I awoke to a soft knocking at my bedroom door. At first I wasn't even sure that it was a knock at my door. When you have spent the good portion of your life living with a bunch of boys you learn not to react to every sound. So after the first knock as I was slowly coming out of the sleep from my afternoon nap I just turned and looked at my bedroom door. Then when the second knock came to the door I actually decided that someone was actually knocking for a reason and decided that I should respond.
"Come in" I yelled while stretching on my bed trying to wake up.
Then came a third knock to the door. What the hell was all that came to my mind as I angrily got out of bed to actually open the door. I yanked the door open to see who was on the other side and to my surprise it was Ryan.
"hey" was all I could say as I stared at him perplexed. In all the years that James had known my brothers not once had he ever been on the second floor of the house and even if he had there was a strict stay out of Kate's room rule.
"Bobby wanted me to tell you dinner is in 10 minutes" he stated in a very matter of fact way before turning on his heels and heading back down stairs.
"They you go being bobby's bitch again" I yelled after Ryan who was already half way down the stairs. I wasn't really mad at Ryan, in truth I really didn't have an opinion of Ryan, in all the time that I had known him I can remember having no more then a couple words pass between the two of us. But the point was I was pissed once again at Bobby. What made him think that I would just come when ever he declared? Why did he think that he ran the world and when he said come, I should just come running? I was getting sick of him controlling everything and him thinking he had the right to.
I threw on a sweatshirt over my tank top and walked down the stairs as slow as possible. When I made my way down the stairs and threw the hall into the dinning room I was surprised to see Jack, Angel and Bobby sitting at the table, with dinner on it, waiting for me.
"Hey Sunshine" Bobby pleasantly said to me as he got up and gave me a hug.
I hugged him back, with all my strength. God how I missed Bobby's hugs. Nothing was better than getting a hug from Bobby. They didn't happen often but when they did they were amazing. I felt safe, protected and like I was 7 again and nothing in the world could go wrong. After hugging him for a couple of minutes I started to let go but Bobby wouldn't let me go, he pulled me back and continued hugging me, so I continued hugging him back. Forgetting all the anger I had at him earlier in the day.
After a couple more minutes he finally let me go. And sat back down in the set that he was sitting in before I walked into the room. I turned to Jack and looked at him as if to ask, "what the hell was that all about", but all Jack did was look away from me. Which struck me as odd because Jackie was always my little informant. The little I knew about Bobby and his "business" was because Jackie wasn't good at keeping secrets but I guess this time his lips were sealed.
Deciding to just enjoy the hug and not push my luck I sat down on one side of the table so that I was facing Jackie and Bobby was at one head of the table and Angel was at the other. When Bobby started to serve himself, I was surprised.
"Where is everyone else, aren't they eating with us" I asked to everyone in the room
"No not tonight" was Bobby's answer. "Tonight is just the family"
That was crazy we hadn't had just a family dinner since right after mom died. But I wasn't going to go all crazy thinking about what was going on I was just going to enjoy it having my brothers all to my self, it hadn't happened in so long. Maybe what I said to Bobby the other day, about not getting enough time with them, finally sunk in and he decided to but someone above himself for once.
"So…." I started trying to get some conversation started as we sat there eating our dinner.
"So…" Replied angle in a mocking tone.
"Don't you know what I was trying to do" I said to him as I stuck my tongue out at him for some reason this whole family dinner and the Bobby hug has mad me want to act like a 5 year old.
"How was your day" I directed at Bobby
"How was school?" Was his answer obviously not wanting to talk about him
"It was good, except for that one little problem I have been having" I stated
"You have been having a problem" Bobby asked with concern, almost to much concern for my liking.
"Yeah…actually a giant problem" I replied
"What, you have to tell me Katherine, I swear to God I will kill wh…." Bobby started back at me in a protective voice.
"Chill…my giant problem is Mike" I got out before this went to far, something was definitely up.
"Oh" was Bobby's only reply.
The rest of the dinner was extremely pleasant. It was like old times, back in the day when everything was perfect and my brothers where my world and mom was always there to make things better.
Dinner was perfect, so perfect that I never wanted it to come to an end. For once I was just me and my brothers, exactly how it should be, exactly how I wanted it to be. But if I have learned one thing from mom's death it is that all good things must come to an end, nothing good and perfect can last forever.
"Oh my gosh. Today at school this girl Tina was walking down the hallway…" I started to tell them a funny story that happened at school that day as we ate dessert.
"Bobby" yelled Ryan as the back door crashed open. And in trounced Ryan followed closely by the fearsome foursome, Mike, and some other people that I had seen before yet didn't know there names.
All three of my brothers stood up the minute that they heard the back door crash open. Ryan started to say something, looked at me and then leaned into Bobby's ear and said something. The look on Bobby's face was unreadable, you could never read bobby that was part of him, and he was unreadable, maybe that is why some people were scared of him.
When Ryan was done whispering into Bobby's ear, Bobby looked over at me, then turned to everyone else in the room and said "Lets go!!!"
"As everyone started moving out of the back door, including Angel and Jackie, I looked over at Bobby with the worst sadness in my eyes, in truth I was almost on the verge of tears. Bobby opened his mouth to say something; I thought maybe he was going to apologize to me.
"Mike you stay here with Kate, call me if anything happens" Bobby order.
"Bobby just stay, don't go, what ever it is don't go, or can I come with you? I don't want to stay here with Mike." I begged him
Bobby pried my hand off of his arm and when I latched on again he pried me off again and pushed me into Mike's arms who wrapped around me in a hugging position to hold me off of Bobby. The backwards hug that Mike was giving me was with the same strength that Bobby's hug earlier was but it wasn't the same. In Bobby's hug I felt safe and warm, in Mikes hug I felt abused and restrained. And as I stood there struggling to get out of Mikes death grip Bobby, Angel, Jackie and all the boys hurried out the door. My entire life, my entire world just walked out on me on my perfect dinner. When the sound of the cars was finally gone Mike let go of me. I turned around and just stared at him.
"Fuck you, fuck you all, I am not dealing with this shit anymore, for all I care you can all die and burn in Hell, I am sure it is were you all belong." I screamed at Mike before I stomped up the stairs and climbed into bed.
I pulled up the covers to my head and quickly fell asleep.
I heard the back door down stairs open and close, and then I heard hushed voices downstairs. I rolled over and looked at my clock. 3:30 am is what it was flashing at me. Then I heard the back door open and close again. Footsteps coming up the stairs. I heard the handle on my door turn and then the squeak of the door opening. I quickly shut my eyes as I saw Bobby walk in.
He sat on the edge of my bed, pulling the covers back up to my chin and tucking them in around me like I was 6 again. Then he just sat there for a couple minutes. Then I heard something that I had never heard before, the most terrifying thing possible. I heard Bobby cry, and I felt one single tear drop fall from his face and hit my check as he leaned over and kissed me on the check and then went and sat in my computer chair by my desk.
I could feel his staring at me, but I didn't want him to know that I was awake, so I kept my eyes closed and tried to fall back asleep. After about an hour I was just about to fall asleep when I slightly opened my eyes to still see Bobby sitting in my chair, with something in his lap.
As I opened my eyes a little more to be able to make out what it was in his lap in the dark. My eyes and brain finally decided to work together and I wished I would have just kept my eyes closed because in his lap was sitting his gun with his hand on the trigger…as if waiting for something or someone.