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A/N: You guys are probably in shock right about now. I'm actually updating only a couple of days after I posted this story. The reason for this is because I wanted to let you guys read an actual chapter, instead of a prologue that's less than 2K words. Anyway, this chapter is a slightly better example of what's to come, so I REALLY hope you guys enjoy it :) And shout out to Dana2184 who just posted a Jatie one shot which is AMAZING, so go and check it out!
Enjoy the chapter :)
One Year Later
Chapter One
Katie's POV
I tapped my pencil on my desk, eyeing the computer screen. A Microsoft Word document was open, but it was blank. Completely, totally blank. In my opinion, there was nothing worse than an empty document, or a completely white piece of paper.
I let out a groan of frustration, before grabbing the open notebook. I had a short list of notes scribbled down, ideas for this particular article. But really, was it any wonder I was struggling with writer's block? I had recently been demoted from covering local news stories, to writing about the town's events. And not even political events, or concerts or plays or anything cool like that. No. I'm talking about the opening of a new shopping mall. Seafood Night's turnout at Year of the Dragon, a nearby Chinese restaurant. Really important stuff like that.
The reason for it? My ex boyfriend was the managing editor of the paper, and his father owned it. When I broke up with Preston, he decided to torture me with long articles about how the new shoe store just isn't up to snuff.
Granted, these articles weren't as bad as still being with him; that would be so much worse. But seriously, he could have taken the high road, or hell, even fired me. But oh, no, couldn't do that, that might make things too easy on me. So he gave me a crappy assignment, and now…I had to write a two-thousand word article on whether or not the high school bake sale was really worth anyone's time, or if they should have closed it down after the first fifteen minutes.
Yeah, really intriguing stuff. Just what I wanted to write about.
I snorted to myself. How the hell was I supposed to get two-thousand words out of this?! Out of a freaking high school bake sale?! It was freaking impossible! It freaking wasn't going to happen! But, I reminded myself, this was exactly what Preston wanted. He wanted me to give up, to fail. And I wasn't going to. I was going to write the best damn article on high school bake sales in the history of best damn articles on high school bake sales.
So there.
Hmmph.
I bit down hard on my lower lip, before taking a swig of coffee from the I 3 Boys mug Camille gave me when we were in high school as a joke, since she was always complaining that I was all work and no play. But looking back on high school, I was thinking I had it right. All getting interested in boys had done for me was get me thisclose to fired and was the reason behind why I was now trying to come up with positive, yet realistic things to say about sugar cookies. Yeah, boys were stupid. And I was pretty sure they still had cooties. Actually, they did. Only now the official term was STD. Or, as I liked to call it, cheating germs.
I snorted again at the thought. Yeah, I had gotten demoted because Preston couldn't keep his pants buttoned up. Remind me again how that's fair, me getting punished because he thought it'd be a good idea to sleep with a dozen different girls while I was out of town, on vacation with my friends.
Can you say douche bag?
I straightened my posture, placed my index fingers on the F and J keys, while resting my thumbs on the space bar, and waited for inspiration to come.
After a few seconds, I slowly typed in, Maple Leaf Creek High School is infamous for their basketball and hockey teams – they're in the lead in the county playoffs – but what you wouldn't expect is how dedicated to said teams their families and friends are.
I nodded at what I had written. That was a pretty good start. I could do this. I could totally do this! Eat your heart out, Preston Gates, because you're not taking me down in your sick and twisted ways! You cheating bastard, you can go screw yourself.
I was just about to begin typing the next sentence when I heard someone asked Tiffany, one of the girls who covered the personals page, if she could direct them over to "Katie Knight".
My body tensed at once – I recognized the voice all too well. How did he find me?!
"Yeah, she's over there," I heard Tiffany say. A moment later, James Diamond responded,
"Thanks."
Well, fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, and double, triple, and quadruple fuck. What the hell was he even doing here?! I hadn't seen him since Logan and Camille's disastrous wedding rehearsal dinner a year ago, and the last I had heard, he had moved down to Minneapolis to act in a theater down there.
Before I could even come up with a halfway plausible escape plan, I felt a strong presence come up behind me, and I gritted my teeth, before pursing my lips together.
"Katie Knight."
I spun around in my chair, crossing my legs as I looked up at the man standing in front of me. "James Diamond."
He gave me a small smirk. "It's been way too long, Baby Kat."
"Seriously? You're still calling me that?"
"Yep. You never really grew up."
"Look who's talking. You have the maturity level of a ten year old," I snapped back as I kicked the chair back around so that I was facing my computer again.
"Hurtful words, Baby Kat, hurtful words."
"Good," I responded as I began to type again. Within two seconds, I had three misspelled words. I growled under my breath and backspaced so that I could retype the sentence.
"Need typing lessons?" he asked, grabbing a nearby empty chair and dragging it over so that he could sit beside me.
"No, I don't," I snarled. "I just need you to get away from me."
"What're you even covering? The high school bake sale? I thought you were promoted to a full-fledged investigative reporter."
"Not full-fledged…" I hedged. "But close to it."
"So, what happen? You sleep with the wrong person?"
"Pretty much."
He stared at me, an eyebrow cocking up as his smirk returned. "Sounds juicy. What're the deets?"
"Deets? What are you, a twelve year old blogger?"
"Just trying to fit in around here," he replied. "So, what happened?"
I sniffed. "Like I'm going to tell you."
"You turn lesbian and sleep with the boss's wife?"
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?"
He shrugged. "Not really. It's only hot if the girls put on a show."
I threw him a disgusted look. "You can leave now."
"You're throwing me out before you even hear why I'm here?"
"I figured you heard I hadn't hit rock bottom for crappy lives, so you came to push me down a little more."
"Surprisingly no, that's not why I'm here," he replied.
"Wow," I stared at him. "That is kind of surprising."
"I know. So, you're about to hit rock bottom for crappy lives? I can help you get there if you want. After all, the first step in recovering is admitting you have a problem."
I gave him a nasty look. "I don't have a problem."
"Are you sure? Because you were just talking about rock bottom, and honestly, you're looking a tiny bit thin."
"I'll have you know I'm at a healthy weight!"
"By all means, take this the wrong way, but you look like a freaking skeleton."
I glared at him. "I'm fine. I'm healthy. And you don't actually care, you just like insulting me."
He rested his chin in his hand while surveying me. "That is true, I really don't care. It's just that I keep getting the urge to shove about ten Hot Pockets down your throat. The urge is almost overwhelming."
"Resist it," I advised him. "You shove anything down my throat, and it's going to get regurgitated all over you."
"Oooh, using big words now. Nice to see your college education didn't go to waste."
I flipped him off. "Fuck you."
"Yeah, you wish."
"No, you wish. I'm the only girl in this whole town who hasn't slept with you."
"Not true," he threw back at me easily. "I haven't slept with Jo Taylor, Camille Roberts, Lucy Stone, or Stephanie King."
"That's because they all have better taste."
James placed his hands over his heart. "Ouch. The bullets just keep on coming."
"And they will if you don't get away from me."
"I can't."
"And why not?"
"Because I'm here on personal business."
"Insulting me isn't personal business?"
"Nah, that's just fun."
I looked around for something to hit him over the head with. Where's a hammer when you need one?
"This is important," James added, his joking demeanor changing to serious. He even managed to look at me with something resembling respect.
"Okay," I sighed, turning in my chair so that I was facing him. "What is it?"
"I'm sure you've heard – Camille's getting married."
"Yeah, to Steve Trousdale, her high school boyfriend."
James nodded. "Right. But she's supposed to be with Logan."
"I'm sorry, is this Twilight? Camille's not meant to be with anyone except the one who makes her happy."
"I'm aware of that," he said quickly. "I do know that, Katie. And I want her to be happy, but I hung out with her and Steve last night, and they just don't have the chemistry or fire or…anything…that she and Logan had."
"That anything is what broke them up," I reminded him. "Remember? We were there when it happened."
"Yeah, I know that. But they had so much."
"Well, maybe what Camille needs, instead of the chemistry and fire, is comfort," I suggested.
"Would you want a comfortable relationship?" he asked me as he reclined in the chair and propped his feet up on my desk.
I placed my hands on his sneakers and tried to push them down off of my desk, but he resisted, grinning.
"A comfortable relationship would be nice," I grunted out as I put more strength into knocking his feet off my desk.
"But wouldn't you love a hot and fiery one?"
"They don't last," I responded.
"Says who?"
"Says anyone who's ever been in one. Says Camille and Logan."
"Bullshit. What are romance novels based off of? Fire, passion, sparks."
I groaned. "I am not having a discussion about romance novels with you right now!"
"Because you know I'm right," he said in triumph.
"No. Because that's just a weird thing to talk about when I'm supposed to be working! And get your feet off my fucking desk!"
"Get them off yourself," he replied. "Come on, Baby Kat, put some strength into it."
I responded by twisting his foot.
"Hey!" he yelped. "Not nice!"
I grinned. "Ha hah."
"Anyway," he rested his feet in my lap, "my point is, Camille and Steve are not going to last. And she just didn't seem as happy with him as she did with Logan. Rub my feet?"
"So, your point is that she's going to end up suffering from depression, and you're going to be recommending her your parents' divorce lawyer? And no way in hell."
"No. My point is that we need to show Camille how much she and Logan really miss each other, and how wrong she and Steve really are for each other. And why not? I don't have toe fungus or anything."
"And how do you suggest we do that? Play matchmaker? And I don't really care if you have toe fungus or not. I'm not rubbing your feet."
"As a matter of fact, that is how I suggest we do that. And you still haven't given me a legitimate reason."
"You want us to play matchmaker? Are you out of your fucking mind?! And why would I rub your feet? I don't even like having close proximity with your clothed body. Why would I want to have one on one time with your feet?"
"I always knew you had a foot fetish," came a smooth voice from behind me, and James and I both spun around, his foot falling from my lap and settling on the ground.
Standing there was Preston Gates, the worst ex boyfriend ever.
I rolled my eyes. "I don't have a foot fetish. And you really need a cowbell. Or maybe – ooh! You could wear a bell around your neck!" I gave him the double thumbs up and a wide, sarcastic smile. "Or you could just wear one on your zipper," I added as an afterthought. "Might help you keep your dick in your pants. Just a suggestion, though."
James grinned a little. "Wow, there's finally someone who you hate more than me. This is a sad, sad day. I liked being at the top of your shit list."
"Eh, don't worry. You're still number two."
"Still. That's disappointing." He let out a dramatic sigh. "Anyway, who's the guy who can't keep his dick in his pants?"
"James Diamond, this is Preston Gates. My ex boyfriend." I made sure to put extra emphasis on ex.
"You son of a bitch," James said to him. "I remember you! You stole my girlfriend in tenth grade! To this day, I still can't believe she ditched me for someone named Preston."
"That was him? Dude!" I cried. "He was already sneaking around back then! It must be in his genes."
"Has to be. You know his dad's a serial cheater, right?"
"No! I mean, I heard something about that, but I thought it was just a rumor."
"Nope. One of my mom's friends has had…you know, flings with him when his wife is off visiting her parents."
"Wow…it must be the money that attracts women, since it can't be their looks."
"Has to be the money."
Preston waved his hand at us. "Uh, hel-lo, I'm still standing right here. Are you two sleeping together or something? You replaced me with him?"
James and I both stared at him, before simultaneously saying, "Gross!"
"We're definitely not dating," I informed Preston.
"Not even close. She's an annoying, stuck up brat," James added.
"And he's an obnoxious, horny pigheaded jerk."
"Hey, you got four insults in. I only put in three."
"Hah! I win!"
"She's also a sore winner," he said conversationally to Preston.
He responded with, "Your girlfriend liked the way I kissed her better."
"Yeah, whatever, that's old news. Like, nine years old. Move past it. Buh-bye." He waved his hand at Preston, before turning back to me. "I can't believe you went out with that guy."
"Yeah, I can't either," I replied, ignoring Preston, who was still standing there, gaping at us in disbelief. "Not my brightest moment when I said yes to dinner with him. Then people wonder why I'm picky."
"And here I always thought no one wanted to date you."
"At least I don't hop from bed to bed."
"Call it a hobby. Like wine tasting."
"Well, I'm sure you do a lot of tasting."
He flashed me a grin, before glancing at Preston. "You can leave now."
"I'm the managing editor here! I practically run this place!"
"Do I look like I really give a damn? I'm trying to discuss something very important with Katie."
"You two are discussing bed hopping!"
"Well, we can't exactly discuss the big people stuff when you're standing right there. Go away."
"You go away!"
"No way. I'm nice and comfy and I'm enjoying annoying Katie."
"You don't work here! And you're distracting one of my employees!"
"She was already distracted. And I can't say I blame her. I'd be pretty distracted to if I had to write about vanilla cupcakes."
"Well, too bad for her. If she can't perform her job, then I guess there's no reason for her to still be here," Preston said, a satisfied smirk on his face.
"I can do my job!" I cried. "See? See?!" I gestured to the document. "I have some of it already written!"
"You also have I hate James Diamond written underneath it," he informed me.
"I do?" I peered at the screen. Sure enough, underneath the small little paragraph were the words I hate James Diamond, typed over and over again. Guess I had been productive. "Oh, I guess I do. Cool."
"Once again, hurtful," James said to me.
"Okay," Preston said firmly to James, "you need to leave. You're annoying the hell out of me, and you're bothering our events reporter."
"Fine. I'll go. But only because you're annoying the hell out of me, and I can't stand you. And also because you smell like a bottle of aftershave threw up on you. Overcompensating much?" With a smirk, James stood up. "When do you have a lunch break?"
"Hour after never," I replied.
"I'm serious."
"Yeah, so am I. I know what you want to discuss with me, and it's not going to happen. So forget about it. Leave."
"This isn't over," he informed me.
"God forbid."
"You just wait. You think I'm annoying now? I'm going to get so annoying you'll want it to be against the law. You'll want me arrested for it."
"I already want you arrested for it; that's nothing new."
James just smirked. "Yeah, we'll see. Au revoir, ma chérie. Adiós, scum sucker." And with a final grin at Preston, he headed off, sauntering out through the Gates-Hills Chronicle office like he owned the place.
Preston stared at me. "Was he always like that?"
"Sadly, yes. Actually, no, I think he's gotten better. Though he did get one thing right."
"What?"
"You are a scum sucker."
"Excuse me?!"
I shrugged. "You are."
"If I had the power to fire you – "
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can't, only your dad has that authority, and he's probably off having one of his flings. Now, leave me alone, I have to get back to work."
"Hmmph." And with that oh-so mature response, Preston headed off.
The rest of the day followed in that vein. I did manage to finish the article, but when I turned it in, Preston returned it to me fifteen minutes later with so many 'suggested' and 'advised' corrections, that red ink was dripping through the paper.
I was not in a good mood when I reached my apartment door. I fished my key out of my purse and slid it into the top lock, and then into the bottom. I pushed the door open and let out a sigh of relief as I slipped into the apartment. I closed and locked the door behind me, and flipped on the living room light.
And then screamed.
Sitting on my couch was the number two pain in my ass – though he was about to get bumped up to number one permanently – as if he belonged there. Not only that, but my TV was on, blasting some hockey game so loudly I was shocked that the walls hadn't started shaking. And then there was the fact that his ankles were crossed, feet propped up on my coffee tail, just inches away from a beer can.
James grinned up at me and reached for his beer can, raising it up as if to toast me. "Baby Kat! What's crackin'?"
I stared at him. "Your skull, if you don't get the hell out of my apartment."
"Well, that's not very nice," he pouted at me, before taking a sip of his beer. "I'm not even making a mess, and you're already threatening me. Didn't your mother ever teach you that violence is never the answer?"
"Didn't your mother ever teach you not to break and enter into girls' apartments?" I shot back, opening my purse back up and digging out my phone. "I'm calling the cops."
"Oooh, can you tell Chief Marcus hi from me?" James asked. "Oh, and remind him that it's his turn to buy the beers and fries."
"I really fucking hate you."
"Wow, I even got the F word. Naughty, naughty." He clucked his tongue and waggled his finger disapprovingly at me. "Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?"
I threw my phone as hard as I could at his head. He ducked and the phone landed harmlessly beside him on the couch. So much for cracking his skull.
"Okay, that was just mean," he informed me, getting to his feet and stalking over to me. Oh God, I had forgotten how tall he was. I found myself backing right up into the wall, looking up at him. He snatched my purse from me and opened it, rifling through it until he had found my iPod, the paperback book I was currently reading, and my pepper spray, and had stuffed them all into his jeans pockets.
He politely handed me my purse back and gave me a chipper smile. "Don't want you throwing anything else at me."
"Fuck you," I growled.
"Maybe later?"
I wondered how his head would look sticking through my apartment wall.
I shoved past him and stalked towards my bedroom, thinking that maybe I could deal with him a little better if I was in comfortable clothes.
James followed me, and I groaned. "Look. It's been a long, hard day, and I don't actually want to deal with you right now."
"Well, that's fine, because I don't want to deal with you either. And if it wasn't for our friends' happiness, I wouldn't even be here."
I groaned. "Again with Camille and Logan…" I stomped into my bedroom and slammed the door behind me. A split second later, the door opened and James came gliding in. I threw him a nasty look as I began to pull out lounge pants and a baggy t-shirt. "Get out of my room."
"Not until you say you'll listen to me."
"I'm not going to listen to you."
"Then I'm not getting out of your room."
I let out a groan of frustration. "Well, close your eyes at least, because I'm about to get undressed."
"Why would I close my eyes? A girl's getting naked in front of me? I'm watching."
"No you're not! God, are you that desperate to see a girl naked that you have to settle for me?"
"As a matter of fact, I am. I haven't had my daily hook up yet, and I'm craving some kind of sexual satisfaction."
"Get out."
"Out of your room or out of your apartment?"
"Out of my apartment. Preferably through my window."
"But it's a three story drop."
"Exactly." I grinded my teeth together, before heading into the bathroom with my clothes. I changed quickly, before returning to my room. I half expected to find James still there, possibly going through my drawers, fingering my panties and thongs and stroking my bras, but he was nowhere in sight.
Well, good. Maybe he had finally gotten the message.
And then I heard the clang of a pan on the stove, and my eyes widened. Was he cooking in my kitchen?!
I stomped out there, and sure enough, there he was, standing in front of my stove and boiling water.
"I didn't know Neanderthals could cook," I snapped, leaning against the kitchen wall.
"I didn't know midgets could live somewhere besides the circus, yet here you are."
"Fuck off."
"With pleasure."
"I'm sure it would be. So, what're you doing with my pots and pans and my stove?"
"I'm cooking dinner."
"You?"
He rolled his eyes. "Yes, me. I'll have you know, I happen to be a pretty fucking good cook."
"Right, sure," I said sarcastically. "And I'm America's Next Top Model."
"Not in that outfit you're not. Spice it up, girl."
I growled under my breath. "Anyway, what're you making?"
He grinned at me. "You'll see."
I bit my lip, before saying: "I know what you're up to. You're trying to butter me up so that I'll listen to you and agree to your stupid plan."
"First off, my plan is not stupid. And second, would I really do a thing like that?"
"A: Your plan is the stupidest thing I've heard in a long time. And B: Yes, you would."
James shrugged. "Well, Baby Kat, we'll just have to see if it works, now won't we?"
I growled again, but sank down in a chair at the table. "Fine. Work your magic, Diamond. Work your magic."
So, there's chapter one. I really hope it was okay and that it made sense. In any case, please review and let me know what you thought! I love hearing from you guys :)
