Katie's Glimpse (The Glimpse Series) by Robin Keahey

to be meeting
me in the parking lot. They stood a little too close and he reached up,
brushing her hair off her shoulder in a way that told me they were more than
friends. I saw red and marched right up to him, grabbing his arm before I
thought better of it. “What are you doing?” I hissed.
     He glared at me and
pulled his arm from my hand. He turned his attention back to the cheerleader,
ignoring me. I was at a complete loss as to what to do, so after a minute of
listening to him brag about himself, I cleared my throat. He glared at me. “Are
you still here?”
     My eyes filled with
tears. I turned and fled to the parking lot, not wanting him to see that he’d
made me cry, yet again.
    As I stood by his
jeep waiting for him, JT strolled over. He ran his fingers down my arm before I
could scoot away. “Poor girl, is Seth not what you thought he was?”
     I glared at him, before
looking away as if he wasn’t even there. He leaned in close to me, causing me
to get a whiff of his mint gum. My stomach churned at the sickly, sweet smell.
    “Look, I like you. I
always have. Why don’t you give me a chance? I can make you forget all about
Seth.” His voice actually sounded sincere, but when I glanced at his face, I
saw the sneer.
    “What is wrong with
you, JT? Why won’t you leave me alone?” I yelled, not caring who heard me.
    He gave me a huge
grin that lit up his eyes. “Now that’s what I want to see. Get mad. Let me see
the real Katie.”
    I turned away from
him, my whole body shaking. I took several deep breaths, trying to suppress
this unknown feeling. This was more than anger. This was rage, and it scared
me. I felt I could easily lash out at JT. Part of me wanted to just hit him,
scratch him, kick him, anything to cause him pain like he and Seth had caused
me, but amidst all these feelings swirling in my head, a realization dawned on
me. This was what JT wanted, what he’d been working towards all this time. I
had always kept my cool around him and managed, for the most part, not to show
him any emotion, and he couldn’t stand it. He wanted me to get all worked up,
get scared, angry or upset. Well, I had news for him, that one little outburst
was all he was getting out of me.
    I turned back to him
but made sure my expression and voice were cool. “What do you want, JT?”
     He smiled wickedly.
“You’ll see,” he whispered.
     An involuntary shuddered
ran through my entire body. I closed my eyes to steady myself and when I opened
them, I spotted Seth coming towards us.
     “Hey, are you two
playing nice?” he asked as he put his arm around me and kissed the top of my
head.
     “We sure are,” JT
replied, glancing over at me. I swallowed and kept quiet. Something in his eyes
told me not to disagree.
     “Good. I like to
see my girl and my best bro getting along. You ready to go, babe?”
     I silently walked
over and got in the jeep. JT leaned over and spoke to Seth. I heard their
laughter and just wanted to go home.
     On the drive there,
I asked him about the girl he’d been talking to. “Oh, that’s a girl JT wanted
to know about, so he had me talk to her.”
     I crossed my arms
over my chest and raised my eyebrows. “Why can’t he talk to her himself?” I asked,
not believing a word he’d said.
     “Because he’s
seeing that other girl you met at his house, and she’d flip if she saw him
talking to another girl.” I didn’t argue. I simply turned my head and stared
out the window. “You believe me, don’t you?” he asked.
     I knew better than
to say no. “Yes, I believe you,” I lied.
    I continued to watch
the world pass by through the window. I wondered how I’d gotten to this place,
so far from the girl I was only a short while ago. His voice in my ear broke my
inner musings. “Good. You know you can trust me, Katie.”
     Yeah right! I’d stopped trusting him after our two month
anniversary.
    ***
         Between the
insults and heartbreak, the next few days ran