�Your secret�s safe with me
They knock you down
I�ll pick you up
They laugh at you
I�ll shut them up.�
God, Brittney is such a fucking idiot. Talk about fucking blatant! She might as well strip down and lay naked on the table for him.
Aaaaah!
So Susie decided my thoughts needed to be distracted with talks of Xander and his new boy toy.
Somewhere in that change in subject, I impulsively reached out and touched Nick�s hand when his shoulders stiffened at Brittney�s words. I didn�t mean to leave it there though.
Guess I forgot to move it?
I�d roll my eyes if people couldn�t see me.
And now he�s holding onto my hand and I know there�s no possibility of him letting go anytime soon. Not that I mind.
Okay, need to throw some walls up.
�Thanks.�
Nick said it quietly after I turned to him once I felt my fingers comfortably entrapped in his.
Thick, heavy-duty walls, Right now.
�You�re welcome.�
Biting my lip I turned away to find Susie looking at me with a puzzled squint to her eyes.
Don�t ask.
And now we have food.
Not like I�m in much of a condition to eat.
*
Food means big-mouthed girls can�t talk anymore.
But that means Kara needs her hand back.
Damn.
Releasing her, she brushed her fingers against my thigh before pulling away. Accidentally? On purpose?
Conversation continued around us, mainly concerning the wedding or some other aspect of Angie and Mike�s relationship. I entered the comments when they were needed, but Kara never spoke a word while she picked at her food.
Multitasking, I kept an eye on her while managing to eat and following the basic gist of the conversation going on around us.
Fifteen minutes of watching her - her posture stiff, her face never lifting to look at anyone else in the room, her hands shaking - I leaned over to her, catching her off-guard.
�Do you talk anymore?�
Her constant fidgeting stopped, but she didn�t look at me.
�No, not really.�
If I hadn�t been leaning towards her so that I could feel the heat radiating off her bare shoulder, I wouldn�t have heard the faint whispered words.
Her cheeks turned pink as I continued to look at her, hoping to pull a little more information out. When she turned towards me, her cheeks continued to flame.
�Especially not with these people around.�
I�ve never seen someone look so sad. Or defeated.
Her eyes dropped as if she couldn�t bear looking at me.
Where�s the giggly, bouncy Kara who just had to look at me to turn me into a mushy lovesick fool?
�I wish I could make you happy.�
Her eyes were pulled back to mine, suddenly full of tears.
Oh man, I just said that out loud.
Damn, you make it so hard not to kiss you so the tears might disappear.
Or touch you when one of those tears escapes.
*
Abruptly I turned away, wiping away the tears from my eyelids in an attempt to be discreet. Susie caught me anyway.
�You okay?�
I nodded slightly, still feeling Nick�s eyes burning into me.
Probably still with the painful look on his face that made me feel like the evilest bitch on the face of the earth.
�Yeah, I�m fine.�
�You are such a liar.�
She paused, surveying the table, probably finding Nick staring at me.
�You just have to hang on for two more days. Then Xander and Ryan will be here. And Toby? Both of them, right? Trevor?�
I nodded again, looking across the table when someone else said my name.
One of the giggly talks-too-much girls. Janet? Janette?
�What are you planning to do now that you�ve graduated?�
And now everyone�s attention is on me.
Fuck.
�Um� I�m going to college to study music and English lit.�
I paused, hoping that would suffice, but continued when no one said anything.
�But this summer I�m working for my friend Ryan. He�s doing promotion for his new CD, so we�ll be traveling a lot.�
Murmurs of �that�s cool� and assorted words of approval went around the table. Except for Brittney.
�Yeah, Kara�s been writing songs and helping Ryan record for the past four or five months. My brother tells me it�s sounding really awesome.�
Corianne grinned at me.
I almost had a heart attack.
She supposedly hated me as much as Brittney, constantly giving me hell and threatening me whenever I was working with Morgan or Sierra.
�Oh come on! You don�t work with that guy!�
Of course Brittney needs to put in her opinion.
�Jeez Kara. Everyone knows you�ve been acting as his personal �assistant� if you know what I�m saying.�
Yep, been fucking Ryan on the soundboards.