Rick's POV
I parked around the back of the restaurant and turned off the truck, waiting for the others. Kate had parked next to me so I got out and went inside of her car to meet her. We had relaxed most of the day, watching movies and playing chess until around seven o'clock when I had received a call from Humphrey asking what we were doing. I told him the plan, me and Kate got ready and here we were. I heard Kate unlock her car door so that I could hop in. I sat down in the passenger seat and shut the door.
"Want to shoot them a text?" Kate asked.
"Yeah, I got it, '' I said. I Pulled out my phone quickly and then messaged the group chat asking where everyone was. In return I got messages notifying me that Humphrey was on his way from picking up Salty, and Shaky was almost here.
"I can't wait for it to warm up, I'm tired of it freezing" Kate complained as she rested her head on her hand.
"Careful what you wish for, yeah it will warm up, but then it will be disgustingly humid" I reminded.
"I mean, I like the cold, but I also like chilling in the house with the AC on" Kate explained, and it was always something I forgot existed but loved. "Whenever I put my AC in my bedroom window for the summer, my room is always so cold, it's like the perfect temperature" Kate added.
"Sounds nice, I can get behind that" I said. Kate giggled.
"Glad that you'll be with me this summer," she said.
"Yeah, and the summer after that, and the summer after that" I planned. Kate nodded as her smile faded. "Something wrong Kate?" I asked.
"Nothing it's just… we'll last right?" she asked. I could see the slightest hint of fear in her eyes as she awaited a response, honestly it was something that I had thought about often, would we grow tired of each other? Would we simply fall in love with someone else? I just couldn't see it happening.
"Kate, I promise, we will last, and I'm not going anywhere" I assured. And I meant it. Kate smiled as I noticed in the window behind her Shaky's car back up next to hers. "Shaky's here" I told Kate. her ears then perked up as she turned around. I stepped out of the car to greet the two, and was excited to see my baby sister come out and hug me.
"Hey, oh I missed you so much," she said. I hugged her back happily.
"I missed you too Angel" I said. Shaky walked around the car to meet us as Angel then turned to Kate to hug her as well.
"Hey bro" Shaky said, holding his hand back for a clap up. I gave him what he wanted.
"Hey, what took you two so long?" I asked.
"We were not that long," Shaky answered. Angel then turned around to face us.
"Hey Shaky," Kate said, hugging him.
"Oh" he replied and hugged her back. I laughed but Angel grabbed my attention to ask if she could put her stuff in the truck.
"Yeah, go ahead" I said, making sure that the thing was unlocked.
"Thanks" she said, turning back to Shaky's car to grab her things.
"So did you guys have fun during the snow in?" I asked.
"Yeah, we finished Dexter, played some games, and then there was that time that we all played something, but it was mostly chill," Shaky explained. I nodded, I was glad that they had a good time.
"Excited to see Salty? Rick tells me that you two are really close" Kate said. I could see the excitement in him grow as he was reminded that his best friend was finally back home, and they would be meeting up in less than twenty minutes.
"Holy shit Kate, you have no idea. I've been missing this idiot for so long, I've been waiting for this day for months" Shaky said. I laughed.
"Yeah, he was surprised to see me and Kate together, you'll have to explain how you and Angel happened" I said. Shaky's eyes widened.
"Did you already tell him?" he asked. I nodded. "Aw come on man, you're so boring, why couldn't you let me have that?" he whined.
"Let you have what?" Angel asked as she approached us again.
"Your brother told Salty that we're together," Shaky answered.
"He's bummed because now you two cant surprise him," Kate added. Angel then turned to me as I awaited a response. It was just a light smack to the arm.
"Jerk" she said. I laughed.
"I don't even think that he believed me, so calm down" I said jokingly. Angel scoffed and then turned to Kate.
"So what did you two do?" she asked.
"Not much, kind of the same thing as you two" Kate answered. She then crossed her arms to warm up as a breeze passed us, making the cold air even colder.
"Sounds nice, glad we can all finally get together again though, seems like it's been forever" Shaky said.
"Yeah, everytime we come out it's just the four of us, we should all really get together more" I added. Before anybody could agree I saw Humphrey's car come around the corner of the building. "Head's up guys, Humphrey's here" I said, pointing to the car with my head. The other turned to it and Shaky started hopping up and down.
"Holy shit, he's finally here" he said. Kate giggled as Humphrey parked next to Shaky, thanks to the back of the restaurant being nearly deserted. Once the car stopped it turned off as well as the headlights, making the noise that was around us quiet as we all waited for one of the three to come out of the car. The first one that did was the front passenger seat, then almost immediately after, the back one. Lilly poked her head out and said hi as she stuck out her hand to offer a slight wave.
"Hey Lills" Angel said. Humphrey then stepped out and shut his door as Lilly did the same, Salty was the last one, and followed behind Lilly as the trio came over.
"Shaky" Salty smiled, offering a clap up. He laughed and accepted in an instant. Humphrey chuckled while Angel and Lilly hugged one another after not seeing each other in awhile, most likely though they face timed at least once while snowed in.
"Hey" Humphrey said lightly, patting my back.
"Hey Humphrey" I replied. He then went in between me and Kate to greet her.
"Hey Kate" he greeted. Kate hugged him in response.
"Hey" she smiled. Humphrey hugged her back and then broke it so that Kate could greet what must have felt like her long lost sister. "Hey sis" she smiled. Lilly simply offered an adorably excited laugh as she threw her arms around Kate. I then looked over to Salty and Shaky as the two were already non stop talking to each other, it was a great sight to see.
"So, should we head in?" Humphrey asked.
"Yeah, let's do it," Kate said, breaking her sister's hug. I nodded and then turned to the two guys who were still talking to one another.
"Hey guys, we're heading inside" I called. The two stopped briefly to face me.
"Alright, we'll be right behind ya" Shaky replied. I shook my head with a smile and began walking to the front entrance, Humphrey still standing in between me and Kate while Angel and Lilly were on her right.
"You did call ahead for a table of seven right?" Humphrey asked me.
"Yeah, I called just before we left, they said it would be about a ten minute wait" I explained.
"Ten? It's been longer than ten minutes" Humphrey replied. I shrugged.
"Couldn't get everyone here faster," I told him. We all turned the corner and continued walking up, Angel and Lilly getting behind me, Humphrey, and Kate because of the narrowing sidewalk.
"So Kate, I'm guessing you already met Salty?" Humphrey asked, turning to her.
"Hey, he seems cool, hopefully we get more of a chance to talk while we're here" Kate answered. Humphrey offered her a smile in return,
"Yeah, if you can get behind our stupidity then you'll like him just as much" he said. I laughed, reaching the door and holding it open for everyone.
"Sounds awesome" I heard Kate say as she walked in with Humphrey. The others followed them in, making me the last one to enter. When I walked up Humphrey was already telling the host that we were the party of seven that I had called in.
"Alright, you guy's can follow me," he said happily and then grabbed menus before walking up the stairs and over to a series of tables that had been pushed together to make a long one. From the looks of it all it was really busy, almost all seats were full and the music playing over the place made it seem more populated than it already was. I took a seat next to Kate and thanked the host. "Of course," he smiled, walking away. Shaky sat next to me, while Angel sat to the left of him, Humphrey sat across from me while Lilly sat to his left, Salty to his right.
"You know what, I think the wait must have been longer than ten minutes, it's crowded in here" Humphrey said.
"It's not that bad, could be worse" Lilly replied.
"Yeah but I think he's right, the wait probably was longer, I'm surprised we even got in right away" I said.
"So Salty, are you just continuing the same schedule?" Shaky asked him. Salty lowered his menu to make eye contact with the wolf across from him.
"You mean my classes?" he asked. Shaky nodded. "Yeah, I'm just picking up where I left off, thank God for the online work though, otherwise I would have had to make up everything" Salty explained.
"Sounds like a nightmare" Angel chimed in.
"Hey Salty, do we have any classes together?" Kate asked.
"I think we have one, I could be wrong though, guess we'll find out tomorrow" Salty said. Kate nodded and then looked down at her menu again.
"Everybody know what they're getting?" Lilly asked.
"Eh, I might need a minute or two," Shaky said.
"Ugh, of course you do, '' Humphrey joked, putting a smile on his face.
"Hey Humphrey, wanna share an appetizer?" I asked, given how we usually always did whenever we hung out, even when it was just us two.
"Sure, wing's right?" Humphrey asked.
"Boneless," I replied. I then turned to the others, looking back and forth. "Should we get two so that we can all share?" I asked.
"I'll probably have one or two," Kate said.
"You know I can always go for wings, '' Shaky said. Lilly simply nodded, although she was the type to only eat one and a celery stick. By now I knew what I was gonna order, but I was obviously gonna wait until everyone was ready. Our server came over and welcomed us, informing us that he would indeed be taking care of us. We put in our drinks and appetizers and then he was off.
"So Salty, care to tell me more about these girls you hooked up with?" I asked. Immediately Shaky's attention was grabbed, making Salty make eye contact with him.
"Hold on, before we get to that, Shaky I heard that you and Angel are a thing now. Care to shed some light on that?" Salty asked.
"What you mean like prove it?" Angel asked.
"Sure, prove it, I gave Rick and Kate the same test earlier" Salty replied. Shaky and my sister then turned to each other and offered a slight laugh before giving and receiving a peck on the lips.
"Yeah, there was a lot of hooking up while you were gone," Humphrey said.
"Okay Salty, you're turn" Angel said. Salty laughed and looked around the table, realizing that all eyes were on him.
"Okay so I hooked up with two girls, one more than the other. You see, back at my cousin's house I have a long time friend named Jenny. Her and me got a little drunk one night and we just sort of had sex at one of the parties, we went off and on for a bit and then there was this other girl that I had started talking to, her name was Mya. she was more of a fuck buddy than anything though, and I'm not saying that I didn't try to become friends with her but she would literally come to me and ask to hook up for the night. Jenny was more of a thing though but since I don't actually live there we kind of agreed that we would just stay friends" Salty told us. Humphrey nodded at the story as if he was satisfied.
"That wasn't your first time was it?" Lilly asked.
"No, my first time was with a girl here," Salty answered.
"All the way back in middle school," Humphrey added, turning to his girlfriend.
"Holy shit how old were you?" Kate asked.
"Fourteen" Salty answered. I laughed, joining most of the others at the table. It was then that our drinks came. We were told that the appetizers would be right out and then again, the waiter had left.
"It's not that bad, I mean that's just a year older than me," Angel explained.
"Oh shit, I hadn't even thought about that. Shaky you're seventeen right?" Salty asked.
"Yeah, I know," Shaky answered.
"It's only two years, in time that age gap won't matter" Humphrey said, and he was right about it, when these two were in their twenties or so that two year age gap wouldn't matter.
"I just hope you don't get any shit for it. What about you Kate, how old are you?" Salty asked.
"Seventeen, and yes I know Rick is eighteen but I'll be turning eighteen in may. So far no one has said anything'' Kate said, I turned to her and smiled.
"I can't wait to spoil you for your birthday," I said. Kate smiled back and gave me a quick peck.
"He's not exaggerating, you should have seen how much he got her for Christmas" Angel said. Salty laughed at the thought.
"Oh, while you were gone Salty, we went to the boardwalk and took such a beautiful picture, for Christmas Rick gave us all a physical copy of it. Do you still have it on your phone?" Lilly asked, turning to me. I dug in my pocket and began searching.
"Yeah, basically before Kate and Rick actually got together, she and Lilly were at her grandparents and so we went to Dave and busters. It was me, Shaky, Humphrey, and Rick. We had a great time, so I thought of an idea to take a picture and it came out great, so when Lilly and Kate came back they wanted to recreate it. So that's basically how it happened, we went to the boardwalk and it was a perfect time" Angel explained, just then I had found it and reached across the table to hand Salty my phone. He grasped it and studied the picture before him, his brow lowering as he continued. He then handed it back.
"Wish I could've been there" he said, visibly saddened by what he missed out on.
"Don't worry Salty, not everything was great while you were gone. Rick and Kate almost died" Shaky said. Salty's head then shot over to the two of us.
"It was two separate occasions," I said, holding two fingers up. Just then the appetizers arrived and we were asked if we were ready to order our main dish. We put our orders in and with that done I turned to Humphrey to take this opportunity to talk to him about earlier. "Humphrey, want to head outside for a second?" I asked. He looked at me as he was about to eat his wing and then lowered his fork.
"But… food," he said.
"Just for a minute," I said. He sighed and slid back to get up.
"Everything okay?" Kate asked me, visibly concerned.
"Yeah, it's just hot in here, I need a breather" I said. Me and Humphrey then both made our way to the entrance that we had come in and stepped outside. Once there Humphrey took a seat on one of the two benches out in the front, I sat on the one next to him and leaned forward as I folded my hands.
"What's wrong dude? Got something to tell me?" Humphrey asked.
"Yeah actually, thanks to Salty, Kate found out about Stephanie today" I said. Humphrey didn't seem fazed by it, as he shouldn't have, as I said nothing happened between us.
"Was she mad?" Humphry asked.
"She seemed really curious, I think at first she thought I lied about her taking my virginity, and her being my first kiss, but you know I wasn't. I just hope that she believes me" I explained.
"She most likely does, I mean come on Rick, do you know how much that girl loves you?" Humphrey asked. I chuckled as I looked down at the concrete. My smile faded quickly though.
"You know, I hadn't thought about Stephanie in years," I said. Humphrey joined my gaze at the ground.
"Did you tell Kate what happened?" he asked.
"Yeah, I think she feels bad for it, like she caused it. I told her that it was my fault but…" I didn't finish my sentence, I just couldt think of the words.
"You two were close, do you think that… maybe she felt the feelings for you that you do for Kate?" Humphrey asked, I had thought about it and it killed me, everything I mentioned before in the car had crushed me, and if she felt that way towards me, it would kill her to watch what me and Kate had become.
"I really hope not," I said. Humphrey shook his head.
"I still don't know why she never said anything, no goodbyes, no nothing she just… left" Humphrey said. I had often thought about what happened to her, but the rumor was that she had switched schools and maybe that was for the best.
"I liked her, but not like that, I've always been in love with Kate, I could never get my mind off of her. I just… needed her, I still appreciate what you guys tried to do but… even if I did accept what she offered it wouldn't have worked out" I said. Humphrey sighed.
"Nothing we can do about it now, but hey. You got Kate" he followed up with. I smiled and looked up, Humphrey did the same and looked into my eyes.
"Yeah, I got the love of my life" I said. I felt terrible about what happened, yes but, as I stated before, I wouldn't trade Kate for anything in the world, everything I had gone through to this point was more than worth it, and I would gladly go through it all again if it meant I could still have her to love and to hold.
"Hey Rick?" Humphrey asked.
"Yeah?" I answered.
"Can I go eat chicken now?" Humphrey asked.
"Sure" I laughed, standing up and following him back inside. When we got back everyone was laughing at a story that was being told, from who I wasn't sure. As we sat back down Lilly ended up filling us in, as it turns out Shaky had a run in with some psychotic lady at a Walmart, the story was funny. We went back and forth sharing stories for the next hour and a half before inevitably getting up and leaving. It was a great tie and we promised each other we would do it again. The whole family was finally back together with a plus one. Whether or not he would even want to be included was anyone's guess, but it's not like we were recruiting or having something that anyone could just join. We all cared about one another, and that showed through our actions. I was sure though, that Salty would fit right in if he wanted to.
When Kate got in her car, she lowered her window to say one final goodbye to me. Angel had already kissed Shaky goodbye, and had also agreed to take Salty home. Humphrey had also driven off, kissing Lilly before she had gotten in the passenger seat next to Kate. I leaned in the window and sighed.
"It's sad it's all over" I said. Kate offered a warm smile.
"I know, it was fun while it lasted though right?" she replied, keeping the same kind face on as she played back memories in her head, at least that's what I was doing.
"Yeah, it was," I said. I then leaned into the car to give Kate one last kiss. She leaned forward and closed her eyes to kiss me back. His lips felt so warm in the cold air, and tasted as sweet as they always did. We let go with a light smack and then she continued to smile at me.
"See you at school Rick" Kate said.
"See ya at school" I repeated. Kate sighed one last time, clearly not wanting to leave me, and frankly I didn't want her to leave me either. This last week with her was amazing and I couldn't wait to do it again. Our future was looking great. Kate pulled off and I watched the car disappear around the corner. I felt alone, sad, and missed.
"You coming big bro?" Angel asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"Huh? Oh, yeah" I said, climbing into the truck. I turned the key and turned to see Angel smiling at me. I chuckled and turned to the windshield. "Shut up" I laughed. The ride home was mostly silent, me and Angel had mostly caught up at dinner and given how it was almost eleven at night we were pretty tired. We made it home safe and took showers, me going first because of Angel putting her things away. Once I entered my room though I felt loneliness once again. For the last week this room was me and Kate's safe place, and to have her not here was not only weird but the room just felt over all empty. I sighed and laid down in my bed, smiling once I caught Kate's scent. My phone vibrated, making me look at the screen. It was Kate.
K. hey, did you make it home alright?
R. Yeah, I'm assuming you did too?
K. yep. My parents are so glad to see me and Lilly again, I guess they really missed us.
R. I would think so.
K. yeah, I already miss you though.
R. I miss you too, it's weird not having you here now. You know my bed sheets smell like you, makes me think you're still here.
K. I'd imagine for more reasons than one, but hey there's always tomorrow.
R. I guess, it's gonna suck waking up so early again.
K. I know, but you make it worth it.
R. as do you, I guess I'll see you then?
K. you know it, good night Rick. I love you.
R. I love you too
K. sweet dreams XOXO
I laid my phone on my chest and sighed, breathing in again and catching Kate's sweet scent. I smiled and closed my eyes as I thought of her. Within ten minutes I was asleep.