Broken in Two Ways

$3

Snap Back to Reality

Flashback (3rd POV):

'Ding Dong!' The bell rang as a small, dainty finger with pink chipped nail polish applied pressure to the door bell. The blonde girl tapped her foot on the old porch mat, her foot repeatedly hitting the 'E' in Welcome! as her fingers tapped nervously on the side of her leg, and then began to pull at the seams of her light wash jeans. Her blue eyes were full of anxiety and fear, but other than those nervous ticks, the girl looked confident, nothing was wrong. Little did the person on the other side of the door know, but she had been perfecting that look all of summer and into the school year. She hadn't changed from the quirky, energetic girl she was before summer, but she did have a certain weight on her shoulders, which no one had come to notice per her return to their small town.

The door creaked open loudly even as it was yanked ajar, the hinges snapping slightly under the rust that had been there for 20 years, at most. A slightly disheveled boy was revealed to be standing on the other side of the threshold. His dark brown hair was everywhere, messy and knotted like he had just rolled out of bed from a very violent nightmare. His eyes were slightly hooded from sleep (or that was what the blonde girl had presumed), and his lips were bright red and chapped. He was without a shirt, and his pants rode low on his waist as he leaned against the door, his eyes taking in the girl with shock apparent.

"K-Kat..?" He whispers in disbelief, panic flooding his eyes for reasons unbeknownst to 'Kat'. Kat nods frantically, tears pooling in her eyes as she sees the boy she had been thinking of everyday. She walked forward slowly, still nodding as she continues. "Jake.. I missed you-" She cuts herself off when she hears rustling in the house, leaning to the side to try to look in. "Is your mom home?" She asks, confused because his mom's car was gone from the drive.

Jake looks at her with absolute guilt and panic once again, him shaking his head to the person in the house.

The next words spoken were not from either of the two mentioned, but from inside the house, the higher pitch strangely familiar to Kat as it continued. "Who's at the door, babe?" The voice asks, and Kat's eyes widen in horror and disbelief once again as she places her hand on Jake's arm, pushing him out of the way, revealing her closest friend and confidant before she left, Annabelle, wrapped in just a familiar blue sheet that Kat realized belonged on Jake's bed. Katalin's eyes fill with tears as her vision blurs, and her knees begin to shake as she stumbles back reflexively, wrenching her hand from the grip Jake had on her wrist. A sob fell from her mouth like a broken plate shattering to the ground in slow motion as she pieces it all together.

Her hand reaches up to cover her quivering lip as she holds in her tears, walking backwards with a shake of her head as Jake and Annabelle call out to her. She finally turns around, her strides long and quick as she reaches her car. She piles into it, flooring the pedal as her tires screech. When she gets far enough away, she lets one lone tear fall down her freckle dusted cheek.