In our entire journey together, I never imagined she’d be the strong one. The one we all lean on.
Katie’s the only one who hasn’t come in here with eyes that set me on edge. She sits on the couch and looks out as hummingbirds suckle at flowers just outside my window.
“Are you the only one who doesn’t hate me?”
She looks at me and I swear she’s changed so much. I expect the old her, from before the story started. Actually I didn’t even expect her to show up.
“I’m too tired to hate anyone. Too busy hoping I’m doing the right thing.”
I nod. “I get that.” I lean back in my chair.
She smiles.
“What?”
“Remember karaoke night? Everything was perfect then—well almost. Zuri and West were a mess, but everything else was—perfect.”
“Yeah,” I say thinking about Mariam and Salem.
Katie’s smiling but tears are streaming down her face and I can feel my own tears wetting my cheeks. She gets up and moves to my desk sitting on my papers and starting out the window.
We talk about all the memories lost to time. The time Tristan found out she was feeding squeaks chocolate covered peanuts because she forgot to buy hamster food, when she ran away from home and slept in the park, when Lucinda yelled at them for throwing mud at each other. I laugh hard at that one because I remember how she still didn’t know she was in love then.
She pushes me gently. “I was a kid.”
“You still are.”
“Not really,” she says with a maturity I didn’t have at eighteen.
She swings her feet at the edge of my desk and I move from my chair and sit with her looking out the window. It’s windy today and the leaves are a kind of green you can’t really write about.
Frankie, “She says, even though she knows I don’t like to be called that.”
“Katie?”
“This is it, isn’t it?”
“In so many words. I think so.”
She puts her hand on mine. “Whatever happens. Make it epic. For all of us.”
I can’t bring myself to look at her. I’m not ready for all of this to be over. I’m not ready.
She hops off the desk and I realize we haven’t even started the interview. She’s already at the door.
“Where are you going?” I ask panicked. She’s got that smile on her face. God, after everything, she’s more sure of herself than any of us.
“I’ve got a werewolf to see and a fang to collect.” Her smile is full of life and her eyes sparkle with a sense of calm I’ll probably never experience in my entire life.
“Katie.” I shout before she closes the door.
She looks back. “Make it epic.”
She shuts the door and I’m alone. I look at the couch and I realize she’s left something—a rose.
A single black rose.
