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Katherine squeezed her eyes shut, burying her face in her pillow until spots of light danced behind her eyelids.
God, couldn’t her parents go one night without screaming at each other?
What did they even have to fight about? she thought childishly. Dad worked enough so Mom didn't have to, it wasn't like they had multiple children to worry about anymore, and she hadn't even had that much of an attitude lately.
And for fuck's sake, they lived in a mansion, how could they be that loud?
She was reaching for her phone before she could even think about it. Freezing when she found Jack’s name, her thumb hovered over the screen a moment.
They hadn’t spoken on the phone since she left. Texted lots of times, but there seemed to be an unspoken agreement to not call.
Screw it, Katherine thought, smacking her phone screen with her thumb.
Too late, she realized it was almost midnight, and late owl or no, room to himself or no, Jack definitely didn't get enough sleep, she didn't need to be calling him.
Just as she was about to hang up, the phone clicked and she heard a scratchy "Hello?"
And, oh shit, this was a bad idea, she was suddenly remembering why they had the unspoken agreement to not talk on the phone, because hearing his voice after, what was it now? Four months? Five? However long, it was definitely a bad idea, because hearing his voice at all was wonderful and heart-wrenching and made her miss him and love him even more and—
"Kath?" Jack asked, sounding a little more awake. "You there?"
"Yeah, I'm here, I—my parents are fighting again," she said in a rush.
He barely skipped a beat, asking, "Again? They been doin' that a lot?"
"More than I care for," Katherine grouched. "I don't want to talk about them, though."
"Whaddaya wanna talk 'bout then?"
Shrugging helplessly, she shook her head. Now that she had him on the phone, she didn't know what to say. "Tell me about... Romeo. He just had his birthday, right?"
She heard him shift, probably rolling over in his bed, bracing his back on the wall as he talked to her. "Yeah, kid's fourteen now. Still ain't good at talkin' to girls. Or guys f'r that matter."
Katherine sat up at that. "Wait, guys? When did that happen?"
"Couple weeks back. He an' Racer was talkin' an' he just blurted it out. Told us all the next day."
"How's he doing with all that?"
He huffed a laugh. "Mostly pretty good. He's still figurin' out his label an' stuff, but we's all been through that, an' he knows he can talk to us anytime."
Katherine settled back into her pillow. "And what's new with your massive family? I miss casa de la Medda."
Jack launched into a story about how Smalls, Charlie, and Al attempted to tame a squirrel and teach it to ride on their shoulders, and Katherine pressed the phone as close as physically possible to her ear.
If she closed her eyes and focused on his voice, she could imagine she was back in his little bedroom at Medda's, lying with her head on his chest as he talked. She could imagine the smell of the ocean drifting in from his open window, hear the pounding of feet as his siblings ran up and down the stairs. She almost fell for it.
"Katherine?" His voice crackled over the line, and she was brought sharply back to reality.
Swiping at tears she hadn't realized were there, Katherine cleared her throat. "Sorry. I... I should let you go."
"Oh," And no, she was definitely imagining that he sounded disappointed. "Yeah, s'pretty late. An' you gots a English test tomorrow, right?"
"Yeah, for Lit. And you have the, uhm, art night at school? Charlie told me she'd send pictures of your stuff."
"Ain't nothin' much, just a bunch'a students. An' my pictures're just alright, nothin' special."
"Well I highly doubt that. You're an amazing artist," Katherine said sincerely, glancing towards her nightstand where Jack's gift to her was sitting. She still looked at it every day.
"Whatta 'bout you?" Jack deflected quickly. "Managed to unseat ya editor yet?"
Groaning, she dropped her face into her mattress. "God, don't remind me. I love Denton, but how the hell did I not get student editor? I swear that man is testing me."
"Aw, don't worry 'bout it, Ace," he reassured. "Denton knows what he's doin', an' he knows ya doin' great."
Pressing a smile into her pillow, Katherine shook her head, making her own deflection. "Tell me more about your 'nothin' special' pictures."
They went back and forth for another hour, talking about school and life, and it wasn't until Katherine was in the middle of a rant about Darcy and Billy that she realized Jack had fallen asleep.
"It was like that time with Spot and Race and the alley but like ten times worse, I swear." Jack didn't say anything and she furrowed her brow. "Jack?"
Her answer was a soft snore, and her heart clenched a little. "Goodnight, Jack," Katherine said softly. And maybe because he was asleep and knew he wouldn't hear her, that she added an even softer, "I love you."
Closing her eyes, she kept her phone pressed to her ear as she drifted off to sleep.