Yep! I finally got a new chapter out! And for clarification, incase you all can't figure it out, Lauren is K.C.'s daughter. Okay, enjoy! ;D
4. K.C.
"K.C.," Clare breathed, trying to keep her eyes on her textbook.
K.C. pushed her sweater off of one side of her shoulder, then kissing it. "Come on," he whispered, kissing along her shoulder.
"I have a test tomorrow. I need to study."
"Take a break," K.C. murmured, brushing her hair away from her neck and moving his lips to the base of her neck.
Clare shivered, his touch tickling her. "You have a test too," she pointed out.
"But I know that cramming will fry my brain and stress me out," K.C. said matter-of-factly.
Clare rolled her eyes, staring harder at the words she was trying to read.
Clare finally looked at K.C. when he began to kiss the hollow under her jaw. She sighed, then threw the Physics book off of her lap and brought K.C.'s lips to hers. He wrapped one arm around her waist, pulling Clare up to him, and Clare fell back on the couch with K.C. on top of her.
K.C. pulled off the rest of her sweater, her bare shoulders visible now. He tugged on the straps of her camisole, pulling one down.
"No," Clare warned him, kissing his Adam's apple.
"But Clare," K.C. moaned.
"What are my rules?"
K.C. groaned, unwinding himself from her and sitting up. "Sometimes you're no fun," he accused her.
Clare stayed where she was, looking up at him. "So I've been told."
The sound of jingling keys made Clare sit up quickly, both her and K.C.'s heads whipping to look at the door of the apartment.
"K.C., I bought some fried chicken…" Lisa trailed off when she saw Clare.
Clare's face flushed in embarrassment, and she hastily adjusted the straps on her camisole, pulling her sweater up and around her again.
"Hi Mom," K.C. mumbled.
Lisa's head tilted to the side slightly. "Who's this?"
"Oh, um, this is my friend, Clare. We were just…studying."
Clare nodded quickly, combing her tangled curls with her fingers.
"Studying. Right." Lisa assessed Clare for a minute in a curious way, then looked at her son. "Have you even bothered to call Jenna and see how Lauren is doing? Have you even gone over there to help her?"
"The baby isn't my responsibility anymore. Jenna made that clear," K.C. said bitterly, and Clare looked at him in confusion and curiosity.
"As the father of that baby, you are responsible for her," Lisa insisted. "I want you to call up Jenna and ask her if she needs anything after dinner."
"Can Clare stay for dinner?" K.C. blurted, biting his bottom lip slightly in a way that made him seem innocent and pleading.
"Sure," Lisa sighed, "but don't think I'm going to let you forget."
"I'm, um, not sure if that's a good idea," Clare said hastily.
K.C. frowned at her. "Why not?"
"I do need to study -"
"I promise we'll study after we eat."
"But K.C. -"
"No buts. Come on, Clare. You finally get to meet my mother; this could be good for us," K.C. whispered.
"'Us'? K.C., there isn't supposed to be an 'us'!" Clare whispered back, her voice rising in panic. "I don't want to get to know your mother because I don't want her thinking I'm going to be around, or that we're in a serious relationship." Clare hid her face in her hands. "Nobody was supposed to know about us."
"My mom isn't going to tell Eli," K.C. muttered.
"No, but I just…I didn't want anybody knowing."
"It's just dinner, Clare."
Clare glared at him. "Why do you even want me to? This -" Clare pointed back and forth between the two of them, "- was just supposed to be a casual fling."
"I love you, Clare," K.C. declared, and Clare's face paled, "and I want you around. I want you to meet my mother, and I want her to know everything about you; why I care about you the way I do, about our past, about my mistake of letting you go."
"I - I really should leave," Clare whispered, slinging her bag over her shoulder and gathering her books.
"Don't go," Lisa piped up, and Clare looked at K.C.'s mother, brow furrowing. She hadn't heard their conversation, right?
"K.C. won't do any of his work if there isn't somebody to keep him focused on it," Lisa explained. "And what you kids are working on is way beyond me."
"My mother has a point," K.C. said with a nod, completely oblivious of the panic and anxiety he was causing for Clare. "Please stay?"
"I….I…"
Clare couldn't breathe. Her heart was pounding against her chest, her lungs heaving as they attempted to take in air. She closed her eyes for a second, trying to get a grip on herself.
Being with K.C. wasn't supposed to be complicated. There was no strings attached, and she could come to him whenever she pleased without him saying a thing. She was allowed to use somebody for once in her life.
But of course there were going to be complications. She even knew that one of them would probably fall for the other again; though of course, she had expected it to be her.
And now K.C. was starting to scare her with his words of adoration, his need for her to stay. He wasn't half as bad as Eli, but the fact that what Clare had run away from was following her terrified her.
Did she honestly just have to take a break and be all by herself, cut off from all boys?
"O-okay," Clare whispered against her better judgment.
A grin spread across K.C.'s face. "Great!" He gently took her bag and books from her, placing them on the couch before leading Clare the four steps to their smiling dining table. He pulled out a seat for her, and Clare smiled politely before sitting down.
Lisa placed the bucket of chicken in the center of the table, then rifled through the plastic bag looped through her arm and pulling out a box of biscuits and coleslaw. She grabbed a few paper plates from a cabinet, distributing them to each person, and then grabbed a fork for everybody and distributed those as well.
"I'm sorry that I can't make a home cooked meal like you're used to, Clare," Lisa apologized, sitting down with a sigh. "I'm a little rusty at being a mother."
"Oh no, it's fine," Clare assured her, spooning some coleslaw onto her plate and grabbing a chicken leg.
"It's too bad you weren't over yesterday. We had Chinese, and there's this great place around the corner that Mom gets ours from," K.C. said through a mouthful of food. He swallowed what he was chewing, then took a ravenous bite out of a large chicken leg.
"It's too bad," Clare repeated K.C., trying to make her voice sound sincere.
They sat in silence for a moment, Clare picking at her coleslaw with her fork before deciding to finally scoop some into her mouth.
"So, Clare, how do you know my son?" Lisa asked politely, attempting to make conversation.
"We're both in the Gifted Program at Degrassi. We met in freshman year," Clare replied simply.
"Oh, so you guys have been friends for awhile now?"
Clare looked at K.C. warningly, and he ignored her and said, "We were friends for awhile in freshman year, then started dating."
Lisa's eyes widened slightly, but she just nodded. "Ah, I see."
Clare could tell that Lisa was curious as to what happened between them or what had been going on currently, and Clare quickly said, "We broke up in the middle of our freshman year," Clare muttered. She refused to say why, not wanting to give out what she felt was private information.
"I was eyeing other girls," K.C. told his mother honestly, and Clare's neck flushed in annoyance at his openness. "I left Clare for Jenna. Biggest mistake I ever made." K.C. looked pointedly at Clare, and the blush spread to her cheeks.
Lisa coughed awkwardly at her son's confession. "Well. I'm sorry you feel that way, sweetie." She looked at Clare, and Clare could see the apology forming on the woman's lips. But Lisa held it in, not wanting to make anything more uncomfortable.
"Mom, I want to tell you so that you don't find out by accident and think of it as something else," K.C. began, and Clare looked at him in panic. "Mom, earlier you walk in on me and Clare making out. I care for her, and I don't want to be with Jenna. Jenna could tell, and that's why she told me not to worry about Lauren. Well, more like she told me I wasn't allowed near here. I want to be with Clare."
Clare sat there, shocked, for a moment before rapidly getting out of her seat. "Thank you, so much, for dinner, Mrs. Guthrie," Clare thanked K.C.'s mother, "but I believe it's time for me to go."
"Clare, hang on!" K.C. called to her as she gathered her things again and bustled to the front door. "Clare!"
Clare was about to shut the door behind her when K.C. stuck his foot in between, stopping it from closing. "Wait," he breathed.
Clare whipped around to look at him, her body shaking nervously. "K.C., you knew you weren't supposed to tell!" she whisper-shouted. "It's an affair! It's supposed to be a secret!"
"But I don't want it to be anymore!" K.C. growled fiercely. He opened the door a little and stepped forward, closer to Clare, and she took a step back. He sighed. "Clare, I don't want this to be just a little fling anymore. I want you; I want to be seen in public with you. I want to be able to hold your hand, and kiss your cheek, and wrap my arm around your waist and pull you closer to me. I want to have everybody see that you're mine."
"But I'm not," Clare responded softly.
"That's right. You're that Goth boy's," K.C. said, tone harsh and bitter.
"I didn't want anything serious from this K.C.," Clare groaned. "You knew that!"
"But you couldn't just expect me, or even you, to not feel something from the other! I still love you! I never stopped!" K.C. exclaimed.
Clare shook her head. "K.C. -"
"Tell me you love me too."
Clare looked up into K.C.'s wide brown eyes, and she could see the hope, the begging, shining in them. She didn't want to let him down or make him upset. But she didn't want to feed him lies either. She cared about K.C., she did, but she didn't…she didn't think she loved him. Not the way he must love her.
"I don't know," Clare admitted, and K.C. looked down at his feet dejectedly.
"Then I can't do this anymore," he whispered.
"No, K.C., please -"
"You need to choose. I can't live like this anymore. It's either me or Eli." K.C. said his name with such loathing and hatred that it made Clare wince.
"I can't…please, don't ask me to do that."
"You have to. Or else I'm done."
Clare looked at him with her blue eyes, trying to force him to take back his words with her innocent-looking face. But he looked away, and she swallowed hard. "I'll call you when I…when I choose," she muttered, and almost ran down the hall, trying to hold back the gasps escaping from her lips as she struggled to breathe, struggled to think.
She had screwed everything up.
And now she was paying the price by having to face one of the most difficult choices she had ever had to make.
Author's Note: Oooo, looks like things are starting to take a turn for the worst for Clare. How will it all play out? You'll just have to keep reading to find out! Haha, review, please! :)