Kate's POV
I was half asleep as Rick pulled into the airport. He had woken me up accidentally when we were in bed this morning and he attempted to slither out from our cuddling position from last night's love session. The snow had mostly melted away but had taken two days to stop snowing and then an additional five to sit and melt away enough to clear the roads. Rick had received a text from his friend the night before saying that he would be at the airport in the morning. Mentally I tried to prepare myself because I wanted to go for a ride, but when I woke up to him trying to gently lift my arm off of him I couldn't help but still feel extremely sleepy.
"What are you doing?" I asked tiredly. Rick's eyes widened just a tad but, showing that he knew that he had failed to not wake me up.
"I have to go get Salty from the airport. Did you still wanna go?" he asked.
"Sure" I yawned, shutting my eyes again. I heard Rick chuckle before he planted a kiss on the side of my forehead. I smiled as I nuzzled into the pillow as if I was just gonna go right back to sleep. It took about five minutes for Rick to put on his jeans, shirt, and usual brown jacket. I heard him spray some cologne and then leave the room to presumably brush his teeth. When he came back he rocked my shoulder gently.
"Are you sure you want to come with me?" he asked. I turned over, causing the soft sound of the sheets rustling, opening my eyes to see Rick sitting on the edge of the bed.
"Yeah, I'm up" I yawned. Rick laughed and gave me room to slide out from under the covers. I stretched one I sat up and scratched the back of my head.
"You look cute with your messy fur," Rick complimented. I turned to him with a slick smile, of course he would be checking me out right now, I was still butt naked from last night. I didn't say anything though, I just slid on some panties and then a pair of jeans and a long sleeve, as always I rolled it to my forearms. "Are you gonna fix your hair?" Rick asked. I giggled as I crawled on the bed as he sat, placing him in between my legs as I placed my hands on his shoulders to keep me up.
"Why, did you want me to?" I asked. He brought his arms around my back to hold me, I found myself in my usual state of comfort.
"It's up to you, I think it looks cute," he replied. I giggled and then pecked his lips, tasting the faintness of the toothpaste that was on his lips just moments ago.
"I have to fix it just a tad bit,'' I said. I then got off of him and went into the bathroom to pee and brush my teeth. Afterwards I grabbed my brush and gave my long golden hair a few strokes and I was ready, all that was left was a few spurts of perfume and that was that. Rick checked his watch and told me the time as I grabbed my jacket. I nodded and followed him down the stairs and out the door. Sadly though we didn't stop to grab a coffee, I didn't miss waking up without doing it myself, and with school resuming on Monday it was gonna be back to normal, at least I still had my family. Without the coffee though I ended up falling asleep in the car, resulting in Rick playing music as he drove in silence. He didn't play it loud so that I could sleep as peacefully as I could, but the cold air kept me up until the truck warmed up enough for me to be right out. I don't know what it is though but it seems as though whenever you fall asleep in a car, you always wake up right when you arrive at your destination. It's the weirdest thing. Rick put the car in park as we sat waiting for Salty. I looked over as I continued leaning on my hand to see that he was sending him a message, probably telling him to come out.
"Oh you're up" Rick pointed out before setting his phone down.
"Yeah, is he coming out?" I asked. Still trying to wake myself up.
"He's still grabbing his luggage, I don't know how much he has but he said he doesn't need help so probably not much" Rick explained, but that made me confused.
"How does he not have that much? How long was he gone?" I asked.
"A few months, he was supposed to be back a while ago, but he kept having problems with the flights," Rick answered. I nodded. "Hey, have you met Salty before?" Rick asked.
"No, I think Lilly's mentioned him once or twice but I never met the guy, what's he like?" I asked curiously. Rick thought for a moment before answering me.
"Well, he's more of the chill jokester type I guess, I don't really know how to describe it, you two will get along fine" Rick said.
"Well if he's friends with you guys, I'm sure he's cool" I said.
"Yeah, Humphrey, Shaky, and Salty used to hang out with Mooch, I don't know if you know who that is" Rick asked.
"He was at the party wasn't he?" I asked, remembering him chugging alcohol.
"Yeah, it used to be the four of them, but then me and Angel came along, Angel started hanging out with Lilly, we met and then Humphrey started dating her so that brought us all together, I remember them two hanging out when you guys first moved here but nothing really started happening until they dated. Anyway Mooch didn't like me too much so he basically found another group, they liked him because he was a tank, he could drink more than anyone else, I guess that's all that mattered" Rick explained, looking out the windshield. I guess it all made sense, it was hard to picture the group we had now not together, but I guess we can all thank Lilly for making it happen.
"Fuck him, you still got the others" I said. Rick smiled.
"And that's all that matters," he added. It was silent for a moment until Rick finally thought of a word to describe Salty. "Pothead," he said. I turned to him with a confused expression.
"What?" I Asked.
"Salty is a huge pothead, can't say I agree with it, it's annoying to deal with, but that's the best way I can describe him" Rick explained. I was going to say something in response, but the car door opened behind me, making me turn slightly as my ears perked up. There he was, Salty with his two bags. He tossed them in the back and then peered inside with a smile.
"Hey buddy, long time no see," Salty said. Rick smiled and clapped him up.
"Holy shit, who is that handsome bastard? It's been so long" Rick said. Salty laughed and then hopped in, closing the door and buckling up. Still though he leaned forward to ask.
"Is this who I think it is?" he seemed so surprised that I was in his presence. I turned around as best as I could to hold my hand out to him.
"Maybe, why do you know me?" I asked with a smile. He accepted my hand and gave it a shake as Rick began to drive.
"Know you? The whole school knows you, what did you do Rick, did you kidnap her?" Salty asked. Rick snickered.
"Why did we all know that you would react this way?" he asked. Salty again laughed.
"So what are you doing here? I never thought that I would see you outside of your friend group, oh are you friends with our group now?" Salty asked. I didn't know how exactly to respond. I really wanted to tell him that yes but no, we were so much more than friends, but I guess for now I would keep it simple.
"Yeah, I am," I replied. Salty then turned to Rick, I saw Rick look in his rear view mirror to make eye contact with him as he drove.
"What?" Rick asked.
"How did you pull this off?" Salty asked.
"Well, a lot more than just this has happened while you were gone" Rick said.
"Like what?" Salty asked. Oh fuck where to start? Rick apparently didn't know where to begin either, at least that what the look on his face said when he glanced over at me.
"Um, well Shaky and Angel are dating now," Rick said.
"They are? Angel's had a crush on him for I don't know how long" Salty said, amazed. Rick chuckled while I giggled. I guess something about the way we did it though tipped Salty off. "Wait a minute… shut the fuck up are you two…" Salty began to ask but didn't finish. Again Rick looked at me and smiled before stopping at a red light. I smiled back. "Prove it, right now," Salty said. Rick and I shared another laugh before pecking each other on the lips. "Dude, no fucking way, since when?" Salty asked.
"Since you've been gone" Rick answered.
"I have so many questions," Salty said.
"I'll be happy to fill you in, but where am I even taking you? Are ya hungry?" Rick asked him. I didn't let Salty answer though, instead I did.
"Oh, can we get coffee?" I asked. Rick laughed again.
"You good with that Salty?" he asked.
"Sure, I probably wont get a coffee though, where are we gonna go?" Salty replied.
"Dunkin donuts, we can get something there since it's still early, unless you guys want to head to a diner or something" Rick offered. I turned around to face Salty.
"It's up to you" I said because realistically, I could get a coffee anywhere.
"I don't know, I should get him to unpack and stuff, plus I'm kind of tired from the flight. Mind if we do something later tonight?" Salty asked, scratching behind his head as if he felt guilty for saying that he was tired. There was nothing to feel sorry for though. I understood completely.
"Sure thing, we'll just swing by dunkin donuts, it's probably better anyway, Shaky and you have so much catching up to do" Rick said.
"Oh come on, don't act like I haven't missed everyone" Salty replied. Rick snickered again.
"Are you two close?" I asked.
"Oh yeah, out of the whole friend group, Salty and Shaky are like best buds" Rick explained.
"I won't deny that," Salty confessed. Rick shook his head with a smile as he continued driving. I turned to look outside the windshield to see Dunkin donuts just down the road. Normally they had these types of places just outside of the airport, so it was good that we didn't have to drive too far.
"So Kate, what do you want to do when we get back? Watch a movie? Play chess? Nap?" Rick listed. I thought for a moment. Since my heat had finally died down, I wouldn't have to worry about being horny constantly until spring. But even so, giving my age and feelings, I was still always horny. So what did I really want to do when we got back?
"Maybe nap a bit, but before that maybe we could…" I began.
"Yeah, we could do that," Rick said. I giggled.
"Hold on, have you two gone all the way?" Salty asked. How do I even answer that? Now I felt embarrassed, I just barely met the guy, I mean he probably knew me but I didn't know him, do I look like a whore now? I really hope not, but of course when the blonde gets a boyfriend that she's sweet on, even if she never kissed a guy before him that's all it takes for her to become a whore, that's what Garth thought anyway, so many others probably thought the same simply because of my looks, but fuck em, I just hope Salty wasn't one of them.
"Multiple times" Rick answered, snapping me out of my thoughts. I guess he thought that I would answer the question because of how open I am with the others, I don't really know Salty like that yet though, I'm sure we'll get there but in the meantime he should know this.
"I promise I'm not a whore Salty, Rick was actually my first" I smiled, turning back to him. Salty nodded.
"Oh no, I wasn't saying that. I Mean I know you had boyfriends, but if you say that you didn't do anything with them then I believe you" Salty explained, okay thank God he believed me.
"Yeah, it was sweet. It didn't seem like it was his first time though, I kind of expected it to be clumsy but we were just so… horny that night that we went right in" I explained. Salty laughed.
"Yeah, that and because of Rick's experience" Salty said. Experience?
"What do you mean?" I asked in confusion, really hoping that it wasn't what I thought. When Rick told me that I was his first kiss and his first time I believed him, he hadn't once wronged me since we even started hanging out.
"Back in freshman year there was this girl that the guys tried setting me up with, it never went anywhere but Salty's been teasing me about it ever since everything happened" Rick explained, the way he did it though seemed calm and not panicking at all, so again I trusted him. "I'll tell you more about it later, '' Rick added.
"I just don't understand why you wouldn't take the opportunity," Salty said. Okay now I really believed it, that faint feeling of second guessing myself was now gone, but still I remained curious.
"Because I didn't care for her in that way, she was just a simple friend until you guys got her hopes up" Rick replied. The truck started pulling into the parking lot and over to the drive thru, dropping all conversation in favor of what we all wanted. "Okay so breakfast, drinks, whatever you guys want, '' Rick offered.
"I'll do a sausage, egg, and cheese," Salty said. Rick then turned to me.
"Kate?" he asked.
"Coffee and a hash brown" I requested. Rick smiled and patted my hand. It brought me great comfort. As we waited for the car in front of us to pull up, Salty spoke again.
"Speaking of girls, I hooked up with some," he said. Rick laughed.
"Yeah, I imagine with the time that you were gone you managed to start a whole other life" he teased.
"Oh shut up dude, I'm gonna get an actual girlfriend before the end of the year" Salty replied. Rick shook his head.
"Are you gonna fuck it up?" he asked.
"Hey man, that was because her parents didn't like me, but seriously, I really don't wanna graduate without having someone to care for," Salty said. The car in front of us drove forward, letting Rick do the same to put in the order. He ended up ordering a hot chocolate and a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich along with what we asked for. We then pulled up to the window, or at least as far as we could get before we had to stop behind the same car.
"So why didn't her parents like you?" I asked.
"I guess they just thought I was too… I don't know, douchy. But that's just the vibes I give off, It's really not my choice" Salty answered. I kind of felt for him, everybody in this world is so judgmental.
"It's your voice dude, ain't nothin you can do to change that, you'll find someone though" Rick assured. Salty laughed.
"I'm still confused as to how you two went from not knowing each other to actually hooking up" Salty said. Me and RIck both laughed in response, but at the same time, was I really held to such an extent? Or was it Rick?
"Salty I already know what your gonna ask me later so I'm just gonna answer it now, the sex was amazing, I would never want to sleep with anyone else" Rick explained. I giggled.
"Why you gotta make me look like that?" Salty asked jokingly.
"Well I know that you wouldn't want to ask in front of Kate because you don't know her like that yet, but she's cool, she's one of us" Rick explained.
"Wow, did all of you guys drool over me?" I asked. Rick and Salty both laughed.
"If they have a penis at that school, then they drool over you" Rick smiled. Checks out. The car pulled up and it was our turn, after receiving everything Rick passed the bag and drinks to me so that I could pass them out as he drove off. After sorting everything and getting thanked for it I took a small nibble out of my still hot hash brown to test the temperature. It was perfectly hot. "So Salty, we are all definitely gonna meet up somewhere tonight to celebrate you coming back, anywhere you have in mind?" Rick asked.
"Applebee's, I would kill for Applebee's" Salty answered almost immediately.
"Noted," Rick said. I didn't really get to know Salty too well during the ride, it was mostly just him and Rick catching up as he drove. Maybe it would have been better if I stayed at the house, even so though I was extremely curious to know about this girl that Rick had apparently dated. While it was never said that they dated but they were getting set up to, I was simply curious. He did tell me after all that I was his first girlfriend.
"Alright, this is my stop. Thanks Rick" Salty said as he stepped out of the truck.
"Yeah, no problem," Rick replied. Salty then leaned back into the truck to grab his bags. Once he grabbed them though he leaned in one last time.
"Nice meeting you officially Kate" he said.
"Nice meeting you too, see ya tonight?" I asked.
"Sounds like a plan" he replied, he then left once and for all, shutting the door and walking up to his house. From what Rick said earlier I was his mothers, no mention of a father. It must have been hard on her having to be away from her son for so long. As Rick began driving again back to his house which was about a seven minute ride from here, I decided to test my luck. What started out as awkward silence which was ever so slightly taken down by the sound of the truck running, turned into a question from me.
"So… what happened with that girl?" I asked. I didn't want to come off as angry, mostly because I wasn't. I trusted Rick, but I really wanted to know the story.
"So… back in freshman year there was this girl named Stephanie, she was cute, had white fur and hair, cute personality. Personally I wouldn't mind dating her, but we were friends and I wanted to keep it that way. Now she was never around the group as much but the guys definitely knew her. She was the type that played video games, and was totally into nerdy shit, but you wouldn't know that just by looking at her or talking with her" Rick began, but of course I had to interrupt.
"Like me?" I asked.
"Kind of, you and me play games but it's extremely rare, mostly we're into horror, no she was into everything, I was over her house one time and I got a look at her room, I'm talking posters everywhere, figurines, full gaming setup, everything. You just kind of have a computer in the middle of your room, and a TV" Rick answered.
"So what happened with the set up?" I asked. Rick looked at me and sighed.
"She was a good friend, I did care for her, but after you got a boyfriend I saw and it was some jock that I knew that I could never compete with, I thought that that was it, that my small chance was over, he was gonna have you to hold, he was gonna steal your first kiss, take your virginity, and you were gonna love him and hang on to him, and he was never gonna treat you right, to make things worse he was gonna taint you, make you become like him over time and you wouldn't be the kind, lovable wolf that I loved, even though we haven't met yet officially, I saw you from time to time and each time you were just… amazing, you were everything I could have dreamed of and more. But he had you, and those thoughts were what I thought of constantly, I thought the day would come where I would see you kiss him, hug him… love him, it destroyed me, as pathetic as it sounds I was crushed. I kept playing everything again and again, he would be making love to you and you both would be in your glory while I sat alone in my room feeling sorry for myself" Rick explained, I felt myself feeling a familiar feeling, the feeling of being guilty that I haven't paid attention to him sooner. I placed my hand on his leg and offered a kind smile.
"I'm sorry Rick, I had no idea, and It's not pathetic, it's sweet, it's why I love you, and why it didn't turn out that way" I explained. Rick turned to me briefly as he continued driving to offer a kind smile of his own before turning back to the road.
"Anyway the guys took notice of it and knew that Stephanie was a good friend of mine, so they told her that I liked her, and that I was struggling to tell her how I felt. They're heart was in the right place, but it wasn't the right thing to do. The idea was that I already cared for her a lot so we could take our relationship to the next level, turns out that she liked me, so when she heard this she was happy. She came over to my house and ended up ringing the doorbell, now Angel was actually the one that answered the door. She came in and then Angel called me down stairs. I go down and she goes upstairs, at this point it's just me and Stephanie, so she sits me down and starts talking about the stuff that we usually did. But slowly it turns into her caring for me, and then she asks me if I cared for her and I say yes Stephenie of course I do. And then… she giggles and starts kissing me neck, I'm lost, I have no idea what's happening, I couldn't even process it, it wasn't until she gets on me and starts dry humping me that I snap out of it and tell her to stop, she gets confused, she tells me what she heard and I told her no, I told her it wasn't true and that I loved you, I was so damaged Kate I…" Rick explained, but he choked up.
"What happened?" I asked, fearing the worst, although I don't know what for.
"I told her that I loved you, and I was still hanging on to you, she didn't like that, told me that I was living in a delusion and that it was never gonna happen… I told her… I told her fuck you, I was angry, being told what I thought I already knew was just my breaking point" Rick explained. He then pulled into his driveway and then turned off the truck and sat, I could tell he was upset. It was a touchy subject that I had pried out of him, but there was no going back now.
"Where is she now?" I asked.
"After what I said she left and… I never saw her again after that, maybe she moved, switched schools, I don't know… but she was a great friend and that's how it all ended…" Rick explained in a low, sad voice, his ears lowered and all. Mine lowered as well as I looked down in guilt, I somehow felt as though it was all my fault. Rick had destroyed a good friendship of his because of me.
"Rick I… I'm so sorry" I apologized.
"It's not your fault, it's mine, I was the one who snapped. I'm glad you're here though… I wouldn't trade you for anything in the world" Rick said, turning to me again. I met his cool blue eyes and felt guilty again. I then unbuckled my seatbelt and climbed across the seat to plant a gentle kiss on his lips as my hand held his cheek. I closed my eyes and then opened them again to stare into his.
"I'm sorry I asked, but I want you to know that I trust you, I know you would never lie to me" I said. Rick smiled gently and then kissed me again, bringing his hand to my opposite cheek. We sat in silence just kissing gently, no tongue, just gentle lip that smacked very lightly as we pulled apart.
"Thank you" Rick said as he continued holding my cheek.
"For what?" I asked.
"Everything" he answered. I Smiled kindly again, giving him another kiss before breaking it one last time and then heading inside the house to relax before the celebration that would be held later that night.