Kai and Raven both look over at Khloe and me, laughing. “Never let this one get ahold of your hair, Katie,” Raven says as she removes Khloe’s death grip from my hair. “Hey, Kai, did your mom ever get a sitter for Khloe? I think she likes Katie a lot.”
“No,” he answers, awkwardly.
Khloe starts singing, “Khloe and Katie friends forever.” Raven winks at me.
Kai says to me, “Well if you are interested, my mom is in need of someone to watch Khloe three days a week. It’d be Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights after school until about eight or nine, depending on when my mom gets home.”
“That’d be great. I won’t be watching Chase anymore, so should I give you my number for your mom, or you can just let me know something at school.” I feel excited about the idea of having another job so quickly. I needed something good today.
“Yeah, here.” He reaches his phone to me. I put my number into his contacts under Kat, since that is what he always calls me.
“Well, I gotta get to work. Thanks for bringing Khloe-bug in today Kai.” Raven pats his arm as she tells Khloe bye.
“I have to go too,” I say handing Khloe over to her big brother. His shirt rides up over his hip exposing a tattoo of a music note. It’s sexy. It makes my cheeks flood with warmth.
I quickly look away and wave at Raven as I go out the door. She calls out my name before the door shuts and I have to catch it with my foot. “I’ll see you at lunch tomorrow.” I nod with a smile. At least I have one friend. Oh, God, the color drains from my face as I walk home. School is going to be horrible tomorrow.
Maybe I can fake sick, blame it on my period or something. I don’t want to show my face aro
und Penny or Becks after the things they said about me. And I still have to face my mom.
When I get to my house, my mom’s car is gone. I can’t remember if she had to work today or not. I find the remains of this morning’s breakfast on a plate in the refrigerator. I heat up the leftovers, grab a bottled water, and go hide from the world in my bedroom.
Taking my phone out, I have a missed call from my mom. I choose to ignore it. I am not in the mood for her to yell at me for walking out on her earlier today. My phone has an incoming call from a number I don’t recognize. I am almost afraid to answer but I hit accept.
“Hello, is this Katie?”
“Yes,” I squeak out. The woman on the line sounds so official. I feel guilty. What if my mom was calling because she needed me?
“Hi, this is Kai’s mom. He gave me your number and said you were interested in watching Khloe for me?” I let out a sigh of relief. I am just paranoid as usual. “Do you think you could come over this evening, so I can meet you and see how well you interact with Khloe? Kai says you have worked for the Miller’s. Is five o’clock okay?”
“I will have to call my mom to see if she can drive me. Can I call you back?”
“I can have my son, Kai, pick you up and drive you back home.”
“Um, sure okay.” We hang up after she confirms my address.
After I get out of the shower, I stick a note for my mom on the fridge so she doesn’t worry about me. Not that I’m sure she would. I finish getting dressed and straighten up the living room while I wait for Kai to pick me up.
A knock sounds at the front door. I figured Kai would just blow his horn. I didn’t expect him to come to the door for me.
“Just a minute,” I call out, grabbing my purse. I have my certificates for CPR just in case Kai’s mom wants to see them. I open the door open to find no one on the other side. That’s strange. I frown and walk out onto the porch looking for Kai’s car. I shrug and turn to go back inside and that is when I see it…in bright red letters spray-painted on the front of my house is the word WHORE!
My mom is going to freak out when she sees this. I choke back the sob in my throat and force my tears away. I go inside and grab a bucket, filing it with warm water and bleach. I get a scrub brush from the laundry room and get busy scrubbing, and it is only just smearing and making it worse. Dropping the brush into the bucket, I think of my options. I can try to paint over it, but what am I going to do until I can get the paint to cover it. I sit in the cold on my front steps with my head buried in my hands, feeling utterly defeated.
A hand on my shoulder startles me. “Kat, hey, I am here to take you over to watch Khloe.”
I wipe my tears on the back of my hand, sniffling, mortified that Kai is witnessing this.
“What happened?” He gestures toward the red blip on the siding of the house.
“Nothing important. Give me just a minute, and I will be ready.”
He says he will be waiting in his car for me.
Going inside, I take a white trash bag and tape it over the red blotch for now.
As I slide into the passenger seat of Kai’s orange Camaro, I could swear I see Beckett down the street in his grandpa’s car, spying on me. Did he paint that hurtful word on my house? Screw Becks and Penny. I don’t need them.