Chapter 1 (originally 1 and 2) of All the Feels
"C'mon, G, just a peek!" Molly pleads as she tries to snatch the diary out of Gill's hands.
"No! And I told you to stop calling me 'G'!" He holds it above his head while she gropes the air.
I smirk, thoroughly amused. Gill's so irritable, and Molly so carefree, that it's rare to find my best friends not arguing. And today's no different. Mid-summer day at the dock? Yeah, the heat can get to anyone.
"Kasey, catch!" Gill calls, and next thing I know, a blur of green is rapidly soaring my way.
"Huh? Oh! I got it!" I shout, jumping backwards to catch the book sailing over my head. Wham! I crash into something and tumble to the ground, diary landing in the water.
"Hey, watch where you're going!" A familiar voice huffs. My heart sinks, and I don't bother to look. Kathy. Of all the odds, of course it's the girl who's been giving me butterflies on a daily basis. Gill lets out a cry and dashes over to the edge of the dock. I try to apologize, but between an angry Kathy and an angry Gill, my mouth feels glued shut.
"Well, Kasey don't got it!" Molly giggles. Kathy curses under her breath, gets up, and stalks away. I just stare as Gill tries to fish his diary out of the water. Oh Goddess, please don't kill me, Gill…
"I can't get it." He says flatly. "It's too far out." He turns to me. "You."
"Me." I agree grimly.
"Don't blame him, G, you threw too high!" Molly sing-songs.
"Stop calling me that!" He yells as I dive into the water. While they begin to argue, I grab the soaked diary.
"Got it!" I declare, clambering back onto the dock, holding it triumphantly in my right hand. Gill rushes over and grabs it.
"It's ruined." He says, flipping through the pages. Here it comes… I think, bracing myself. But to my surprise, he turns to Molly.
"This is your fault!" He points a finger at her. Molly's eyebrows furrow.
"My fault? You're the one who threw it! You know Kasey can't catch to save his life!" She retorts. Ouch. Didn't need to be that harsh about it…
"What do you mean, he can't catch to save his life?! He was a fucking goalie!" Gill snaps. I was- in first grade, and I sucked at it. I cringe a little at the memory. Molly, apparently thinking along the same lines as me, yells back, "Notice that his team lost every game when he was!"
"Can we not talk about this?" I ask tentatively. They both turn to me. "Why couldn't you have caught it?" Gill starts.
"You heard Molly, I 'can't catch to save my life'." I mimic bitterly.
"Told you so!" Molly gloats. The two begin to bicker again.
"Guys, cut it out!" I say, exasperated, and neither answer me. "Fine! But I'm not sticking around for this. I've got to apologize to Kathy." Still no response. I shake my head in disbelief, thrust my hands into my pockets, and walk down to the Brass Bar. The bell jingles as I push the door open. Those two are unbelievable...
Hayden winks at me from behind the counter. "Hey, kiddo. The table over there's open." He says, jerking his thumb to a table in the corner.
"Ah, I'm not here to eat today." I say, and he raises an eyebrow.
"Then what're you here for?" He asks.
"To… uh… never mind." I mutter. "I'll just do it later or something." Wimp!
"If you say so." Hayden shrugs. "But you should have a bite to eat. We haven't seen you here in ages! What you been up to?"
"Oh, I've just… been busy." I shuffle my feet uncomfortably, refusing to admit my infatuation with his daughter.
"Right." He says skeptically.
"Uh, I'll just go sit down then!" I say quickly, hurrying over to the table.
"Welcome to the Brass- oh, it's you." Kathy stops mid-sentence, staring at me with obvious irritation. "Well, what do you want to drink?" She sighs.
"W-water, please." I manage to stutter out. She simply nods as hurries away.
"I need a water!" She says to Chase as she grabs a dish of stir fry off of the kitchen counter. I watch her, mesmerized, as she works.
"Here's your water. Ready to order?" Kathy asks, setting a glass on the table.
"Oh, uh, just some mashed potatoes." I say quickly, before my stuttering has time to kick in. She marches back to the kitchen without a word, and I contentedly settle back into my entranced state.
The scraping of chairs brings me back to earth. Molly smiles as she takes her seat across from me, but Gill, however, throws himself into his chair. "Heya, Kase!" Molly cheers.
"Kase? That's a new one. What happened to Gill?" I add, noticing how drenched he is.
"Molly pushed me off the dock." He says, his voice icy. She merely laughs.
"Here you go. What do you two want to drink?" Kathy says, setting a platter of mashed potatoes down in front of me.
"Ooh! Can I have a lemonade?" Molly says, bouncing a little in her seat.
"Nothing, thanks. I already had enough salt water to keep me satisfied today." Gill grumbles, shooting a look at Molly.
"Oh, get over it, Mr. Grump." Molly says, waving her hand. Gill sighs and moodily swats at her hand. Molly swats him back, and I begin to eat my potatoes, amused.
"Ooh, mashed potatoes?" Molly's eyes light up as she snatches my plate from my hands.
"I was eating that!"
"I understand why! This is good!"
"One lemonade." Kathy says boredly, placing a glass on the table in front of Molly.
"Give it back!" I say, lunging and grabbing my potatoes.
"Hey! I wanted that!"
"Alright, you guys ready to go?" Molly asks about an hour later.
"Hang on, I'll be right with you." I say distractedly, standing up. I can do this. I can do this. I can do this.
"Hurry! I can only handle Molly for so long!" Gill pleads.
"Have fun," I smirk. Looking around, I find Kathy standing outside the kitchen waiting for Chase to prepare something. "Hey, can we talk for a moment?" I ask, surprised by how calm and collected I sound. I didn't even stutter!
"Whatever." She says irritably.
"I just wanted to say sorry for knocking into you on the dock like that." I say, staring at my shoes. I see her smile out of the corner of my eye.
"I didn't even know you noticed! You just acted like I didn't exist."
"I just thought it'd be better for me to keep my big mouth shut before I said something that made the whole situation worse." I say, smiling back. She laughs.
"A 'sorry' would have been fine." She says.
"But I just did say sorry!" I say defensively.
"Yeah, yeah." She smirks.
"Kasey!" Kathy and I both turn to the front of the bar, where Gill is standing, his arms crossed. "Come on!"
"Well, come back soon if you enjoyed our service." She winks.
"Yeah, I will." I say, waving. "See ya."
I join Gill and Molly and we walk out of the restaurant. She winked at me? What the hell is even going on anymore?
I smile to myself as I watch Kasey and friends leave, bickering amongst themselves as normal. Selena's plan had worked- though at first it had me thinking I was invisible to Kasey, like I told her. Who would've thought that she'd be right?
Almost as though reading my mind, I feel a hand on my shoulder. It's Selena's.
"I told you it would work!" She smirks.
"Yeah, well, not all of your ideas are good ones." I tease.
"This one is tried and true, though, so you were in good hands." She says.
"Wait, tried and true? Who else actually trusted you?" I gape. Selena is admittedly pretty bad at coming up with solutions to things. Even though she thinks she's great at it, most of the time she makes it worse. I'm surprised someone other than me would take her advice.
"I did!" She exclaims. "I accidentally-on-purpose tripped over Luke's foot when I was walking by him and Bo. And look what that got me- a seat next to him at every meal and the best guy to come down the pike since my grandpa." She boasts.
"Okay, okay, so your idea was somehow successful." I smirk, rolling my eyes and holding my hands palm-up in surrender.
"Well, it wasn't just me. That wink was all you." She giggles. I feel my cheeks grow hot.
"I wasn't winking!" I lie. "I got something in my eye!"
"Yeah, okay." Selena teases. "You're so obvious, Kath."
"No, I'm not." I say, my face burning. Never, ever wink again, Kathy.
"Oh! I have to go back on now." Selena says, looking at the clock on the wall. "And you should get back to work, too. Talk more at the falls, 'kay?"
"Alright." I say. "Go get 'em!" She blows me a kiss before stepping up onto the stage.
The next few hours blur by until, finally, my shift is over. Selena still has half an hour before she's off for the night, so I head to the falls to wait for her.
The falls are outside of Garmon Mines, just before you cross the bridge. Nobody really pays much attention to it, and I'm a sucker for secluded places, so Selena and I adopted it as our secret meeting area years ago.
I sit alone for about 45 minutes, thinking about what happened today and massaging the bruise on my head. I'm finally starting to grow irritated when I hear some footsteps behind me. "About time!" I say, scowling as I turn around to greet Selena. Only, it's not Selena. It's Kasey.
"You were expecting me?" He asks, raising his eyebrows slightly.
"No, I thought you were my friend." I mutter, embarrassed by my outburst. "So… what are you doing here?"
"Selena told me to come. I'm guessing she was the one you were going to meet?" He blushes, and I can feel my face heating up, too.
"Yeah, this is our secret meeting spot." I say, hiding my face in my hands. After a second or two of suffocatingly awkward silence, my phone buzzes with a text.
SELENA: Won't be able 2 come 2 falls
SELENA: Luke needs my help with something. Sry!
KATHY: Kasey's here. Real smooth ?
SELENA: …
KATHY: he told me about your little quest. Most awkward moment of my life. Thanks.
SELENA: ur welcome!
I sigh and roll my eyes, then jump a little once I see that Kasey has sat down next to me. He's staring at the waterfall. "This is a really pretty spot." He muses.
"...yeah. That's why I like it so much." I say, looking out at the water as well.
"Between you and me, I'm going to pretend that I just happened to stumble upon you here on my own." He says, giving me a crooked smile.
"For the sake of everyone involved, it's best that way." I say, smiling back. The silence between us returns, but this time it feels different. Comfortable. A minute or two later, however, it's broken as both of our phones buzz. I look at mine.
SELENA: so hows it going?