Title: Hello Again
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: They don't belong to me, I'm making no money off this, and I'm using them without permission. I've got no money anyways.
Summary: Jessie and Katie make up. Follows my earlier songfic Goodbye to You but can be read without it.
Katie stopped, pushed Sarah away.
"I can't do this," she said almost inaudibly, getting up and walking a few steps away. "I'm sorry…I can't."
"Why not?" Sarah, frustrated, demanded. "She's gone!"
"Don't talk about her," Katie grated out.
"Why not? All she did was steal you from me!"
Katie's eyes flared. "Is that all I am to you?" she bit out. "A conquest?"
Sarah's eyes flashed in return. "You're still in love with her, I'd never get you anyway! I've tried to be patient. What is the bloody problem? That little bitch?!"
"Get out!" Katie spat furiously. "I never want to see you again!"
"Fine!" Sarah snarled, and stalked out.
Katie buried her face in her hands. She couldn't care about anything much, now. She'd never truly liked Sarah; she had been a trusted friend first and foremost. So when sparks started to form, neither were objective or mature enough to know it wouldn't work. They had been drunk on what they believed was love.
Then Jessie had come into her life. And Katie had suddenly realized that what she felt for Sarah was accelerated trust and friendship, nothing more. Lord knew she'd tried to balance her two girls…but she had been unable to do so, and had lost a good friend as a result. But she could deal with it because she had Jessie. But it was too hard to just be her friend when Katie felt-and wanted-so much more than Jessie could-no, would-give her. So she'd walked away from the pain. So now she was just numb inside. It was a small source of satisfaction that Jessie had told Tad no, she wasn't going to the dance; no, she didn't like him like him; and no, she didn't want to date him. But her appearance at anywhere Katie was was still a knife in her heart. But the dance was safe, because Jessie wouldn't be there-she had evinced no interest in the GSA dance since that first, fateful meeting. Katie wouldn't have to feel her heart break all over again.
She sighed, picking out an outfit for the dance later that night.
Jessie sighed. She had absolutely no interest in the dance tonight. But Grace was insisting she come, and her parents had all but forced her to go, so….
Grace had all but told Jessie to get her head out of her butt, and stop being indecisive when it came to Katie. Jessie had spent days soul-searching, and finally had figured out what she felt for the older girl. But it was too late, she discovered, as rumors of Sarah and Katie being back together had trickled through the school. Grace hadn't said anything, but her silence and subdued attitude had told Jessie she believed the rumors true. And despite the fact that she thought of Grace as a manipulative bitch, Jessie did think that Grace would have told her anything to the contrary.
Jessie sighed again. The most she could hope for was that she wouldn't be miserable tonight, seeing Katie and Sarah together. And the fact that Katie had been avoiding her didn't cheer her at all.
And naturally, this was the big hyped-up Gay/Straight Alliance dance. Whoopee.
Oh, God. Katie stopped dead, halfway through the motion of pulling her jacket off, having just come in from the pouring rain.
Jessie was there. Looking exquisitely beautiful in a blue top and burgundy short skirt that somehow, impossibly, matched. Talking quietly to Grace. Mechanically, Katie pulled her coat the rest of the way off her body. Then, as she saw Jessie, with some preternatural sixth sense, begin to frown and turn in her direction, she fled, leaving her coat on the coat table as she fled outside into the downpour.
Jessie turned back around and resumed talking to Grace. Whose mouth was wide open. Jessie turned back around, halfway hoping that what she thought she'd seen from the corner of her eye was true, that Katie was there-because she was aching to see her friend.
Sarah and some girl not Katie were walking in, arm in arm. They were both dressed rather revealingly, and had a comfortably steamy mood about them as Sarah wrapped an arm possessively around the girl's waist, drawing her tight.
"Sarah and Rachel Smith? Who'd've thought…," Grace trailed away. Jessie turned mechanically to her stepsister.
"I thought…."
"So did I," Grace confirmed quietly. "I'll be right back."
Jessie stood there in a daze, unmindful of the people trying to move around her.
If Sarah and some new girl were going out-as they apparently were-it meant…she and Katie weren't…and Katie was….
"Sarah and Katie broke up, this time pretty much for good," Grace murmured to Jessie, her heart having gone out to he stepsister as a fellow victim of love problems. "Sarah makes it sound mutual, but something tells me-aside from the fact that they look like they just slept together-that Katie dumped her."
"That's…." Jessie trailed off. Suddenly, she heard her name called by a voice she knew instinctively, and would always respond to.
"JESSIE!" Such heartrending emotion in the words, and she pivoted to see Katie. Drenched. Long hair plastered to her head, neck and back. Jeans and a blouse, unbuttoned with the cuffs hanging down to her wrists and beyond, clinging to her almost as tight as a bodysuit, almost skintight.
Absolutely beautiful.
Grace faded back behind her as Katie approached her, eyes on fire. "We need to talk," Katie all but growled. Standing not even an arm's length away from Jessie.
Jessie thought she might faint.
Katie was aware that she was invading Jessie's personal space. But she didn't care.
Jessie suddenly seemed to take previously unknown strength from somewhere, and make up her mind about something.
"No, we don't," she said decisively.
Then she kissed Katie, a small kiss, a peck on the lips that was sweet and tender and innocent and full of meaning. Jessie pulled back once, then forward again, still sweet, but more intense. They broke off, resting their foreheads together, bumping noses, which produced a bright, slow, sweet grin from Katie and a muffled giggle from Jessie.
"Still think we have to talk?" breathed Jessie, but before she could continue, she was interrupted.
"Awwww, ain't they so cute?" Grace drawled into the microphone, having relieved the DJ of it. Jessie looked up once to see that it seemed as if the entire dance population was staring at her and her-what? Girlfriend? That sounded nice, she thought in a distant dazed sort of way, still dizzy from the loving kiss.
Then the reality of her situation hit her, as she saw all the kids and more than a few of the chaperones staring at her and Katie, she blushed crimson and buried her face in the crook of Katie's shoulder and neck. Realized a second later that it just made things even more couple-y, but hey, whatever.
She felt rather than heard Katie's chuckle, the sound reverberating through her entire body. "Grace, hun, just remember that Jessie has access to all those embarrassing baby pictures of you, OK?" Katie teased dryly, and the crowd laughed.
Grace stuck out her tongue. "Anyways, I just wanted to say, welcome to the first Gay/Straight Alliance dance this school has seen for a while. So…yeah. Go have fun." And with that, the DJ resumed the music.
Jessie finally dared to remove her face from Katie's shoulder, and to her relief discovered that most of the crowd had drifted away from herself and Katie.
"Yeah, we do have to talk," Katie said quietly and affectionately as she gathered Jessie up into a hug, "But not now."
With that, she grinned and drew Jessie over to a table. Things were definitely looking up for both of them.
"I had a great time," Jessie told Katie sincerely. They were standing in front of Karen's house, having gone out for ice cream after the dance. They were now lingering on the porch, not wanting to part but knowing they were going to have to. They were holding hands, heads a few inches apart, hovering near each other, uncertain of what to do next.
"Stay the night," Jessie suddenly asked. "I don't…not like that!" she blushed as Katie gave her a shocked, but suggestive look. "Just…so we can talk, and hang, I don't know. We really do have to talk," she reminded her girl, becoming more serious.
Katie considered it for a moment. "All right," she finally acquiesced, and Jessie let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding.
They opened to door, only to find practically the entire Sammler clan there, along with Katie's parents, the Singers.
Jessie and Katie glanced at each other. "Uh oh," they muttered in unison, and, linking hands and taking deep breaths, went to face the forthcoming inquisition.