Page 2 of Fireworks

*****

Katie

It only took two strides for him to be standing next to me, keeping up with my pace. It wasn’t surprising since he had a good foot on my five-foot-four frame, his stride was twice as long as mine.

“You know I hate when you call me that.”

His voice was almost a whisper, but still held the confidence it always did when he spoke. My eyes stayed glued to my book, trying my best to ignore him. Perhaps he would get the hint this time and stop trying to interject himself into my life. I knew he hated being called that, which was the only reason I did it half the time.

“You know you used to be in love with me.”

He continued, oblivious to my disinterest. My eyes widened as my body shifted to face away from him. I took a deep breath.

“I’m pretty sure that’s far from the truth.”

I could always hear the smile in his voice as he spoke without even having to look at him.

“Oh yes, you did, when you were a toddler. You loved when I used to play games with you. You were basically obsessed with me.”

My lower lip gave way as I bit down on it, trying to steady myself before I spoke.

“Well, I grew up and realized how ridiculous that idea was.”

Pulling back his already opened graduation gown, he shoved his hands in his pockets. Watching out of the corner of my eye I saw his shoulders slump as his voice lowered.

“What did I do that made you hate me so much?”

They could probably hear the pounding in my chest three states over and I prayed he didn’t notice. When he graduated high school, he left me behind. Sure, we hadn’t been super close growing up beside the events forced on us, but I always looked up to him. I knew he would always be there for me if I needed him. I cared a lot about him, but all he thought about me was that I was my brother's dorky little sister.

“Nothing Nate, you are Asher’s best friend. You only ever spent time with me because they forced you to, so don’t start acting like you even care about my life.”

His face dropped as his feet shuffled along, dropping a step behind me before picking up his pace again.

“I’m sorry, that’s what you think of me. Just for the record, I care about you. I always have.”

For the greater part of my teenage years, Asher and Nate spent their visits home tormenting me and making fun of my reading habits. Nate had to be messing with me right now. That was not how you treated people you cared about. Without bothering to respond, I kept walking. There wasn’t much more I could say; especially with our parents only a few feet behind us.

My mother’s voice broke into our silence.

“Here, let me get a photo of you two.”

My audible huff of disinterest only led to my mother shooting me a dirty look as we all stood waiting for Asher’s ceremony to begin.

“Nate put your arm around her. Katie, can you please smile and act like you’re not being inconvenienced right now?”

Her hand was on her hip, the other holding her phone to the side, waiting for us to obey her. Nate moved closer cautiously, placing his arm around my waist, and leaning in with a wide smile plastered on his face.

“Okay Katie, smile!”

There weren’t many things that made me uncomfortable in life, but his arm around my waist was definitely gaining speed to the top of the list. Trying my hardest, I smiled as genuinely as I could muster.

“You two are so cute. I can still remember when you were just little kids, you grew up too fast.”

Our mothers cooed, looking down at the photographs they captured. Nate released my waist as he pulled away from me slowly.

“I’ll catch up with you guys after, promised the guys we would cause a ruckus when Asher walks across the stage.”

Nate strode away, not looking back once. Again proving my point, he couldn’t care less about my life.