Author's Notes: A hearty thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. Hope you all enjoy this part as well. If you have any comments, good or bad, I'd like to hear them, so please review. Sorry, Broken, but I said at the beginning on the last chapter that Danny wasn't in this story. Let's continue, now.
Superstition
Katherine found herself looking into two distressed gray eyes, hardly visible through the mess of blond hair sitting on the man's head. These were the only feature she took in before realizing what he had done. A defiant anger coursed through her and her adrenaline set her mind on one goal. She looked down and found herself sitting between his legs. She shoved one of them away and rolled over to his other side.
"Mind your own business," she snapped. "Get out of my way. I'm busy." She stood up and walked to the wooden railing again, propping one foot up and preparing to stand again.
"In that case, can I make a suggestion?" said the blond boy behind her.
A sudden surge of annoyance went through her as she stared back down at the water beneath her. Why wouldn't this jerk go away, huh? She already told him to leave her to her privacy. Nor did she need someone trying to be heroic at her expense again.
Without waiting for an answer, he grabbed her around the waist and roughly pulled her from the rail. "Most people, when they commit suicide, slit their wrists or something along those lines. You probably don't even have a decent note written."
Kat flailed her legs out and hit his arms erratically. She struggled enough to where he let her fall out of his arms. Twisting around, she yelled, "What's your problem? Why on God's forsaken earth to you give a damn what I do? I don't even know you, so just leave me alone!" She turned back to the side of the bridge but felt her arm caught around the wrist by his hands. Now she was getting anxious. She faced the boy again and sent him a murderous look through her brown bangs.
If only looks really could kill. Both of them would be dead where they stood by the stare the stranger was giving her.
"No dice, babe," he said, his voice incredibly serious. "I'm not letting a pretty face like yours go six feet under."
A nerve was struck by his words. She yanked her wrist back but it wouldn't budge from his grasp. "Do not," she hissed, grunting while trying to pull free, "call me babe."
The boy held up his hands and took a step back. Suddenly, Katherine was confused. "Fine, I'll back off," he said. "It's not the best of ideas, even if you are crazy. But if you really want to go through with it… well, like I said, I'd hate to see a girl as pretty as you in a casket."
The words she was going to say in retaliation caught in her throat. She stared at him, feeling very lost, and mouthed wordlessly. After all that trouble he went through, holding her back forcefully from jumping, he was just going to quit? What was he on? Whatever it was she thought he should probably stop.
He turned around to leave, Katherine standing there dumbfounded. She glanced behind her at the water beneath her. The waves were churning a lot… and she out of the blue she remembered her fear of heights. Hah. Like a small fear like that could overwhelm her now. The only thing really keeping her back from breaking all ties with the screwed up life she led was –
"Who are you?" The words were out of her mouth before she even processed the question in her mind.
The boy turned around, his heavy black coat blowing slightly in the breeze. For the first time Katherine paid attention to his appearance. His blond hair reached down to his chin and he should've shaved two days ago. He was pale, wearing mostly black except for his white shirt. A green necklace hung from his neck and beyond the cuffs of his coat she saw a ring on each hand.
"I thought you were busy," he said, smirking in… what was that? Triumph?
Katherine crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "Answer my question."
"My name's Johnny," he said. "Or, as most people say, my name's Thirteen."
Again, his words plucked at something familiar in her mind. She cocked her head curiously. "Why do they call you that?" she asked.
He shrugged as though they were having friendly small talk. "Not sure, really. I think I'm supposed to have a claim to fame of being a klutz.
Kat gave another look out towards the creek. She was awfully uncomfortable now. It wasn't like she wanted to jump right in front of this guy. Thirteen. Johnny, whatever his name was. That wasn't the point. It seemed, though, that the longer he stalled her, the less perfect the idea seemed.
She wasn't sure whether to put him on the 'hate' or 'allow to live' list.
"So, what about you?" he asked.
"What about me?" she snapped, not looking away from below.
"Your name," he reminded her. He took a few steps forward and stood next to her at a safe distance. "What is it?"
"Oh. Katherine. Black Kat is what people call me."
He laughed. It really didn't fit the scene they were in. "That's ironic, isn't it?" Katherine shrugged, and a silence settled upon them. She looked sideways at him but he wasn't making any signs of leaving her be.
"I guess," she whispered.
Johnny coughed. "So, what happened to make you want to… you know."
The surge of annoyance advanced on her again, and she rolled her eyes. "Nothing you need to know about," she grumbled.
"Doesn't matter," he said. He smiled slightly and put his hand next to hers on the rail. "You could use someone to talk to."
Kat surveyed him, considering. He had stopped her from doing the necessary. He probably thought he had good intentions, though. What was that in his gray eyes? Something she hadn't seen in anyone's while they were looking at her. Sincerity.
She sighed and pulled her jacket tighter around her. "Family. School. Life in general," she explained. "When it gets that bad there's not much you can do."
Johnny didn't say anything. He waited for her to continue.
She sifted uncomfortably, but the words were pushing to escape her lips. "I don't have the best job in the world, either. It's probably amongst the lowest, if not the worst." Her life felt like it was spewing from her mouth now. "My dad's a drunk, my mom's too scared of him to do anything, and my little sister's growing up in a hellhole. So did I, but hey, too late for me." The tone of apathy she was trying to create cracked, and she scorned herself for not the first time that evening.
"It almost was," said Johnny. He leaned over and lifted the bag that Katherine had dropped. "Good thing that it wasn't, though. Here." He lifted the bag up by the strap to hand it to her just as a strong gust of wind came from behind them. One of the pockets opened and a wad of money flew out and settled on the surface of the water. Johnny reached out to catch it but it was already going downstream.
"Crap!" he yelled, dropping the bag and leaning over the rail. He hit his forehead with his fist. "Idiot, idiot, idiot. I'm so sorry. Man, how much was that? I'm so sorry!" He continued whispering curses at himself before he felt a hand on his shoulder.
Kat smiled softly up at him. Leaving her hand there, she looked after the fallen money and smiled wider. "It's better at the bottom of the ocean than in my hands," she said mysteriously, picking up the fallen bag.
Johnny raised his brow curiously, though he was relieved that she wasn't as hostile as she had been earlier. "That looked like about two hundred bucks, girl," he pointed out.
"Five hundred," she corrected. She spit into the water. "But I don't care about it. I hate how I got it anyway."
Hesitating before pushing further, he asked, "How did you get it?"
The strange smile on her face landed on him, secretive, morbid and telling all at once. "Street corners."
"Oh."
Once again, the two were silent.
"Is that why you didn't like it when I said…" Before Johnny finished, she nodded. He laid his eyes on her thoughtfully. Her entire personality had seemed to change right before his eyes. She seemed so much calmer now. It was…. well, it interested him. That wasn't usually the effect that dropping half a thousand dollars had on people was it? Then again…
"How the heck did you even find me here?" Katherine's words interrupted his thoughts, bringing him back to reality. "No one saw me come down this way, and no one ever goes on this trail anyway."
Blinking in surprise at her question, Johnny considered how he should answer it without making himself sound stupid in front of her. "I was just, you know," he explained, "driving down the road when I saw you run into the park. Well… I don't know, for some reason I stopped and followed you in. I guess I just figured that something was wrong…"
Katherine drummed her fingers on the rail. She turned sharply and began to walk across the bridge to the other side. Johnny stared after her for a moment, shocked by her unexpected leave, before coming to.
"Where are you going?" he called, stepping after her retreating form.
"Not staying there," she answered shortly. "I don't know, I just couldn't…." She stopped once she reached the bank and shivered slightly. This time, it wasn't the cold that caused this. It was that something had occurred to her once she had moved from her would-be death scene.
Something heavy rested on her shoulders from behind. A thick black material encompassed her. Looking over her shoulder she saw a concerned, bare-armed Johnny. "Aren't you cold?" she asked.
He shrugged in response. "I like this weather, actually. Besides, it's starting to get dark." For the first time Kat noticed that the sun had nearly sunk beneath the horizon. All the shadows from the tree cover had kept her from realizing the time. Had she only run from her house less than an hour ago?
"So, I take it Black Kat's not exactly a term of endearment either," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. The gesture made her want to take a step back but she didn't.
"Not exactly," she replied. "Then again there aren't many people who would choose to give me a term of endearment other than their bitch…" Talking about her job, more than anything else, was unsettling. She didn't bother to check Johnny for a reaction. "It's just a nickname the idiots at school gave me. So, no, since no one really cares, it's not."
"Maybe they just haven't been given a good enough chance to care," Johnny said softly. It sounded like it was more to himself than it was to comfort her, and she noticed.
Her breath caught in her throat and she turned away from him, staring intently at nothing in particular. Pursing her lips, she finally asked, "How old are you?"
"Nineteen. Why?"
No matter how much she wanted to ask a part of her squirmed inside. It didn't seem right. Plus, she had no real reason to believe she could do it safely. Then again, there was no reason why she shouldn't, and every reason to not do the alternative. With an air of confidence masking her skepticism she asked, "You wouldn't happen to have your own place, would you?"
Johnny's jaw set and his widened eyes landed on the top of her head. His reaction softened when the context behind her request struck him. "It's that bad, huh?" he asked. She nodded silently. "I do. But trust me, it's not the best of places. You might do better not going there."
"Anywhere's better than there," she retorted.
It wasn't like he was going to say no to her, not after what she almost did to keep away from whatever it was that had set her running. He wasn't going to leave her to the chance to finish the job, despite his doubts that she would. It was simply bizarre of her to ask to go home with a complete stranger. Now that he thought about it, though, it probably wasn't, but in this way it probably was. "If you don't mind, could you tell me why a place like mine will be better right now?"
She laughed cynically. "My dad found my stash of money. Even in a drunken rage he could put two and two together…." She left out the part about what he had done after yelling at her for it. As far as she was concerned, she'd already said enough.
"Maybe we should leave, then," Johnny finally said.
Katherine smiled. Of course, she knew this probably wouldn't be a permanent set-up. She wasn't looking too far into the future, anyway. It was fine that for one night she wouldn't have to sleep under the same roof as that horrible man.
She shrugged off the heavy black coat he'd given her and handed it back to him. "I'm fine, don't worry," she said as he took it and wrapped it around himself again. The two strangers turned and walked back across the rickety bridge towards the main trail again.
Johnny couldn't take his eyes off of her for some reason.
"So, since I can't call you babe," Johnny said as the neared the other side, "and I don't want to call you Black Kat, and Katherine's too long, what should I call you?"
Smirking as she stepped on to the other bank, she considered for a moment. A memory of her thoughts before preparing to fall crossed her mind. Finally, she said, "Something along the lines of Kitten will do." Although, she admitted wordlessly, maybe babe wouldn't be a terrible name.
"I like that." As Johnny stepped away from the bridge, his boot hit the end of one of the sections holding the entire structure up. Jumping away at the last moment, the end nearest them collapsed and chunks of wood began to fall into the creek. The rest of the bridge soon followed suit, debris falling into the water. The two stood there staring as the entire thing was destroyed.
Sighing, Johnny turned around and rubbed his temples. "Well, it doesn't look like anyone else will be ending her life there," he grumbled bitterly. "At least my nickname suits me, doesn't it?"
Kitten looked closely at him as they emerged from the grove and walked underneath the sparsely starlit sky to the street. Somehow, she thought, she didn't agree.
Author's Note: Took about all day to finish this one. But I just have to get it there! Next update will be for Never Good Enough, and expect this story's next update to come in a week or so if we're lucky. Remember, keep your local authors happy: feed them sufficient amounts of healthy reviews!
Saramis Kismet