Page 23 of Fireworks

Chapter Nine

August

*****

Katie

There were only a few weeks of summer left. The days seem to get shorter with each passing hour. Maddie and I had done our dorm room shopping already. We were set, making this chapter of our lives seem even closer to ending. I wasn’t sure if I would ever be ready for life to change. It was going to be a tremendous culture shock for Maddie moving across the country. As for me, well, it was going to be tough trying to navigate a new school without my bestie by my side.

We hadn’t been to the pool in over a week, and I had been spending all my free time at Maddie’s house. Flopping her body onto her bed next to me she let out a huff of frustration.

“I wonder how the winters are there. There better be somewhere to ski. It will be so boring and I don’t think I’ll be able to handle it if I can’t ski.”

I pulled out my phone, opened the internet browser and started typing quickly. Turning my phone to face Maddie, I smiled.

“See, they get snow and have ski resorts there too. You may just survive this.”

Taking a deep breath in, she closed her eyes before speaking.

“You know Katie. I really regret not picking a school closer to you. How am I going to do this?”

My eyes burned as I pushed down the feelings of fear and uncertainty.

“You are going to do great out there. I am always a phone call away, you know that.”

Rolling her body into me, she hugged me tighter than she ever had. I held onto her, knowing exactly what she was feeling right now.

Wiping a tear off her cheek, she straightened up.

“Okay, that’s it. We're going to the pool today.”

I opened my mouth but was quickly cut off.

“No, we are going. I don’t care if you and Nate have issues. We will stay on the opposite side of where he is. We are not letting him ruin the last of our summer.”

She had a point. I hated to admit that she was right. I couldn’t and shouldn’t be letting him ruin our summer and dictate where and when we did things. If he had a problem with me and who I spent my time with, then he needed to man up and give me a damn good reason I should stop. Until then, I was done running and hiding from him.

“Fine. We can go.”

Making our way to the edge of the pool, we sat down on the only two empty chairs we could find. Mentally, I reminded myself to keep my glasses on and just focus on talking to Maddie. I was here for her and nothing else right now. Nate had his chance to tell me why the hell he had written that I wasn’t just Asher’s little sister on my card. He had spent the entire time he had been back home watching me and judging my every move but never saying why. Maddie had insisted that he wanted me and that it was all fueled by jealousy. I had known him for so long, I highly doubted that was the case.

Then there was the guilt I felt about what happened with Collin. It had been eating me away since that night. I wanted to take it back since now he expected things to go there again when we were alone. I had been doing a pretty good job keeping our alone time short and always having an excuse why I wasn’t available to come over if his parents weren’t around.

Maddie’s voice broke my train of thought.

“Cassie just texted me. There's a party at the warehouse again tonight. Do you want to go?”

Scrunching my nose remembering how my night turned out last time, I shook my head no.

“That’s a hard pass for me. You can still go. Totally your choice.”

Collin made his way over to us, plopping down on the end of my chair.

“Hey Maddie, Brian asked me to tell you he wanted to talk to you.”

Nodding toward where the restrooms were, we could see Brian standing with his back against the stone wall on his phone.

“Was there a reason he couldn’t just ask me himself?”