Page 18 of Broken

“Okay.” I kiss the side of her head and let her have her time.

The restaurant leads us to our table. I picked somewhere specific for our early dinner. We spent all morning and most of the early afternoon at the art museum. So we’ll have our dinner and head back. I know she still plans to go to the party tonight, so I want to make sure we have food in our system before she talks me into drinking again.

“This place is too fancy for what I’m wearing.” She looks down at her clothes.

“You look perfect.” I squeeze her hand as we reach the back corner, where I requested for us to sit. I pull her chair out, letting her sit first. Like the gentleman I am.

I take the seat across from her, which is the only seat available. What a dumb thing to think, luckily I didn’t say it out loud.

“Welcome, my name is Darius. What can I get you to start with?” He says with a smile.

“I’ll have a Dr. Pepper with no ice please.” Katherine orders.

“Make that two.” I repeat. The three of us have always drank Dr. Pepper without ice. Even on hot days, no ice for us, it dilutes the drink. I only drink ice with tea and water.

“Excellent, I’ll be back in a moment.” He says with a nod, then leaves us at the table.

“I’m getting a steak with a loaded potato, what about you.” I say, never even picking up the menu. My dad brought us here not too long ago, and I already know exactly what I’ll get.

“I’m thinking this grilled chicken breast on a bed of rice sounds amazing, with asparagus and mac and cheese.” She shuts her menu and looks over at me. The candle between us lights her face up perfectly. It’s a little haunting, but in a beautiful way.

We order our food after Darius brings our drink and I don’t even know what to talk about. I want to ask her about what she said. But this doesn’t seem like the place to do that. “What are your plans for the summer?” I ask instead, like a fucking tool.

“I plan on traveling, getting out of here, away from the stigma that’s following me.” She adjusts the forks in front of her, her pale skin is lit by the light and I want to reach out and touch her silky smooth cheek. I want to feel her touch again. “What about you?”

“I’m just going to hang out until I leave for Yale.” Well, that makes me sound pathetic as fuck.

“No traveling?” She lifts a brow at me. “Figured you’d be traveling with George. He’s doing the Winston USA tour my father has mapped out, things he should see before settling into college.”

“They offered, but I didn’t want to spend my summer rushing from one place to another.” I tuck my hands between my knees, rubbing my sweaty palms together.

“My parents said that because I didn’t get into a college I couldn’t go with him. Not that two months on the road with George sounds like fun. I love him, but I need out of his shadow and following him around the country just seems lame.” She picks her drink up, taking a sip.

“Where are you traveling to?”

“I haven’t decided. I was just going to buy a bus pass to anywhere and just kind of go until my feet landed somewhere I could call home.”

“So you don’t plan on coming back?” I ask, extremely curious now. “When do you plan on leaving?” I was hoping I’d have the summer with her, enough time to convince her to come with me to Connecticut.

“After graduation, I want to leave as soon as possible.” Fuck, of course she does.

“So you haven’t bought the ticket yet?” My knee starts bouncing, eagerly awaiting her answer.

“No, I kept chickening out, then I couldn’t decide where I wanted to go. I thought about going out West, not to the coast but out that way.”

“We’ll be at opposite sides of the country.”

“That was the plan, to be as far away from you and George as possible. I even thought about going up to Alaska.”

My heart thumps against my chest, the anger in me starting as I process what she said, “That was the plan, to be as far away from you.”

“Why?”

“Before the last few days, when exactly have you and George been team Katherine? George is so consumed with going to Yale that he refused to come help me when Knox drugged me. You spent years making me hate myself, making my mother hate me.”

“I think she already hated you, I’m not sure I’m to blame for that.” I admit.

“I’m aware, but you didn’t make things any easier.” She says with a little heat on her words.

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