Chapter 4
Infuriating Twerp
Her heart was about to burst from her chest as she slammed the bedroom door and collapsed against it. “Get a grip,” she gasped. “No one followed you. You’re on edge after...well...everything. Aarrgh.” Three loud bangs on the bedroom door made her scamper to the window. She could absolutely jump from one floor up. The doorknob twisted, and her heart took off like a helicopter. She fumbled with the window lock.
“Cate, you in here?” A blonde head poked around her door.
“Geez! Xavier.” She grabbed the nearest thing and hurled it. “GET OUT!”
“Again with the pathetic throwing,” Xavier called, as Flopsie the stuffed white rabbit landed on the floor a foot in front of him.
Eyes closed, she growled through her teeth, so tense she thought she might explode. Sagging onto her bed, she took three deep breaths. “What do you want?”
“Mum called. An unexpected meeting with some super important person came up. I’m ordering Thai food for dinner.”
“Fine. I want wontons.” Her eyes swept the front yard before she closed the window. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled, and a shiver trickled down her shoulder blades. Her spider sense tingled. The lingering feeling that someone followed her home remained. She jumped as her phone beeped with her 6:00 p.m. reminder.
CATE: “HOME AND JUST ORDERED THAI FOOD”
PIP: “? YOUR DAY?”
CATE: “FINE”
PIP: “STILL SINGLE?”
CATE: “NOPE!”
PIP: “TART”
Cate smiled and deleted the conversation.
***
With her stomach full of delicious Thai food, she felt calmer. The doorbell played “Waltzing Matilda,” a little reminder of Australia. “I’ll go,” Cate said.
Xavier just stretched on the couch and patted his belly contentedly.
She hesitated as her hand grasped the doorknob. “Who is it?” she called, purely to set a good example for Xavier, and certainly not because she was worried. Her hand shook as she flipped the porch light on.
“It’s me. Open the door...please.”
She groaned and flung the door open. “Get off my porch, asshat!”
“Can I come in?” Zach asked.
“Nope.”
An enormous ginger cat was curled up on the porch chair with one eye half open. Polka Dot was the neighbourhood stray. He had unofficially adopted Cate’s family as his owners of choice. A hiss conveyed his contempt for the proceedings which had disturbed his sleep. Zach was only an inch taller than her and a stocky build. His blue eyes were flat and lifeless, and his normally pleasant, round face was drawn. She wanted to take the high road and be all magnanimous, but she couldn’t. Zach dumped her by text. Some things were unforgivable. “Did you get lost on your way to see Brittany?”
“Can we talk?” Zach raked a hand through his hair. Ringlets were hard for a sixteen-year-old boy to pull off.
“Why not send me a text?” she hissed. “That seems to be your preferred form of communication.”
“Cate...” Zach raised his blonde eyebrows and stared.
She imagined slamming the door in his face. Instead, she stabbed at the stop clock on her wristwatch and folded her arms. “You’ve got three minutes.”
“Let me come in.”
“There’s absolutely no chance of that. Not a good use of your limited time.”
“I’m worried about you.”
She snorted.
“You’ve fallen in with a pretty rough crowd.”
“What are you waffling about?”
“Austin and his friends.” Zach shoved his hands into the pockets of the low-slung, faded denim jeans he now favoured instead of his usual dark blue chinos.
Austin had certainly got Zach’s attention. “What’s it to you? What do you know about them anyway?”
Zach dragged his hands down his face. “I just...don’t like them.”
The purple shadows under his blue eyes reminded her of when he was recovering from the infamous broken nose she gave him her first week in Tempus Falls. He looked dog-tired.
“I think it would be better if you gave them the flick.” Zach hung his head, his shoulders hunched.
“And I don’t care what you think.” Her voice was hard and flat.
“Look, I know that things have been confusing the last few days.”
He dumped her. Nothing confusing there. Did he somehow know about the other stuff going on in her life?
“I’ve given it some thought, and I think it would be better for you if we forgot about the breakup. I’m prepared to take you back.”
Imagine that. HE was prepared to take HER back. She would need to hold off on turning cartwheels with excitement. “Are you insane?” she hissed, fingers drumming her hips. “I will never, EVER be your girlfriend again.”
“Be reasonable. I made a mistake. I’ve apologised. Can’t we go back to how it was?”
He was a tosser, but if he was in danger because of her, she should help him. “Are you in some kind of trouble? Has someone scared you or threatened you?”
“No. You need me. Be my girl again.”
She felt zero guilt in her next words. “Didn’t you hear me say I would never ever be your girlfriend again? For a supposedly clever guy, you’re clueless. Did they remove the thinking part of your brain when they made you all popular?”
“There are worse things than being popular. I can get you there by association. After all these years of being ostracised to social Siberia, I would think you’d be gagging for it.”
Cate’s mouth moved, but so many words flooded her mind to describe the kind of massive wrong Zach was she couldn’t pick one.
“Leave now,” she said through her teeth. You infuriating twerp.
“Come on, babe.”
“I’m not your babe.” Anger dripped into Cate’s chest, pulsing toward her fingertips with each heartbeat.
“You can’t afford the luxury of being choosey.”
“What exactly do you mean by that?” She fixed a steely gaze on Zach. Did he know about her witness protection and the boyfriend requirement? Or was he just being a jerk?
“Every girl needs a boyfriend. They’re pathetic and lonely otherwise.”
He was just being a total jerk. “Did your ears actually hear what your mouth said? What complete crap, you misogynistic imbecile.” She flexed her fingers; the anger leaching through her body had reached a dead end at her fingertips, and it wanted out. She punched Zach directly on the nose.
He staggered back, blood trickling through his fingers. “Geez.”
“FYI—a boyfriend is not a necessity!” she said quietly. “Now get the hell off my porch.” She slammed the front door. Zach had nothing to say she wanted to hear. His sucking up did give her a sense of having the upper hand though. She could see how people became drunk on power. It was terrific. Her phone beeped.
PIP: “NO MORE FIGHTING. EVEN IF HE IS A DICKHEAD”
CATE: “RECEIVED AND RELUCTANTLY ACKNOWLEDGED”
She went to delete the conversation but hesitated.
CATE: “CAN’T YOU HAVE HIM KILLED?”
PIP: “NEGATIVE”
She smiled and walked up the stairs. Zach would have a damn sore nose.