The Girl Next Door Chapter 22

So Kate,” her aunt began, “how was the game?”
“Great,” she told her as she walked up the stairs to her room. “I’m really tired, I’m gonna go to bed.”
Before her aunt could ask her any more questions, Kate got to her room, and locked the door. A couple of minutes later, she heard at knock at the door.
“Who is it?” she asked.
“Who do you think?” her brother asked.
She went over to the door, and unlocked it. She let Neal in.
“Hey,” she told him. She had a huge smile on her face.
“That good of a Christmas present, huh?” he asked, laughing as he closed the door.
“Look for yourself,” she told him, handing him the box.
“Clarks tickets?” he asked. “Nice! Oh, and look at that bracelet! Very fancy.”
“Shut up,” she told him.
“I’m serious, they’re nice,” he told her. “Oh, and the crazy people asked where you were, why you didn’t come home with me. I told them you met a friend at the game, and came home with them, which I guess is true.”
“Thanks,” she told him as he handed her presents back to her.
“Are you ever going to tell them?” he asked her.
“Nope,” she simply replied. “You better not tell them either.”
“I know, but they’re going to find out eventually,” he told her.
“And eventually they will,” she said. “But they don’t need to know now.”
They talked for another minute, and he told her good night. Kate crawled into bed, and flipped on the television, and eventually fell asleep.
*****
The next morning, Christmas Eve, Kate had to get up earlier than usual because she had to make the cookies she was taking to Erik’s that night. Her mom told her she had the kitchen for only a couple of hours, so she had to work fast. While she was down in the kitchen, her aunt Megan came into the kitchen to make some coffee.
“Making cookies for that party tonight?” Megan asked.
“Yep,” Kate responded, keeping her attention on the cookie dough.
“I’m surprised your parents are letting you go,” Megan stated.
“Why?” Kate asked.
“Because,” Megan began, “it’s Christmas Eve. You’re supposed to spend it with your family.”
“I’m here now,” Kate said. “And I’ve never been able to go to his party before, we’re always back in Minnesota.”
“His?” Megan asked, shocked. “Who’s this guy? Your boyfriend?”
“I don’t have a boyfriend,” she firmly told her aunt. “Erik’s just a friend.”
“How old is he?” Megan asked.
Kate, deciding to lie, said, “Eighteen. He goes to my school. He has this party every year, but I can never go. Erik’s got an older brother, one of Neal’s friends, so he’s coming too.”
Megan, when hearing this, shuffled over to the cabinet to grab the coffee can.
“Well, if you were my child, you would not be going,” Megan said very matter-of-factly.
Kate decided not to say anything back to that, and turned on the television, and watched Christmas movies while she finished her cookies.
*****
After she finished the cookies, and told her cousins to stay away from them (Kate eventually ended up locking the cookies in her closet, so they would stay away), she got a phone call, one she was most definitely not expecting.
“Kate!” the voice called out.
“Colby!” Kate called back. “How are you?”
“I’m great,” he told her. “Guess what?”
“What?” Kate said, hoping for good news.
“I got called up!” he cheered.
“That’s so great!” she said enthusiastically. “When you coming up?”
“Two days,” he told her. “And could you do me a huge favor?”
“Name it,” Kate told him.
“Could you pick me up from the airport?” he asked her. “I’d rather it be you than some stranger, taking me to my hotel and telling me all this stuff. I don’t do any team stuff til the twenty-seventh, when we have morning skate.”
“Not a problem!” she told him. “What time does your flight get in?”
“Two,” he told her.
“Sid’s flight gets in at eleven thirty,” she told him. “So we’ll both be out there to pick you up. We’ll meet you at security. Wait, now that I think about it, it’ll just be me. Sid would get mobbed.”
“True,” he told her. “Well, Katie, I gotta go, my parents are here and I have to take them out to show them Wilkes-Barre. Like there’s a lot to see.”
Kate laughed, and told him she’d be out there to see him in two days. They hung up, and immediately she called Sidney to tell him the good news.