As you step outside, carefully navigating the grime and mold of the place with the duffel bag on tow, you ponder upon the unexpected revelation. You probably expected Katie to be furious at David for “cheating” Jessica with you, but you never expected her to have feelings for him.
And those feelings aren’t new. Katie’s got a crush on David for almost as long as he’s been with Jessica. It was – quite literally – a crush at first sight. It’s hard to recall that experience without the memories that come with it – the description is vivid enough for you to embrace the feelings tied to it, but it would've been nice to see it as well.
Once outside, you see Claire’s still pissed at David, but they’re not arguing. Upon seeing you, she approaches, briefly stopped by your replacement until he sees you. You meet each other mid-road, immediately hounded by questions. “So what? Did you find that hussy?”
“Only this,” you say as you heave the duffel bag. “I don’t know what she did, but she knocked me out!”
“Well, David said it was a misunderstanding, but I don’t believe him.”
“What did he tell you?”
“That he was gonna meet Trish here, but he found this woman instead. But he was overthinking it, like he was trying to make an excuse.”
“Don’t worry,” you tell her. “I’ll get it off him.”
As you approach him, you can see something resembling fear in his eyes. His eyes dance and tremble as he sees you, and his body naturally shirks. It’s impressive how much emotion he’s showing now, as if he’s truly feeling fear.
“Hey,” you bark at him. “What’s the big idea?”
“I was supposed to meet Trish here,” he parrots mindlessly. “But the woman you saw, uh... She...”
Jeez... Do I sound like that when I’m making excuses, or is this thing that bad at making them?
“That’s not what I saw,” you rebut him, driven by Katie’s thoughts on the matter. “I saw you were cuddling with her!”
“I wasn’t! I told Claire already – I was supposed to meet Trish, I didn’t, then... Then I see this woman, and then you arrived?”
“If you didn’t see Trish, why didn’t you back off? What did that woman tell you? Why, were, you, cuddling!?”
“I, uh...” He looks everywhere, stammering. “I, she...”
“C’mon...” You drag him, and as Claire follows, you stop him. “Stay there! I know how I’ll get this off him. Just you wait!”
You take your replacement out of place and give him a good stare down. “Am I supposed to look this stupid when pressured?”
“I don’t know,” he says, still shocked. “I’ve never seen you pressured.”
“I mean you! You’re usually smarter than this! Why didn’t you tell her you tried to help me cross the road or something?”
“Because I just saw you?” He blinks, looking at the building. “Is there something wrong?”
You grunt, realizing the reason he’s so confused. “It’s me!” you hiss to his ear. “Rachel!”
“Huh...?” He looks at you, and just as he’s about to pinch your cheek, you slap him.
“Okay - so you remember how you found a black pen when you tried to rescue Ashley Wright, right?”
“Ooooh...!” You see the gleam of recognition in his eye. “I see. I thought that was a bad dream or something.”
“Well, I’m inside Katie now. So tell me – why didn’t you tell anything better to Claire!? You usually have a better imagination.”
“You told me to try and appease her. I didn’t know how.”
“You could’ve said...” You click your tongue, grunting. “Nevermind. Just follow my lead, alright?”
“Uh, sure...”
You meet with Claire, rolling your eyes. “Your brother’s an idiot. He started asking everyone if they saw Trish, including that woman. Turns out, he can’t resist a pretty face.”
“Was that it?” Claire slams your replacement hard on the shoulder. “You dummy. Don’t you remember you’re engaged to Jessica?”
“I told him that! But he said we wouldn’t believe him ‘cos we already had bad ideas in mind.”
“Is that true, Davey?”
“Pretty much,” he says, once again very morose. “When I saw you, I thought you were gonna tell Jess that you saw me cuddling.”
“Well!” You leer at him. “That’s what it looked like! You could’ve... I dunno, told her to fly off!”
“Then you would’ve asked me why I treated a woman so rudely!”
“Until you told us she was hitting on you. Then we’d have known.” You shake the duffel bag, sighing in frustration. “Anyways - I found this inside. I think it’s hers?”
“What made you grab that?” Claire asks.
“Why not? If it’s hers, she’ll come back for it. Then we can ask her why she tried to flirt with Davey.”
“Oh.” You know the look Claire’s giving. You caught her by surprise; she didn’t even think about it. “But what’re we gonna tell our moms?”
“Don’t worry,” you tell her. “I’ll take care of it.”
--
You spend a little time with Claire, gossiping over your replacement’s attitude and how Scottie Kilmeade invited her to Homecoming. Even when you shouldn’t care, you can’t believe Claire’s still smitten by that little prick, and you gently try to convince her out of it. (And when she asks why, you tell her if she’d want to marry someone like Jimmy. That did the trick.)
The whole ordeal felt alien. Your relationship with Claire has always been rocky; ever since she was a kid, she was ever the curious one, always behind your ear, or Nick’s, or Tina’s. Though she had her friends, you were the closest (in age) of the siblings, meaning spending the most time with her; playing with her dolls (hand-me-downs from Tina). and, of course, having to deal with her annoying antics.
By the time you were growing out of your toys and focusing on games, you had to weather her turning your console off at the worst possible time so that you could play dolls with her. (And by then, Tina was already on high school and focused on boys, so she couldn’t help you out.)
Thus, you always thought of her as an annoying pest. Katie, on the other hand, quickly connected with her, having pretty much the same interests. They were outgrowing their toys at the same time, started focusing on boys at the same time, and once Jessica and you established their relationship, they found that as an excuse to share everything.
Katie never told her about her crush with you, but Claire caught her once, and she admitted you were cute. That was a shock, because Claire always saw you as the ugly and boring brother. She pressed her into looking for other boys, which made her settle on the second-best alternative – Allen Tennison, one of Scottie’s friends but one with a better future. (Except his zits make him a big no-no in Katie’s eyes.)
You never chatted this long and this comfortable with Claire before. It’s obvious letting Katie do the talking helps take the droll out of it. On one hand, it’s strange that you didn’t have this relationship with your little sister before.
On the other... It’s too late. Claire feels like a distant memory – like when a tick bites you and makes you sick, but you get all the games and ice cream you want. (That, turns out, is something that happened to Katie.) You still feel some kinship, but no real attachment to her. If anything, you see her as an asset – someone to keep an eye, since you know she’s good with numbers.
Thus, you couldn’t wait to find the first excuse to get rid of her. It was as painful as ripping off a bandage – it hurt a bit, but it faded away quickly. (You even tell yourself it’s better this way – she's got her brother, she’ll keep her friend, and she’ll have a better life.)
Once at Katie’s home, the nostalgia hit deeper. Mrs. Hunt is making dinner – one of her famous casseroles, which you enjoyed so much you even asked Jessica to practice them. She’s always been incredibly nice to you, almost like a second mother – except your own mother wouldn’t give you a hard-on like her, She’s stunningly well-maintained; you know where Jessica got her looks, and you suspect Katie will grow up to be as fine as her.
“Hello, sweetie. What’s that?”
“Oh, this...” You sling off the duffel bag, grabbing it with your hands. “Something Claire asked me to keep here. It’s a school thing.”
“Alright, then.”
“Is Jess still here?”
“Yeah, yeah. Not like she’s going out at this hour.” Mrs. Hunt drops her knife, looking at the rooms, then at you. “Say - you know what’s wrong with David? Jessie’s a bit distant; I asked her about him, and she says he’s alright. That’s not like her.”
“He’s kinda distracted,” you limit yourself to say. “I’ll talk to her about it.”
After eating dinner (God, you missed this!), you wait until Mrs. Hunt’s out before making your move. Being at your room, mindlessly entertaining Claire through texts, you ponder how you’ll tell Jessica about your plan.
Obviously, you want to start by asking if she feels David’s distant. Ask her about her feelings. Ask her if she feels he’s missing something. Then...
You’re out of ideas. Aim for sympathy? Tell her about how you were tortured, forced to be a sex slave for Tessa’s satisfaction? (You know that’s not true – that the only moment of torture was being inside Helen, and even now, you wouldn’t mind using that old hag if it meant sticking it up to the new Ashley.) Or be honest, and tell her about how you swindled a mob queen into melting on your hands?
Jess never liked braggarts, Katie reminds you. And that reminds you of something. What about Katie? She’s got a crush on you. What if you lured her with the promise of being hers, slowly luring her into doing your bidding?
But that would be too safe. Why not convince them both?
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