Reviews appreciated.
Chapter 8
It all starts when Jade and Beck break up.
Caterina is the last to hear it, but somehow, she's the first to know. In a way, it isn't surprising-Cat's always had a sixth sense regarding her friends, and no matter how deep Caterina had shoved her former self, the unease that permeated her body that dusty Tuesday morning told her that something was deeply, horribly wrong.
When she gets to school, the campus is buzzing with the news, but Caterina refuses to believe it, because even though she'd been the heart of the group, Beck and Jade were the backbone and how could they leave everyone else to fall apart? A part of her—the mean, bluntly honest part—berates her for being a hypocrite, but Caterina swallows the guilt and stands strong, even though all she wants to do is let Cat loose, in the hopes that maybe if she goes back to the silly girl she'd been, Jade and Beck would be whole again.
She manages to keep the news at bay until first period, when Tori stumbles in to class with red eyes and a red handprint fading on her left cheek. From across the room Caterina sees the other students in the class surge up, ready to drown her friend—when had she started thinking of them as friends again?—in questions masked as concern and sympathy.
Her body is moving before her mind catches up, and when the smoke clears she finds herself sitting next to Tori and her eyes shooting lightning at anyone who dares come too close. They retreat, because while Cat's steel wall had been impenetrable, Caterina's melted it down and made a crossbow, and she's ready to fire upon anyone who takes another step closer to Tori's—her—tragedy.
"What happened?"
Tori puts her face into Caterina's shoulder and weeps, and perhaps a small part of her whispers that she never would have trusted Cat to hold her. Then again, she wasn't all that sure she trusted Caterina to hold her, until she feels the other girl's slim arms wrap around her shoulders and Caterina—Cat?—whispering softly in her hair.
Somehow, she knows it's okay not to answer.
She sees Robbie in the hall after making sure Tori gets to her next class. His eyes are slightly dazed—not red like Tori's, but unfocused, as if even his contacts aren't enough to repair his vision. His face is free of Jade's violence, but Rex looks like he's just been dragged through hell. The poor puppet groans softly, but Robbie doesn't seem to notice.
Caterina hesitates before walking forward. Slowly, she stoops down and speaks. "Rex—" The words feel strange in her mouth. "What happened?"
Her heart is pounding harder than it should. She knows Rex is a puppet, just as she knows that by addressing him, she's cracked Cat's prison door open just a crack, and that if Rex rejects her, it will hurt. The puppet slowly turns to look up at her, and Cat can see stuffing through fingernail-gouged wounds.
She reaches into her pocket, pulls out the band-aid she'd been saving for emergencies, and tapes the two sides together. Rex sighs, and then the bell rings. She's gone before she realizes that the puppet never replied.
Her next period is dance, and Caterina's heart clenches high and tight in her chest as she walks through the doors. Chad walks up to her, but one look at her face and he takes a step back. Caterina cannot bear to let her question fall from her lips to the ears of a boy not part of BeckAndreJadeCatToriRobbie, so she doesn't speak at all, but turns to find the boys that are.
She sees dark skin and straight hair, and then she's running to Andre, whose arms are open and her face is in his chest and she's crying. And Andre—kind, friendly Andre who taught her to play guitar and gave her nicknames—his hold is cold and warm at the same time. It isn't until she feels the wet in her hair that she realizes that he is crying too.
They ditch class.
No one tries to stop them.
She sends one look at Chad before she goes with Andre, partly out of habit, partly because she cared about what he thought—when did that happen?—and mostly because she knew that if he tried to stop her, it was over. Her boyfriend didn't stop her, nor did he nod in permission, or ask any questions.
She almost loved him for it.
Almost.
They end up no where, driving around and around in Andre's car. She stops crying, forcing the tears back into her eyes and feeling them burn on the way down. As they turn onto yet another suburban street for the fifth time, she finally draws enough breath to whisper the question.
"What happened?"
Third time's the charm, but he doesn't answer, and Caterina realizes that perhaps her friends know her better than she thinks, because she's just realized that that wasn't her question after all. She wasn't asking what happened. She was asking if it was her fault.
They circle another two blocks before Andre answers. "We found out this morning. Beck'n Jade—" BeckandJade, Cat thought numbly, "—they left us notes on our pearphones. You—I guess you really don't have yours, or you'd know." His knuckles were white as he clenched the wheel. "No explanation. Jade slapped Tori when she asked."
"Beck?" Cat asked.
Andre's eyes were dark. Flat in a way that wasn't Andre at all. "He didn't show up at school today."