Chapter Text
“Je ne sais pas pourquoi tu ne veux pas m'emmener au bal.”
Katelyn had said the words bluntly, hoping to get a response, but had not expected one so violent. Aaron’s knee smacks against the bottom of the graffitied study table in a full-bodied flinch hard enough to earn a glare from the librarian across the room. His face colors immediately.
Aaron begins to answer, but doesn’t get very far before Katelyn says, “En français s'il vous plaît.”
“Non,” Aaron hisses. “Je veux. It’s… It’s not as simple as wanting.”
Katelyn purses her lips at the switch to English, but doesn’t comment.
“You know.” Aaron sighs heavily. “I shouldn’t even be with you right now .”
“Because Nicky won’t let you date.” It isn’t a question. Aaron answers anyway.
“Until Andrew does,” he confirms. “But Andrew is intolerable.”
Katelyn has rarely interacted with Andrew, but knows of the violence Aaron’s twin is renowned for - he’s just this month returned to school after a four-month stint in juvie for punching some guy's lights out and then some. “Intolerable” feels insufficient.
“Prom isn’t dating,” Katelyn says mildly. She does not point out that prom stacked on top of daily French study sessions that more often than not culminate in them Frenching between the library stacks may, in some senses of the word, and in certain cultures, equate to dating. Aaron doesn’t either, but she can see him biting back the argument.
“Prom isn’t dating,” he repeats instead, rolling the words around in his mouth to see how they taste. Sour . “To Nicky it is.”
“Je voudrais aller au bal avec toi,” Katelyn says. She has been careful to keep her tone level - Aaron is skittish enough that if she seems too insistent he will retreat behind walls she has spent all semester tearing down even as they memorized conjugations of “être” - and she continues to do so. It is not a call to action. It is a statement. A toe dipped in the deep end of the pool.
“And I want to take you,” Aaron says, voice just as calm. "But-"
“Good,” Katelyn says. Like it’s settled. At Aaron’s baffled look, she plows onward. “So, we need to find Andrew a date.”
Katelyn’s eyes do not leave Aaron’s, which is why she does not miss the flash of humor fading into incredulity on his face, leaving his jaw slack. She almost laughs.
“I- what?” he asks.
Katelyn takes Aaron’s hand under the table. Always under, never in plain view. Sitting across the table, not too close. This is getting old.
“It’s a solution,” she says. “The only one, it sounds like.”
“Yeah,” Aaron chokes out, “sure, but- who?”
“Oh, I have someone in mind,” Katelyn smiles.
She’s not only on the school’s cheer squad, but also a member of the student council, and as such is often tasked with welcoming new students to Millport High. Just this morning she'd been called to the office to do just that, and upon arriving there she'd met a boy who appeared to be the perfect candidate. Cute, guarded, tough, and - conveniently - just now walking into the library.
Katelyn touches a finger to Aaron’s cheek to tilt his gaze in the right direction. She watches as his eyes track auburn hair and blue eyes, scarred cheeks and hands.
“Who the hell is that?” Aaron asks.
“Our solution,” Katelyn says, still smiling. “He’s new. His name is Neil Josten.”
The next day, Katelyn slides onto the bench opposite Neil Josten in the cafeteria.
“So,” she smiles, perching her chin on her fist. She’s been told this smile flusters boys. Neil just looks confused. “How are you liking it at Millport so far? Are people being nice?”
“Nice enough,” he says, with some hesitation and a shrug. “Thanks.”
“Yeah, no problem!” Katelyn leans further forward. “It’s my job to make sure you feel welcome here. You let me know if anybody gives you trouble, okay?”
Neil looks her up and down and says, “Sure.”
His shoulders hitch a little higher, and he focuses in on the slice of pizza in front of him. He takes a large bite, seeming to hope this will eliminate the possibility of further conversation. Unfortunately for him, he’s vastly underestimating Katelyn’s ability to carry a conversation with what amounts to a brick wall - if she can make Aaron fucking Minyard chatty, well. Neil’s going to have to up his game.
“Hey, have you met Andrew yet?” Katelyn asks suddenly.
Neil probably thinks the little sigh he huffs is well concealed. He shakes his head no.
Katelyn continues, undeterred.
“He’s my boyfriend’s twin brother,” she chirps. “Have you seen Aaron around? I pointed him out to you yesterday when we were walking to bio.”
“Yeah.”
“Isn’t he cute?”
Neil only shrugs. “Cute” has never been one of the boxes he ticks upon meeting a person for the first - or second, or third - time
“Well, see,” Katelyn says, her grin melting to a nearly predatory sort of rueful, “Aaron and I are sort of in trouble. His guardian, Nicky, won’t let Aaron see anyone - y’know, romantically - until Andrew does. We've been sneaking around, but we'd really like to go to prom together.”
She sighs.
Neil’s eyebrows raise expectantly, but he continues to say nothing. Why should I care? His eyebrows ask.
“So, we need someone to - you know - date Andrew,” she says, meaningfully wiggling her own eyebrows.
You should date him, her eyebrows say.
No , his eyebrows say back.
“No,” his mouth echoes.
Katelyn’s eyebrows are disapproving. As Neil’s gaze travels downward, the rest of her face is equally so.
“I didn’t even ask anything!” she says, indignant.
“I know what you’re going to ask. The answer is no.”
Neil stands. He can finish his pizza somewhere else - somewhere he won’t be accosted by sinisterly peppy cheerleaders trying to ensnare him in some sort of Shakespearean comedy when he just wants to graduate high school and get the hell out of this town.
Katelyn pouts. If Neil hadn’t been so busy trying to get the hell out of dodge, he might have recognized the edge to her expression.
“That’s unfortunate,” Katelyn says. “I really thought the two of you would hit it off… Nathaniel.”
Katelyn generously gives Neil a grace period of thirty seconds, in which time she watches him freeze, choke on his own spit, glance at every single exit in turn, and - finally - turn to glare at her with a hardness to his face that actually takes her by surprise for a moment. But only a moment.
“That’s not my name,” he says.
“Sure,” Katelyn says, “but public records are public records, hon.”
“Not a lot of records to begin with,” Neil says, tone carefully even as if he hadn't just been considering jumping out a window. “You’ve done some digging.”
“I’ve been told I can be a little intense.”
“Have you.”
“No one else needs to know about it,” Katelyn shrugs. “But I can also be a bit of a gossip.”
“Blackmail is a bit much for a high school boyfriend, isn’t it?” Neil doesn’t know much about the intricacies of romantic relationships - spending your formative years on the run from a murderous crime lord will do that to your social development - but he’s reasonably certain this isn’t normal.
Katelyn wrinkles her nose. “I think blackmail is too strong a term. And it’s not like you have to marry the guy - we just want you to take him to the prom so that Aaron and I can go together.”
“Just the prom?” Neil makes direct eye contact with Katelyn for the first time since she’s sat down. His eyes are almost too blue to be real. He's perfect.
She sighs.
“Just the prom,” she says. “I promise.”
“Fine.”
And Neil Josten stalks away.