From Friends to Lovers

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Kate was in her room. It was 6 pm, Saturday evening, and she was sitting in her room in her slacks and a loose t-shirt, eating from a tub of strawberry ice-cream. There was a knock on her door, she looked up to find her mom peeking in.

"Kate... tonight is your sweet heart's bash isn't it? put your best dress on, I'll do your hair, and you can meet him there, talk to him tonight."

Kate pulled the spoon out from between her lips, looked up at her mom, and began to shake her head no. Johanna saw the tears brimming at her daughter's eyes, she walked to her immediately sitting beside her and pulling her in to her arms.

Kate sobbed into her mom's embrace; she had never been so in love with someone that it hurt. And now she had a very good feeling Rick didn't want to be with her anymore, he hadn't replied last night, he didn't pick her call this afternoon.

"I don't want to go mom."

"It's okay, I understand, but I still think you should talk to him Kate."

Kate had told her mother about how she had started falling for Rick, how she'd been hinting at him all week, Johanna had found it cute initially how Rick had been so clueless as to whom Kate was talking about.

But now, if what Kate had told her was anything to go by, Rick looked like he was intentionally pulling away from her.

"Mom, I'm tired I just want to be alone, please"

Johanna kissed her daughter on the head, and said "you know things would be clearer if you two just talk it out... I know that boy loves you, he's loved you for a long time, he's just misunderstood things"

Kate nodded; she didn't want to think about anything. She just wanted to eat her ice cream, and then cry herself to sleep.

Johanna was in the kitchen now, when she spotted Kate's phone ringing on the counter, she must have forgotten it down here. She looked at the screen to find a picture of her daughter and her friend Lanie blinking. She quickly picked the call.

"Hello Lanie. It's Kate's mom here"

"oh, Mrs. Beckett, is Kate there?"

"I'm sorry, Kate's in a pretty bad mood, she's been in her room all evening, and she just won't listen to me, I've been trying to get her to dress up and go to the dance"

"so Mr. Dreamy stood her up then?"

Johanna chuckled
"Is that what you'll call Rick these days, well it's a nice pet name..."

"Wait a minute, Mrs. B did I just hear right? Oh my god! Kate has been waiting for Rick to ask her out? Rick is 'Mr. Dreamy'?"

Immediately Johanna realized she must have said something she was not supposed to. She was just going to cover it up, when Lanie continued excitedly,

"Mrs B, I got to go, something just came up"

Rick was standing with Javier near the refreshments table, they had been eager to see who Kate was going to come in with, but a lot of time had passed and none of them had seen or heard from her.

Finally Lanie decided to give her a call. She had gone out because she couldn't hear anything with the music blasting through the huge speakers.

Rick had just poured himself a third glass of punch, and turned around to face Javier, but instead, he got a hard slap on his hand "owww" he squealed.

It was Lanie. "Put that glass down, and get out of here!" she yelled.

"what? Where are you sending me?"

Lanie had taken the glass from his hand and pushed it into Javier's hand, and she was now
pushing Rick towards the entrance of the hall.

"Kate's miserable at home. You're going to pick her up."

Rick stopped and turned now "what in the world are you talking about, wait a minute, Mr. Dreamy stood her up didn't he?"

'That bastard.' he thought. His fists were clenched.
Lanie glared at him.

"Tell me one thing Rick, you used to be so smart with the many plastics you used to date before, and now, when you have someone so real, and so good right before your eyes, you're acting so dumb and clueless."

"Lanie, what in the world are you talking about? you're making no sense!"

"You're Mr. Dreamy! Kate has been waiting on you. She's been waiting for you to ask her to the Sweet hearts' dance!"

And then everything came back to him. Everything Kate had said to him whenever he had asked her about this Mr. Dreamy. All that time she had been talking about him.

Rick ran his hand through his hair in frustration! "Oh man! I've screwed this up so bad!"

he looked to Lanie, "you knew about this, why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"Trust me Rick, I had no clue, Mrs. Beckett just let it slip just now when I called her phone. I swear, Kate had mentioned you once or twice in our conversations about the dance, but she never told me Mr. Dreamy was you. My best guess now is, maybe she wanted you to figure it out on your own."

Rick was cursing himself, he had been so stupid.

"Rick, I am not going to stand here and watch you waste any more time. If you love that girl, you go over there now and tell her"

Rick was already walking away. He was going to go fix this. Kate's place was not too far away from campus, and Rick couldn't care less about calling a cab, he needed to see Kate, now. And so he ran.