CH 7: Body Aches
A sharp sound of shattering glass ringed through the quiet hospital room. Catherine looked down and embarrassedly scurried to pick up the irregular pieces of the cup she'd dropped. The invitation still echoed in her head and it was throwing her off completely.
Catherine had worked extremely hard that week; her exams had just finished and she was anxious for the results even though she had been assured by all of her colleagues that there was no way she'd fail. Luckily for her, Kade had disappeared after his last incident and Tadashi understood how keen she was on getting an excellent review from her resident doctor and gave her space. It was under these conditions that Catherine found herself in the most unpleasant situation.
The streets of San Fransokyo were beautifully littered with orange leaves on the ground and the pleasurable scent of pumpkin pies and other homey delights. As Catherine walked to her university she finally realized what season she was in. The work she let flood her every second had kept her from noticing the winds growing chillier and the trees becoming more barren. If she'd picked up on theses sooner perhaps she wouldn't have been so surprised when the call came.
The girl's phone lowly played her sweet ringtone and as she read the screen her easy expression warped into an affronted one. There was no caller ID but that was on purpose; the person on the other side of the line was someone Catherine thought she wouldn't hear from for a considerable amount of time. Nonetheless there it was.
Hesitantly, Catherine hovered her thumb over the red circle on the display but eventually gave into a humanly impulse and answered it. Lifting the phone to her ear the girl didn't make a sound so the other person did.
"Hello? Catherine? Can you hear me?" A smooth female voice flowed into her ears.
"Yeah." The answer came out almost like a tiny wine or grunt.
"Dear, it's your mother." The voice said and only then did Catherine notice that she had come to a strange halt in the middle of the sidewalk.
"I know." Catherine looked to the side and took in her reflection from a store window. She was dreadfully pale and her eyes were dead as she spoke.
"Good. Anyway, I've already spoken to your brother so I guess now it's your turn." As Mrs. Anders said this Catherine caught her breath and waited for her to continue.
"Would you please join us for Thanksgiving dinner?"
When the question was made the girl on the other side of the line nearly chuckled. Her mother was as audacious as ever. To be inviting her over to Thanksgiving dinner so naturally almost as if they were on the best of terms and she could simply phone her daughter and she would gratefully accept and giddily rush to her home only proved how indelicate the woman truly was although her etiquette would've easily fooled anyone. But Catherine knew her mother all too well.
Responding with silence didn't throw her mom's acting off one bit and she trailed off to finish her monologue.
"You think about it. See if you can sort out everything there and call me when you decide, alright dear? Now, I really must go; your father and I are going to buy some ingredients before the stores all run out." She gave a lighthearted chuckle and waited for a reply.
"Alright." Catherine answered only to meet the required 'final word' before her mother hung up.
Catherine shuffled the whole day worried about the repercussions her mom's surprise call would have on her performance at the hospital. This was Catherine's last year. The year she would graduate and later become a real intern at a hospital that didn't belong to the college, so to the girl every detail counted. By the end of her shifts the girl was physically exhausted and mentally drained.
"Hey, you doing okay?" Tadashi's soothing voice asked through the phone and Catherine almost regretted her choices regarding the boy.
"I don't even know how I held up the whole day." Catherine answered as she soaked in the scorching water ornamented with the bath bomb she had in her tub.
"Don't worry too much about it. A day at a time will do." Tadashi was at home too. He'd just had the soup aunt Cass had made and was hanging around in his room while Hiro was tinkering away in the garage.
"Let's hope." The girl pessimistically joked and soon changed subjects. "Anyway, how're you?"
"Starved; aunt Cass is on this new diet and all she made tonight was miso soup. Hiro didn't even eat it he just made a hot pocket. I didn't want to be rude so I ate with her."
"Of course you did." Catherine was reminded of how polite her boyfriend actually was and grinned.
"I had like 3 bowls but I feel like I'm gonna faint any moment now." The boy joked on as he skimmed over some designs that Gogo asked him to review.
"You and me both, kid. Why don't you grab us some Chinese and come over to my place, unless you're doing something, obviously." Catherine asked already smelling the dreamy fried rice.
"No, I was just going over some new designs that Gogo made but I'm pretty much done. I'll be over soon."
"I'm still in the bath so take your time."
"In that case I'll be as quick as I can." Tadashi giggled as he kidded.
"Not as funny as you'd hoped, Hamada." Catherine said feigning tediousness although she had found it mildly amusing.
"I expected as much. See you soon."
"Okay, bye."
Catherine had taken her time in the bath, gotten dressed and checked some of her social media when finally Tadashi arrived with 4 takeout orders.
"Baby!" Catherine opened her arms and Tadashi smiled awaiting a hug but instead the girl took the food and walked back to the living room.
"Well, I missed you too." The boy said sarcastically with a chuckle and took a seat on the girl's white faux leather sofa.
Tadashi watched as she moved her coffee table's décor all to one side and placed the small boxes on the other.
"Fried rice & chicken lo mein." The boy pointed to the boxes that had each one of the foods.
"Does the..." Catherine began to formulate a question but Tadashi answered her before she could.
"Yes, the fried rice has shrimp in it."
"Yes!" The girl commemorated and pulled her chopsticks apart.
The two started to munch on the delicious food and make small talk. Suddenly Catherine's phone beeps noticing her that she had a message. The girl reached for the phone and saw a message from her mother. She quickly put her phone to the side and ignored it completely. Tadashi's expression changed instantly as he wondered why the girl acted that way after seeing the message.
"Let's watch something." Catherine said as she browsed through Netflix.
"Sure." The boy pretended to not notice anything and went along with her.
The atmosphere grew silent half because of the movie that buzzed on the TV half because of how both Catherine and Tadashi were covering things up and acting unnaturally. The boy pressed his lips together trying with all his being to keep in the things that would surely start a riot between them. After a certain point Catherine decided to let her bad blood get the best of her, shifting on the sofa and looking Tadashi straight in the face.
"What is it?" She asked with no roundabouts.
"Why didn't you pick up your phone just now?" Tadashi decides to answer with equal directness.
"You don't need to know that." She shook her head almost as if denying he even asked. She was always willing to say the most shocking, hurtful, cold things to her boyfriend straight up and honestly she didn't have to give it a second thought but this was different. Mrs. Anders was the solitary most cunning being Catherine knew; the mere mention of her name would throw the girl off completely, let alone try to explain her complex relationship with her.
"Of course I don't. I only know what you want me to know, only see what you want me to see, only say what you want me to say, right?" The boy seethes at his girlfriend whose eyes grow wide.
"Do you think I'm stupid, Catherine? I may not know anything about your past but I know you." He was glaring into her shocked eyes as she tried her best to not run out the door.
"You don't understand." The girl shook her head harder this time and shut her eyes trying to run away from Tadashi's confrontation.
"What do I need to do for you to trust me?" His voice grew and Catherine simply stood and opened the door.
"Go."
Tadashi couldn't even believe she could so easily just end the conversation but another part of him agreed to leave seeing that he would surely start a fiery argument if he didn't. He nodded and grabbed his keys as he stomped towards the door.
"I think we should give this some time."
"Fine." She responded calmly. The precision in the girl's voice was so sharp and crisp it sliced through Tadashi's already trembling heart.
"You're not even going to fight a little?" His lips quivered as his words shook with the way he was trying to hold back his tears.
"I think you're right; we should take some time for ourselves."
"Do you even love me at all?"
"Tadashi, you're so smart; do you really think now is a good time to ask that?"
He sighed and tried his best to not just apologize and fall into the girl's arms.
"Good night, Tadashi." She nodded and he took a deep breath as he stared into her eyes.
As the door closed and Catherine was once again alone in her apartment she pressed into her eyes with her fingers and took a slow breath in as she tried to figure out what she had gotten herself into. She removed her hand and the sight of the disorganized living room propelled her to destructive actions. She went into her room and flipped through her calendar, read the words that were scribbled in one of the boxes, went back into the living room, grabbed her cell phone and dialed the number.
"Hello?" The voice on the other end picked up.
"I'm coming home for Thanksgiving."