Bad Taste (Part I) // Colby Brock

60 - Rebecca

          Katrina climbed into the passenger seat of my car with nothing more than her phone. I wondered if she was actually coming with me because she couldn't actually get into her house, but I pushed that thought aside when I saw the warm smile she gave me. Would Katrina ever be anything but sweet?

I didn't smile back, starting to drive off of the parking lot. My backpack sat on the backseat waiting for me, the thought of my laptop being thrown around carelessly making my stomach twist. I kept my gaze firmly on the road ahead of me as I drove.

It was easy to get distracted when you were on the verge of going mad.

We didn't get far before Katrina squealed and sat upright, pointing at a cafe. I vaguely recognised it, but I'd never been in before. Katrina looked like she loved the place as she tapped incessantly on the window. "Let's go in!" she exclaimed at me. "I want coffee."

"I think you're hyper enough," I snapped back, but turned my car into the little parking lot.

Katrina was bouncing in her seat still, tugging the door handle ready to leap out as soon as I stopped. And that's what she did. I hadn't even pulled into a space, pausing to look for one, and she was gone, off inside.

This woman-

I found a parking space and reluctantly climbed out of the car to follow her. Collecting my phone and wallet from my backpack, I left the rest of my stuff in my car and locked the door. By the time I reached the cafe's front door, Katrina was already at the opposite end of the counter waiting for our drinks. She looked back at me, a slight hint of apology on her face.

Ignoring that, I found a table and sat down. My fingers tapped against the tabletop, a rhythm from one of the songs last night stuck in my head.

Katrina walked over a moment later with two coffees. I smelt them, but I couldn't differentiate their smells.

"I have that one too," Katrina said, nodding to my fingers. "Annoying but catchy."

"Uh huh." I forced myself to stop the tapping.

"I'm sorry I was so forceful. This cafe just... it has a lot of memories for me."

I didn't have to ask before she was telling me.

"I don't remember why, but Sam brought me here once. I was starving and he was unsure of where else to go, so he brought me here. He knew I'd like everything on the menu."

"Uh huh," I repeated.

"I've brought every one of my friends here that I can. Some of the boys refuse to come, like Co- uh."

"You can say his fucking name, Katrina," I snarled, though my tone suggested otherwise.

She hesitated before nodding. "Right. Colby never does anything with us unless it benefits him, like clubbing. But we haven't done that for so long now. I think he's abandoned the whole 'wham bam thank you ma'am' thing now, because he hasn't been with anyone."

That stung and relieved me at the same time. Stung, because I was someone he saw and Katrina hadn't mentioned that — had I really meant so little to his friends? Relieved, because it meant that he wasn't sleeping around — because of me? I doubted it, but it was a nice thought.

"Aryia and Mike have never come, either. I'm not very close with them — not as much as everyone else anyway. They're single, and I'm not, so I hold little interest for them half the time. Besides, if they even looked at me that way, Sam would ri-"

Now I was interested. I sat further upright, my body leaning towards Katrina. But she didn't finish that sentence.

"I'm nothing like them all, either. Normal."

"So am I. That didn't seem to stop them," I pointed out. I remembered specifically the petname 'princess' Aryia had used, which had earned him essentially a grounding and a punch to the face.

"You're hot, though. Like, really hot. And they didn't think you meant much to Colby. They know how Sam feels about me."

"I didn't mean much to him," I muttered. I knew that wasn't true, unless my unaddressed feelings were one-sided between us. The look Katrina gave me told me they weren't.

"Colby's difficult. You, also a difficult person, can understand that. It's hard to tell when he cares and when he doesn't, because he always acts like he doesn't. How he looked at you was something I've never seen from him before."

I cringed. "Stop."

"Why?"

"Because I said so." My voice was hard and a little louder than I expected.

She didn't stop. "I'm sorry, but you need to hear it. For whatever reason you broke up with Colby," — I wondered how she knew that I had broken up with him, which I technically had — "he at the very least liked you more than any other girl I've ever seen him with. And I won't lie to you: there've been a lot."

"Katrina." I spoke slowly, my voice deadly. "I let you sleep in my house, gave you breakfast, and brought you along with me. The least you could do is keep your fucking mouth shut about my ex. Alright?"

Katrina's jaw set. She didn't want to shut up, but she did. She turned to her drink like it was a saving grace and I turned to mine so that I didn't throttle her in public.