Chapter 1: there's nothing strange about this
Summary:
Kate runs into a problem. Two of them, actually.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
It happened on a Tuesday, because of course it would.
Kate was born on a Tuesday. Full of grace, she thought somewhat resentfully. She definitely wasn’t feeling it at the moment; she hadn’t for the past six months or so. Her daddy’s fault.
Come to think of it, everything that came after that Tuesday could be blamed, in no particular percentage, on her daddy. His fault for driving the car that night, his fault for getting into a fight with Mama. If it hadn’t been for him, they wouldn’t have had to move, and she wouldn’t have found herself completely lost in a jungle of a city in south Texas, several hours from home.
No, Kate wasn’t feeling particularly full of grace that Tuesday afternoon.
It was perhaps this feeling that led her to do what she did. Tell the lie. Do what the boys asked her to do, not because one of them had stuffed three twenties in her hand, but because she was feeling rather graceless, at this point nearly vindictive, towards the Almighty. That, and a healthy fear of being caught.
It happened like this: walking down some nameless street, looking for a payphone to call her Daddy with, so he could come pick her up. They had argued - again - and she had taken off, acting much more like her younger brother than she’d care to admit, and she had pounded down the sidewalks until she was good and lost. And now she had to bite the bullet, and call him to come save her from her folly. Pride goeth before a fall, she thought bitterly. That’s what he’d say when he picked up, she just knew it. And, oh, Lord, what was their telephone number again? She was fairly sure she knew it, but wasn’t a hundred percent positive.
They had only just moved from Bethel two weeks ago. Her room wasn’t even unpacked, in a show of denial and pettiness on her end. Only her clothes and her pink corded phone came out of the boxes. She had to make sure she could still talk to Jessica and Kyle on a daily basis.
So there she was, lost deep in her own tangled thoughts, when it happened. She rounded a street corner, and they were right there. They had obviously just been running, but they came to an abrupt halt to keep from mowing her over. Kate, for her part, fumbled, wrong footed, nearly falling back on her butt, but a pair of hands caught her before she could. They grabbed her by the upper arms, keeping her upright, and she blinked up into sharp eyes and a dimpled grin.
“Easy there, princess.”
A scowl threatened to overtake her. So what if she really liked pink? That was no call for gross pet names. But she looked up into his face, and felt her irritation wane almost immediately. He was still holding onto her, but loosely, as if ready to catch her again should she fall. A shock of short dark hair, equally dark eyes, a plush mouth that curved into a sharp smile, framed by lined dimples. He might have been a handful of years older than her. Oh, wow, she thought somewhat wildly.
Kate could feel the blush coming and was helpless to stop it. She knew she was staring, which just mortified her even more. Very distantly, she felt more than thought: I am in trouble. Then she realized he was speaking, and gave herself a mental kick.
“Gonna need you to do us a favor, sweetheart.” His voice, though light, was a bit rushed. “You didn’t see us here, okay? If anyone asks. They might not. But if they do, we weren’t here.”
“Um - “ She sputtered, at a loss.
“Here.” He finally let go of her to take one of her hands, and slapped something into it. “Just in case.”
She was finally able to stop staring, to look down at what he had given her. Money. He’d handed her what looked like a small pile of twenties. “I don’t - “
The other one spoke up. “Seth, what the hell?”
“Just. In. Case. Okay? We were never here. Ain’t that right, sweetheart?”
Again with the pet names. Boys, she thought with some irritation. But she looked down at the twenties. Then back up at him, considering. He grinned at her again, though it looked a bit strained. He was sweating, she realized. They’d definitely been running.
“Sure,” she said finally, shrugging. Why not? They hadn’t hurt her or threatened her. Why should she do them a disservice in return? And why not add perfidy to pride on her list of sins for the day? In for one, in for the other, she thought defiantly.
The other boy let out a gusty sigh, but she barely got a look at him before they were off, moving around her and pounding down the sidewalk away from her, the slam of their black boots echoing off the pavement. She turned to watch them go. Distantly she heard a "thanks!" tossed over one of their shoulders.
Then she looked back down at her prize. Licking a thumb, she flipped through it. Three twenties. He’d just handed her sixty freaking dollars, just to keep her mouth shut.
A grin threatened, but she bit it back. Well, she thought rather giddily, that was definitely…something. She headed off in the opposite direction of the two boys, feeling as though that was the wiser choice. She stuffed the money in her front pocket, wishing she had her purse. But hey, at least this way she’d be able to get some change back for one of those twenties, and wouldn’t have to bum any quarters off anyone.
Then she heard more footfalls, these running as well. She looked back at the sidewalk, and saw a tall, lanky older man huffing and puffing down the pavement towards her.
“Hey, kid!” She jumped when he addressed her, watching as he drew closer, until he stopped in front of her, bending over to place his hands on his knees and take some ragged breaths. “Kid…” he finally said, breathing hard through his nose, “Did you - wheeze - see - cough - anybody come through here? A couple - pant - of boys?”
Moment of truth, Katie. “No,” she said slowly, as if thinking about it, “I haven’t seen anyone for the past few blocks.”
“Who?!” The man jerked upright, somewhat recovered. “Who’d you see last?”
“Just some guy walking his dog…?”
“Ah, hell.” His disappointment was palpable. She felt a little sorry for him, but pushed it to the back of her mind. “Must have turned down a different block, dammit!”
“Is everything ok?” She asked solicitously, not wanting to be rude on top of lying.
“No, it is not!” The man’s ire broke over her, and she nearly flinched. “Couple of meatheads just knocked over my store! Thought I had ‘em for a minute, but now…”
Kate felt a hard pang in her chest, like someone had kicked her there. Oh, my God. She was helping a couple of felons. Then she thought of the money in her pocket - the stolen money - and quietly panicked. I’m an accessory; if anyone finds out I’ve got this I'm dead meat.
So all she said was, “I’m so sorry! Have you called the police?”
After the man left the way he came - back to his convenience store to finally call the cops - she took off in the opposite direction, retracing her steps. She was about three blocks deep and even more turned around than before when she heard a sharp hiss.
“Hey!”
She startled, clutching a hand to her chest and whipping around. It had come from the alley she’d just passed. She knew that voice, even though he’d said maybe three things to her. With some hesitation, she ventured closer, peering into the dim passage. It was late afternoon now, and everywhere lay long shadows, darkening the sidewalks and subsequent alleyways between. This, she thought fervently, is a very bad idea. Never mind that she’d been halfway hoping she might run into them, if only to give them a good dressing down for putting her on the spot like that.
They were behind the second set of dumpsters down the way, next to the back door of some Tex-Mex restaurant. They stood, backs braced, against the smoke-stained wall, the shorter one counting money while the other one smoked a cigarette. And they smoke, she thought with some horror. Oh, Lord, she needed to be somewhere very far away from here.
She went in anyway.
Kate maneuvered carefully through the alleyway’s debris, picking her way across loose trash and splintered wooden pallets. When she came to the second dumpster, she crossed her arms over her pink windbreaker, moving to stand in front of them, but the one with the money leaned forward and grabbed her again, tugging her to stand against the wall between them. “Mind staying out of sight? ‘Preciate it.”
She scoffed, but acquiesced. Chancing a glance, she looked at the other one, taller and more lanky than his partner. He too had dark hair, pushed back, and wore thick-framed glasses that obscured his eyes. He was skinny, but with big hands and shoulders. He might have been sixteen, possibly seventeen.
The first boy - what had he been called? - turned to her. “So, you run into him?”
“Who?” She played dumb, aggravated at herself for getting into this ridiculous situation.
The guy from the store. He follow us?”
“Um, yeah. But I - “ she hesitated briefly, biting her lip. He looked at her expectantly, and she could feel the other boy watching her now too. “I told him I didn’t see anything,” she finished with some resignation.
That smile again, the one that had frozen her in her tracks. “Good job.” He leaned around her to look pointedly at his partner, “I told you.”
Something warm fizzled in her chest at his praise; she tried very hard to ignore it. “It was not a good job; I lied to someone! Lying’s an awful thing to do.”
There was a beat, then the other boy finally spoke up. “So the robbery’s ok, but lying’s where you draw the line?”
The first boy laughed, and Kate scrunched her nose. “No. And by the way,” she fumbled around in her pocket, withdrawing the twenties, “I can’t keep this. It’s blood money. Or hush money, or…whatever.” She thrust them at the boy’s chest, but he held up his hands, fingers still clamped firmly around the stacks of his own money.
“Nope. You earned that, fair and square. I ain’t a welsher.”
“But you are a criminal, and you’re making me into one, too.”
The second boy snorted. She whipped around to glare at him. “It’s not funny.”
“It’s a little funny,” admitted the first one, and she closed her eyes, brow twitching in irritation. Took a deep breath. Opened her mouth for a hot retort, but he beat her to it.
“Why don’t you come with us,” he blurted out.
Kate startled, eyes flying open. “I - what? Where?” She asked suspiciously, turning to shoot him a beady look. “If you’re trying to lure me to some, some secondary location - “
“Because a dark alley isn’t suspicious enough?” That was his partner.
Kate and the first boy both ignored this. “It’s just the movies. So yeah, I guess you could say it is a poorly-lit secondary location where questionable things happen.”
“The - movies?”
Dimples flashed. “Just the movies.”
This was a terrible idea. Stranger danger, Kate. But then she thought of her daddy, of compulsory grace, of her mama. New town, new rules. Her mouth was moving before she could stop it. “...which one?”
—
They snuck in. She didn’t know why she hadn’t been expecting it.
She wasn’t sure which she should be more nervous for: getting caught for sneaking in (this wasn’t a train, it wasn’t like they went down the aisles asking for tickets), or the movie itself.
They’d gotten into I Know What You Did Last Summer. Kate had been planning on reading the book at some point, but after this, she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to. She’d caught about ten seconds of the trailer for it on TV, and, yeah. Yeah, she was utterly terrified.
But she’d be damned if she showed that to the boys. So she gathered up all she could of her courage, and made her way to the back of the theater, curling up in the aisle seat, beside Richie. Really, she was probably worried for nothing. She wasn’t sure what it was rated, but they’d shown the trailer on FOX, so it couldn’t be too awful, right?
It was rated R.
Kate’s blood pressure was somewhere near the ceiling, if not through it entirely. She clutched the bucket of popcorn to her, curling over it as if to protect herself from that awful hook.
Surprisingly, it had been Richie - he was the tall one, with the glasses, and turned out to be Seth’s brother - who had run to grab the popcorn when she’d mentioned it; she puzzled over how he had gotten back in when he showed up, large bucket in tow. He’d even gotten her a drink, which was, y’know, nice of him. She didn’t even think of roofies and such until she’d taken a few sips, which of course by then was too late. Kate, you’re totally failing at this Stranger Danger stuff, she told herself sternly. Then she sighed, and shrugged to herself, taking another drink of her Sprite.
When Max died, bloody and gruesome, she yelped, unable to use her hands to shield her eyes due to the enormous bucket, and turned to plant her face on the nearest available surface, which happened to be Richie’s arm. She felt him go still under her. Then she heard him snort with laughter, and he leaned towards her, until she felt his breath at her temple, stirring her hair. “You good?” He murmured. She could hear the smile in his voice, and wanted to disappear on the spot. It didn’t help that he smelled really good, like spearmint gum, and some kind of cologne; even the cigarette smoke that clung to his jacket was oddly comforting.
She felt him gently tug the bucket of popcorn out of her death grip; gratefully, she pulled away from him, nodding hastily, and clapped her now-greasy hands against her eyes. She heard him huff out another laugh, and couldn’t stop the blush that crawled across her face, heating her ears.
It didn’t help that they both kept yelping with laughter every time the action started. That perhaps did more to her poor nerves than what was actually happening on screen. Boys, she thought irately.
Later, Sarah Michelle Gellar was running around in her pretty dress, and Kate kept having to remind herself that this wasn’t Buffy, that the actress wasn’t suddenly going to start dealing out spin kicks and quippy one-liners. She had the awful feeling another kill was imminent, and she smoothed her hands down her thighs nervously, preparing to hide her face.
“You sure you’re ok?” Richie murmured in her ear, and she jumped a little. His voice still sounded too amused for her liking, and she pressed her lips together. She was still trying to get over her earlier embarrassment; her cheeks felt as if they’d never be normal again, she kept blushing so hard. Fortunately for her it was too dark for him to see it.
Finally she gave a jerky shrug, his proximity sending alarms jangling along her nerves. And, yep, there it was, another body mutilated. Poor Elsa. Kate slammed her eyes shut, but it was too late; she’d already seen the blood. She clung to the armrest with one clawed hand, making a distressed noise low in her throat, and she felt Richie shift beside her. For a heart stopping moment she thought he might do something like put his arm around her, but what he did was put his elbow up on the armrest, laying his forearm against hers.
It was…nice. In an awkward way, but still. At least he hadn’t tried to grab her hand or something. It steadied her somewhat, and she took a few deep breaths, feeling herself relax enough to peek through her eyelids at the screen. Helen was now being chased, and before she realized what was happening, the girl had fallen through a window. Kate jumped, and Richie leaned into her a little, though he didn’t say anything, for which she was pathetically grateful.
Somehow, she made it through the rest of the movie without throwing up from sheer nerves.
By the time the credits rolled, Kate had made what were likely permanent gouges in the armrest. But she’d persevered, keeping her hands where they were, letting Richie’s warmth soak into her arm and shoulder. She nearly dove for that shoulder towards the end, but she clung to her dignity, making herself squint through the last thirty minutes.
“I honestly expected you to walk out a few times,” teased Seth as they leveraged themselves out of their chairs. “You did good.”
Once again Kate had to push down the little leap of pleasure in her belly at his words. She sniffed, flicking her ponytail back. “It was okay,” she lied bravely. Honestly? No. It had been horrible and she never wanted to hear the name ever again. Except the stupid book had been on her to-be-read list for forever, and now she was thoroughly spoiled for it. But she wasn’t going to admit that; most boys seemed to think reading was a waste of time and a sure sign that one was a giant loser for doing it. She wasn’t taking any chances. So she remained quiet after that, dumping her trash and trailing after the boys towards the exit, listening to them bicker about the finer (?) points of the movie with her hands in her pockets.
Night had fallen by the time they left the theater, but the Texas heat was still going strong. Humidity clung to everything, weighing down Kate’s steps as she followed the boys out to the parking lot, causing perspiration to pop out along her hairline and beneath her shirt.
They were headed towards a white car, a two-door that turned out, as Kate got close enough to see the emblem in the dim security lights, to be a Mustang. It was older looking, but seemed to be in pristine condition, from what she could tell. As Kate came to stand by the trunk, eyeing it somewhat dubiously, Seth turned to her, keys swinging idly in one hand.
“So, what do you say? Want a ride?” He wore a little grin, as if he already knew the answer and it amused him.
She stared at him, biting her lip. “No thanks,” she finally managed to get out. “I was gonna call my dad before I ran into y’all , actually.” She winced, already dreading the argument that was sure to come.
Beside her, Richie was watching her; at least, she assumed so. In the watery amber glow of the street light, his glasses became opaque, hiding his eyes. But his mouth was cast in a thoughtful line, and he tilted his head; she could feel him studying her. When he spoke his voice was pitched low, the liquid heat around them muting it further. “Do you want to go home?”
In the corner of her vision, she saw Seth throw Richie a sharp look, eyes flashing in warning - of what, she wasn’t quite sure. But it took Kate a few moment to realize what Richie was asking. When she did, she released a deep breath she didn’t remember taking, feeling as she did her chest unclench a little. She gave a helpless sort of shrug, not looking at them. “Yeah. I mean…we had a fight, and I took off. It was just. Over stupid stuff.”
Richie’s mouth had flattened, and Seth’s brows were raised as he leaned back against the trunk. Kate turned so that she was on Seth’s other side, leaning with him on the car. She stared at the bumper across the lot aisle, not really seeing it. For some reason, her mouth kept going, brain and logic lagging a few seconds behind. “We moved here a couple of weeks ago. Daddy tried, but he just couldn’t stand to stay in Bethel anymore, so…” She waved a hand vaguely. “We didn’t want to go. Scott ‘n’ me. My little brother, he’s thirteen. He hates it here as much as I do.”
Beside her, Seth snorted. “Yeah, welcome to the club.”
“It’s not that bad,” interjected Richie, and Seth rolled his eyes. Kate smiled a little, despite herself.
Seth turned to her. “We’ve been here four, five years?” He shot a look over at Richie to confirm this, then continued. “Lemme tell you, Missouri might get humid, but it ain’t got nothin’ on Houston. Like swimmin’ in soup. And the fuckin’ rain - “
“Ok, old-timer, enough about the weather already. Jesus. You’re worse than Eddie.”
Kate couldn’t stop the laugh that bubbled out of her, and for a moment she forgot what she’d been saying, what she’d been worrying about and why. She got caught up in the cadence of their voices, the way their hands moved when they spoke. She couldn’t figure out what to watch first, their gestures or their expressions.
Soon they were all exchanging complaints, listing their various grievances with Houston. The traffic, the smog, the entertainment venues. While Kate was impressed at the sheer size of the city, it was almost too big for her taste, having grown up in such a tiny town.
For some reason this made Seth double over laughing, though she had no idea why. When she glanced over at Richie, he had a smirk crawling over his features, but at her look he wiped it off and elbowed Seth, rolling his eyes. “Dude, chill. It’s not that funny.”
“It’s a little funny.”
Kate threw up her hands. “Y’all are so weird,” she said in exasperation. Boys, she thought, for about the tenth time that night.
Seth was still snickering under his breath, but Richie turned back to her.
“So where are you going this fall?”
Kate bit her lip, but figured it wouldn’t hurt anything to tell them. “Um.” She had to think about it for a minute; she wasn’t used to so many different schools in one district. Bethel only had the one. “I think it’s Lamar?”
There was a beat of silence, then “huh,” was what Seth said, but Richie chimed in with “that’s us. That’s where we go.”
Kate jerked her head to look at him. “Really?” She looked him up and down. “What grade?” They had to be upperclassmen, she thought.
“Sophomore and Junior.”
Really? Then they were both younger than she’d first thought. She perked up a little. “Me too! I mean, just a sophomore. Not a junior. Obviously,” she added rather dourly.
Seth snorted, and she raised her brows at him. “Honey, I don’t think you gotta worry about anyone mistaking you for an upperclassman.” He held his hand out, several inches above her head, as if measuring.
She glared up at his hand, narrowing her eyes and biting her cheek against a hot retort. Did he have to rub it in like that? But then she thought, why should she have to hold back when he didn’t? “And I don’t think anyone’s gonna confuse you for an upstanding citizen,” she bit out.
“Well, I mean, I’m standing. Up. More up than you, currently.”
Though she knew it was another jab at her height, she still snorted out a laugh before she could stop it. He grinned down at her, dimples flashing, and again she had the thought: I might be in trouble. Though she couldn’t say exactly what kind, just yet.
Beside her, Richie groaned. “Are you sure you didn’t smoke something before we left?”
“I think that was yesterday.”
Oh, Lord, are they talking about marijuana? She thought, freezing up a little. “Are there any laws y’all don’t break?” She asked weakly.
They both paused, seeming to give it some serious thought. Then Richie said, with gravitas, “zoophilia.”
Seth chimed in. “Is that actually illegal here, though? Like, in this state?”
Kate’s palm met her forehead.
“How can you not know that?” That was Richie.
That set them off, and soon the two were bickering about the more obscure laws of the state of Texas. Kate watched them, head on a swivel, feeling like she was at a tennis match. At least I’m learning things, she thought wryly, as Seth proudly stated that you couldn’t spit on the sidewalk in Galveston. When she would need to know them, she had no idea, but still.
It wasn’t until one of them mentioned time - something about wearing slippers after a certain time? She wasn’t sure - that she remembered where she was, and with who, and that she should be home by now. It’s not home, not really, she thought with a grimace.
“Guys,” she sighed. They didn’t hear her at first, so she raised her voice. “Guys!”
They both turned to her, blinking. She sighed again, pushing her ponytail off of her shoulder. God, it was hot, especially in this jacket. She wished she had the courage to take it off. “I don’t suppose either of you have a quarter?”
Richie was the one who pointed out the payphone the corner, right by the theater. And Seth had some spare change in his car, so she was set. To his credit, he also asked her again if she’d like a ride, to which she dryly replied, “My dad might actually be forced to commit murder if he saw me getting out of a stranger's car this late at night. No point in risking it.”
She turned her back on the boys as she called, tucking herself into the booth, hunching over and expecting the worst. Would he even pick up? He might have passed out in his La-Z-Boy already.
But it turned out he hadn’t, and had been about to head out and look for her. Fortunately for her, he was more relieved than upset; it was fully dark out now, and of course she didn’t know her way around yet. Maybe this would convince him to finally get her a cell phone.
She told him that she’d gone to the movies in an effort to calm down, which - true. She would just lie about what she’d seen. Then she realized she didn’t have any tickets for proof, but she didn’t think she’d need one; she wasn’t prone to lying, and Daddy trusted her.
She realized she was doing a lot of lying today.
When she turned back around, she blinked when she saw the white Mustang still in the parking lot. Richie sat on the trunk, while Seth lounged against it, leaning back on his elbows beside his brother. They had their heads together, clearly conversing. Then Seth put his head back, howling with laughter, and Richie grinned at him, pushing his glasses up his nose. Kate found it suddenly a little too warm, in her windbreaker that she’d been stubbornly wearing all afternoon. Never mind that it was August in Texas, and close to a hundred degrees out.
But underneath she had on something she’d dared herself to buy the week before they’d moved; a Hello Kitty crop top that only came to her bellybutton. She’d never owned anything like it before, and had bought it in a fit of rebellion, though she couldn’t bring herself to wear it where Daddy could see. It was nothing like what she usually wore: ringer tees and pastel polos with her low-rise bootcut jeans and collection of sensible sneakers.
Kate had fought tooth and nail against leaving Bethel, leaving Mama. She’d managed to keep hold of Kyle, and Jessica. But the rest? Kate-from-Bethel might as well have never existed. It was as if her entire identity had been stolen from her, in one fell swoop.
Not a soul here knew her, not this new Kate-from-Houston. It was Jessica who had suggested the wardrobe change, she who had told Kate new town, new rules, a wistful note in her voice. And Jess was her best friend, so she’d listened. If she was going to be this new person, she might as well look the part. She wondered what Jess would think of her outfit now; what she would say if Kate told her how she’d spent her evening, and with who. She’d probably be over-the-moon jealous, knowing how boy-crazy the girl was.
At least she’d have a good story to tell her, next time they talked. Except, Kate realized - Jess was friends with Kyle, and upstanding, goodhearted Kyle might not see it the same way as her best friend, hanging out all evening with two strange boys. Two strange older boys who had knocked over a freaking convenience store.
Maybe she’d keep this story to herself, this once.
Nervously, she played with the zipper of her jacket, wondering if she dared undo it. Then she glanced back up at the boys, who were back to talking, not paying any attention to her. She took a deep breath, and quickly unzipped the windbreaker, pulling the sides away from her to cool herself down, feeling as she did the humid Texas night air hit her bare belly. There, it was done. No going back now.
When she looked up again, Richie was watching her, but Seth had yet to turn around. Swallowing, she grabbed the tattered remains of her courage, and ambled over, aiming for cool nonchalance. Hard to do with sweat dripping down her temples and the back of her neck, but whatever, she managed.
Richie was watching her with that odd intensity he carried with him, eyes serious behind the thick lenses of his glasses. His hair had fallen out of its swept back ‘do, hanging around his face nearly to his jaw. It was longer than she’d first assumed. She met his stare head-on, doing her best not to blush.
Seth turned around to see what Richie was looking at, and saw Kate. She saw his eyes flick down her, then back up so quickly she almost missed it. This time she did blush, and hoped that the streetlights were dim enough to hide it. She shoved her hands in her jacket pockets, resisting the urge to wrap herself up in it. But, as her Uncle Hershel liked to say, there was no unmilking the cow. They’d already seen her, and it was no good trying to hide.
She cleared her throat. “He said he’d be here in about fifteen minutes. So…” she shrugged.
Richie cocked his head at her, expression considering. “Sure everything’s okay?”
Beside him, Seth sighed. “I told you, man, leave it alone.”
His concern softened her edges, and she summoned up a smile. “Sure. He just, um. He gets distracted easily? But he said he had been about to leave to come look for me, so…that’s something.”
Seth smacked an arm against Richie’s shins. “See? It’s fine, she’s fine.”
“Yeah. He didn’t…he didn’t used to be like that. It’s just with what happened with Mama…” She didn’t know why her mouth was running away so much tonight. She had no reason to tell virtual strangers about her home life, no matter how concerned they may or may not be.
Something in Seth’s face cleared. “Mom left, huh?” He shrugged. “We should get little pins, gold stars or some shit. The Deadbeat Mom Club.”
Richie cast him a withering look, then turned to look back up at Kate, brows drawn. She didn’t know what else to say to that except, “She died. Six months ago.”
There was an appalled silence, as if the air itself was shocked at her words. Kate winced away from them; their echo reverberated in her ears, too loud, too close. The look on Seth’s face was almost comical, as if he’d been belted with a two by four.
Richie, however, looked something less than surprised, almost as if he’d been expecting it. He turned to Seth. “How’s that foot taste, man?” He drawled.
Then he leaned forward - ignoring his brother’s protests - elbows on knees, fingers tangled together in front of him. She thought he might ask how it happened, and braced herself, but he only said, “Was it sudden?”
Kate swallowed, feeling a sudden obstruction there. “It was.”
Seth made a noise low in his throat, but Richie just nodded, like she was confirming something he’d already suspected. How, she couldn’t say.
As if he could hear what she was thinking, he said, “you just…have that vibe.”
She stared. Seth stared. Then he asked, somewhat incredulously, “What, the dead-mom vibe?”
Richie bobbed his head in a considering way. “Something like that.”
She and Seth looked at each other in bewilderment, before turning to Richie. “Jesus. And you call me tactless.”
A snort of a laugh escaped Kate before she could stop it. She clapped a hand over her mouth, but it was too late. Seth slanted her an amused glance, and Richie, fortunately, didn’t look offended. He didn’t seem like the type to get ruffled at much, but what did she know? Not him, certainly.
She checked her watch out of habit; Daddy should be showing up in just a few minutes. Should she wait with the boys, or go and stand in front of the theater? She’d broken so many rules by now, did she dare push her luck? She wondered if she had any more anarchy left in her tonight. It really was hard work, being a rebel.
Also, did she really want to start another argument with her daddy, after he’d seemingly cooled down from their last one? And was it worth it, snubbing the boys in favor of appeasing her father’s more old-fashioned sensibilities? Then again, they probably wouldn’t care.
Then Seth leaned in, grinning, and Kate suddenly found she didn’t mind all that much what her daddy might think.
She was laughing so hard she almost missed the family sedan pulling up to the front of the theater. It wasn’t until she heard her name being called that she straightened, laughter dying with a hiccup. Her face burned as she saw her father leaning into the passenger side, waving at her through the open window. “Katie? That you?” The strains of the Electric Light Orchestra floated to them with his voice.
Kate pulled herself away from the Mustang, hands immediately going to her front, frantically trying to zip up her jacket before her daddy got a good look at her. She thanked the Lord that it was dark out, and that he was a good distance away.
Having successfully hidden her shirt, she turned to the boys, aiming for an upbeat tone. “Well, I guess I’ll see y’all at school?”
Richie was looking at her again, scrutinizing her through his long hair. “You sure you’re gonna be okay?” His eyes cut to the sedan, then back again.
Without warning she felt tears prick at the back of her eyes, and she blinked hard, trying to smile. “Sure! It’s just my dad, he’s harmless. I swear.” She held up a hand, like she was swearing on a nonexistent Bible.
Seth was watching her now, too. He smirked at her, dimples appearing. “Right. See you in hell, then.”
For a split second Kate was nearly offended, before she realized what he was talking about, and scoffed and rolled her eyes, grinning despite herself. She shook her head at him, and as she turned back towards the sedan she gave them a small wave, just a little lifting of the fingers.
As she was walking away, nearly to the car, she heard Richie say dryly, “You do remember you have a girlfriend, right? Name of Vanessa?”
She didn’t get to hear Seth’s response; she was opening the car door and sliding inside with a soft “Hi, Daddy.”
They were nearly back to the apartment when Jacob asked, in a would-be casual voice, “so who were you talkin’ to, anyway?”
Kate suppressed a groan, and flopped back in her seat. “Just a couple of guys. They go to Lamar, too,” she added, hoping that would help her case and ease his mind a little.
“Oh? Thought they might be older ‘n that. Looked a little mature.”
There it was. This time Kate sighed out loud. “One of them’s in my grade, and the other’s a Junior, Daddy,” she said tiredly. “And it was dark out, how could you possibly tell?”
“Oh, I dunno. Was just wonderin’, Katie-Cakes.”
Kate was still waiting for it, and he did not disappoint. After another few beats of silence, he started to say, “look, Kate, about tonight - “
She was ready for him. “Daddy, it’s late, the argument is done with, and I’m just, I’m really tired. Can we talk about it tomorrow?”
But in true Pastor Jacob form, he said doggedly, “Kate, you know how I feel about this sort of thing. What do we say about it?”
Kate breathed out a sigh, and dutifully recited, “Be ye angry, and sin not; let not the sun go down upon your wrath.”
“Do not let the sun go down upon your wrath,” Daddy enunciated, a finger held pedantically in the air. “So no, we’re not gonna talk about this tomorrow. Tonight, we’re gonna air this out, so that tomorrow,” and he reached out to shake her knee affectionately, “we don’t have to worry about it.”
It was nothing less than what Kate had expected, but she was still irritated. It really was late, and she was tired. But she bit her tongue and nodded along, not wanting to start a whole new fight.
“I know you’re expecting a sermon, Katie, but honestly that’s not what I want, and I know that’s not what you need right now either. So I just wanted to say, I’m, I’m sorry. For raisin’ my voice at you earlier. Do you forgive me?”
There was a pause, rather expectant, and Kate cleared her throat. “Yeah, I...I forgive you. I’m sorry, too,” she responded quietly. “For yellin’. And cussin’ at you.”
From the corner of her eye she saw her father smile rather tiredly. “I forgive you. There, now, that wasn’t so painful, was it?”
“So…that’s it? Can I go to bed when we get back?”
“Sure, Kate, sure. Bed sounds like a phenomenal idea.”
She breathed easier. See? She told herself. He wasn’t drunk, then. Or at least, not actively so.
Except, an insidious little voice whispered, that he’s gotten more clever at hiding it.
She flinched away from the idea. He wouldn’t have come driving out to get her while intoxicated, surely. Tentatively she sniffed the air, trying to be discreet about it. There was nothing but the scent of the old car, the night air, and her Daddy’s cologne, sharp in her nostrils.
Biting her lip, she looked out the window into the passing darkness. She very carefully did not think about why Daddy would want to apply fresh cologne this late at night. Instead, she focused on her evening. On the money burning a hole in her pocket, and how she’d gotten it, that she’d never quite forgotten about. On that awful movie, and how she’d been brave enough to not cover her eyes near the end.
On the two boys, who’d laughed during the scary parts of that movie, and had let her use one of their arms as a shield. On Richie’s parting words. He’d been so sweet, in an off-beat way. And Seth -
Abruptly, she wondered why Richie had said that to him as she’d been leaving. Why should him having a girlfriend make any difference?
She tried very hard to ignore the little stabbing sensation in her belly at the thought, and mostly succeeded. Then she sat up very straight. Had he been flirting? Was that what all that was? Could she really be that oblivious?
…Wait. Had they both been flirting? Kate floundered for a long moment, completely lost now. She was far from an expert on the subject, though she’d done her fair share, and was moderately sure she’d received some in return, in the past. But this was more subtle, less obvious. They could have just been being nice. That was entirely possible. Even teenage boys were capable of being kind. Occasionally.
They’d most likely just been grateful she’d lied for them, a fact that still made her wince a little. Imagine it, Kate Fuller lying about a robbery. Lying for a pair of thieves. She couldn’t resolve the image of her, preacher’s daughter, with such a thing. Moving had changed her.
No, she thought quietly. The changes had begun before that. When Mama died. When she began to suspect that Daddy hadn’t told them everything about the accident.
This was a train of thought she refused to indulge. It was too late at night for such things; she’d had a good time tonight, and she didn’t want to ruin it with musings of death and suspicion.
So she resumed her post, watching the streetlights fly by in streaks of orange, replaying the evening in her head, until they made it back to the apartment - she refused to call it home.
Once inside, she flopped back onto her bed with an explosive sigh. Maybe tomorrow Daddy would question her more. Maybe he’d want to actually talk about the fight. If he could stay sober long enough.
She flinched, a nauseous feeling rising in her at the unkind thought. Again, she was thinking things she had no desire to. The day was done, and so was she.
Instead, she pulled the wad of twenties out of her pocket, and carefully folded them, about to stick them in her ceramic teddy bear bank. Then she hesitated. What if the cops figured out she’d been helping them? Wouldn’t that be the first place they’d look for bribe money? She bit her lip, looking around.
Eventually she decided on her makeup case. She had a lipstick that was almost completely gone, and she didn’t use it much anymore. Carefully, she popped out the stick, and rolled the twenties up good and tight. They just barely fit, with the lid on. Good enough. Satisfied, and a little pleased at her ingenuity, she got ready for bed.
She should try to figure out what she was going to spend that money on, she thought as she washed her face. It was something to look forward to, at the very least.
A little while later, she lay curled up on her side, hugging her extra pillow to her in the semi-darkness. Muted light came from the nightlight in the hallway that crept beneath her doorway, and came seeping through her blinds and curtains from the streetlamp outside. The curtains were a reluctant concession, but an important one, if she wanted to get any sleep at night. Back home the streetlights were few and far between, and she wasn’t used to them.
She didn’t want to get used to them, she thought viciously, stifling a sniffle. She’d only finished crying herself to sleep every night just a couple of nights ago, and she had no real desire to start the trend again. It gave her headaches in the morning.
Kate burrowed a little deeper into the pillows, squeezing her eyes shut against the intrusive, watery orange light. She felt a little foolish, now that the crying jags had stopped. I’ll bet Buffy doesn’t cry herself to sleep every night, and she’s got it so much worse than me, she thought irritably. Not only had she also moved to a new town after losing a parent - sort of - she also had to deal with being the Chosen One, a fate Kate wouldn’t have wished on herself in a million years, no matter how badass the Slayer was.
So again, she distracted herself with thoughts of tonight. Her eyes caught on her makeup case sitting on her dresser, and she smiled to herself a little, sleep finally encroaching on the edges of her vision.
You know what? She thought hazily. Maybe I could be a little badass, too.
Notes:
chapter title is from Our Lady Peace's 'Clumsy.' Appropriately from the IKWYDLS soundtrack.
Fic title is from 'Crush' by Ethel Cain. I did try to find something from the 90s that fit, but this is the song that inspired this madness in the first place, and I just keep coming back to it.
So I forgot to check what time in ‘97 IKWYDLS came out, and it turns out…not in the summer! False advertising, I say. ;p this will most likely happen a few more times; me fudging up events and timelines just for the sake of the plot.
It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten to actually watch seasons 2 and 3, so I can’t remember if they ever mention which Kansas City they’re from.
There will be more Buffy references, sorry not sorry. BtVS premiered in 1997, and it was a Big Deal. So of course Kate’s been sneakily watching it and taping it.
Chapter 2: take this pink ribbon off my eyes
Summary:
First day jitters.
Notes:
Chugging along! This is hard, y'all, trying to get the Geckos down as teens. Scary idea.
Will be doing an overhaul on the buckshot that is the tags, never fear. I know they're all over the place right now.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
First day at a brand new school. Okay, Kate, you got this.
She eyed herself critically in the mirror: black and pink Hello Kitty baby-doll tee, low-slung olive cargo pants and some shiny black Doc Martens. All new, all not-Kate. At least, not Kate-from-Bethel. She’d used the money the Geckos had given her for the Docs - secondhand, a real steal from a small thrift shop - and the rest of her new wardrobe was from her allowance. Not that there was much of one, anymore. Daddy didn’t earn nearly as much as he used to. The rest of the money she’d earned - and she had earned it - she put back into its lipstick case.
Heaving a sigh, Kate cast one more anxious eye over herself before spritzing herself with just a splash of her mother’s old Chanel No. 5 perfume. Then she shrugged into her baby pink windbreaker, zipping it up over the shrunken tee shirt - hey, at least this one covered her belly, if only barely. Hungover or not, if Daddy saw it he’d have a conniption. And she was determined to be this new Kate, Kate who lied for petty thieves and snuck into movie theaters and didn’t hide behind her fingers every time there was a hook on-screen. Everything was different now. She was different.
She went and gathered up her father from his post in the la-z-boy, and Scott from his room - it looked as if he’d used up an entire bottle of gel on his hair, so not attractive, but who was she to tell him that? - and off they went.
Kate was lost. Again.
To be fair, this school was a good three times the size of Bethel High. At least. She’d read that inner-city schools were like this, but reading about it hadn’t prepared her for the staggering reality.
Somewhere in the shuffle she’d lost her so-called ‘Hall Helper,’ a Junior named Kisa, who was so pretty it was a little intimidating. As such she’d been too cowed to ask her if she knew Seth, who was a fellow Junior. The school was so big that there was a chance she might not have, anyway. That’s what she told herself. It wasn’t like she was nervous about seeing him, or Richie. Nothing like that. If she ever managed to find them in this maze.
She’d finally managed to locate her locker, and was trying to remember her combination - she’d written it on her hand, then promptly smeared it in the restroom sink, like a genius.
“Here.”
Kate jumped about a foot at the voice right by her ear. When she turned she ran right into Richie’s lower sternum, bumping her nose. “Ow,” she said miserably, rubbing her face. He didn’t apologize, which she was learning was pretty typical of him, just brushed her out of the way to get to her locker. She watched bemusedly as he bent to put his ear to the lock, fiddling with it, face drawn in a fierce sort of concentration. Not ten seconds later, the lock popped open. Kate blinked.
“Gee, thanks, Mister,” she drawled, going for cool disdain. “Do that often?”
“Often enough. It’s all in the timing.”
“Of course it is.”
“I can show you sometime.”
She hummed. “You want to teach me how to break into stuff?”
“Sure, it’s a useful skill.”
“You mean for a thief.”
“Or if you’re the forgetful sort.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Touche,” she said slowly.
He gave her that narrow, bladed smile of his, eyes flashing behind his oversized glasses. She couldn’t help but smile back, a little ruefully. “Thanks,” she offered belatedly, turning to open her locker more fully so she could dump her backpack into it. With a huff she unfolded her schedule, checking which books she was going to need to keep out.
“That’s me,” he said from over her shoulder. She glanced up and behind her; he was right there, again, so close she could smell the cigarette smoke lingering on his clothes; he leaned easily over her more diminutive frame to read the paper.
She blinked up at him. “What’s you?”
“Algebra II, Pierson, room 113. That’s my class as well.”
“Oh. Second block?”
He nodded an affirmative. She breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, at least this way I don’t need to hunt down Kisa.”
In the space of a breath his whole demeanor changed. “Kisa’s your Hall Helper?” He said sharply, and leaned into her space, narrowing his eyes.
Kate’s brows rose. “Yeah…?” She said slowly, eyeing him. “Why, you know her?” Well, obviously, Kate, you airhead.
Something flickered behind Richie’s eyes, there and gone too quickly for her to decipher. “Not really. She’s a popular girl.” He shrugged, a twitch of the shoulders like he was trying to escape a fly.
“Uh-huh. Okay.”
He scowled in her general direction, eyes focused on the locker beyond her shoulder. That there was some kind of history was obvious, and it got her curious. But she didn’t know Richie that well - try at all, Kate - so she felt uncomfortable asking. Besides, the subject seemed to make him grumpy.
“So where’s Seth?” She tried instead, turning back to dig out her Algebra book and Trapper Keeper.
“Trig, Ms. Johanson, 116,” he rattled off immediately.
Right down the hall from 113, her brain supplied her unhelpfully. “Well, let’s boogie,” she said cheerfully, slamming her locker shut, and turned to her left before pausing. “Um. Which way are we boogeying?”
“This way, follow me.” And he headed off to her right, long legs eating up ground quickly. She raced to keep up.
It wasn’t until after Algebra that she saw Seth. She and Richie had sat together near the front - between his eyesight and his zeal for learning everything about everything, she shouldn’t have been surprised - and the teacher had let them, not assigning seats unless, he warned them all, he saw the need to.
She had her head on a swivel, not for Seth, Kate told herself sternly, she was only trying to get her bearings in the sea of Crush-scented, JNCO-clad bodies. But as she turned down the hallway - towards room 116, not that that was her intention - she saw him striding out of the door, head down and gripping his backpack tightly. She felt that little warm jolt in her chest upon sighting him, instantly recognizable in his baggy jeans and baggier camo jacket.
He turned in their direction, and Richie lurched past her, having spotted his brother as well. Seth’s head came up, apparently searching for his brother - and as it did, she couldn’t help but notice the way everyone else seemed to be clustering around each other, friends calling for friends they had missed during the summer, but any time they came near Seth they immediately swerved away.
Kate remembered something he’d warned her about that night - we ain’t the popular kids, princess, so hanging out with us won’t win you any points - but it seemed like more than just being a wallflower. It wasn’t that the others didn’t notice Seth and Richie - they did, and immediately deigned to avoid them. It had been even worse in Algebra. She could see the side-eyes and hear a few people muttering to their neighbors as she had walked in the door right behind Richie, and she had to tell herself it had nothing to do with them - until those same kids immediately picked up their things and moved away from them when she and Richie chose their seats.
They didn’t even try to pretend they weren’t doing it. It had been unnerving and more than a little embarrassing, but she hadn’t said anything, and when she’d looked askance at Richie it didn’t seem as if he’d even noticed. So she copied him, and set her eyes forward, ignoring the giggles rising up from the back.
Those same kids scuttled out of the way for Seth, giving him a clear path towards them. When their eyes met, the brooding, closed-off look vanished, and he grinned broadly at her, dimples flashing.
“Well, look what the cat dragged in.” They met halfway, and he wrapped a solid arm around her shoulders, tucking her against him as he continued his walk down the hallway. Guess I'm going this way now, she thought a little wildly, dutifully ignoring the flock of butterflies that erupted in her stomach at his touch. Where this way led, she had no idea, but she let him carry her with him anyway. It was lunch now, and she didn’t have to hurry to find her next class til later.
“How’s it so far, Rich?”
Richie grunted and shrugged. “Same as last year. And the year before that. And the year before that.”
Seth snorted, and when she craned her neck to look at him he was rolling his eyes. Then he squeezed her shoulders and looked down at her. “How ‘bout you, Fuller? Had your ass kicked yet?”
“If you mean have I gotten lost three times and walked into two wrong classrooms, then yes.”
“And forgot your locker combo, don’t forget that.”
“Thanks, Richie.”
“I had to break into her locker for her.”
“Be quiet, Richie.”
Seth laughed, and steered her down another hallway. “Hey, stick with us and you’ll make it through this without any bumps or scrapes. Gecko guarantee.”
Then there was yet another hallway, and she wondered where exactly they were headed. When she asked, he raised his brows and said, “chow time. Right? You’re a Soph, you probably have first lunch.”
“Um, yeah. When’s your’s?”
“Next block.”
“So what do you have right now?”
“English.” He shuddered. “Hate that shit.”
“Why? You don’t like reading?”
“Hell, yeah I do. It’s just kinda hard when the teachers are out to get you.” He said it casually, almost a throwaway comment. But she felt his arm tighten just a little against her.
Kate hummed. “Guess that would make it harder.” She didn’t say, that sucks, or, I’m sorry. She didn’t want him to think she pitied him. She knew what that was like, and detested it.
She also made a note - so he actually liked to read. She’d have to ask him what kind of books he enjoyed.
Seth had led them to the cafeteria; she could hear it before they were even in sight of the double doors. Wincing, she took a few tentative steps away from Seth, pulling away from the warmth of his side. There was a dull roar coming from behind those doors, and it made her sweat. With a sigh, she dug into her bag, searching for the brown paper bag she’d packed this morning. At this point she didn’t even care what they were serving; if there were that many people in there, it would take forever to get through the line, much less find somewhere to eat.
“Bon appetit,” Seth teased, and she turned to him, making a face. She watched him take his time back down the hallway, a hand stuffed into his jacket and the other hanging onto his backpack.
“Well,” she sighed, turning back to look at Richie. “You ready?”
Richie had that same look on his face as when he’d been figuring out her lock; a sort of furious concentration. “Let’s do it.”
She nodded decisively, and together they opened the doors.
Kate ended up in line anyway, because she didn’t want to leave Richie on his own; she could see how tense he was, saw the kinds of looks he got as they passed tables full of chattering teens. He was good at hiding it, but she could tell how uncomfortable being in here made him.
She nibbled on some of her Cheez-its while they waited, but then right before they got to the buffet Richie turned to her. “You’ve got your shit. Go find us somewhere to sit before it all fills up.”
She eyed him for a second before nodding, and scoured the cavernous room. It was so loud; shouts echoing up to the rafters, she was a little surprised the windows didn’t shake.
She found a spot near the back, where there was a good-sized gap in a bunch of tables that had been shoved together. She settled herself there, ignoring the looks she got from the girls on either side of her.
Eventually Richie came striding over, tray in hand. “So what’ve they got?” She asked curiously.
“Pizza, mac n cheese, apple slices.”
“Ugh, typical.” She looked down at her PB&J despondently. Suddenly there was a square slice of pizza under her nose.
“Got an extra. If you want.”
“How’d you manage that?” Then she thought about it. “You know what, never mind. I don’t want to know.” But she accepted the slice gratefully. It was the kind of pepperoni that was in little chunks, cheap and easy to make. She didn’t care; pizza was pizza.
Richie ate methodically, almost mechanically. Kate watched him for a minute, chewing slowly, then glanced to either side of her, at the groups of kids down from them. So she noticed when several of the girls to her left kept turning to them, then away again to huddle close and giggle to one another. She wasn’t too surprised when she caught the words “Gecko” and “crazy” - they weren’t putting in any real effort to be discreet - but it still made her stomach twist and heat to rise in her face. She wished Seth were there with them. Then again, he’d probably say something, might confront them, cause a scene.
It wasn’t that she was embarrassed by Richie; more that she was embarrassed for him. The brothers were obviously pariahs here; it made her wonder what the others knew about them, wondered if everyone knew they were thieves, knew about their guns. Or was it that they could sense that Richie was different from them? She certainly had, within minutes of meeting him.
But they made it through unscathed; no one tried to talk to them or sit with them. It was…different than what she was used to, for sure. Even before she’d started public school in Freshman year - having been home schooled all through middle school - she’d had Jess, at least. Once at the public high school, she might not have been the most popular girl, the most stylish or rich, but she’d done alright for herself, never lacking for a small group of devoted friends, including Kyle, that she’d known from church.
So all of this was entirely new. The glances, the whispers. The shunning. The laughter. It was so not a good feeling. But then she thought of how it must feel to the Geckos, and her embarrassment morphed into empathy.
There was also a healthy dose of curiosity, but she stuffed it back down. If there was a story here, aside from the fact that they stole things, she was sure she’d be hearing it soon.
She was sufficiently distracted by the novelty of new rooms, new hallways, new people. She got asked to sign up for all kinds of things; the drama club, the debate club, the art club. Wistfully she took the pamphlet for the choir; she missed singing, so much it was a physical ache. But she hadn’t bothered to since Mama. She couldn’t bring herself to get up there and open herself up like that anymore. It was an activity she’d shared with Mama and Scott; she was positive that her brother’s guitar was in a corner of his room, just like hers, gathering dust.
These were thoughts she didn’t need distracting her. She shook them all off with a flick of her hair, concentrating on her English teacher, who was currently assigning them a paper - the standard getting-to-know-you exercise. She groaned along with everyone else.
At least she hadn’t had to stand up in every class and introduce herself. That had been a personal nightmare of hers. It wasn’t that she was antisocial, or awkward - far from it; she considered herself a friendly, articulate sort. But after everything she’d been through, what she was still going through, the last thing she wanted right now was to stand up in front of a bunch of strangers and explain her life to them. Fortunately, not even her Homeroom teacher had asked her to do it.
She had a funny feeling she knew why: when roll calling, she had given Kate a small, oddly sympathetic smile. It made Kate itch all over, that look. She knew that expression; it was the one given to her by Daddy’s parishioners for months, now. The look of someone who knew, and felt, just, so sorry for her. Sorry for your loss. God, she was sick of that phrase.
And there she went again, off in her own head, not paying attention to what was going on around her. Focus, Kate.
Beside her, Richie was side-eying her. She saw from the corner of her eye him raise his pencil and lean over to prod her. Before he made contact, she grabbed it, turning to make a face at him. He raised his brows at her. “Earth to Kate. Where do you keep disappearing to?” He asked in a low voice, beneath the soft buzz of the classroom.
Kate huffed and shrugged, and let him tug the pencil from her grip. “This isn’t exactly riveting material.” Her voice matched his as she gestured to the front.
“Granted,” he conceded. “It just looked like the place you were in was worse than this one.”
How did he manage to do that - read her so easily? It was a little eerie. She tried for a nonchalant shrug. “Just brooding.”
“I could tell. Stop it.”
Kate choked on a laugh, and she couldn’t resist throwing him a mock salute. “I’ll get right on that.”
He rolled his eyes and settled back in his seat, eyes on the front again.
Shaking her head, she did the same, and did her best to ignore the looks this conversation was garnering. Several people were whispering to each other, eyes on her and Richie. It made her itch, just like her Homeroom teacher had done. What was so bad about the Geckos that made people react this way?
But she couldn’t worry about it right now. She had homework and and an itinerary to copy down.
She was headed for the bus line when Seth hailed her.
“Fuller! Where the fuck are you goin’?”
Suppressing an eye roll at this greeting, she turned to face him. “Home?” She said, a little puzzled by the question.
He finally reached her, blithely ignoring the stares he’d earned with his shout. Richie trailed just behind him, an expression of long-suffering on his face.
“On the bus?” Seth said, with some rather uncalled-for derision.
Kate couldn’t help the sigh that escaped her. “Yes, Seth. Some teenagers are known to ride it when they don’t have a car.”
“You have a car. We have a car.”
Her brows rose so high they nearly hit her hairline. “We do?” She was more confused than ever.
Richie made an impatient noise and leaned in front of Seth. “D’you want a ride home?”
“Oh. Um, well, I’m already on the bus riding list. But…” She was painfully tempted. “Maybe tomorrow?” She didn’t want to get in trouble and have the school calling her daddy, informing him that she hadn’t been where she was supposed to be. But
changing her designation would only take a quick trip to the office…
Seth gave her a look that screamed disappointed parent. “And here I thought you had a little more rebel in you, Fuller.”
“I just don’t wanna get in trouble on my first day here, is all.”
“It’s the bus. People do it all the time.”
“I - really?”
“Hell, yeah. And like you said, first day ‘n’ all. Makes sense that you wouldn’t know all the rules, might mess up a little here and there, y’know?”
Oh. Oh, no. He was making sense, and she was quickly coming to realize that rarely meant anything good. She teetered up on her toes for a short moment, her indecisiveness manifesting itself physically.
Seth smirked at her, and Richie raised his brows in amusement as she waffled. “We-ell…” She bit her lip, glancing over her shoulder down the hallway, where students were lining up. A few of them were looking in their direction. Maybe this way I can ask them why everyone here’s so freaked out by them.
And, she had to admit, very quietly to herself, that walking out to the parking lot and climbing into that car in front of everyone…had its appeal.
Hey, it was a really nice car.
The boys seemed to realize she’d made up her mind before she did; Seth let out a triumphant “ha! That’s it, princess.”
She scowled at him, hitching her bag more tightly against her defensively. So what if the Hello Kitty on her shirt was made of rhinestones, and wearing a rhinestone tiara? She liked shiny, pretty things sometimes. Mama had teased her that she was like a little magpie, collecting any flashy trinket that caught her eye. It was a thing with her.
But she was also quickly realizing that Seth threw around pet names like Mardi Gras beads. “You know that makes you sound like some old Boomer, right?” She retorted hotly.
Richie barked out a laugh, and Seth’s face fell into a sour expression. “Okay, that’s enough from the peanut gallery,” he snapped, taking a swipe at Richie that his brother easily dodged.
She bit her lip against a laugh, and Seth motioned rather irritably towards her. “Well, c’mon then, Kate,” He growled, and stomped away, but Richie waited until she had caught up before starting down the hallway behind his brother.
Seth was over it by the time they reached the parking lot. Kate glanced around as they wandered deeper into the cars, finally arriving at the the Mustang. Sure enough, there were a few glances cast their way, and she bit her lip, torn between amusement, annoyance, and a weird little thrill of pride as she saw a couple of people actually stop in their tracks and stare when Richie opened the passenger door for her.
Kate readied herself to climb into the back, but Richie ducked back there before she had a chance to lean the seat forward. “Guests get shotgun,” he said to a somewhat bemused Seth, who shrugged, but acquiesced with good grace.
“It’s your legs, Sasquatch,” he tossed over his shoulder as he checked his mirrors. Kate settled beside him, looking around as she buckled herself in. The all-black interior was spotless, as far as she could tell. No debris on the rubber-matted floor, no leftover cups or straw wrappers in the console, no dust on the dash. Well. Another piece to the puzzle that was the Geckos.
After a glance at Seth, she reached down and pulled the seat forward a little, in consideration of Richie’s aforementioned long legs. He had to be over six feet, so the back seat couldn’t be that comfortable for him. Sometimes being so short came in handy. She heard him sigh, and when she glanced back at him, he gave her a thumbs up. She grinned at him, then turned to face the front again.
She saw Seth flash a quick look at her from the corner of his eye, before putting the Mustang into reverse. “So where to?”
She told him, and got another look, this time with raised brows. But it was Richie who responded. “That’s like, five minutes away from us. Nice.”
That was interesting. “You know where it is?”
“Yeah, it’s kinda popular - “ he cut himself off abruptly, and it was Kate’s turn to raise her brows. Popular? For what? She wondered, but didn’t quite dare ask. She wasn’t totally ignorant; she knew it wasn’t the cleanest or nicest of apartment complexes. Stuff probably went down there that she had no interest in involving herself in.
So she settled for reclining in her seat, and watching Seth maneuver himself deftly out of the crowded parking lot.
“You what?”
“Yeah.” Seth laughed a little. “Right here.” He tapped his chin. “Popped him real good.”
Kate stared. Then she turned around to Richie, who confirmed it with a smirk and a shrug. She sat back in her seat, bewildered.
Seth had punched a teacher. He’d punched a teacher. In the face. In class.
“When,” she started rather croakily, then cleared her throat and tried again. “When was this, exactly?”
“Round the end of last year. What, April?” He glanced in the rearview mirror at Richie, who nodded.
So it was still fresh in everyone’s minds; no wonder everyone was so leery of them.
Still, that seemed a little…less than she’d been expecting. ”So…that’s it?”
Seth shot her an incredulous look. “What, that wasn’t enough?” He started to laugh. “Should I have set the science department on fire or somethin’?”
“Hey, that was my idea,” protested Richie mildly.
What? “Ugh, no. I just thought - “ She clamped her lips shut. It didn’t matter what she thought; she had her answer and could stop inventing scenarios, each one more horrible than the last.
“Uh-uh, nope. Be serious, what’d you think we did?”
“Oh, this I gotta hear,” Richie muttered, leaning forward.
She shot him a look that was half agony, half consternation. “It doesn’t make a difference now. You - “
“C’mon, Fuller, what’re you gonna do, insult us? Please. You know how much crap we catch from the office here? Whatever you thought, it won’t be any worse than them, I guarantee it.”
Again, she thought, what? School officials shouldn’t be accusing kids of crimes they had no evidence of. The thought rankled, in a way she couldn’t quite explain. And hadn’t been what she’d been doing today? Coming up with heinous misdeeds she had no proof of, based on a few looks?
With a groan, she squeezed her eyes shut and said in apologetic tones, “I thought maybe y’all had brought guns to school, or had threatened to shoot up the caf or something.”
There was a beat of silence, and she cracked an eye open to watch them. Then she heard Richie go, “Ha! If only.”
“Richie!” She exclaimed, scandalized, and then she heard Seth say casually, “Yeah, that’s fair.”
She turned back to him from where she’d been giving Richie a look of wide-eyed consternation. “Um, what is?” She couldn’t tell if he was responding to her, or to Richie.
“Oh, c’mon. You think those plebes in the office haven’t brought it up? ‘Get it together, Gecko, you don’t want to turn out like your daddy, do you?’” He snorted in derision, and Kate saw his knuckles go white on the steering wheel for a brief moment.
“What the fuck?” Richie lunged forward between the seats, so he could stare at his brother. “They did fucking not.”
“Did. You think they wouldn’t find out? With McGraw as a teacher? He probably ran background checks on every single person in that place.”
Kate was more confused than ever. She knew, from the few instances they’d dropped the name, that they lived with their uncle. And Seth had mentioned his mother was a deadbeat. So…what had happened with their dad? Had they been taken away from him? Or just dumped on their uncle’s doorstep?
She was dying of curiosity, but also knew it was also none of her business. So she settled on, “why would this McGraw teacher run background checks?”
“Retired Texas Ranger,” spat Seth, and she heard Richie mutter something distinctly rude and probably anatomically incorrect behind her. “But Lamar’s his alma mater, so he thought he was doing them this big fuckin’ favor by takin’ up a teaching position there afterward.”
Kate hummed in thought. “So what did he do, anyway? That made you punch him?”
There was another little pause. When she glanced back around at Seth, he was watching her, an odd, pensive expression on his face. Then he turned back to the road, breaking eye contact with her. “What makes you think he did anything to deserve it? Isn’t being a fed reason enough?” His voice was casual, but she saw the stiff way he held his shoulders, the way he clung to the steering wheel, knuckles white again.
“Well…” she paused, thinking about this. She was used to giving people the benefit of the doubt; it was ingrained in her, easy as breathing. So that’s what she had done. She had figured Seth would had to have had a reason for doing what he did. Why she had immediately assumed this, instead of trying to defend the teacher, she couldn’t say.
“I just thought that you usually have a reason for doing the things you do. You don’t seem stupid enough to have just done it on a whim.”
“Oh, he’s definitely stupid enough,” came Richie’s voice behind her, sounding dry. Seth shot him an aggrieved look in the rearview mirror. Kate couldn’t help the giggle that broke loose, and she bit her lip, turning to look out the window for a brief moment to control herself.
She caught her breath, then turned back. “So? What was it? Or did the urge just overwhelm you to do something that might’ve gotten you arrested?”
“Oh, he did get arrested. He got the entire book thrown at him.”
Kate whipped around to stare at Richie. “What.”
“Four months in juvie.” Seth’s voice was level, suspiciously so. Kate turned to face him again, studying him as he drove. His face was perfectly calm, watching the road, hands steady on the wheel. But he was still white-knuckling it.
“And eight months’ probation.” Richie added helpfully.
“Good Lord,” Kate muttered. Then she realized something.
“You knocked over a store while on probation?” Her voice came out somewhat more screechy and judgemental than she had intended. She coughed self-consciously. “Was the siren song of armed robbery just that irresistible?” Kate continued in exasperation. But Seth just laughed, hands finally relaxing on the wheel.
“Worth it. Guy’s an asshole, rips people off on a daily basis, drove the last owners outta business - “
“Okay, Robin Hood, I get the idea,” she griped, rolling her eyes. “Do all your good deeds involve illegal weaponry?”
“Hey.” Seth suddenly turned serious. She looked at him, eyes wide. He snapped his fingers and pointed at her. “There’s no illegal anything here, you got that?”
Kate paused, raising her brows. “…right…why do you think I turned around when y’all were unloading your stuff in the car? At the theater?” She pouted a little. “I’m not a total airhead, you know.”
She wasn’t. When they had first reached the theater that evening, the boys had immediately unloaded their belongings in the Mustang - and once Kate had gotten a quick flash of the butt of a gun, she had whipped around on the spot, trying very hard not to think about the fact that she’d been walking alongside two people with guns stuck in the backs of their jeans.
She’d managed to compartmentalize the knowledge, reminding herself that at least they weren’t bringing them into the theater with them, and refusing to think about the fact that 1) they almost certainly didn’t have permits for those things and 2) holy shit they had guns. Well, no duh, Kate, how else could they have robbed the place?
So she had buried the knowledge somewhere very deep and very far away from her consciousness, and had managed quite nicely afterward.
“Right. ‘Cause I am on probation, and that - “
“Hey, man, you heard her. She’s not stupid,” Richie interjected, leaning in between the seats, head level with hers. Kate nodded along fervently.
Seth eyed the two of them briefly, then sniffed. “Right.” He leaned past Richie to point to her again. “Good girl.”
Kate scrunched up her face at him, determined not to let them see that she was blushing. She enjoyed it a little too much when she was told this, she was quickly learning.
Then something occurred to her. “You know, you never answered me. Why’d you do it?”
“Oh,” Seth sighed, slouching back in his seat a little. “That.” He shrugged, readjusting his grip on the steering wheel. “He was fuckin’ with Richie.”
Brows raised, she glanced back at the boy in question. Richie made a face. “Yeah, he was my teacher, not Seth’s. But Seth had stopped by to pick me up after class, and caught Ranger Dick layin’ into me.”
Good grief. Whatever it was, it must have been bad to make Seth snap. “Do I even want to know?”
“Oh, just shit about our dad, how I’d never amount to anything, was destined for prison…the usual.”
Kate was stunned. “A teacher said that to you? A teacher.”
“Told you he was a dick.”
Seth muttered something under his breath she didn’t quite catch, but could guess the meaning. She couldn’t say she disagreed. For an authority figure to say those sorts of things to a kid? It was an abuse of power, a complete breach of trust. “No wonder you hit him,” she said in a low voice to him.
“Yeah, well, that’s part of my job.” He spoke pointedly to Richie, narrowing his eyes at him in the rear view. There was a point of contention there, it seemed.
Sure enough, it sounded like Richie was rolling his eyes when he fired back, “you do realize I can handle myself, right? I’m not some helpless kitten you rescued.”
Seth made a noise low in his throat, like a growl, and Kate decided it was time to change the subject.
Thinking quickly, she spied the radio, and said loudly, “Hey, do y’all know any decent stations around here?”
Seth turned to squint suspiciously at her, but Richie latched onto it immediately, and told her what to turn to. “Hey!” Protested Seth, who’d had a Nirvana CD playing (hey, even Kate knew who Kurt Cobain was).
It was a soft rock station. It was Kate’s turn to eye someone suspiciously - this didn’t seem like something Richie would listen to, but then he shrugged and said, “you seem like the type.”
Seth grumbled, but Kate was thrilled when Simple Minds started playing. “Oh, this is one of my favorite movies!”
“Of course it is,” Seth said dryly, cutting her a sardonic look.
Laughing, Kate replied triumphantly, “hey, you're the one who knew what I was talking about.”
Seth stopped smirking after that.
The apartment was quiet as she let herself in. Quickly she checked to make sure Scott had made it in okay; he got out a half hour earlier than she did, so he should be home by now.
She found him in his room, headphones on, playing his SNES and eating chips from the bag. With a sigh, she marched in, scooping the bag away from him, startling him so badly his headphones came off.
“You know you’re supposed to get a bowl for these, remember?” She scolded. Then, feeling a little guilty for yelling at him as a greeting, she asked, “how’d school go?”
Scott paused Mario, scowling up at her. “Fantastic,” he intoned sarcastically. Then, “if you’re so worried about my eating habits, why don’t you go get me a bowl?”
Kate sucked in her cheeks. “Your legs aren’t broken; get it yourself,” she snapped, and turned to go, bag of Lays in hand.
“But you’re already going in there - “
“Yeah, but I’m not coming back,” she pointed out logically.
“If you loved me you’d get it for me,” he wheedled, and Kate paused in the doorway, hanging her head, raising her free hand to pinch the bridge of her nose. That was how he always got her.
“Thank you!” He hollered after her as she closed the door behind her, a little hard, just to vent her feelings. At least Daddy wasn’t home to gripe at her about it.
Muttering to herself, she got her loser of a brother a bowl and ran it back to him, then escaped to her own room. Daddy wouldn’t be home til after six, so she had a while before the interrogation started.
So, own snack acquired, TV set to a Friends rerun, she settled in with all of her new school stuff. Diligently she made sure everything was in its proper folder in her Trapper Keeper, and thumbed through the few textbooks she’d had to bring home. Her Algebra, English and History teachers had assigned them a few exercises, that getting-to-know-you paper and some light reading, so she might as well get those out of the way now. The rest of her classes had mercifully declined to give out any kind of homework just yet.
She was still struggling with the last of her assignments, the English paper, when she heard the front door open. It wasn’t due til next Monday, but she wanted it done. With a frustrated sigh, she slammed her notebook closed and tossed it aside, in favor of getting up to start dinner.
They didn’t have a lot of sit-down meals anymore; Daddy choosing instead to sit in front of the TV with his meal and a beer, something Scott took advantage of and ended up taking his own meal back to his room. Sometimes Kate would sit with her father in the living room, watching whatever it was that was on TV with him, be it a game show or an old Emergency! rerun.
It was times like these that she felt her mother’s absence most acutely; Mama would have given them an earful if she or Scott had ever tried to run away to their rooms with their food. Supper was family time, everyone knew that.
But tonight, as with all the other nights recently, she accompanied her daddy to the small living room, and took up a spot on the couch while he parked himself in his la-z-boy. And as expected, came the questions. “So how was it today, Katie? Anything new and/or exciting to report?”
She shrugged from her position on the couch. “It was big. Like, lots bigger than Cayuga High. You remember when we went to drop off the paperwork? Three stories. Lotta stairs.”
Daddy hummed in acknowledgement. “Any nice people there? Make any friends yet?”
Kate froze at this. That reminded her that then she had stopped by the office to tell them she wouldn’t be riding the bus that day, they had agreed, but informed her if she intended to stop being a bus rider that she would need a note from her parent or guardian. Did she bring it up now? How did she know if the boys would want to give her a ride every day? And why did big schools need to make all this so complicated? At her old high school, if you wanted to ride the bus that day you just told the bus driver.
“Um. I might have a ride from school now? There’s a couple of kids that live nearby that offered to take me home today.”
“Oh, that’s good, baby. See, makin’ friends already. Told you they wouldn’t be able to resist you.”
She couldn’t help but flush a little at this. “Yeah, well,” she muttered, shrugging awkwardly. She bet her father wouldn’t be quite so easygoing about it if she informed him that her ride had been a couple of boys.
After a few more standard questions about classes and teachers, they ate in silence, finishing an episode of Jeopardy. When they were through with their dinner, Daddy ambled off to find Scott and bother him about his first day. Kate cleaned up and quickly did the dishes, though technically it was her Daddy’s turn. Whatever, she just wanted them out of the way.
With the first day successfully under her belt, Kate took off her makeup that night with a light heart. It hadn’t been quite as bad as she’d be dreading, aside from Algebra and lunch. She suppressed a shudder at the memories, and put them up on a shelf for the night. At least the other kids hadn’t pulled the same stunt in English. And she didn’t need to worry the two classes again til Friday.
Then came her customary conversations with Jessica, and then with Kyle, in which both regaled her with first-day exploits, and she returned the favor, though she did gloss over the fact that her two new friends were both boys. And that they had given her a ride.
She wasn’t lying, not exactly. It wasn’t like she was doing something wrong behind their backs - she just didn’t didn’t feel the need to have Jess dissect every single expression, gesture and conversation with the boys to death. That was simply how Jess was, and Kate didn’t want a big deal made out of nothing.
With Kyle she was even less forthcoming. There really wasn’t much to tell - he wouldn’t be interested in her first-day outfit the way Jess was, though he did tease her that he was sure she’d turned heads when she walked into her classes. She blushed accordingly, and made sure to ask him if there were any new girls she needed to be worried about.
He laughed, and the sound warmed her. Then he quoted Proverbs 31:10 at her, assuring her that her own noble character was far above any girl he had ever met. It made her blush again, harder this time, and she felt tears prick suddenly behind her eyes. She’d missed this, she realized; missed hearing bible verses, missed the polished smell of wooden pews and musty pages of hymnals, and sitting in supplication with fellow believers to a God who cared.
Maybe she’d finally go out this weekend, find a church. There had to be a Baptist one around somewhere; this was Texas, after all. And maybe she could talk Daddy and Scott into going, as well.
She had gone quiet, and after a moment Kyle asked if everything was okay. Holding back a sniffle, she cleared her throat and assured him all was well, she was just exhausted. First day at a new school in a new city, after all.
Before hanging up, there was a pause, as if Kyle was thinking of something else to say. Before he could make up his mind, Kate bid him goodnight and dropped the phone back in its cradle.
Blowing out a hard, deep breath, Kate finished getting ready for bed. Absently humming the theme song to The Breakfast Club under her breath, she threw on a nightshirt and climbed into bed, clutching at her spare pillow.
She drifted off, and dreamed uneasy dreams; corridors with dead ends, walls closing in. And something, something about a maze, with death at its center. A sense of impending doom hung over the entire affair.
In the morning, of course, she wouldn’t remember most of it, except for a vague, permeating sense of unease.
Notes:
chapter title taken from No Doubt's "Just A Girl."
Let me know if y'all need me to break my chapters up; I will gladly do so if needed.
Feel free to scream at me in the comments! I appreciate y'all and want to hear what you think <3
Chapter 3: let the fear take the wheel and steer
Notes:
(heads up: some slurs in this. )
So this thing just about fucking killed me. For the life of me I could NOT figure out how I wanted it to go. Been working on it for literal months and only just now managed it.
I am done done done looking at this stupid thing, it’s trash, I’m taking it out back and shooting it and putting it out of both of our miseries.
Enjoy! 💀
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The feeling from last night’s dream lingered somewhat as she got ready for her second day. It was the school, she decided. It was enormous, and confusing, and thoroughly uninviting. No wonder she dreamed of being confined like that.
By the time she had climbed into daddy’s sedan, she had mostly shaken off the feeling. Today, she decided, was going to be a good day. Richie would be with her in first block, Art. And look, she had already made two friends! Tentatively labeled, but the point still stood. You didn’t just sit with someone at lunch, then offer them a ride home, if you weren’t interested in at least a casual friendship.
Satisfied with this mindset, Kate headed towards the doors, hope giving her step an extra spring in it and putting a little smile on her face. When she glanced around briefly before entering, she saw the boys slouching their way across the parking lot. Her smile grew as they came closer, and finally they were close enough for her to hear the strains of music coming through their headphones.
Richie slipped his off to hang around his neck; he looked half-asleep, eyes hooded, big shoulders slumped. Faintly she could hear a bass thumping from his headset. “Have a late night?” She asked, unable to keep the laughter from her voice.
He squinted at her. “Oh, God. You’re a morning person,” he said in tones of utter disgust. He shot a look at his brother, who looked miles more awake than Richie did.
“He’s nocturnal,” said Seth, shrugging. He was clutching a paper coffee cup to him like it held the secrets to the universe. His own headphones let loose a guitar wail she vaguely recognized.
Nodding, she turned to walk alongside them into the building. “Not usually,” she said to Richie, addressing his earlier comment. “It’s just…gonna be a good day.”
“Jesus,” he muttered, and pulled his headphones back on. Kate smothered a laugh at the sight. Poor guy.
“You sound like you’ve had way too much caffeine,” said Seth skeptically, eyeing her. He finally tugged his own headphones down, hitting a button on his Walkman to stop the tape. Interesting.
“Hey, a girl can’t be optimistic? And what’s with the relic?” She nodded to the tape player.
Seth straightened up immediately, eyes narrowing. “I’ll have you know this relic revolutionized music, alright? And -
“Oh, no. No, shut up, not listening,” groaned Richie, who apparently could still hear him even through the heavy bass still coming from his headphones.
Seth sniffed, covering the Walkman protectively. “I just prefer mix tapes, okay?”
“Really? How come.”
He shrugged, long legs eating up the distance, and she struggled to keep up with the two of them as they headed towards the lockers. “They sound better, just more like music should be. I mean, CDs are great and all, they sound cleaner, but - “ he made a vague motion with his hands, coffee cup clutched tight. “I grew up on them, y’know? Maybe it’s a nostalgia thing.”
“Okay,” she said, nodding slowly, and he shot her a look.
“Relic,” he muttered under his breath. She gave him a sheepish grin, and he rolled his eyes at her.
As a peace offering, she dug a few suckers out of her bag, some of her brother’s Jolly Rancher ones - Richie took a green apple, and Seth a blue raspberry. She took one of the rare cherry ones for herself. “Didn’t know they made suckers of these,” said Richie, inspecting his closely for a moment, before popping it into his mouth.
“Stole ‘em from my little brother,” Kate said with some satisfaction. She tucked the sucker in one cheek. “No idea where he got them,” she continued thoughtfully.
She saw Seth eyeing Richie as the latter bit down on his sucker, looking marginally more cheerful than he had a minute ago. He gave Richie a lascivious sort of grin, and Kate knew he was up to no good.
“Feel better with somethin’ in your mouth, huh?”
Kate, who had seen it coming, still needed a few moments to figure it out. Then she promptly choked on her sucker, and tore it out of her mouth to sputter and cough. Seth obligingly pounded her on the back, which didn’t really help.
Richie, having gone red to his ears, snapped, “if this was your dick it’d get bitten off.”
Which just made Kate wheeze more, and made Seth howl with laughter. “Who said anything about dicks? Fuckin’ faggot.”
At this Kate had to protest. Soon all three were arguing as they reached her locker, and she was shaking her head as she put in the combination, still trying to explain to Seth why that word was so inappropriate with her cheeks still pink, when someone cleared their throat behind them.
All three of them stopped talking abruptly to turn to look behind them, and there stood a boy, dark-haired and -eyed, clutching at a rather heavy looking stack of books and looking as though he’d rather be anywhere else. Then his eyes alighted on Kate, and his expression changed, subtly enough that Kate barely caught it.
“Need in my locker, Gecko,” he addressed Richie evenly, brows raised.
Richie’s lip began to curl, but at a look from Kate, he pulled himself upright off the locker and stood aside with a mocking sweep of his arms. Kate rolled her eyes, somewhat used to their interactions with the school populace by now.
The boy shot her a look from under his lashes as he opened his locker. “You, ah, you okay?” He glanced to either side of her.
Immediately Kate’s hackles went up, and she scowled at him. The boy leaned back a little, grimacing in apology. “Hey, sorry,” he said, shrugging awkwardly. Kate imagined him holding up his hands in a ‘don’t shoot’ gesture, but he was unable to, due to the heavy load he still carried.
He was obviously struggling to unlock his locker and juggle all the books, so with a heavy sigh, she said, “here,” and held out her hands for the textbooks.
The look he gave her was laden with gratitude, and he dumped his armload into her own waiting ones. “Thank you,” he muttered, eyes flicking back over her shoulder again. Then he fixed his eyes back on Kate before she could say anything about it, and smiled shyly.
“Um, I’m Rafa. Infante. You’re new.”
“I’m Kate, yes,” she returned rather dryly. Her eyes dropped to her armload. Wow, these books really did weigh a ton; had he carried these all the way from outside like this? Where was his bag?
“My bag got wet,” he said a little sheepishly, seeing her puzzled glance at the books. “I spilled my coffee on it.”
She nodded in sympathy. He continued as he finally got his combination right. “So where you from?” He opened his locker door, and held out his hands for his books.
“Bethel. ‘Bout three or so hours from here? Up north a little bit.”
A soft noise caught her attention, and she turned to Richie, brows furrowing in consternation. “What.”
“Gonna be late for first block, you keep chit-chatting,” he replied laconically, but his eyes were on Rafa as he spoke.
She raised her brows at him. “Well, don’t let me stop you,” she said coolly, gesturing with her chin down the hall.
The look she received was reminiscent of a kicked puppy, all wide, limpid eyes and deferential posture. “I wasn’t talking about me,” he said, sounded wounded. She shook her head at him, amused despite herself.
“And you,” she turned and pointed her sucker at Seth, “have a three-story hike ahead of you. Get movin’.”
Brows flattening, Seth muttered something probably unpleasant under his breath she didn’t catch, hitched his bag higher on his shoulder, and stalked off without so much as a goodbye. As he passed Rafa, he threw him a dirty look - somewhat mitigated by the sucker tucked into his cheek - which the other boy ignored in favor of watching Kate.
Richie hadn’t budged, still giving her that look, like she’d just told him the WWE was fake. With a sigh, she turned back to Rafa, who had been watching the exchange with a slightly disconcerted expression on his face. Then he blinked, smiling at her as if they hadn’t been interrupted.
“Um, so how do you like it so far?” This time she ignored the noises coming from Richie, and gave Rafa a small smile of her own, turning to put some of her own textbooks back in her locker.
“It’s okay. You know, it’s school. Bigger than my old one, but still pretty much the same.” She shrugged indifferently, grabbing up her Biology book for second block. Did she have her pencils for art? She checked her bag, scowling a little. She found them in the small compartment at the front.
“I don’t know if you saw, but we have English together.”
Blinking, she pushed her hair out of her eyes. “Oh,” she said, bemused. “No, sorry, it’s just, there’s so much to take in, I hadn't really - “ she stumbled, a little embarrassed now.
He didn’t seem to be insulted; instead he laughed, nodding. He had gone still now, hands resting on the shelf in his locker. “Yeah, there’s a lot of us in each class, it’s okay.”
At that moment the bell rang. All three of them swore, and Rafa turned back to Kate, looking sheepish. “Sorry, I took up all our time. I’ll see you around?"
“Yeah, see you,” Kate agreed distractedly, giving him a quick wave and smile, and turned to grab Richie’s arm and propel him along beside her down the hallway.
“I told you,” Richie muttered reproachfully, letting her drag him along beside her.
“Yeah, yeah,” she sighed. “Sorry. I was just being nice,” she added, somewhat defensively.
Richie snorted, but didn’t say anything else, just continued to keep pace with her.
“Y’all really don’t like anyone, do you,” she said dryly, as they approached the art room.
“Not really, no,” was his blithe response as he opened the door for her.
When she and Richie found their seats, there was already another girl at the worktable, sitting across from them. She had watched them the whole way from the door, and beamed at Richie, taking Kate by surprise. She was positive she’d never seen that expression pointed in either Gecko’s direction.
She was a curvy Hispanic girl, with lovely dark eyes, round cheeks and a full, wide mouth. Her eyes flicked to Kate, then back to Richie, then Kate again, very obviously curious; she had seen them come in together, after all.
“Ay, I’m so glad you’re in this class, Richie! This way you can help me with my projects.” Her eyes gleamed in a teasing manner.
“Hell, no. I’ve got enough problems, I don’t need yours on top of them, Ximena.”
The girl, Ximena, scoffed, throwing back her hair. “It’s not my fault all my beauty is here,” she made a circling gesture around her face, “and not here,” she held up her hands, wriggling her fingers. She turned to Kate, leaning in. “He’s the best in our grade. But if you want his help, you’ll have to do some serious groveling first.” She rolled her eyes.
Then she smiled. “I’m Ximena, by the way.”
“Oh, I’m Kate. It’s nice to meet you.”
Ximena chewed on her gum for a moment, eyes still flicking between them. “So you two have met?”
“Yeah, um, over the summer.”
The other girl perked up, looking interested. “Oh yeah?”
Kate shifted in her seat a little, shooting a quick glance at Richie, who looked back at her - he looked a little too amused for her taste - before saying, “it’s…a really long story.”
Ximena hummed, but before she could ask any more questions regarding her and Richie, Kate politely asked her how her own summer had been.
The girl launched into gossip-mode, regaling her with tales of sales at the nearest mall, who she’d seen with who, and who had broken up and hooked up over the summer. Most of this, of course, went right over Kate’s head, not knowing who a single one of these people were, but Richie offered his own snide commentary, making the girls laugh.
Eventually the teacher shushed everyone, and gave his welcome speech; then they got to work on their very first assignment, a small still life set in the middle of each worktable.
“So I just found out,” Ximena continued in a low voice, as the teacher rounded their table and passed it, “that Homecoming is only one week before Halloween. One. Week!”
She stared at Kate, as if expecting some sort of reaction. Kate, for her part, was slightly nonplussed. “Um, I guess that’s kinda far away…?”
“No! It’s Kisa! Now she’s going to have to plan two back-to-back parties! I don’t know how she’s going to pull it off.”
Beside her, she felt more than saw Richie tense a little. Kisa. Kate remembered the girl; her erstwhile Hall Helper on her first day here. The one Richie said he hadn’t really known.
She shot a quick glance at him before turning to Ximena. “So she’s pretty popular, huh?”
Ximena made a noise of amusement. “'Cha, you could say that. She’s La Diosa. Not even a Senior yet, but she’s got the biggest following here. She’s got it all: the looks, the money, the brains…she’s on track to be valedictorian next year.”
Kate’s brows winged up. She had figured out the first two on her own, from the way Kisa had carried herself, and her outfit, a black-and-red affair with what looked like a genuine Prada bag and Jimmy Choo boots. Despite herself, she was a little impressed.
“You know, I could get you an invite easy,” continued Ximena, eyes gleaming speculatively. She leaned forward across the table. “To both parties, if you’re interested.”
“Um. Oh,” Kate blinked. “Thanks? I’m not sure if I’ll be going to Homecoming, though. My boyfriend lives back in Bethel, and we don’t know if he’ll be able to come yet.”
At her side, Richie’s foot slipped off the rung of his stool. Glancing over, she saw that he was sitting, pencil frozen above his sketchbook, scowling down at it as if the thing had personally insulted him.
Ximena’s eyes flicked ever-so-briefly towards Richie as well, before turning back to smile at Kate. “Well, you at least have to come to her Halloween one. The one last year was killer; it’s out in the country, at her family’s hunting cabin. The haunted house takes up, like, half the woods out there. Vato,” she slapped the table in front of Richie. “Tell her she has to come.”
Richie finally looked back up from his sketchbook, blinking, and glanced at Kate. “It wasn’t bad,” he ceded quietly. “The haunted house was actually kinda cool, and there’s drinks and real food and shit.”
She hummed, shrugging. “I mean, sure. I guess I can go.” She looked back at Richie. “Are you guys going?”
Kate heard Ximena shift slightly, and Richie turned to the other girl. “Only if Seth can go, too,” he said flatly, pointing his pencil at her. Ximena rolled her eyes.
“You know how she feels about your brother, especially after what - “
“Only. If he. Goes. Too.”
Ximena huffed, tapping her acrylics on the tabletop in agitation. “You know I don’t have the final say. It’s up to Kisa.” And she flipped her hair back disdainfully.
Kisa must want him there pretty bad if he knows he can bargain for an invitation, Kate thought to herself. Once again, she wondered what their deal was. She might could ask Ximena, but that felt too much like going behind Richie’s back to sit comfortably with her. Whatever it was, she’d probably find out sooner or later, anyway.
Kate ended up seeing both Rafa and Ximena again that day, Rafa in Bio the next block, and Ximena in World history fourth block. They were both perfectly friendly, and both did their utmost to figure out why she was hanging out with the Geckos.
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition, she thought dismally to herself, after Ximena asked, for the third time, in completely different phrasing, how she knew Richie. Did she know Seth, too? Where did she meet them? Did she hear about what happened last year with Mr. McGraw? Did she know -
And on and on. If Kate didn’t know any better, she’d say Ximena had a bit of a crush, but the vibes were wrong for that. She was like one of those hunting hounds, trying to sniff out a trail to follow. Based on their conversation in Art, Kate had a hunch why.
Ximena had proudly touted herself as one of Kisa’s closest friends. She didn’t seem to be the type to lie about something like that, but what did she know? But Kate was intrigued; judging by all these questions, it seemed that Kisa had a vested interest in the brothers. One of them, at least. What kind of drama had she gotten herself mixed up with?
Richie came to find her at the final bell, and offered her a ride home again, which Kate accepted gracefully. She’d just have to get Daddy to write a note tonight.
A cigarette was lit up as soon as they exited the building. She wrinkled her nose, laughing. “Really? That bad, huh?”
He snorted. “Hey, I’ve been good all day, I deserve this.”
Kate thought about saying something like, you deserve to get your lungs coated in tar? But she didn’t. She wasn’t their mom, and she didn’t want to seem like she was nagging.
So she just shook her head, and walked upwind of him as they crossed the parking lot.
Seth had no such compunctions. “Nice cancer stick,” he sniped as soon as they got closer. “Finish that out here, will you?”
“Yeah, yeah,” came Richie’s lazy reply. He drew in one last lungful, and blew it out the side of his mouth, away from Kate. Then he glanced at her, and held up what was left of the cigarette. “Want some?”
Kate blinked, feeling heat creep into her cheeks. Oh, wow. She’d never actually been offered a cigarette before. Lotta firsts this year, she thought to herself weakly. “Um.”
“Way to corrupt the youth, Rich, Jesus.”
“Just doin’ my part,” Richie shrugged laconically, cigarette still held out towards her.
“I’ve…never actually tried smoking before."
“Take my advice: don’t start,” stated Seth firmly. “Put that shit out, man, before she adds chain smoker to her list of vices.”
Rolling his eyes, Richie flicked it to the ground, crushing it with the toe of his boot. “Fine, have it your way. Next time,” he said, pointing to Kate, and opened the door for her.
Kate rolled her eyes back at him. “We’ll see,” was all she said in return.
One week later, Seth was the first to arrive at her locker before English, Richie nowhere in sight.
Something had been bothering Kate for a few days, now; she had just been trying to find the right time to bring it up. Now seemed a good a time as any. “So…” began Kate.
Seth looked up at her from his Walkman, brows raised. “Sooo…what.”
Kate leaned forward, knocking her arm against his. “So when am I gonna meet your girlfriend? Does she go here? If it’s long distance, I totally get that.”
Something happened to Seth’s face, then, twisting it into an odd grimace. “Yeah, Vanessa. She does go here.” Seth rubbed the back of his neck. “But she’s, um, she’s locked up right now.”
Kate’s eyes went wide. “Oh,” she said very quietly. Then adding, a little lamely, “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah,” he gave a short, humorless laugh. “Been about six months, now? Sounds about right.”
“Six months?” Didn’t he get four for punching someone? What could his girlfriend have possibly done that was worse?
He must have read the question in her face, because he replied, “yeah. She, ah, tried to hit a cop.”
Kate’s jaw dropped. “A cop? Like a real one?” Not like that Mr. McGraw, who’d been retired.
Seth snorted. “Yep. She didn’t actually make contact, but they decided the act itself was enough to warrant a year’s stay in the Houston juvenile detention system.”
A whole year locked up? That was…that was insane. She felt disquieted, then, almost uneasy. ”wow. Jeez, that’s harsh.”
He sighed then, and shrugged. “She should’ve known better, but she was freakin’ out. Got caught shoplifting, let her temper get the better of her.”
Kate didn’t really know what to say to that.
Seth caught the look on her face, and said, dryly, “yes, we’re a bunch of degenerates.” He paused, and looked away from her, down at his Walkman. His voice was carefully casual as he asked, “still wanna be seen with us?”
Kate thought about this for a few moments. A bunch of thieves that thought violence was the answer to everything, apparently. She wondered how she’d managed to end up in this situation.
She took things on the quiet side, Kate did. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate a good slice of gossip, but so far she’d found the public school experience to be rife with more drama than she ever could have dreamed of in her little home school/church bubble. It was a little overwhelming at times. Factor in the loss of her mother, who had always advised and encouraged her, and she felt cast completely adrift in a sea of hormonally-charged bodies.
All these things crossed her mind in the time it took for Seth’s mouth to start to thin. Deciding, for the moment, to take things as they were, she looked back up at him and said, very seriously, “just as long as she doesn’t hit me, we’re good.”
Seth’s face cleared and cracked into a grin, and he leaned in to tweak her braid. “Nah,” he drawled. “I wouldn’t let her do that.”
Kate, fighting off a smile, tugged her hair out of his reach. “I don’t need protecting, you know.”
“Hey, who said anything about protecting you? Maybe you hit her first, and I’m just holding her back from retaliating. Don’t need her getting locked up again.”
“You’re ridiculous,” she said, starting to laugh despite herself. “Why would I want to hit her? Or anyone?”
“Who’re we hitting? Or not hitting, as the case may be?” Richie had finally showed up, coming to lean in his usual spot on the locker beside hers.
“You have a younger sibling and you’re asking me that?” Said Seth dryly, ignoring his brother’s question.
“His girlfriend, apparently,” Kate answered Richie.
“Vanessa,” said Richie, in tones of disgust. He folded his arms, scowling at a spot past Kate’s left ear.
Ohh, there’s a story there, Kate thought with interest, previous worries now all but forgotten. Seth must have seen her curiosity, because he said rather abruptly, “Oh-kay, time for class, isn’t it? See ya.” And he stalked off before the other two could say another word.
Kate pointed at Richie. “We’re not done here,” she vowed, and he smirked, before pushing himself off the lockers and sloping off down the hall to Bio.
Though stymied for now, Kate was determined that she was definitely getting the story out of Richie later in English. Why on earth did he not get on with his brother and best friend’s girlfriend?
Kate flashed a quick smile at Rafa before settling down next to Richie, and pulling out her notebook.
So? Kate scribbled quickly, before carefully and quietly tugging it out, and folding it into neat little triangles. Then she slowly leaned over towards Richie, holding the note between two fingers, and slid it onto his desk.
Richie, having been copying down what was on the board, blinked and looked over at the note. With a little sigh, he picked it up and gently unfolded it, trying his best to be quiet about it.
He leaned over it and carefully wrote his response, then copied her folding lines and handed it back to her.
So…what?
Kate nearly planted her face on her desk in exasperation. Boys, she thought in irritation. She wrote, SO what’s the deal with you and Vanessa? Why don’t you like her?
When he read this, Richie gave her such a look of long-suffering that she had to smother her laughter in her hands. Taking it back from him, she read, you need more girl friends.
Girl friends couldn’t tell me why you don’t like her! And a little angry face was drawn beside it.
A long sigh through his nose, and he finally responded with, She’s a bitch.
OK, why would Seth date her if she’s a bitch?
She’s a hot bitch. I don’t know.
Kate stifled a groan. Really???
Richie hesitated for a few moments before replying. She said I needed therapy and called us codependent. Said I was holding him back.
She said that to your face?!?!
First part she said to Seth. She told me I was holding him back. Like she thought that would do something. It just pissed Seth off.
Kate sat for a moment, stunned. No kidding, she thought to herself distantly. Then she wrote, hand shaking slightly in her anger, That is so so rude!!! She had to have known it would just make him mad!
Right? I don’t know how that girl’s brain works. If it works at all.
She smothered another laugh at that, and glanced up at the teacher, as she’d been doing all class, to make sure they weren’t intercepted. From the corner of her eye, she saw Rafa watching them, but ignored him in favor of writing out a response.
So why is he still with her?
Search me. They were only together maybe 5, 6 months before she got arrested. They had other issues too. Some are kind of heavy.
Now Kate was really curious, but she understood the implication that Richie wouldn’t be discussing these other issues. She flashed him a thumbs up, and he nodded back, stretching out in his chair and sticking his feet up on the basket beneath the desk in front of him. He really was too tall.
Their conversation, slow as it had been due to writing and folding and back again, had taken up a good portion of their class time, Kate was pleased to see. She wanted to get out of here and stretch her own legs.
Curious now, she wondered how Seth felt about his girlfriend after being months apart, and with several more in front of them. Was he still into her? Why had she told him Richie needed therapy? And how exactly was Richie holding Seth back? Granted, she’d only known them for a couple of weeks now, but she couldn’t see it at all. If anything, the two of them seemed to only build off the other’s strengths. They complemented each other in a way she’d rarely witnessed in sibling dynamics, her own included.
As the final bell rung, she grabbed up the note and stuffed it in her bag before popping up to her feet. She was halfway to the door, right behind Richie, when Rafa hailed her.
Rafa had stopped to talk to her a handful of times now, about all sorts of innocuous things; her classes, her life back in Bethel, what movies and bands she liked. Getting-to-know you questions, completely harmless. It never stopped either Gecko from scowling at him fiercely whenever he came into view.
“Hey! You get everything copied from the board okay? I can lend you my notes if you didn’t.”
Kate smiled a little ruefully; she knew he’d seen her passing notes. She had gotten everything down from the board, just barely - it wasn’t often she ignored the teacher in favor of gossip.
Behind Rafa she saw Richie at the door, rolling his eyes and throwing his hands up in exasperation. She resisted the temptation to stick her tongue out at him, but only barely. Instead she pointedly turned away from Richie, and fixed Rafa with her biggest smile.
“Yeah, um, I did.” She pushed a loose lock of hair away from her face, watched him watch her do it. “But thanks! It’s nice of you to offer.”
“Okay, that’s, that’s good,” his head bobbed amiably. He licked his lips, then hesitated for a moment, before starting to say, “Hey, I was wondering if you - “
“You know Seth will leave our asses if we’re late, right?”
Richie had come up behind Rafa, arms crossed and standing at his full height, which was considerably taller than the other boy. Kate scowled, but didn’t argue. With a huff, she hitched her backpack more tightly to her, and smiled an apologetic smile at Rafa. “Sorry. My friends are jerks,” she said, leaning around Rafa to glare pointedly at Richie.
He sucked in his cheeks and rocked back on his heels, miming a knife to the heart before flipping her off. Kate felt her mouth twist into a smile despite herself, and turned back to Rafa. “I do have to go. I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Sure, sure. Have a good night, okay?”
“You too,” she flashed him another smile, and he stepped aside for her to leave.
Out in the hallway, Kate punched Richie in the arm. “Ow,” he said flatly.
“Do y’all have to be so rude to everyone?”
“Yes, it’s in our contract.”
“What c - Oh, my God, forget it.”
She left Richie’s laughter behind her as she stalked away from him, irritated with herself and with him.
Honestly, she wasn’t sure why she put up with it. Yes, we’re a bunch of degenerates. Kate grimaced at the choice of phrase - there was a good chance Seth didn’t know the history of that word; most people didn’t - but that wasn’t the point. The point was that she was hanging out with a couple of miscreants that stole, and swore, and drank, and smoked - and not just cigarettes. They were capital T Trouble.
They were no one she should get involved with. Richie had mentioned briefly, in passing, that they’d both been held back in elementary. That made Seth two years older than her. And - and they carried guns, for Pete’s sake. At least they were leaving their guns at home. She hoped.
It wasn’t like she didn’t have options. She could…she could drop them. She could try and ingratiate herself to the kids that had sneered at her for hanging out with the Geckos. And Ximena and Rafa had both been perfectly friendly to her, despite it.
“Hey.” Richie had caught up with her, close enough that their arms brushed. Suddenly Kate had a sense-memory, of Richie putting his arm up against hers in the theater when she’d been scared. She caught the scent of him, nicotine and mint, and remembered how he hadn’t made fun of her for using his shoulder as a shield.
Quite abruptly Kate felt awful. How could she think these things of them? They had included her when they didn’t have to; they could just have easily brushed her off as a nuisance. Seth didn’t have to give her rides home, nor did Richie have to pass notes with her and potentially catch trouble. Though honestly, he didn’t seem to care much about that part.
She still wasn’t quite sure why they continued to keep her company. How could she possibly be entertaining for them? She was younger than them, she was a girl, and she was…well, she was boring. She was just a goodie-two-shoes preacher’s daughter. They were as different as night and day, really. The only thing she could think of having in common with them was a younger sibling, and…and no mother.
Great, as if she wasn’t feeling bad enough. Kate flinched out of habit, and then shot Richie a glance out the corner of her eye to see if he’d noticed. Of course he had. He was watching her now, brows slightly furrowed.
“You good?” He asked slowly.
Kate mustered up a smile, guilt spiking uneasily through her. “Sure!” She bit her lip then, unsure if she should say any more.
Beside her, Richie sighed. “What is it.”
“Well…I know you don’t like people. And that’s okay! I’m not saying you have to. But…” Kate shrugged and hitched her bag up a little higher. “I like people. I like talking to them.”
“Okay…?”
Kate rolled her eyes, laughing a little now. “So let me like people!” She threw up her hands. “You don’t have to like it, but let me have my thing.”
He paused again, cutting her a glance. “Let you have your thing,” he repeated, sounding somewhat reluctantly amused.
“Yes! Let me talk to people. It’s not hurting you any.” She tossed her braid back over her shoulder, sniffing.
Now his brows drew down, as if this was something that required serious concentration. He looked a little bit like he did that time he’d broken into her locker for her. “So…what you’re saying is, leave you alone when you’re talking to other people.”
“Well, just don’t rush me. It’s considered rude in some circles,” she responded dryly.
Slowly Richie nodded. Then, apropos of absolutely nothing, pulled out his pack of Extra spearmint gum, and held it out to her in a silent offering.
Huffing out a laugh, Kate took one.
This year sure as fuck wasn’t turning out the way he thought it would.
Getting arrested had kicked it off, and wasting most of the summer in Juvie had prolonged it in the most agonizing way possible. He’d only gotten out at the end of July, and promptly left off some steam by making some quick cash and threatening old Mr. Harper. Asshole deserved what he’d gotten; besides, the place was insured.
He’d missed his car, his mix tapes, his brother. And, okay, he missed Vanessa, too, though it was more of a nebulous, twice-removed sort of feeling. More like he missed the idea of her. Where that shit was headed, he wasn’t all that optimistic about.
But he’d never been separated from Richie like that, not ever. Being in different grades at school was bad enough; being able to only see him once a week for one fucking hour for visitation had been absolutely intolerable.
Until they’d been twelve they had shared a room. It wasn’t until moving in with Uncle Eddie that they’d gotten to each have their own space, and it had been so terrifying that for the first several months they had snuck into the other’s room after bedtime to camp out with each other.
Then Eddie had sat them each down and explained to them why having their own space could be enjoyable. More room for your own things, for starters - except between the two of them, they barely had enough to fill one single room.
That was when Eddie had gotten him his stereo, a Sony that had two tape decks and a mixer, for creating his own tapes. He’d gotten Richie a record player. Both were too solid, too heavy to tote to each other’s rooms all the time. And when their thirteenth Christmas had rolled around, he’d gotten them each their own gaming system; used, older ones, but since they’d never been allowed to have one before, they didn’t give a fuck. That way they still had a reason to visit, but could also spend time on their own.
He knew what those things were, obviously - bribes. Eddie was trying to teach them independence through incentives…and for the most part, it worked. Their new stuff gave them each something to do on their own, but they each had an extra controller for the other when they wanted to hang out. Also, this way Richie didn’t have to listen to Seth’s country music when the mood struck him.
Slowly, over time, each boy’s room had been filled with their own odds and ends, and in Richie’s case, overflowing with it. Guy had three fucking shelves with nothing but books, and another one dedicated to action figures and collectibles, a couple of guitars, endless stacks of comic books, and…shit, the list went on.
Seth wasn’t a pack rat like Richie. He’d learned the hard way to keep his shit neat and clean, and he was adverse to collecting too many things to make the space cluttered. Their old man hadn’t really allowed toys; a handful of action figures, a couple of Hot Wheels and an old basketball had been their main source of entertainment, besides the TV. And having those toys in view usually sent their dad over the edge; Seth had learned at an early age to keep everything picked up and out of sight. So Seth never really did learn to collect shit like Richie. Eddie called his space ‘Spartan,’ which was kinda cool, after Eddie had explained where the word came from.
Slowly, over time, they’d been weaned off each other, at least somewhat. There were still nights that could get hard, and then Richie - it was usually Richie - would slip into his room and under the covers with him; by morning he would be gone. Seth, who was supposed to be the older, tougher one, did his best to relegate his visits to hanging out reading comics or playing Doom or Mario with Richie.
But they’d never gone so much as twelve hours without seeing each other before, so his stint in Juvie had been torture for both of them. After he got out, he learned that Richie had been having more nightmares while he was gone, just like him. The first day he’d been back home, Richie hadn’t let him out of his sight, and had slunk into Seth’s room that night to huddle against him, blunt nails digging into his back as he’d gripped him tight. Neither had gotten much sleep.
It had been Richie’s suggestion to do the convenience store, and Seth, eager for one last hurrah before school started, readily agreed. Seth had cleaned his gun that night with slightly shaking hands, more from excitement than nerves. Eddie, who knew better and just left him to it these days, didn’t notice, which was for the best. He’d be pissed if he knew Seth was endangering his parole.
The job had gone smooth as clockwork, like he’d known it would. No interference, no alarms, nothing. They got what they came for, and then they took off.
And ran right into a slip of a girl called Kate.
He honestly thought, after he’d paid her, that that would be the end of it, that he’d never see her again. He’d slapped a few bills in her hands, and barely given her a second thought as they’d run off, except to hope to fuckin’ God that she was a decent liar.
Apparently she was, because they’d never been found, though he knew he could thank in part his plan to evade the cops.
Then she’d shown back up out of nowhere, like some kind of - like the opposite of a bad penny. A little good luck charm. Not that he really believed in luck, but it had been fortunate that they’d run into her that day, otherwise Harper might’ve continued in the right direction and found them.
So, on a whim, he’d invited her along. She was funny, and cute. A little young, but it wasn’t like he was actually interested. She was a nice distraction, that was all.
Besides, he’d seen the way Richie was watching her. Richie’d never had a girlfriend before - that cocktease Kisa didn’t fucking count - and it might do him some good to spend time with an actual female for a little bit. Supervised, of course.
He’d made sure to let Richie sit by her. Honestly, he just wanted to see what would happen, what she’d do. He hadn’t been disappointed.
Her reaction to the movie had been unsurprising as well as entertaining. He’d thought she’d be a scaredy-cat, and he was right. When he saw her lunge for Richie’s arm and plant her face in it, he’d laughed to himself and elbowed Richie, smirking at him.
Richie had rolled his eyes at him, but even in the dark of the theater he could tell his brother was flushing. Then he’d leaned over to Kate, and said something to her in a low voice that Seth couldn’t make out. Probably asking if she was alright. Well, good on him.
The fact that she actually attended the same school as them had caught him off-guard. He’d been fully prepared to tell her adios and never see her again, and tough luck for Richie.
It hadn’t escaped his notice that she was cute. Cute, in an almost little-girl kinda way that had him somewhat off-kilter - he normally didn’t think much of younger girls. Okay, so maybe he had a girlfriend. But just noticing wasn’t cheating; he was keeping his hands and everything else off her goods, and besides, Richie seemed pretty into her.
So he flirted. Just a little. He knew that he could be charming when he put his mind to it, overriding his natural state of being an asshole. He seemed to have done a pretty good job; she was laughing, not slapping him in the face.
She’d laughed with Richie, too, which was encouraging. It didn’t happen very often. At all, really.
Of course, that was until she’d mentioned her old man. Richie had picked up on it immediately. Richie had a knack for that; while Seth was adept at reading people, and situations, there were certain things that took him longer to clock. That was where Richie came in.
It had always been like that; whatever Seth lacked, Richie made up for. And vice versa. It’s what made them such a great team. They always worked perfectly in sync - when they weren’t trying to take each other’s heads off, anyway.
He’d been tempted to do just that, a time or two as school got closer, when all Richie could talk about was Kate. Kate’s laugh. Kate’s smile. Kate’s perfume.
Jesus fuck, his brother sounded a goddamn girl.
Okay, so yeah, he’d noticed the same things. Hard not to, when every time her hair had shifted, he’d caught the barest trace of that perfume. And he wasn’t even going to get into what she’d been wearing. But you didn’t hear him harping on about it day and night.
Richie had been fucking miserable for days after he’d found out she had a boyfriend. But he’d eventually bounced back, saying that statistically, long-distance school relationships usually fizzled out. They’d be broken up by Christmas, he was sure of it. But Seth had learned a long time ago not to take bets on long odds, or to hold his breath, and he’d warned Richie not to do either of those things, so he wouldn’t be in for any potential disappointment. He still wasn’t sure if his brother had been paying attention when he’d said this.
There was no point in wasting your time dreaming about shit like that. If you wanted something you made it happen, and took hold of it with your own two hands; you didn’t wait for bullshit like luck and happenstance to step in for you. So if Richie really wanted her, he’d have to be a lot more proactive than just waiting for her to dump her boyfriend.
If these thoughts sent a little spike of resentment through him, well, he kept that to himself.
For fuck’s sake, Seth had Vanessa to fantasize about. His actual, living, breathing girlfriend.
That was currently locked up, where he couldn’t see or touch her until sometime in March of next year.
It was something that had been bothering him for a while. Things with Vanessa had been pretty up in the air when she’d gone and gotten herself arrested. Their fights had been getting worse, especially after that bullshit she’d talked about Richie. Maybe -
He was thrown out of his musings by the arrival of Richie, flopping down onto the bed beside Seth, head just brushing his own.
“So what’s up with the car now?”
Seth let out a groan, thoughts realigning themselves to more immediate issues. “Alternator. We knew it was a old one when I got it; dude told us up-front. Was gonna save up to replace it, but now…” He scrubbed a hand over his face, feeling the stubble rasp against his palm as he did. “Fuckin’ McGraw,” he muttered. It all came back to him, one way or another. Getting locked up had cost Seth his job, and now he didn’t have the goddamn money when he really needed it. Thank fuck the guy had decided to leave before Seth had gotten out, or he didn’t know what would have happened.
Beside him, Richie turned his head to look at him. “You should’ve let me make the hit,” he murmured, his breath buffeting against Seth’s cheek.
Seth shifted to face him, and their noses just brushed. When he inhaled, nicotine burned his nostrils; his brother must have just finished one of his damned cigarettes.
“Fuck that,” he snapped. “I’ve told you, I’m - “
“Older, tougher, smarter, yada yada yada.” Richie groused. “Responsible, my ass.”
Seth wrinkled his nose, having gotten another puff of Richie’s nicotine-laced breath. “Man, you need to quit that shit,” he muttered, turning his face away again.
In response, Richie leaned up and blew right in Seth’s face. Seth, having been expecting this, promptly reached up and grabbed Richie in a headlock, crushing his brother’s face against his chest.
Then he felt Richie’s teeth sink into his pectoral, and yelped, arm loosening. Immediately Richie lunged upward, and before Seth could stop him, latched onto his jugular.
“Motherf- not there, asshole!” He sank his hands into Richie’s hair, attempting to dislodge him, hauling his head far back on his neck.
Then he felt it - Richie’s fingers digging into his sides. With a shout, he let go of Richie’s hair to try and grab at his hands, but it was too late; Richie had already moved to wrap his arms around Seth’s middle, fingers once more planted in his ribs, but this time with the added security of pinning Seth to him.
For a few moments all Seth could do was thrash, helpless laughter caught in his throat as his brother dug in with his fingers, and he tried to buck him off, but Richie stuck to him like a burr.
Richie twisted him around and across the bed like an alligator trapping its prey in a death-roll. Again Seth felt teeth at his throat, and arched as far back as he could, all the while writhing in his grip. He reached behind him, aiming for Richie’s hands, and got their fingers tangled together; he grabbed at the webbing of Richie’s thumb, but couldn’t quite grasp it.
Seth was nearly sobbing for breath at this point, he was laughing so hard, and Richie took the opportunity to wrap his legs around Seth’s waist, squeezing hard. Suddenly it got a lot harder to breathe, and Seth, in desperation, aimed for the muscle sloping down to Richie’s shoulder and bit down, hard.
He was released with a yelp, but Seth hung on, scraping teeth against skin. Richie snarled, grabbing for Seth’s hair, and finally Seth let go with a wet pop. Immediately Richie planted his hand on Seth’s face, pushing him away from him forcefully. They rolled again, sprawling across the bed haphazardly.
They landed so that Richie came out on top, and his brother sat up, panting, and scooted until he sat back on Seth’s thighs. Seth, breathless himself, grimaced and shifted, trying to get comfortable again, but then he noticed why he wasn’t - he was laying on top of something hard. It felt like the corner of a book.
With a grunt, Seth arched his back til he could reach under it, and pulled out the offending article. It turned out to be Richie’s sketchbook; he must have brought it with him just now.
Immediately Richie lunged for it, but Seth was too quick for him, throwing the hand that held the sketchbook high over his head. “Why’d you bring it with you if you didn’t want me to see it?” Seth said, laughing. “Idiot.”
Huffing, Richie leaned back again, pinning Seth’s legs down, and crossed his arms over his chest. “Fine,” he sniffed. “Go ahead then.”
Seth smirked; he knew his brother, knew he liked showing off his work. The protest was just a front. He hummed as he flicked through the book. He’d already seen most of it: violence and gore and dismembered bodies, oh my. Nothing too shocking, for Richie.
He rifled through the last blank pages idly, and that’s when he saw it, on the very back pages - a familiar face. Richie didn’t really do portraits, or really anything that could be considered ‘normal’ art, if there was such a thing, but this…Seth flipped to the page, slowly folding back the rest of the sketchbook to get a better view.
It was Kate. Instantly recognizable with her button nose, rosebud mouth, and big, green eyes - Richie had actually colored them in - the page was filled with her, in various poses and expressions.
Seth’s eye was drawn to the upper left corner, where Kate was rendered staring straight at the viewer, lips slightly parted, dark hair sweeping across her face. Jesus.
His hands tightened involuntarily on the sketchbook for a moment. The word cute didn’t really do her justice here; instead she flirted shamelessly with the idea of pretty. Which sat all kinds of wrong with him, for reasons he didn’t want to look too far into.
So instead of continuing to stare at Kate, he lowered the sketchbook to eye his brother sardonically, brows raised. “You’re a creep, you know that, right?”
Rolling his eyes, Richie grabbed the sketchbook away from Seth, then pushed up his glasses to look down at it. “It looks like her, though, doesn’t it?” He asked quietly, eyes on the open page.
Seth didn’t get a chance to respond; at that moment the front door opened, and they both jumped, tensing out of long habit, before relaxing again. Of course it was just Eddie, home from the hardware store. Some tool of his had busted, and he just had to have a replacement for it that very evening.
Slowly Richie slid sideways off of Seth, onto the bed, a hand lingering on his thigh. He shook Seth a little, not looking at him, instead staring back down at his sketchbook, brows furrowed. “Okay if I come in here tonight?”
Seth rolled over onto his side facing his brother, propping his head up on his hand. He looked Richie over carefully. “Yeah, man. You good?”
But before he could get an answer, they were interrupted once again by Eddie. “Hey, guys, I got some takeout in here gettin’ cold!” He called through the door.
“Coming!” Seth hollered back. With a groan he climbed to his feet, Richie beside him. The sketchbook lay on the bed, momentarily forgotten.
Later that night, Seth rolled back over, feeling Richie’s arm drag across his middle. His brother had finally passed out, but even in sleep he was clingy.
Richie grumbled something under his breath, and burrowed closer, knees knocking against the back of Seth’s, chin digging into the slope of his shoulder. With a sleepy huff, Seth tugged on the arm til it was situated more easily around him, and tried to rearrange his own limbs more comfortably without waking him.
Except now that he was finally comfortable, he was thirsty. Fucking figured. He debated for a few good minutes whether to move or not. But when he swallowed, his throat closed with a dry click, which finally decided it for him. Fumbling for a moment, he was finally able to reach the bedside table without dislodging his brother.
But grabbing the bottle of water knocked something from the table, which fell to the floor with a flump. Groaning under his breath, Seth wriggled til he could reach down over the edge of the bed, and scooped up Richie’s sketchbook.
Squinting blearily in the dim light from the streetlamp outside, he saw that it had fallen open to the drawings of Kate.
He curled an arm under his head, holding the sketchbook up in the dim, watery light. It really did look just like her, down to the little crinkle she got in her nose when she smiled. Richie had an honest-to-God talent.
He had an odd feeling then, as if there were something he should be worried about, but in his drowsy state, he couldn’t quite figure out what. With a low sigh, he carefully folded the sketchbook closed, and placed it back on the table. He was too tired to figure out any shit like this tonight.
It wasn’t like this had never happened before; Richie had drawn Kisa, too, ages ago, in a different sketchbook. It wasn’t anything to lose sleep over; guy had a crush, that was all. But he really shouldn’t forget that Kate had her boyfriend, back in Bethel, waiting for her. It would never amount to anything.
Distantly he remembered something, something that had stuck with him the past few weeks. Kate, pulling up her seat for Richie the first time he’d ever given her a ride.
Maybe he shouldn’t have let them sit together in the theater.
Huffing a breath, he buried his face in his pillow, feeling Richie’s arm flex briefly before tightening against him. He waited, but the other boy didn’t wake.
According to his clock, it was nearly three in the morning. Way too late to be contemplating his or his brother’s love life. Who the fuck cared who sat next to who, who’d done what. God, he was tired.
And if he was also just maybe a little bit jealous…well, no one but him ever needed to know.
Notes:
Chapter four is also being an asshole, just a warning. I am working on it a little at a time, daily, so I’m still aiming for the biweekly posting, but...we’ll see.
chap title is from Incubus' "Drive."
Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be a day-by-day kinda fic; there will be time jumps later. Just setting the scene. :3
Gonna be real honest with y’all; I haven’t seen the second or third seasons in 6-7 years, so there’s plenty of stuff I’ve forgotten. I keep meaning to rewatch it, but I have to find someplace to do it, as I only own the first season and it’s not streaming anywhere atm. So if you notice I got some facts wrong - stuff about the characters, mostly - then feel free to (politely) correct me, and direct me towards the episode, if possible. Thanks!
Drop me a line, let me know what you think! <3
frrrezja on Chapter 1 Sun 10 Aug 2025 04:25PM UTC
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glitterswitch on Chapter 1 Sun 10 Aug 2025 05:54PM UTC
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frrrezja on Chapter 2 Sat 23 Aug 2025 01:14PM UTC
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glitterswitch on Chapter 2 Sat 23 Aug 2025 09:34PM UTC
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