Page 42 of Rebel Romeo

A kid shouldn’t hate his old man as much as I did, right?

I rubbed at the back of my aching neck. I’d gotten hit hard tonight in practice and my body was feeling all those aches. “I got them.”

“They need to be turned in by?—”

“Dad, I know. I can read.” I stared at Kate’s dorm door as Dad got quiet on the other end of the line. A white dry-erase memo board was hung at eye-level with Kate and Jill scribbled in pretty cursive. A heart was in place of the dot on the ‘i' in Jill’s name.

A note to Kate glared back at me, tauntingly.

Kate, stopped by to say hi, but you weren’t here. =) –Doug

Fuck you, Doug. I hated him already even though I had no idea who the guy was or why he was stopping by unannounced to see Katherine.

Seriously, just how many guys in this school were trying to date Katherine? Dave, Nate, now this douche, Doug?

Dad’s voice sounded almost as weary as I felt. “I can only pull so many strings, Holden.”

“No one’s asking you to,” I grumbled. “Did it ever occur to you that I might be able to do this all on my own?”

“Tell Holden I’m sorry! It’s not what he thinks!” Mom’s shrill voice called out in the background. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I just wanted to see the girl he was in this show with?—”

“She just wanted to see her? Really? That’s the story you guys are going with?”

“Don’t lump me into this,” Dad snarled. “That trip was all your mother. She acted of her own accord. After Megan, I said I wouldn’t?—”

“Don’t say her name,” I hissed. “Don’t fucking say her name.”

Thick silence loomed between us before Dad finally broke the tension with his sigh. “Look, I’m not calling to talk about your college flings. You’re going to need to download those applications and start on the essay questions immediately. They need to be finished by?—”

“I know. I’ve got this. I think I can handle a fucking application on my own.”

“Oh really? You’ve got this?” he repeated in a mocking tone. “What about when you failed your LSATs the first time? Were you able to get a seat at the earliest next test on your own?”

“First of all, 152 isn’t failing! And second, it wasn’t my fault I got bronchitis four days before the test!”

A few doors down, a random girl peeked out of her door and gave me a strange look. Shit, I was getting too loud. I raked my fingers through my damp hair and lowered my voice.

Yeah, I knew I could do better than 152, but I could barely keep my eyes open during the test with all the antibiotics I was on. “And I got a 182 the second time I took that damn test.”

“Thanks to the flashcards I gave to you,” Dad said.

I sighed, rubbing my eyes, way too weary to keep doing this with him.

Just then, Katherine’s door opened, and she startled, seeing me there leaning against the wall opposite of her room with my phone to my ear.

I gave her an apologetic smile and held up a finger to signal that I needed a minute. “Dad, I have to go. I have a… a study thing.” I hung up before he could say anything more and tried my best to smile at Katherine, even if it was forced.

Her eyes went wide, her gaze falling to my arms and shoulders.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hey.”

She didn’t step to the side. Or offer to let me in. She just stood there. Staring.

I shifted my duffle bag on my arm, shuffling my weight onto the other foot as the sounds of cicadas chirped in through the open windows. And still… she stared.

“Uh, are you going to let me in?” I asked.

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