A Week with Katherine

Day One: Part 2

Even to this day, after all this time, I don't know why I agreed to go with her.

But I do wonder if I hadn't gone with her that day would things have ended differently?

Or would she still have ended up in the woods that night...

"So how exactly are we going to get out of here?" I asked in confusion. We were hiding behind a pillar near the student parking lot.

Walking out of the building was the easy part, getting to my car and past security was something else completely.

"I've got it covered," Katherine said with ease before handing me a slip.

I looked down at it to see it was a nurse's office slip saying Katherine was excused for the rest of the day.

I remember asking her how she got the clearly forged paper. But she only answered with a smirk.

"Now carry me." She said with ease as if it all made perfect sense. It didn't, not yet.

She tossed her bag over my shoulder. She laid like a bride in my arms. Her cool breath framed against my neck as I cradled her. Her eyes fluttered shut.

I had never been so close to a girl before. I remember the way my breath seemed to get stuck in my throat at that moment.

I wish I could go back to that moment.

I could feel her heartbeat in my hands as I held her.

"Okay, go." She whispered.

I struggled to carry both our bags and her weight to my car.

"You could have told me this was your bright idea," I whispered down to her. "If I had, would you have agreed to it?" She had asked.

"I'm guessing not." She chuckled after a moment of my silence.

Katherine always had a way of just knowing. And I didn't know it yet, but even her least thought-out plans seemed to have a way of just working out.

We had almost made it to my car when a security guard spotted us.

"What are you two doing out of class?" The guard who I would later find out was named Jason Miller asked.

Two months after what happened to Katherine, Jason's wife would go into labor and give birth to a healthy little girl they would go on to name Amy Catherine Miller.

"Ah- ahm- she ahhh fainted. I'm just taking her home." I lied poorly before nodding down at Katherine in my arms and the faked nurse's pass on her chest.

"And why are you the one taking her home?" The guard questioned me. "Because I have a free period?"

"Name?"

"What?"

"What is your name?" The guard asked again as he looked down at the papers on the clipboard he carried.

"Jameson Clement."

"You aren't on the list to leave during free periods."

I glanced down at Katherine but she remained still in my arms.

She's right, had she told me the plan relied on my ability to lie I wouldn't have come.

"I just transferred here. So my name just isn't on the list yet?" I lied.

I knew that had the guard just pushed me a little more I would have caved but instead, he looked down at Katherine once before nodding his head and telling me to get her home safely.

I carefully placed Katherine in the passenger seat before throwing our bags into the back and giving the guard a quick wave before getting in the car.

The first thing Katherine said once I got into my seat was "You're not a very convincing liar you know that?"

"Well, he bought it didn't he?" I challenged looking over at her.

Sitting in my small car we were a lot closer than we had been in class. I could see a dusting of brown freckles across her nose.

The rest of the drive was pretty silent aside from the occasional direction Katherine would give me on where to go and the hum of the engine.

Eventually, we stopped at the Sorrow's Creek mall.

It didn't take us very long to find parking.

I remember her nearly skipping with excitement into the mall. It was clear she had been here many times as each step she took seemed to have intent.

She stopped at a random bench nestled between Lolli and Pops and an indoor water fountain.

I didn't understand why she'd go through all this trouble to sit on a bench.

She ignored me as she seemed to just look around.

"What are you doing?" I asked as I sat down next to her. "People watching."

"People watching?"

"Yup," she answered, popping at the p. Her hand subconsciously twisting away at the golden chain of the necklace she wore.

"Why did you ask me to come here with you?"

She seemed to freeze as if thrown off.

"I wanted you to come with me." She finally answered. Even then I could tell that wasn't the complete truth.

"But why me?"

"Not everything needs to have a reason."

To this day, I refuse to accept that is true. There had to be a reason she decided to breeze into my life that day. There had to be a reason things ended the way they did. Because just like the breeze when Katherine was gone all that was left behind was a chill no one in town could escape.

At the time though, I didn't argue with her because it felt nice to think that maybe she saw something in me that I hadn't yet, something special, and that's why she invited me along. No ulterior motives.

I was an idiot back then.

"See that woman over there? The one with the dog?" Katherine said, suddenly nodding in a direction.

I glanced to our left to see a woman with a small dog in her hands. She held it high to her face and whispered something to it. The dog's little legs dangling.

I looked at Katherine in question. Katherine just smirked back at me.

"I bet my life that she's totally the type to let her dog kiss her on the mouth," Katherine started before glancing at me. "With tongue." She added.

I snorted back a laugh.

I looked at the woman to see her rubbing her nose against the dog's face.

I turned to our right to see a middle-aged man in a suit, his arms around a blond girl that barely looked older than we were.

"I bet my life that's not his wife."

Katherine glanced over at the odd couple. "That definitely his daughter-" Katherine started but stopped as the man suddenly kissed the girl in a way a father never should kiss their child.

"Maybe they are just a really close family?" Katherine suggested her face twisted in disgust as the man reached for the blond's behind.

It would be another six months before I found out that I was right. His wife would eventually discover his affair and hang a banner with his picture and a few choice words across their house.

A shady-looking man with thick glasses and a funny mustache moved, blocking our view of the couple.

"Okay, I bet my life that that dude has totally killed someone before," Katherine mumbled to me as the man glanced over at us.

"Oh, he's definitely killed at least 3." I agreed as he smiled at us.

Katherine laughed.

And that's how I spent my first day with her; sitting at the mall people watching.