I'll be the first to admit that I don't cope with rejection any better than the stereotypical teenage girl. Its embarrassing, but I've been holed up in my bedroom every moment that I wasn't at school eating raw cookie dough and chocolate ice cream. I have to get over this emotional blow soon or I'm going to be fatter than my great uncle Sal on my dad's side of the family. By the way, my great uncle Sal is about three hundred and fifty pounds, bald, and hasn't had a girlfriend since the 1970's. I really don't want to be as fat as my great uncle Sal. But I still took another spoonful of cookie dough from the package and put it in my mouth.
"Thanks Mrs. Abner...I'm sorry if that's not your last name...Bye Katie's mom!" It sounded like Kim just had an unpleasant conversation with my mother. Its best just to say hi and bye to my mother, that way she can't scold you about anything. She once lectured me for a good half hour about how Calvin wasn't going bald, he just had a large forehead. Calvin was definitely going bald, just for the record. Next thing I knew, Kim was barging into my room.
"Katie...what are you doing?" She seemed like she was going to say something else, but noticed what I was doing and just had to ask.
"Nothing." I said guiltily through a mouthful of chocolate chip cookie dough. Kim looked from me to my trashcan and back.
"How much cookie dough have you eaten?" She asked with her mouth hanging open a little bit.
"Three packages." I said, switching to the carton of chocolate ice cream.
"I think you have a problem. So I'm just going to take this..." She trailed off and made a grab for my ice cream and cookie dough. Some friend she is! Wasn't there some guideline in the girl code that prohibits this? Like thou shalt not take away thy friends comfort food? If it isn't, someone should definitely add it to the girl code. I think it's imperative that they do. Either way, there's no way Kim's getting her paws on my food. Death first.
"No I don't. I'll have you know its very common on my father's side of the family to eat your feelings! You can ask any unmarried man on that side, they're all over two hundred pounds and have no complaints! Its wonderful."
"Okay, I'm going to go for a different approach. Those crazy rules that you keep spouting out at the lunch table. Is there one about overeating?" She tried. I glanced at the notebook on my bedside table.
"Nope." I shoved another spoonful of ice cream into my mouth triumphantly. Instead of sighing in defeat like I expected her to do, she grabs my notebook and quickly flips to the pages of rules. I nearly dumped the half-melted ice cream on the carpet in my haste to get up. Kim already had a pen in her hand and was about to do the unthinkable. I thought about my options as quickly as I could manage. The way I saw it, there were only two. Option One: I could football tackle her and pry my notebook out of her hands. Somehow, I don't think that would be beneficial to our friendship and I could do without a repeat of what happened with Embry. That's the last time I kick him in the shins, I'll tell you that much. So that left me with Option Two: break my rules and throw a tantrum until she takes pity on me and gives in.
"KIM! You can't do that! It breaks rule number three: Don't Let Friends Alter the Code. You can check it, its there!" I pointed at my notebook frantically, trying to get her to look at it. She ignored my complaints and scribbled as she said, "Over...eating...is...bad...Handle...emotions...be tter." Kim smiled and handed my notebook back to me. For a second I didn't know what to say, which I think was a first for me. I think a couple of minutes passed before I said anything.
"I declare this rule void as it breaks rule number three!" I shouted.
"Overruled." She said. I was speechless again. I didn't have a rule for this. Has my friendship with her given her some power that I hadn't realized? I should have written down what to do when someone deliberately breaks the code. Killing would be wrong on about eighteen different levels not to mention the illegality of the action and the irrevocable guilt I would feel. And between you and me, I can only bludgeon things. I can't even kill a bug in my bedroom without enlisting Grandma Betty's help. Public humiliation is out of the question too, since I would probably end up screwing that up, and Kim is kind of my only girl friend. If I screwed this up, I would probably turn into one of those girls that teacher's call young man by accident. It happened to me once in the ninth grade. That bitchy teacher didn't even apologize when she realized I was a girl. After that I started wearing eyeliner in the hopes that something like that wouldn't happen again. So far it hasn't.
"Did I break you?" She asked. I guess I hadn't said anything for a couple of minutes.
"Maybe. I don't know how to handle this situation. I need more cookie dough." I reached for the quarter package of cookie dough that was left only to have Kim snatch the package out of my reach. I tried reaching for the ice cream, but she snatched that away too. I may have whined a little bit.
"You're mean today." I complained. I wanted my cookie dough. I could write a song about it. I think it would go something like, "Oh cookie dough, cookie dough, you helped me forget all my woes. You filled the cracks of my heart until Kim tore us apart."
It probably won't ever make the top forty songs, but I bet it could generate a cult following. After all, who doesn't like cookie dough? I guess some people make the stupid raw eggs argument. Let me tell you, I've been munching on raw cookie dough since I had teeth and I've never even gotten close to getting salmonella. I think parents just tell their kids that so they can lick the bowl themselves.
"I know you're upset about Jacob, but fattening yourself up won't make you feel any better."
"Did you miss the part where I told you about my dad's side of the family? Remember they're fat but content. That could be me someday." I whined. Kim gave me a really weird look.
"Katie. I'm saying this because you are my friend and I love you. Don't do this to yourself. I don't want to, but I will stage an intervention if I have to." I think that's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me, and I told her so.
"What I'm about to say, you should commit to memory, because the last time I said what I'm about to say was September eighteenth 2004. You're right. And I propose we blame this fifteen day long cookie dough and chocolate ice cream binge I've been on, on Jacob Black." Kim laughed and got me to leave my bedroom. I didn't ask where we were going as she led me outside and into the passenger seat of her car. I was just thrilled that she snapped me out of my state and actually got me to leave the house.
"Where are we going? Because my curfew on school nights in eight o'clock." I asked when I noticed the clock on her car radio. It was seven fifty-eight.
"You do realize Christmas break started three days ago?" Kim asked. That explained so much. Like how I thought I skipped school everyday this week without so much as a phone call home. I really need to pay more attention when I'm depressed. Or I can do one step better. From now on I vow that I will only be depressed if someone dies or is in a coma.
"I do now. Don't judge me."
"We're going to Sam and Emily's place."
"Why?" Kim mumbled something, but I couldn't tell what she said, so I asked again.
"The vampire battle is kind of tomorrow...and we're kind of hanging out just in case." She said. I thought about throwing myself out of the moving car for just a second.
"I'm guessing that Jacob will be there. Am I right?" I asked. Kim nodded.
"I want my cookie dough."
"Don't be fat and lonely like your dad's side of the family." She scolded. I sighed and thought about how happy I was being my present pant size.
"Fine, but you should know if I get a hold of another tire iron you will be responsible if I bludgeon Jacob with it." I told her. When we got to Sam and Emily's place, I may have sat in the car and refused to move for a good five minutes. In my defense though, I was only doing that because I desperately needed to build some nerve up. I really wish I was born with more of a backbone. It most likely would have prevented a lot of the embarrassing situations in my life. When I was finally out of the car, I found Kim on the back porch with a couple of other people. I hadn't seen Jacob yet, but I was sure he would be around here somewhere. Now that I thought of it, I wasn't sure if I wanted to take the bludgeon Jacob approach or the break down like a demanding girlfriend and beg him to sit out during the battle. I'm so conflicted. If I weren't so full from all the binge eating I'd been doing, I probably would have stuffed my face with food from the table full of snacks that Emily left out just for something to do.
Jacob made an appearance a couple minutes later, and I think my heart stopped just a little bit. I still haven't decided if I thought that was positive or negative yet. All I know is that everyone on the porch including Embry stopped talking. I don't know if it was coincidental or if everyone was just waiting to see what I would do.
"Hey." I said with an awkward wave as I tried not to do my nervous talking thing.
"So, about what happened..." I decided to stop Jake right there. I wasn't interested in rehashing the incident at the Cullen house, mostly because it would probably make me want cookie dough really bad.
"I'd really rather not talk about how stupid I think it is that you're risking your life for a married woman who you never dated and her half-vampire baby that will probably never know you as anything other than it's mommy's former best friend. I may not know a lot about vampires, but judging by the one that attacked me, they shouldn't be messed with." How is it that whenever I try not to nervous talk, I end up nervous talking way worse than I would have if I just let nature run it's course? As I go over the words in my head, I'm pretty sure I was a bit harsher than I needed to be. Jacob is barely my friend anyway, so I think I could handle him being mad at me. It's not like he talks to me all that much anyway. Now that I think about it, I really wish he would talk to me a little more. It wouldn't even be that hard. I've been known to carry both halves of the conversation when the situation demands it.
"If you're going to insult me, can you go into the house and do it?" I thought about it for a minute and said, "Actually, I think I got it all out of my system."
"Just come into the house with me?" He asked. I didn't see how it would hurt, so I followed him inside.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" I asked.
"I just wanted to say sorry for hurting your feelings." I wanted to be mad and pretend that my feelings weren't hurt, but I didn't think that would have helped anything.
"Its fine. Are you sure I can't change your mind, though?" I had to ask. He gave me a kind of guilty looking smile and shook his head.
"Okay then." I'm not sure when I decided on my next action, but the next thing I knew I was pulling Jacob's face down to my level and laying a kiss squarely on his lips. I'll admit, it was my first kiss. Like most first things I do, I felt a little awkward. Jake didn't shove me off when he realized what I was doing, so I figured I wasn't an awful kisser. We kept kissing for around ten seconds, I would guess. And when it was over, I kind of wanted to kiss him again, but since I'd lost the element of surprise I didn't dare try it again. Jake looked like he was about to say something, but I beat him to it.
"Don't say anything. I mean you can if you want, but I'd rather you wait until tomorrow so that way I know you have some tiny motivation to not die. I mean I know you aren't suicidal or anything, but just in case you have one of those moments where you're like what do I have to live for, you can think 'hey I wonder why the hell Katie kissed me yesterday' and then bam! You don't die! See ya." With that I ran away and hid in Kim's car.