was the most normal person on the planet.
Congratulations? On what?
I shook my head slightly and started walking to my next class, history.
As I was walking, I was secretly searching for Patrick anywhere my eyes could reach. I couldn't find him.
When I finally reached the classroom, I sighed. No sign of Patrick.
With resignation, I sulked into the room and took my seat in the front. I was the first one there.
About five minutes later, Mandela came rushing in like there was a fire and stood in front of my desk.
"How could you not tell me?" she whispered harshly.
"Not tell you what?" I asked confused. "And what are you doing in here, you have Government in about…thirty seconds."
"Forget about Government, how could you not tell me about you and Patrick Verona?!"
I gaped openly at her. "Excuse me?"
"Yeah, it's all over the school that you two are a thing now and have been for like…two and a half months."
My mouth was wide open, my eyes like saucers, and I think some drool started to trickle out of my mouth.
"Excuse me," I muttered before racing out of the classroom and to English—Patrick's next class.
The warning bell rang signaling class would begin in two minutes and I tried to run even faster.
Seriously, with all the running I do for Patrick, I could win a gold medal.
I knew Patrick started walking to class right after the warning bell rang, so I had about…fifteen seconds.
Right when I turned the corner, I could see him about to walk in.
"Patrick!" I called out.
He turned in surprise and I grabbed his hand before pulling him into the bathroom—the same bathroom we had made out in only a week ago.
I was slightly out of breath, but that didn't stop me from talking a mile a minute.
"Patrick! I swear it wasn't me! I know I asked yesterday, but I would have never done something like that! But I mean, who else could? Nobody knows about us and—oh god, please don't think I—"
He silenced me with a soft, lingering kiss on my lips. That was enough to reassure me and calm me down some. My eyes fluttered closed and when the kiss ended, I wrapped my arms tightly around his waist and rested my head against his chest.
"I swear, it wasn't me," I whispered.
"I know," he said, his voice sounding different today, "I did."
It took me about thirty seconds to realize what he said.
I took a step back from him and looked up at him in shock.
The late bell rang.
"What?"
He sighed before pulling me into the same stall—seriously, it should just have our names on it—and sitting down on the seat bringing me into his lap.
He swept my hair away from my neck and started peppering it with butterfly kisses all while murmuring to me.
"You never gave me a chance to talk yesterday; you just left without even discussing it with me."
I could barely concentrate on his words. I was trying not to get too distracted, but that wasn't really working out so much.
"But I thought—I thought you didn't want to go public," I whispered back to him.
His kisses stopped for a moment and my head finally cleared and I was able to look at him.
He looked…confused for the most part.
"Where did you get that idea?"
I stared.
"Well, you never talked about going public or anything so I kind of assumed…" I trailed off.
I expected him to be serious, or maybe angry, or hell, even shock.
What I did not expect was the loud laughs that come out of his mouth.
I glared at him.
"What's so funny?" I asked angrily.
A few chuckles escaped his mouth before he banged his head on the wall.
"God, Kat, we are such idiots sometimes."
Now he really had me confused.
"Care to explain?" I asked with a raise of my eyebrow.
"I thought you didn't want to go public because you didn't want people to know—that's why I never suggested it. I didn't want to put you in that position. I've always wanted to go public with you, why wouldn't I?"
I stared stupidly at him.
Wow. We really were idiots.
I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out, so I shut it again.
I tilted my head in confusion.
"So we've been making life hard for us for almost three months over nothing?" I asked finally.
He grinned. "That sounds about right."
I shook my head.
"This is crazy."
He looked at me intensely.
"Not as crazy as I am about you," he whispered before placing his mouth on mine again.
Unlike last time, this kiss was urgent, needier. Like he thought I was going to disappear any second or walk out on him. Pssh, like that would ever happen.
I kissed him back, but instead of fighting him for dominance like I usually did, I let him take control. He seemed a bit surprised at that but there was no complaining.
We broke apart after a bit, loud pants echoing off the tiled walls, and he continued to shower kisses down my neck, across my collarbone, and he lifted my shirt up slightly to gain access to my stomach.
I giggled as his kisses tickled me, his mouth curving into a smile at my peals of laughter.
We played around for a while longer before I ended up curled up in his arms.
"You're my everything, you know," he whispered to me.
I smiled.
"That's a good thing then because you won't ever be able to get rid of me now."
It was then that I realized what the difference in his voice was.
Pure happiness.
A/N: So, how was? Yeah, I figured after Mrs. Miller's comment in the Falling one-shot, Kat would be thinking about it more often. Anyways, if you haven't added me to your favorites or subscribed to me, please do bcuzz 10TIHAY is my number one priority right now and I'll be writing lots more stories for it. ;) I'm in the middle of writing chapter one of my new 10TIHAY story called 1-800-Girlfriend Finder which will hopefully be up today or tomorrow. Anyways, until then ;) My other one-shot, Mother Nature has already been posted.
Review!
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