Page 16 of Double or Nothing

She rolls her eyes at me and my latest comment regarding her inability to be punctual.

I grab Kat’s hand and pull her against me. “I have amazing news.”

“Oh, what’s that?” she asks as she wraps her arms around me and presses her lips to my neck.

As much as I’m enjoying what she’s doing to me, I’m already overloaded with excitement. “Christ, Kat, you’re killing me here,” I say, my voice getting hoarse as her hand slides between us.

“Then give me what I want, Sutton,” she purrs in my ear.

I grab onto her arms and pull us apart. I stare at her, with a broad, unstoppable smile on my face.

She smiles back, giving in to the almost childlike excitement I’m exhibiting. “Okay, okay, what is it?”

“Rocked Records offered me a contract.” My heart races as I blurt out the words.

“What?” she screams. “That’s amazing. I’m so proud of you, baby.”

Her arms wrap tightly around my neck as she jumps into my waiting arms. “So, what happens now? Oh, Sutton, this is just…”

“We leave Sunday,” I blurt out.

“We?”

“Yeah, of course, Kitty Kat. This is the beginning of our future. I need you by my side.”

The excitement that had bubbled inside me dies down when I see the distraught look on her face. Trying to make the situation better, I continue, “What do you say, Kitty Kat? You going to come with me and take over the world?”

“No.”

“No?”

“Sutton, I can’t go. I can’t leave my mom. God knows how much time she even has left. I mean… I can’t do this. Not right now.”

“But this is my chance.”

“I know,” she says somberly. “And I know you have to take it. But I’m sorry, I can’t go with you.”

The happiness and excitement that had been surging through me since I walked out of the meeting with Rocked Records fades into non-existence. “I can’t do this without you. Please, Kat.”

“You already are. And I will be there as soon as I can. Until then, we can just do the long-distance thing. This is us; we’ll make it work.”

She sounds so sure. I’m not as confident though. In fact, all I can really hear and feel is her rejection. The word “no” like a knife to my heart. My mom leaving me. My dad hating me. Grandma Virginia died on me. And now her?

She was supposed to be the one person who didn’t leave. The one who stood by my side.

“I don’t want long distance; I want you with me.” Her hand touches my cheek, but I bat it away. “Either you come with me or…or…we’re over.”

“You don’t mean that.”

I’m hurt. I’m angry. I mean it. “Oh, but I do.”

“Don’t do that, don’t make me choose,” she pleads with me.

All I do is shrug, acting all nonchalant about it. As if her not coming with me isn’t literally tearing me apart. The boy whose mother walked away from him and whose father hates him emerges. And he takes every bit of pain he’s ever felt on the one person that brought him happiness.

It’s a dick thing to do to make her choose between me and her dying mother. Her rejection hurt me though, so isn’t it fair play?

“It doesn’t have to be like this. We can…”

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