Chapter 3:
The next day, Monday morning, John was getting out of his 8 am Journalism class when he ran into Jessica by the Bookstore.
"Hey," John said.
"Hi, John," Jessica replied. "What's up?"
"Not much," John answered. "I heard that Miguel and Charity had dinner at your house," he told her. "How was that?"
"Good, good," Jessica beamed. "She told me today that she wants me to be the maid of honor."
"Oh, that's great," John responded absently. His mind was somewhere else. "How is Kay taking everything?"
Jessica scoffed. "The way Kay would, that's for sure," she frowned. "Kay claims to love Miguel. She can't be happy for him and Charity because she thinks she can make him happier. Sometimes I don't like to call her my sister. She is just so focused on Miguel and getting him to be hers that she doesn't care about anything else."
"You know I don't know her that well, but after Miguel and Charity announced to her that they were going to get married, we went to coffee together. And she didn't seem so bad. She definitely didn't seem the way you stated her to be."
"Well, I don't want to be rude, John, but you don't know Kay. All she cares about is Miguel." Jessica features contorted into a look of displeasement at the mention of her older sister.
"You know I never had any brothers or sisters," John told her. "So maybe I don't know what it's like. But the way you think of your sister seems so unpleasant to me. I would never think that badly of my sister, or at least I hope I wouldn't." He paused as he analyzed Jessica's face.
She stared back at him, speechless. She didn't know what to say, because she knew deep down that he was right.
"I'll see you later," John mumbled when he realized that Jessica had nothing to say to what he had just told her. Everyone tells me what they think of Kay, John thought to himself, but now it's my turn to find out what she is really like.
Jessica nodded as he walked off, her thoughts trailing to those about her sister. He's right, she admitted to herself. But if she would just focus on stuff not Miguel-related then maybe things would be different. Between us and her other friends. I would actually be civil to her and probably so would Reese, Simone and even Miguel. She sighed, wrapping the coat around her for warmth as she walked to her next class.
___________________________________________________________________________
Late that afternoon, after Kay had finished all of her classes and her shift at work, she headed back to the dorm she shared with Whitney and Theresa.
She let herself in, only to find her older brother, Noah, sitting on Theresa's bed. She could hear Theresa in the bathroom taking a shower.
"Hey bro," she managed out. She was dead-tired.
"Hey, you look like hell," he responded nonchalantly.
"Thanks for noticing," she sneered sarcastically before flopping down on her bed.
"What's wrong, Kay?" he asked worriedly. He could tell something was wrong. Kay barely ever talked sarcastically to anybody.
"I'm just beat, ok?" she insisted. "It's been a long day."
"Come on, Kay. I know that's not it. Tell me, why weren't you at the dinner get together Mom planned this past weekend?"
Kay sighed. He had her cornered. She was surprised to know, though, that Noah didn't know about the whole thing with Miguel. She knew that her older brother was not that close with the family, but she did expect him to know about that.
She stared back at Noah, not really answering his question.
Lowering his voice so Theresa wouldn't hear from the next room, "does this have to do with Miguel?" he asked out of the blue, surprising her once again.
She stared at him, both eyebrows raised in shock. "How did you...."
"Mom told me," he replied, answering the question Kay was most likely going to ask.
"Oh, well, I'm sure she told you her biased version of it," Kay scoffed angrily.
Noah chose to ignore that last comment. "Kay how long have you been feeling this way?"
"Five years," Kay replied after a moment of silence. "I even told him three years ago how I felt. Do you know what he said?" she asked him, unhappiness etching her face.
Of course, Noah didn't, so he shook his head. But he could tell that it wasn't going to be a good thing.
"He said that now he knew why I was on the softball team he was on and why I tried to be his best friend. Just so I can get closer to him." She peered into the eyes of her brother. "Do you know how much that hurt?! For him not to say that he loves me back is hard enough. But to say that! It was just like a bullet through my heart."
Noah noticed the sadness in Kay's voice. He wished he could take the pain away, but he knew he couldn't.
"We haven't been the same ever since. Our friendship is dead. Now every time he sees me, I can tell he is thinking what my next plot is to break him and Charity apart. He says he sees the real Kay Bennett now. The one who schemes and lies just to get what she wants. But I'm not completely like that. But that's what he thinks. That's what he's always going to think." She sighed before feeling her brother wrap his arms around her in a hug.
Noah and Kay heard the bathroom door unlock. Theresa stepped out, covered in her robe. She saw her roommate and boyfriend hugging. The mood surrounding them seemed sad.
"What's wrong?" she asked them both.
"Umm," Noah began.
"Nothing," Kay interrupted quickly. "I, uhh, I just need some fresh air." She reached over to grap her purse. Sending a look of don't-tell-her-anything to her brother, she was out the door.
"Why did Kay look so sad?" Theresa asked Noah once she left.
"Oh, don't worry about it," Noah said. Trying to change the subject, he bent down to kiss his girlfriend.
"Hmmm," Theresa murmured as Noah deepened the kiss.
___________________________________________________________________________
Kay walked out of her dorm room. Hungry as hell, she decided to get something to eat from the food complex close to the bookstore. It was a fifteen minute walk, but she didn't care. Maybe she could use that time to clear her head a little bit.
Kay got to the food complex, the headache that had started when she had walked away from Noah and Theresa had subdued considerably. Having opted for some pizza, she sat down in one of the tables, and began to eat.
Looking around her, she saw John stepping out of the bookstore. She waved to him, inviting him over.
"Hi, Kay," he smiled. "How are you?"
"I'm good. What are you doing here?" she asked.
"Buying some books."
"Do you want to join me?" she pointed to an empty chair next to hers.
"Sure," he said, before sitting down. He was hoping he would run into her one of these days. He was remembering the conversation he had with Jessica earlier that day and how he wanted to find out for himself what Kay was really like. Growing up, John always hated how people would let other peoples' opinions on things become their own. He vowed he would never do that himself, under no circumstance. This situation was no different.
"So how was your day?" she asked. She really didn't know John that well, but he seemed nice. Plus he had this uncanny way of making her forget about her problems with Miguel and everyone else.
"Not bad. I got an A - on my English paper," he told her, remembering that she was fond of English.
"Oh really? That's great. Do you mind if I take a look at it?" Kay asked, interested.
"No, not at all. As long as you're not planning on plagiarizing," John joked.
Kay let out a soft laugh. "This is for English 255 right?"
"Yeah," John replied. He handed her the paper.
"Thanks," Kay replied. "Do you mind if I give it to you tomorrow? I want to read the whole thing."
"Go ahead," John answered.
Silence came forth between the two.
John didn't know how to start a conversation with Kay about Miguel and Charity without sounding completely obvious and getting her upset. So he just said the first thing that came to mind:
"Kay, umm, I was wondering if you were planning on going to Miguel and Charity's wedding."
The remote amount of happiness that was already on Kay's face disappeared in an instant at the mention of the engaged couple.
"What?" she asked, confused.
"Are you planning on going?" he pressed again.
"Did they make you ask me?" Kay asked, bewildered, referring to Miguel and Charity.
"No, no," John exclaimed. "I'm asking you. I don't have a date for the wedding and I thought maybe we could go together."
"Oh," Kay said, sitting back in her seat. "I mean how close is the wedding? There's still a few months left right?"
"One month," John informed her.
Kay's eyes bulged. One month?! "Oh, I, umm, I'd love to go with you, but I don't know if I'm going at all."
Kay couldn't miss that look of disappointment on John's face. But she was disappointed, too. Disappointed that she couldn't be the better person in all of this, and just go to the wedding, and put on her bravest face. Make herself proud. Make everybody proud.
{a/n: in response to what sailorj-chan wrote in the review: dont worry if theres grace bashing now. i hate grace, but with this fic im doing a lot of things i normally wouldnt do. like pair kay with john instead of miguel. the grace bashing will end trust me. but only this fic lol. anyways, i hope ur still reading this. im trying my best to upload asap but its not easy with 4 other fics out there. oh well. more to come soon}
