Kate's POV
I sat waiting by the house in my car for a good hour before Rick had pulled into the driveway. I mostly sat on my phone while I waited, whether or not they're parents knew about what happened yet was beyond me, but for now I had to worry about what was to come. When I finally saw Rick's truck pull in behind me I sighed in relief as I finally stepped out of the car and stretched. I then walked over just as the truck turned off and the driver's side door opened. Rick climbed out and began talking as he shut the door and began walking to the passenger side.
"Hey, sorry I took so long, Angel was at the nurses office and she had to take care of her and that bitch" Rick explained.
"It's okay, I just want to see how Angel is doing" I said as Rick opened the passenger door. Inside Angel sat in the seat asleep. She had a bandage over the bridge of her nose. For the most part though she looked okay.
"Angel, hey Angel wake up" Rick said gently. Angel opened her eyes slowly and turned to us.
"Oh, were here already?" she asked. Rick smiled.
"Yeah, but you can go upstairs and sleep in your bed, I'm gonna go get you something okay?" Rick said. Angel snickered lightly.
"What are you gonna get me? I'm fine, I just wanna lay down for a bit" Angel said, hopping out of the truck.
"Yeah but I know how something like that must feel, so I'm just gonna go and get you some pain meds. I'll be back in like an hour" Rick said, shutting the door and then making his way to the door as he fumbled with his keys, trying to find the one that would unlock the door. I wrapped my arm around the back of Angel's neck and walked with her over to the door where Rick unlocked it and stepped to the side. "Mind taking her upstairs?" he asked.
"No, I'll take care of her," I smiled.
"Thanks," Rick smiled back. He held my cheek and gave my lips a quick peck before jogging back over to his truck and climbing inside. As he backed out Angel scoffed as she walked inside.
"I don't know why he worries so much, I'm fine" she explained as she went in. I followed behind and shut the door. Angel took off her jean jacket and rolled it over her arm so that she could carry it upstairs.
"Yeah, but I think it's more of the fact that he doesn't want to see you in pain" I said. Angel shook her head and then walked up the steps. I followed her to her room where she put her jacket on her dresser, kicked off her shoes and then began to undress, only taking off her jeans and shirt so that she could put on a loose one.
"Yeah, it hurts. But it feels like it's more like he just doesn't think I can take care of myself. I mean I can fight, I really can. That bitch caught me off gaurd and now I'm probably a fucking laughing stock" Angel ranted as she sat on the bed and pouted. I smiled and sat on the bed next to her.
"I believe you, you seem like a pretty tough cookie, I mean you dealt with Garth by yourself" I said.
"Yeah with a knife, I was already mocked for that" Angel replied.
"Yeah but… you still did it, not a lot of people could have gone through with it. Besides, she was really easy to take down" I said, reflecting on what happened back at the school. Angel turned her head to me.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Oh, when you woke up in the bathroom I went to go find her, we traded some words and then she tried to hit me and believe me, she barely got a hit in" I explained. Angel smiled and snickered again.
"Thanks" she smiled. I giggled.
"Yeah, I'm probably gonna get suspended though. Did you see her? Rick said the nurse had to take care of her too" I asked. Angel simply shrugged.
"I guess I didn't notice since I was out of it, oh God does Shaky know?" Angel asked.
"Not yet" I answered. Angel then sighed and laid back. Once she was down she shook her head again. "What?" I asked.
"No matter what you say Kate, I'll still feel humiliated, the whole school is gonna know what happened, and I'm gonna be just a massive fucking joke. Any reputation I built up is now shattered because of this dumb bitch, and I hate myself for it, I'm trying to pin it on her, say that I really could have done it, but I feel like I'm never gonna get a chance to prove it. Even so, deep down I am blaming myself for it, feeling humiliated and it's pissing me off, like actually disturbing me" Angel explained. I simply sat in silence as I looked down at her.
"I know it must suck, but the people who are gonna give you shit for it are already on her side, so nothing has changed. You still have your friends, and she still has hers, and if any of them mess with you then that's when you prove them wrong" I said, finally speaking up. Angel layed there, looking into space as she pondered what I just said. She then closed her eyes and sighed through her nose. I gently placed my hand on her stomach and patted it. "You gonna be okay?" I asked.
"I have to be… I just wanna get away from this, go back in time and make things different. But I'm just gonna lay her down and replay everything in my head again and again until I fall asleep" Angel said. She then opened her eyes and this time they were looking at me.
"Yeah, I know how that is. Back when Rick was at the hospital I made some really dumb decisions and I wanted to go back, but I couldn't. I had to live with it but at least I made the decisions, you don't have to worry like that" I explained. Angel then turned her eyes into space again and layed silent. But then I thought of something. The hospital… of course! "You know Angel, your brother was in almost the exact same situation as you. He was caught off guard, he was beaten, and almost died from it. But that's just it, he was caught off guard, and I know he played everything in his head again and again, but he got up from it, it was all over the school but her didn't care, people took Garth's side but he didn't care, people still liked him, and he's proven himself more than once, and most of all, people know that he can fight, and that Garth got him in a spot where only he could have won" I explained. Angel didn't turn her eyes to me again but she smiled, and that was more than enough for me.
"Thanks Kate," she said. I smiled back and then stood up.
"Yeah, let me know if you need anything okay?" I said. Angel nodded and then closed her eyes to take a nap. I nodded to myself and then turned around to leave and shut the door, just before I did though Angel called out to me.
"Kate?" she said. I looked back at her over my shoulder.
"Yeah?" I answered.
"I love you," she said. Those words always filled me with joy when it came from us.
"I love you too" I smiled, I then shut the door and sighed. How could someone harm such a gentle soul? Fucking bitch I thought, feeling myself grow angry again. I was going to go downstairs and play on my phone some more while I waited for Rick but instead I went just down the hall to his room and laid in his bed, just because if Angel needed something and called out then I could hear her. I took off my shoes and jacket before laying down on the soft bed where I went on my phone as planned, listening for any type of calling from the poor wolf down the hall.
Rick's POV
As I drove I dialed up my parents to let them know what happened. I wanted to do it while I was driving home but I didn't want to wake my poor sister. I put the phone to my ear as it rang, keeping one hand on the steering wheel. I knew they weren't gonna pick up but part of me was still hopeful. Of course though it didn't happen. After the recorded voice mail and beep I gave them my message.
"Hey mom, I just wanted to let you know that something happened at school and I had to take Angel home. She got jumped by some girl because of the whole Garth situation and I'm picking up meds for her right now. She's fine but please call me back when you get this. Alright I love you… bye" I said before hanging up. I took one more glance at the road before dialing someone else. Hutch. I knew he was in school right now, but still I needed to talk to him. Hopefully he was in the bathroom or something. Again it went to voicemail, but this time there was no actual recording. Just the default robot asking me to leave my message after the tone.
"Hutch, I need to talk to you about what happened. I just need to ask you a few things. Call me when you get this?" I said simply before hanging up. I then sighed as I turned on the radio. As usual nothing good was playing, so I simply hooked my phone up to play my own music. It played for about two minutes until I was getting a call. Checking the caller ID I saw that it was Hutch. I answered it and put it back to my ear.
"Hey" I said.
"Hey, what did you wanna talk about?" Hutch asked. I kinda felt bad for disrupting him, but I really needed to know what he knew.
"Did I pull you out of class?" I asked, already knowing the answer.
"Kinda, yeah. But it's fine, I was about to pass out from boredom anyway. What did ya need?" he asked. I hesitated before asking my next question.
"Hutch did you… know anything about Garth's cousin?" I asked. There was a brief silence before Hutch answered the question.
"No, why?" he asked.
"She attacked my sister in the bathroom today. I wanted to know if maybe he said something in the group chat" I said.
"What do you think I didn't tell you about something?" Hutch asked. I then realized how all of this was coming off, but surprisingly I didn't at all mean it to sound that way.
"No I just… I just wanted to know if he may have said anything else" I said.
"Uhh" Hutch sounded as he presumably checked his messages in the group chat. After a few seconds he got back on. "No, he hasn't really said anything in the group chat. Last thing we were really talking about was whether or not he wanted to hang out since he couldn't go to practice" Hutch explained.
"Alright thanks Hutch, please let me know if you hear anything else" I asked.
"Yeah… yeah I got you" Hutch replied, making me feel slightly safer.
"Alright… thanks" I said, going to hang up but Hutch intervened.
"Wait" he said, making me put the phone back to my ear. "The fight I was hearing about earlier, that was your sister and her?" Hutch asked.
"Yeah, that was them," I answered.
"Is she alright? Your sister" Hutch asked. It felt odd that he was asking about Angel's well being but at this point any comfort was welcomed.
"Yeah, she's fine. I took her home though so I gotta go" I said.
"Alright man, talk to ya soon" Hutch replied.
"Yeah, talk to ya soon" I said, finally hanging up. After a while I pulled into the parking lot of the pharmacy. It was a quick stop, really just me grabbing some pain pills and making sure they were good enough. After that it was all a matter of getting home. The drive was short and calm. Nothing but the music playing through the speakers and my thoughts. When I finally pulled back into the driveway I went inside to give the meds to Angel. Going up the stairs though I saw that Kate had made herself comfortable in my bed. She looked up from her phone and then sat up to greet me.
"Hey, you got what ya needed?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'll be right back," I said, heading to my sister's room. Opening her door though I saw that she was asleep. I felt a small wave of sorrow as I watched her. I felt bad for the little pup. She just seemed so innocent. But when was she really ever innocent? But that's what I loved about her, she was such a little devil. I smiled as I placed the meds on her dresser which was right next to the door. I closed it again, not wanting to wake her. She can just take it when she wakes up. For now though I had to talk with Kate. I walked back over to my room where she was still sitting on my bed. "Hey… wanna head downstairs for a minute?" I asked.
"Uh… sure" she answered, putting her phone in her pocket as she stood up. She followed me downstairs which led to the living room and took a seat on the couch, as did I. "Are you okay?" she asked. I stopped looking at the floor to make eye contact with her.
"Yeah I just… what happened when you left?" I asked. Kate laughed and laid back onto the couch.
"Well, it started out with me just confronting her, I was so fucking pissed off. But then she went to hit me and that made my day because I totally fucked her up. She barely got a hit in" Kate told me. I then tilted my head as I studied her, causing her to laugh. "Don't worry Rick I'm fine" she assured. I sighed.
"Do you think that… this is gonna lead to something bigger?" I asked. Kate's smile faded quickly.
"I was thinking about that, do you think Garth put her up to it?" Kate asked. I shook my head.
"I don't know, I asked Hutch and he told me that nothing was said about putting her up to anything, and since he didn't put his friends up to anything I think it's safe to say that he didn't. I feel like if he did it would have been a lot worse" I explained.
"But now we'll have to deal with her shit too," Kate added.
"Yeah… I know, I'm so sick of this family's shit" I said, laying back on the couch as well. Kate took the opportunity to scoot over a bit and cuddle me. I wrapped my arm around her back and began giving her a light massage.
"You know, Angel was telling me how she's worried about how people will see her now, she feels humiliated," Kate told me. I guess it made sense. No matter how it happened she was beat pretty badly and all people would see is that she lost a fight.
"She'll be fine, she's got a quick mouth on her so if anybody tries to talk shit, then she'll shut it down pretty fast" I replied causing Kate to laugh lightly. I rested my chin on top of hers as she settled more.
"I was thinking about when all this is over, when we graduate and move on with our lives. How the six of us will be happy, living our lives, growing old together" Kate explained. I smiled at the thought, but growing old… yeah I wanted to do it with them but…
"Sounds like heaven, but the thought of growing old terrifies me" I confessed. Kate lifted her head a bit to slightly meet my gaze.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Well it's… I guess it's not just about growing old, it's about dying, the idea terrifies me, I'm not scared of dying itself but it's a matter of…" I choked on my own words, causing Kate to finish my sentence.
"What comes after?" she said.
"Yeah… What comes after, I never really talked to anyone about it but the thought of just not existing scares me. I want to be with you Kate, forever, and if growing old and dying is really the end… I guess I would have two things to be terrified of" I explained. I saw Kate's eyes look down for a moment and then back up at me.
"Back when my family used to go to church every Sunday, I thought that it was all nonsense, I just couldn't get behind the stories when you think about what is considered reality now. Nothing like that would ever happen, and I guess I just kind of hide from it, never really thinking about it… living in the now…" Kate explained. Huh, didn't take her for the church type.
"So Kate, what do you think happens after?" I asked. Kate sighed.
"I don't know, I guess I only think of what I would want, but if it really is nothing…" Kate said, gripping my shoulder a bit.
"Yeah… I believe there's an afterlife, but mostly because I have to, me and my grandmother were really close, she died when I was seventeen" I admitted. Kate brushed my shoulder, loosening her grip to comfort me.
"Yeah, Angel told me about her," Kate said. I figured that she would, I never really talked about her much because it always upset me, the thought that she was gone, and never coming back. The fact that all I had of her was memories. Never being able to create new ones.
"Well, I always think that if the end is really the end… then she doesn't exist anymore, I have to believe that she's somewhere, and not just in blackness… but even so, the thought of it being me one day, and the fact that it will happen terrifies me" I admitted again.
"But… even when you were about to die… you still thought of me…" Kate said, again raising her head.
"Yeah… I did" I replied, realizing that she was right. That night I got stabbed. My only thought was making sure she was safe, not dying. The room now fell silent as we gazed into each other's eyes. Slowly we leaned in to kiss each other, taking in the moment, living in the now as Kate had just said. Once we broke it Kate smiled.
"How did we get on this topic again?" she asked.
"I don't know" I laughed lightly, giving her another kiss. Once it was broken we went back to cuddling.
"So…that bitches name is Mindy," Kate said… Mindy huh? This was the name of the bitch that wanted to throw her hat in the ring? Then fine, at this point why not have someone else.
"Don't worry too much about it Kate, that bitch wont take away our happy ending" I assured. Kate laughed.
"I know," she replied. She sat up again, giving me one last kiss. "Mind if I go take a nap in your bed? I'm still tired from waking up this morning" she said.
"No, you sleep outside," I said. Kate laughed and gave my lips another peck.
"Thanks" she said, rolling off of me and stretching, getting ready to stand up, but she had one last question for me before she did. "Want to have sex?" she asked. I snickered.
"Sounds great but I'm just gonna stay down here and listen for Angel, keep an ear out" I said. Kate shrugged.
"Alright, be up soon" she said standing up. She leaned over and gave me another kiss before walking up the steps. Once she was gone I sighed and relaxed into the couch, going on my phone. I decided to message the group chat while I sat, it was a short message really but I guess it needed to be done eventually.
"Hey guys, if you heard anything about the fight that happened in the bathroom today, it was Angel and Garth's cousin Mindy. You may hear the word fight but that bitch jumped her and caught her off-guard. She's okay though I just took her home for the day. Just wanted to let you guys know what happened and that she's fine" I texted, hitting send and then going on YouTube. I took my shoes off and put my feet up on the ottoman to relax, a few minutes later though I heard a ringtone go off. I turned to my right to see it was Kate's phone ringing. I guess she accidently left her phone down here when she went to nap. The caller ID read mom so I guess it was important if she was calling Kate now when she should be in school. I paused the video I was watching and put my phone to my left to grab Kates and answer the call.
"Hello?" I said.
"Rick?" Eve asked.
"Yeah, it's me, Kate's sleeping right now, do you want me to wake her up?" I asked.
"No I guess not, what happened?" Eve sighed.
"Some bitch jumped my sister, so Kate went to confront the person that did it, she tried to hit her too and she totally got her ass beat" I explained, I guess it was a little vague for Eve's taste though.
"Who got their ass beat?" she asked.
"The girl, Kate really did a number on her, and Kate is untouched" I told her. I heard Eve sigh on the other end.
"That's my girl, is your sister okay?" she proceeded.
"Yeah she's fine, I had to go pick her up some medicine though, just pain pills. She should be fine to go back to school tomorrow" I said.
"Good, that's good. Do your parents know?" Eve questioned.
"No, I left them a message but they haven't got back to me" I answered.
"Alright, what are you doing right now?" Eve asked.
"Eh, sitting on the couch and listening to see if Angel needs anything" I answered. I guess she expected me to say something along the lines of your daughter.
"Aww, you're such a good brother. Hey, could you do me a favor?" Eve asked.
"Sure, what did ya need?" I asked.
"Just let Kate know that I called and that I want to talk to her later?" Eve answered, making me smile.
"Why? Gonna buy her another ice cream?" I asked. Eve laughed for a moment before answering me.
"She told you about that? Well no, not exactly. I'm proud that she can take care of herself but her school called me as well and she's suspended for the rest of the week. She's not in trouble but I do want to talk to her about everything. If she wants to get into a good college then she has to keep it on the low, know what I mean?" Eve asked.
"Yeah… yeah I got ya, but that girl did hit first" I said, defending Kate.
"I'm sure, but from what the school told me, she went a little farther than she should have, it just doesn't look good on her part" Eve explained.
"Yeah, I guess that makes sense," I said.
"Alright well I gotta get back to work, thanks for taking care of her" Eve said.
"Of course" I smiled, even though I didn't really do anything to help Kate.
"Alright, bye bye" Eve said.
"Bye" I replied before hanging up. I then tossed the phone to my side and grabbed mine again, going back to my video. Of course though, I saw that Shaky had pretty much blown up the group chat, trying to see how Angel was. Humphrey and Lilly had their own messages sprinkled in as well, but nothing compared to the giant walls of text that came from Angel's lover. I guess it was good though to see that he cared as much as he did.