Distant Minds

Chapter 11: Tough Luck

          Ralph falls, flat on the concrete floor, coughing, Kate tends to Ralph immediately. "Hey, hey Ralph, are you okay?" Braden sees Kate kneeling over Ralph, and attempts to walk over, but Randall's arm grabs his shoulder and stops him. Braden turns around with a mad expression on his face, and walks away.
          Daniel and Gabby watch as the firemen put out the fire. A paramedic comes by and sits Ralph up. "What's the situation?" She asks. Kate answers for him. "Excess smoke inhalation and a burn on his left leg." "I see," the paramedic says. She stands back up. "That's not too much of a big problem, but thank goodness everyone here is safe." The 5 teens watch as The firemen finish up the fire on the inside and outside of the house, spraying the hose, all around the area. They watch until the firemen and paramedic leave, leaving themselves in the chilly cold night.
          Gabby sighs, "dang. Mom and dad are gonna kill us, Kate! What happened?" Kate looks up at her sister. "I- I don't know, I just smelled smoke, then I saw fire appear out of nowhere downstairs!" Gabby nods. "Alright, but how are we going to explain to mom and dad what happened? Where can we stay?" Kate shrugs. Daniel puts his hand on Gabby's shoulder. "You two can stay at my place, I'm sure my parents will understand." Gabby gives Daniel a hug, and Daniel says, "let's go you guys. Back to my place. So we can figure out how all of this will work."
Randall and Gabby start to walk to Daniels place, then Randall looks back, "you two coming?" He asks Kate and Ralph. Ralph says, "yeah, yeah, you three go on ahead. I just need a quick moment with Kate." Randall gives Ralph a sympathetic smile, then continues to walk to Daniels place with Gabby and Daniel. Ralph inches himself back against Kate's burnt wall, then sits down. Kate walks up to him. "Ralph, like I said. You were crazy for going in the house. It was even more dangerous than Julian's fire." "Yeah," Ralph smiles. "You're right, but seeing your scared self, it made me uneasy. I didn't want to see you afraid." Kate blushes. She looks out in the dark sky, then at a lamp post, the only sign of light in the neighborhood. "Ralph, what was the first thing you thought of when you heard about the fire at my house?" Ralph looks up. "I thought about you." Kate, pulls Ralph up off of the ground. She turns Ralph towards her. "Ralph, I don't know why I haven't done this to you when we first met." Ralph looks into Kate's eyes, then behind her in the distance, a person. "Um, Kate?" "I don't know why I didn't have this feeling when I first had that crush on you." Ralph notices a person watching the two. His eyes widen. He sees Braden. Kate holds Ralph's face, closes her eyes, then inches her face towards his.
          Braden's expression turns into shock as he sees Kate kiss Ralph. His eyes fill with disappointment, anger, and revenge. He sees Ralph hold Kate. He enjoys it. He pulls her closer, tighter. Braden clenches his fists. Wanting to confront the two, but at the same time, he didn't want to interfere. He leaves once again. Hoping that all of this was just a bad dream.
          Ralph and Kate finally finish the moment that they had, Ralph looking surprised. "But Kate, your boyfriend." Kate smiles. "I'll deal with him later, but for right now, he's irrelevant." Ralph puts his arm around Kate, and the two head to Daniels house for the night.

          It is now the next day, and Red is currently at central square mall with kyrie, eating lunch. Red says, "where do you wanna go?" Kyrie shrugs. "Wherever you wanna go." Red nods okay, let's go to Starbucks. Kyrie smiles excitedly. Red takes their trash, and takes it to a trash can. "Let's go." Red takes Kyrie's hand and head to the Starbucks across the mall.

Gabby wakes up to the sound of sizzling in the kitchen. She gets up, only to notice Ralph and Kate sleeping right next to her in the guest room of Daniels house. Where's Randall? She thought. She walks out of the guest room and into the kitchen. She sees Randall cooking, "hey Randall, what are you doing?" He turns around. "What do you think I'm doing? I'm cooking!" He laughs. "I always make Ralph and Daniel breakfast before I go out since Daniels parents have work early in the morning." "That's nice," Gabby goes up to Randall and hugs him from behind. "What's that for?" He asks. "For last night. Thanks for defending me, Braden could've really hurt me that day." Randall feels a tingly feeling inside of him. "Yeah, it's the least I could do."

          Red and Kyrie reach Starbucks and order their drinks. "Two caramel frappes please." Red says. He gives the cashier his card, then they wait at a table. "Red, how do you think the issue with Kate Braden and Ralph will turn out?" Kyrie asks. "I don't know," Red answers, he gets up and gets the drinks he ordered and gives one to Kyrie. "Daniel tells me that those three are at a love triangle." Kyrie nods. "Even the thing between Randall, Gabby and Troy. From what I've heard Troy double sided Randall. Damn, there's a lot of drama going on, you know?" The two get up. Then they make their way towards the exit. As they see the light of day, Red spots the last person he wanted to see. He spots Annie. With, "oh shit," Red says holding Kyrie's hand. "Annie's here with her sister." Annie catches reds eye and makes her way towards the two. Annie points at kyrie and says to her sister, "here she is, sis! This is the bastard that bullied me!" Annie's sister looks at Annie, looks at Red, then looks at Kyrie. She walks up closer to Kyrie, and pushes her to the concrete sidewalk. Spilling her drink all over her clothes. Humiliating her out in the open. "How do you like that? Ya piece of shit?"