I stood in the dark silence as I considered what to do. I was probably just freaking myself out over nothing. I could just head up to my room and forget I'd even seen anything. But a nagging voice in the back of my head was telling me that I should make sure it wasn't a burglar.
I wondered if I should wake my dad and ask him to take a look but I was still so angry with him that I couldn't bear to talk to him.
A light tap at the window almost made me scream. I backed away as my heart pounded and fumbled for a knife in the block. My hand closed on the handle of a big kitchen knife and I held it before me, my hand trembling slightly.
The tapping came again and I opened my mouth to yell for my parents.
"Katy?" Lincoln called softly from outside. I finally remembered to breathe as I recognised his voice and lowered the knife.
"Linc?" I replied as I stepped closer to the window.
"Could you give me a hand out here?"
I frowned at his odd request but made my way to the front door to see what he wanted. I still had the knife in my hand but I decided to keep it with me until my heart rate made it back down to a normal level.
I eased the front door open and blinked out at Lincoln. He was smiling in a relieved way and beckoned me further outside.
"There's a possum out here with a bit of wire caught around its neck. I've been trying to catch it so I can help it out but I'm just going round in circles on my own," Linc explained.
"Oh, sure." I quickly stuffed my feet into a pair of old sneakers that were lying by the door and shrugged my coat on.
I stepped outside and followed him towards the hedge between our yards. He pointed and I bent down to look where he was indicating.
A huge possum sat beneath the bushes and glared at me as I spotted it. There was a piece of metal fencing caught around its neck and a dark stain seemed to indicate that it had been bleeding at some point.
"I've got some wire cutters. If I can just get to it, I should be able to free it but I need you to help me corner it."
"That thing is fricking massive," I said as I stepped a little closer. I wanted to help it but I really didn't wanna risk getting close to those teeth.
"Scared of a little possum Katy?" Lincoln laughed. "I thought you were tougher than that."
"I saw a psychic once who told me death by possum was a distinct possibility for me." I smiled as I started to move towards the terrified creature. I noticed the knife still firmly in my grip and stabbed it into the dirt by my feet before continuing towards the possum.
Lincoln talked to it in a low, reassuring voice as he inched towards it. I closed in on it from the side too, blocking its escape route.
The possum hissed at us as it tried to back up further but the hedge was too dense behind it for it to make an escape.
"It's okay little guy," Linc said softly as he started to reach for the jagged piece of fencing. "I'm here to help." He caught the edge of the wire and instead of freaking out, the possum stilled.
With a few quick cuts from his bolt cutters, the wire came loose and the possum was freed. It shook its head in surprise and made a chattering noise that sounded like it was pleased. We stepped away from it and it slowly walked out onto the lawn.
With a final glance at the two us, the possum turned and scurried away towards the street.
"Death by possum obviously wasn't your fate after all," Lincoln said as he started to head back towards his house. "Thanks for your help."
"No problem." I smiled and went back inside myself.
I returned to the kitchen for my cupcake and glanced back out through the blinds to see Linc sitting on his porch. I wondered why he wasn't heading inside and glanced at the clock; it was nearly two in the morning.
I searched the fridge until I found the stash of cupcakes and grabbed a second before slipping back outside. I crossed my drive and moved through the old gap in the bushes which had never fully grown over since the old days when Linc trod the path daily.
He was sitting with his head leaning back against the railings and his eyes closed. I hesitated, unsure whether he might have dozed off.
"I'm not that easy to sneak up on," he said quietly.
"I thought your possum saving skills deserved a reward," I said as I sat beside him and held the cupcake out.
"It's nice to know I'm good for something," he replied as he accepted it.
"Oh come on Staff Sergeant, you're obviously good for more than just that. I have to say I'm surprised that you're doing so well in the Marines though."
"Why’s that?" Linc asked, almost managing to cover the irritation he felt at my comment.
"You never were very good at taking orders," I joked.
"Well maybe that's why I've been promoted so quickly; I'm more suited to leadership." He smiled as he took a bite of his cupcake.
"You certainly always enjoyed bossing me around," I agreed.
"You were in need of an older sibling to help control your wild tendencies," he pointed out.
"Urgh no thanks. One sibling is more than enough for me. Like I said before, if I had a choice in the matter I'd be an only child." I glanced up at my house and looked towards Reese's window. The light was off and I guessed he was fast asleep, dreaming up ways to further screw up my life.
"You don't mean that," Lincoln said as he followed my gaze.
"I do," I disagreed. "I hate him."
I jumped as Lincoln took my hand and turned my gaze back to him.
"You're so lucky to have a family that loves you," he said quietly. "Don't wish them away over petty arguments."
"You've been gone a long time," I said, trying not to let my anger with Reese cross over to him. "When we were kids, he used to torment me for fun or tease me as part of a game, but at the end of the day we'd still play together and laugh about things. But now... honestly, there's nothing good left in our relationship. He goes out of his way to humiliate me or get me into trouble with our parents. There's no laughter anymore. No apology for it. He gets pleasure out of making me suffer and as soon as I can leave this place I'll make a point of avoiding him for the rest of my life."
"Katy," Lincoln said firmly. "You shouldn't-"
I pulled my hand out of his grasp and glared at him. "If you're going to start taking his side in this too then I'm going back inside. I'm sick of my parents making excuses for him, of my friends thinking it's just a bit of fun. I won't listen to any more of it. I hate him and nothing anyone says will change that."
Lincoln nodded and glanced up at Reese's window again. "I could try and speak with him for you if you like?"
"No thanks. It's gone too far, nothing he could say could even begin to make up for... everything," I said bitterly. "Anyway I didn't come out here to throw myself a pity party. I wanted to know why you're sitting on the front steps rather than inside?"
"I guess I'm throwing myself a pity party," Lincoln said quietly as he leant back against the railings again. "I can't stand being inside that house." He jerked his thumb at the building behind us.
"Oh..." I wasn't really sure what I could say to help with that.
"I suppose I should be using my time here to get over what happened but all I really want to do is run away and never look back."
"From all of it?" I asked. "There's nothing here worth remembering then?"
"Not in this house. But I suppose I should have thought about the good things more. To be honest I just closed the door on this place and did my best to forget it ever existed."
"Well you deserved a fresh start. I can't blame you for taking it, but I wouldn't have complained about a phone call." I nudged him and he laughed.
"I don't think you had a cellphone when I left. I didn't either for that matter," he said. "But if it'll make you feel better you can give me your number." He pulled his cellphone from his pocket and handed it to me so that I could enter my number. "And then next time I leave I might call you. But I can't make any promises."
I dialled my number and let it ring a few
times before killing the call. "Well now I have your number too so I won't have to wait for you to call me."
"I don't want to hear about it every time the other cheerleaders are mean to you though," he said as he took his phone back. "Or when you can't decide what dress to wear to prom."
"As if." I rolled my eyes. "I told you, I'm going to college. As far away from here as I can manage and I will hardly look back myself."
"Not even for your Quarterback?"
"You have to stop calling him that. It's ridiculous. And he's not my anything. I don't own him any more than he owns me and after what Reese did yesterday, I doubt I'll be seeing him again anytime soon anyway."
"Do I want to know?" Lincoln asked whilst trying to suppress a smile.
"No. But I'm pleased to see that my misery is so amusing."
Lincoln laughed at me and gave me a nudge. "Why so serious Katy? You used to laugh all the time."
"I did not. You've just got summer memory. You've forgotten all the bad parts."
"Summer memory?" Lincoln raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"Yeah, you know; think back on the summers you had as a kid."
"Okay, what about them?"
"Full of long, hot days playing outside?" I asked.
"Yeah, so what?"
"Do you remember it raining? Being stuck inside or missing out on something because there was a tornado warning?"
"Not particularly."
"But it rained last summer right?"
"You're losing me." Lincoln was looking at me like I'd gone mad and I sighed impatiently.
"Everyone remembers how great summers were when they were kids," I explained. "And when they get older and they notice the weather being rubbish in the summer months they say 'summers used to be so hot - since I've grown up they seem to be worse every year."
"And?"
"And every generation is the same. The truth is there has always been crappy days but kids are just better at focusing on the positive. They remember the long, hot days and forget about being stuck inside. Hence, summer memory," I finished.
"Well I wished that worked on my memories of my dad," he said.
"It won't work if there's nothing good to focus on." I glanced at the house behind us and sighed. "But maybe you can make some good memories here now. Then you might be able to come and visit your mom without dreading it."
"Maybe." Linc looked up at the dark sky and took a deep breath before standing. "I guess we should make some attempt to get some sleep tonight."
"Yeah," I agreed as I stood too. "Feel free to come for a visit to see Mom and Dad; they can't be mad at me while we have guests."
"So you just want to use me then? Like some kind of pawn in your weird family drama?"
"Yeah," I agreed. "So don't let me down." I waved to him as I headed back home.
I pulled the front door open and quickly removed my coat and shoes before hurrying back up to my room. I glanced out of my window before getting into bed and was pleased to see that he had gone inside too.
I climbed into bed and fished around amongst the covers until I located my cellphone. There were a few messages from my friends but I scrolled past them, planning on answering in the morning.
Just as I was about to put it aside, a new message flashed up on the screen from an unknown number. I quickly opened it and felt a smile spreading across my face as I read the simple two word message.
03:11 Unknown - Night Katy
I wrote a reply and deleted it three times before finally settling on keeping it simple too.
03:13 - Night Linc x
I nestled down into the covers and closed my eyes. No matter how crappy things were with my family at the moment, I knew one thing in the world had been fixed.
Chapter Fifteen
Kaitlyn
Soft knocking roused me the next morning. I mumbled something incoherent and the door opened.
"Kaitlyn?" Mom asked gently.
I pulled a pillow over my head as she flicked the light on.
She perched on the end of my bed and the mattress dipped.
"What?" I asked sleepily as I gave in to the fact that she wasn't going to leave.
"Your father just left for work and I was wondering if we could have a chat?"
"I'm not moving to the city for two weeks," I grumbled as I pulled the pillow from my face and sat up.
"Okay," she said, surprising me.
"You changed your mind just like that?" I asked suspiciously.
"I spoke with your father about it and we've agreed that it would be disruptive to your schoolwork. And we know how hard you've trained to get on the squad and we wouldn't want Demi to take that away from you."
"Okay... thanks," I said, feeling a little off balance at the sudden shift to my point of view.
"I don't want you to think that you can't talk to me about things in your life. I want to know how you're doing, what you've been up to with Lacey or... anyone else," Mum said diplomatically.
"Oh. This is about Ryan?" I asked.
"I'm just sad that you didn't feel like you could share something like that with me," Mom said and I realised that she was trying not to cry.
"Seriously Mom, it's not that big of a deal. He only just asked me to be his girlfriend and before that we were just seeing how things were going." I shrugged. I hadn't purposefully kept it from her, I'd just known if I told her about him then she'd have made it into more than it was.
"But you're serious about him now?" she asked, seemingly pacified by my response.
"To be honest I'm not sure. I think he's more serious than I am about it. I don't really want to get too deep into anything with college coming up next year. It could just make things messy when I leave."
"That's very sensible but it's not usually so easy to tell your heart to cooperate. Just look at me and your dad-"
"I know I know, he wasn't your type at all but when you got to know him your heart made the decision for you." Mom loved to talk about how she'd been all set to go off travelling the world when this brawny engineer had started repairs at the office she worked in. He'd taken a liking to her right away but she'd always preferred academic types. Dad was so persistent that she eventually agreed to go out with him just to prove to him how incompatible they were and within a matter of months they were engaged. Gran always called it a whirlwind romance and told me to watch out for them because they took you by surprise and changed your whole life. I was never sure if she was advising me to go for it or avoid it.
"And maybe your heart will pick Ryan," she said with a smile.
"Yeah, maybe." I felt bad voicing it but I really didn't see me and Ryan making it long term somehow.
"Maybe he could come over for dinner?" Mom offered hesitantly.
"I dunno. You didn't see what Dad was like the other day, I'm surprised Ryan didn't go running for the hills." I shuddered with embarrassment at the memory. Ryan hadn't messaged me since and I hadn't been able to bring myself to text him either.
"What if..." Mom hesitated guiltily. "What if we planned it for a night your dad has to stay in the city?" she offered.
I couldn't help but laugh. "You really wanna meet him huh?"
"I just want to be involved in your life. A boyfriend is a pretty big deal."
I sighed in defeat. "Okay you win. If he ever speaks to me again then I'll ask him over when Dad's gunna be out."
"Great. I'll have a think about what to cook." She beamed as she stood.
"No Reese either," I added before she could leave the room.
"I thought you and your brother were getting on better?" Mom asked with a sigh.
"No."
"But you keep doing things together socially and-"
"I do not socialise with him," I said angrily. "Ever since he got on the football team he just keeps turning up to everything that I'm at with my friends. He's even taken that from me."
"Have a little sympathy for him, its hard to make new friends and he's just trying to fit in with a new
crowd-"
"Sympathy? He's not struggling to fit in; everyone thinks he's hilarious," I spat.
"Oh really?" Mom smiled and I glared at her.
"Yeah, he's always telling them stories about me from when we were kids. Or doing impressions of me or just generally humiliating me whenever he can. And they all lap it up."
"I'm sure he's not that-"
"Don't even say it! He is that bad and the first chance I get, I'm cutting him out of my life and never looking back."
Mom pursed her lips and sighed. "I'll talk to him. I hate to think of the two of you not getting along." She closed the door behind her and I rolled my eyes. No amount of talking to him would help. The sooner Mom accepted that the two of us just weren't going to be friends, the better.
I started to head for the bathroom then remembered the water situation and swore. I went downstairs to heat a kettle of bottled water instead and came face to face with Reese on the stairs.
"Been crying to Mommy?" he asked as he approached me, purposefully blocking the stairs so that I couldn't get past.
"Just mentioned how lame everyone thinks you are and how all you can do to get their attention is try and wind me up," I shrugged. "She said you've been so upset about not fitting in that you started wetting the bed again."
"Hilarious. How is Ryan by the way? I heard he's been telling everyone how frigid you were in the storm shelter so he dumped you."
"Well at least someone wants to go out with me. The last girlfriend you had was.... oh that's right you haven't had one have you?"
Reese slammed his shoulder into mine as he passed me, knocking me into the wall. I swore at him as he headed to his room and carried on to the kitchen.
Mom had left for work too and I waited as the kettle boiled. I glanced out of the window to Lincoln's house but he wasn't on the porch.
The kettle boiled and I headed back up to the bathroom for a wash. As I reached the landing, Reese sprinted past me and slammed the bathroom door shut between us.
"You might be waiting a while!" He laughed from inside.
I scowled at the door for several seconds then turned the other way and headed into his room. I pulled back his bedspread and poured some water onto the middle of his sheets. I hurried back to my room, abandoned the kettle and grabbed my cellphone before dashing into his room again and snapping a photo of my handiwork.
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