Becoming (INSECURE SEQUEL)

24

AUGUST

My eyes widen as I eye the stain the fruit juice leaves on the coat of Ashton's suit. Melody is standing in front of him, too in shock to react .

"Ohhh my god no!" I hear Lily's panicked voice as she runs over to see what happened to the fruit. The fruit that she hired people to cut and craft perfectly to sit on the table next to other starter courses that she also precisely picked out. But when she walks up her eyes divert from the fruit to something even more horrific. "Why is she in your jacket?"

"I'll explain later." I say quickly.

"No, Catalina, that's not what I meant." Ashton turns around to her.

From where I'm standing, I can see her face perfectly clear. She has the same look in her eyes that I've only seen once; everything else after that was almost as if I had never existed to her at all. I know it all too well. She blinks slowly and looks down at the empty bowl in her hand and then at Lily.

"I'm sorry." She swallows, seeming too in shock to do or think about anything else.

"Uhhh...no, it's okay." Lily says, confused, but speaking softly because she can see the tears pooling in Catalina's eyes.

No matter how many things happen to Catalina, seeing her heart break is always like seeing it for the first time. Somehow, it humanizes her. It always reminds me that no matter how hard she seems, she isn't made of cement. She's just..... a girl. Except, this time watching the look on her face is so much worse than any other time I've seen her be disappointed or hurt. She's never trusted anyone the way she trusts-or trusted- Ashton, and while I've always known that, seeing it as it fades away makes it more real than it's ever been.

"I don't know what she's talking about." Ashton tries to explain..

Catalina sits the bowl on the table and she looks back up at Ashton and she doesn't say anything.  Instead, without another glance, she walks straight ahead, out of the door, being sure to harshly bump into Melody's shoulder on the way out.

"What happened?" Lily whispers to me.

"She's going to kill him." I whisper back.

After watching her walk away, I assume that he decided it would be best to not follow. Instead, Ashton turns back around to Melody. "What the fuck is wrong with you!?" 

Lily and I gasp.

I look at Melody to see that she hasn't moved a bit since she walked up to him. I can tell that for whatever reason, she thought the picture and her word would be enough for him. She didn't intend for Catalina to overhear them and knowing that her intentions weren't vindictive only makes the look on her face more disheartening.

"I just– I thought it would be wrong to keep it a secret."

"Since when do you care about what's wrong?"

"It's not just about me though. Just  look!"

"No." He looks at her solely to avoid having to look at the picture.

"but i swear-"

"Listen to me." Ashton interrupts whatever she was going to say.  "Stay away from me. I don't want to see you or the picture. In whatever fantasy world you've created about this, I need you to understand that even there, I still don't care."

Melody stares at him without saying anything else. I can't believe that she doesn't have a rebuttal. She always has one.

"Oh my god, he can't say that–'' Lily looks at me and then back at them like she's going to say something.