EIGHT LETTERS || Liam Dunbar [2]

THIRTY FOUR

Katherine met Mason at the front of the school the next morning.

She'd spent twenty minutes on the bus, since Stiles was still with Scott looking for Kira.

He seemed almost nervous to see her, and had briefly freaked out over her eyebrow and the stitches in her knee, and the bandage on her wrist, but she'd waved it off. When she offered him the tiniest of smiles, his shoulders visibly slumped as he relaxed. She could practically read his mind — oh thank god Liam wasn't lying — as she approached him, and was mildly surprised to be pulled into a tight hug. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he mumbled quietly, squeezing her tightly. "I would've kept my mouth shut about it if I'd known—"

"—But you didn't," Katherine interrupted him with a soft shrug of her shoulders, pulling out of his grasp to hold him at arms length. "You didn't know, Mason, and besides; at least now I don't have to live with the what if's right? I got my answer, and it just happened to be no." She forced a simple smile. "Now let's go meet Liam...Liam and Hayden?" She asked, still unsure as to where the two of them stood with each other.

Just because he'd chosen Hayden, as horrible as the phrase was to think, didn't mean she'd chose him.

Mason shook his head. "No, just Liam," he murmured, hooking an arm around her shoulder as he dragged her back towards the front door. "As far as I know, she's uh, she's still with Theo, but she wants to be with Liam."

"Makes sense," she hummed, trying to hide the fact that she was relieved. "Theo's definitely the type of guy who won't take no for an answer...what about you, Mase? What have I missed with you? I swear, we haven't talked in, like, four hundred bajillion years, man."

He laughed quietly at her over-exaggeration while she opened the front doors, and held them for him. "Well, I uh...I had a date with Corey...this weekend."

For the first time in what felt like days, Katherine felt her body flood with genuine happiness as her jaw dropped. "Dude, no way!" She grinned, stopping to pull him in for another hug. "That's awesome! You'll have to text me every single detail later!"

He laughed quietly too, and even though the hug only lasted a couple seconds, the two of them were still grinning widely as they continued on inside. Liam was waiting for them by Katherine's locker, hands stuffed in his pockets while closely examining his shoes.

She felt her smile waver only the slightest bit as she realized just how prominent that stupid crush still was, even after the most careful turn-down she'd ever seen in her life.

You're happy for him.

He's your best friend.

You're happy for him.

"Hey," she murmured, hesitantly stopping beside him as she tried to pretend her heart didn't hurt as much as it did. "How...um...how are you?"

Liam looked mildly surprised she was even speaking to him, but offered her a tiny smile as she twisted in the lock combo and pulled out the text books she would need for the morning. "I'm good. How's...everything?"

"Last I heard, they were still driving to New Mexico," Katherine answered softly, knowing exactly what he meant. She closed her locker door and turned to him with a small smile. "I'll keep you updated, if you want."

"Um, yeah, I'd appreciate that."

She could practically feel Mason's awkwardness from where he stood, eyeing the two, and internally sighed. So, she twisted on her heel while slinging her bag back onto her shoulders. "Alright, enough of this awkward shit, okay? I told you I liked you as more than a friend, you said you'd rather be with Hayden, it happened, let's move on."