The next morning...
She still felt like the advice she was given was not going to work, but Katie felt like now was finally a good enough time to finally tell her father about Chaz...
Without a second to lose, Katie woke up, got dressed, and headed downstairs to meet up with her father down in the kitchen. She peeks through the walkway that leads into the dining room, seeing the older dentist cooking pancakes for the both of them like he normally would every morning. He seemed pretty relaxed so far, even a bit happy at the moment. Taking a deep breath, Katie decided to enter the kitchen to finally get all of this over with.
Walking up to the side of the stove where her father was, she leans on the side of the counter while crossing her arms with a cringe on her face. "Good morning, dad." The tomboy said in a rather awkward tone of voice.
The older dentist turned his head towards his daughter, before smiling at her. "Ah, good morning, Kathryn." He said. "How did you sleep last night?"
"Well...great, despite the heavy amount of rain outside..." Katie chuckled nervously, before placing her hands in her jacket pockets. "Also...Sapphire woke me up in the middle of the night...we talked to each other a bit, and...well..." She paused for a second, unsure how to tell her dad about everything that went on in the past week. "I just...really need to confess something to you, dad. You're probably not going to like it."
"Kathryn, whatever you have to confess to me, I highly doubt that I would truly find it horrendous." He places some pancakes down on the two plates before the stove, then hands on of them to his daughter. "Why don't we go to the table? Then you shall reveal to me what you have to confess."
"Uh...sure, dad."
Taking her plate, Katie brought it over to the dining room table, while her father proceeded to collect the bottle of syrup and milk carton from the refrigerator. The older dentist brought the two items over to the table, then sat down in one of the chairs next to his daughter. Once he was seated, the father finally spoke up to her.
"Now what seems to be bothering you, Kathryn?" The tomboy's father asked her.
"Alright...so, this entire week's been...kind of not how I was expecting it to be. I mean, I've already reunited with most of my closest friends, and I got the best job that I could have ever asked for...but..." Katie paused for a second to glance forward at her own father, seeing the confused look he was giving her. She cringed, before letting out a sigh. "You know what...I'm just going to cut to the chase here...so somewhere at the beginning of this week, back when I finally returned to Simport, Crystal and I were talking and she wanted me to meet one of her friends. This friend of hers that she was referring to...turned out to be a total bad boy, as well as a bully back in high school...he has a motorcycle, a bad attitude, bad hair...even bad breath..." It was at this point, her father's causal look turned into that of a mixture of surprise and dismay, which was a look that she always hated to see on her own father. "This friend of hers...came to our house while you were at work on the day before I you hired me, along with his girlfriend."
Katie continued to stare at her father, who was now narrowing her eyebrows at her. "So you really did have somebody over at the house that day? Didn't you?" All the girl could do was frown, not saying a single word to her father after he asked her this. "Well...I must say, quite frankly, that I am appalled by this, Kathryn...I genuinely thought I taught you better than this."
"I'm...I'm sorry, dad..."
"Is there anything else that I need to know about?"
"Well...there's actually more..." Katie leans forward onto the table, continuing to explain everything. "So...this friend of hers now...I don't completely know what happened, but his girlfriend cheated on him days after they visited our house. He became depressed, so I stumbled upon his house and I comforted him. Then days later, after he and Crystal hung out at Club Candy...he told me that he has feelings for me, and..." She glanced up at her father once again, who still didn't seem to be happy with what he was hearing. Despite this, Katie just decided to finally reveal the part of this situation that she knew he'd get mad at. "...I might actually have feelings for him too..."
Katie glanced at her father once again, and as she expected and feared, he still looked incredibly disappointed to be hearing all of this. It didn't seem like Sapphire's plan was working whatsoever. It seems like this plan was only making this situation even worse. At this point, she wasn't so sure why she had even listened to somebody like her in the first place if it's just going to anger her father.
"So, what you're telling me here, Kathryn...is that you want to date a bad boy?" Katie's father said, clearly not satisfied with his daughter's decision.
"Well, yeah...but..." Katie started off saying, before her father interrupted her.
"Not another word...I vigorously disapprove of you being in a relationship like this, Kathryn."
"Dad, come on! Chaz became a lot more of a nicer person after he and I continued to hang out! Clearly, I was somehow able to get through to him..."
"Chaz?!" Her father interrupts again.
"Yeah, that's his name...Chaz McFreely..."
"McFreely?" A shocked expression appeared on her father's face, suddenly remembering that name. "Oh my...I never knew he had a son..."
"What are you talking about?"
"Back during my years in high school, one of my classmates was Sheldon McFreely. He was one of the members of the school's football team. Now, he and I never spoke much, as obviously, I never associate myself with any of the jocks throughout my youth...however, like what you're saying about Chaz, Sheldon was a bully just like him." Katie cringed hearing that, as her father continued to explain to her about Chaz's father. "The only time that I have ever truly associated myself with him was when I was supposed to be doing a science project with him...but that was a day that I would heavily regret allowing myself to visit his house. When I arrived there, I found him drunk on his own couch...not only that, but he had also invited his girlfriend without me knowing about it first." He sighed, before leaning forward onto the table. "Throughout the time of my visit, I couldn't help but notice that his girlfriend was visibly shaking with fear at certain times...I didn't question her about it, until the next day. We met with each other at the coffee shop together, where she informed me that Sheldon was...heavily aggressive towards her, let's just say..."
"Oh shit..." Katie mutters, disturbed to be hearing that. "Chaz told me that his father was an asshole, but...damn...then what happened, dad?"
"We just talked about what she was going through, and then I just advised her to get out of the relationship that she was in...then the next day, she came to me, and told me that she did." The man then frowned. "As for Sheldon, I don't exactly know what happened after they broke up...the only thing I knew afterwards was that he found himself a new girlfriend, and the time I heard about that, I was already in college."
"Well, Chaz told me that he works alongside his dad at the town's auto-shop..."
"Then I sincerely pity that boy for having such a father like him." He sighed. "I just genuinely hope that he isn't anything like his father..."
"Well, dad...he isn't. Granted, Chaz was a bit of an asshole when I first met him, but like I said, he is a lot nicer now than you think." Looking at her father's face, Katie could clearly tell that nothing she was saying was convincing her dad one bit. "Dad, come on...the least that you could do is just meet him for yourself. Believe me, he's really a bully anymore, and he's a lot nicer now that he has me as a friend."
Katie's father gave it a moment to think. With everything that his daughter was saying, she seems to be genuine about all of this...but at the same time, he was still very iffy about this. Although he trusts his daughter on anything and everything completely, he still wasn't too sure if Chaz was all that trustworthy. Then again, Katie hasn't let him down before when it comes to something that he found not very studious, such as her skateboarding and her being friends with a rebellious girl like Crystal. Now that he was remembering that, he started to doubt that nothing bad will come out of Katie and Chaz dating.
With a sigh, the father gave his daughter a smile and shook his head left and right. "Oh alright, Kathryn...I can never turn down a well-behaved daughter like you anyhow..." He told her, before patting her on the shoulder. "I will allow you to date him...however, I still must meet with him first before you actually start dating."
"Thanks, dad." Katie said with a smile, before glancing down at her phone to look at the time. "Anyways, we probably should finish up breakfast now. We don't want to be late for work."
"Good point." The two continued to eat their breakfast to themselves. After that, they two headed upstairs, got changed into their dentist uniforms, then headed off to work.
Meanwhile...
Now that it was morning, that means that the hurricane is finally gone from Simport. There was no more rain, no thunder, and no lightning to be either seen or heard throughout the town, with the only exception that stayed being the wind. However, the wind was a more lighter than it was last night during the storm. All in all, it was another beautiful sunny day in this town and everybody was happy once again.
Unfortunately, the only person who truly wasn't happy was Ray. He was happy to know that the storm outside had finally passed like everyone else, but even that wasn't enough for him to crack a smile...not that it would've anyway. He just couldn't stop thinking about everything that had happened between him and Victoria last night. He couldn't believe that he truly had restrained feelings for this girl that he only considered a friend. He couldn't even believe that he actually cheated on Raven.
Ray didn't know who to even turn to about this. He obviously can't tell Raven about this, and there's no way he's going to be telling James about this either. He knew Violet was going to be furious and immediately tell Raven afterwards about it. As for Ghostly...he didn't know if he would be able to even keep this secret, let alone keep it from the best friend of his girlfriend.
Seeing that he has no other options here, the goth decided to turn to the only other friends that he can talk to about this, those being Goth Boy and Yuki. Both of whom he found at the former's house, prepared to drive the both of them off to their jobs at the Boardwalk. Right before they could leave, Ray caught up to them right as they were about to get in the car. After telling them everything, both of them were shocked hearing about this...especially Goth Boy, despite the fact that he wasn't showing any sort of emotion as he usually does.
"So...let me get this straight..." Goth Boy started off saying, before leaning on the side of his car door. "You and that Victoria girl spent the entire day at the carnival together...then you returned home which was when the storm hit...and then you made out with her?"
Letting out a depressed sigh, Ray nodded his head. "Yeah...all of that is true..." He said, clearly sounding guilty about everything that he did.
"Should I even ask why you decided to do something like this?! You just cheated on Raven!"
"Don't you love her anymore?!" Yuki asked, sounding just as appalled as her boyfriend. "We thought you and Raven loved each other knowing how inseparable you two usually are!"
"Look, I love Raven...we've been dating since the beginning of high school and we're lucky to still be together now, but..." Ray took a pause, letting out another depressed sigh before leaning on the side of his friend's car. "After me and Victoria hung out together the entire day yesterday, I just...felt like there's feelings that I have for her that I never knew I had. Throughout the time we spent together at both the carnival and at my house, I felt like there was no other girl around me other than her...and when we kissed, every single restrained feeling I had just came pouring out of me." He then looks away, still frowning with clear guilt heard in his voice. "...It felt like me and Raven never even dated at all."
Goth Boy could only shake his head in disappointment at his friend. "Does Raven know about this?" He asked in a cold tone of voice.
"No, she doesn't. I can't just tell her that I cheated on her with Victoria." Ray said, before pointing towards the goth leader's house. "Don't you remember days ago that she came at her assuming there was something between us the first time?"
"So, you're just going to lie to her about this?" Yuki asked. "Yuki can't believe that you're deciding to do something like THIS, Ray."
"Well, what the hell do you guys want me to do?!" Ray nearly shouts while throwing his arms into the air.
"Listen Ray, I don't know what you were hoping us to say when you were gonna tell us all of this, but what happened between you and Victoria is none of our concern." Goth Boy said, before he and Yuki got into his car. The goth poked his head out of the car window, continuing to talk to Ray about his situation. "All I can say is that when Raven finds out about all of this, she's going to be pissed. Not to mention, and I can't believe I'm actually bringing him up into this, but I also doubt that James would be okay with you starting a relationship with his step-sister."
"Oh shit...I totally forgot that James isn't going to be happy about any of this either..." Ray mutters, before leaning forward onto the driver's seat window. "Look, Goth Boy, I don't know who else that I can turn to about this other than you. Consider this, if it were you in my shoes, and it was Winter Takara you reunited with...would've you done the same thing I did?"
After the goth had mentioned that name, Goth Boy's eyes widened in surprise. Out of all things that his friend could say or bring up in a situation like this, he couldn't believe that he had to bring up her of all people. A former friend of his that had moved out of Simport awhile back. It was already getting tedious for Ray to try to bring both him and his girlfriend into his relationship problem, but him having to bring up one of his former friends was beginning to cross the line. Goth Boy grew annoyed then glared at Ray, now pointing at his face.
"Alright! I think I heard enough out of you!" Goth Boy shouts, before placing his arm back into the car. "Look, all I can tell you is that if you no longer love Raven, dump her! If you love Victoria more, then date her! Once you're done dealing with this bullshit that you're trying to drag me and Yuki into, come talk to me!" After that was said, Goth Boy backs out of his driveway and then drove off to the Boardwalk.
'Fine! Whatever!' Ray said in his thoughts, before proceeding to walk away from his friend's house. 'I have to meet up with my friends at the coffee shop anyway!' The goth's angry look slowly turned into a depressed and concerned look as he continued to walk away.