A tap on Katie's shoulder interrupted her hysterical laughter. "Y-Yeah?" she gasped, turning away from Will to see her brother and Linz.
"It's been three hours. You ready to go home?" Kevin asked, surprised at how happy his sister looked.
"Yeah, I guess." She turned to the man she was laughing with. "I'll see you later, Will."
He nodded. "Give me a call."
"Okay. Bye!"
"Bye, Katie."
She walked past an open-mouthed Linz and towards the door. "You guys coming?"
"Y-Yeah, come on, Kev!" Linz said, taking his hand and pulling him out the door.
The two of them followed a smiling Katie out to the car and had to make an effort to keep from gaping at her.
"Sweets, are you okay?"
"Of course I'm okay."
"Who was that you were talking to?"
"His name is Will Cooper. He's a really sweet guy," Katie explained. "He gave me his number," she added.
Kevin and Linz exchanged a concerned look. "Katie, are you forgetting about someone—or something, I should say?"
"What, you mean A.J.?" Katie asked calmly. Linz nodded. "No, I'm just having some fun. That's what tonight was for, right?"
"Yeah," Linz replied quickly.
"Speaking of A.J., we saw him at the club," Kevin said, glancing at Linz to indicate that he wanted to tell Katie now.
"I know. He came by and tried to get back with me again." Katie looked down at the floor. For a moment, Linz thought that she would cry, but when she looked up, her eyes were filled with anger, not tears. "He's still laying on that bullshit about being in love with me!"
Kevin fidgeted nervously in his seat, and Linz looked away.
"What?" Katie wanted to know, eying them with suspicion.
"Well...he was crying," Linz said slowly.
"So?"
"And his eyes...he looked like he was in a lot of pain," Kevin continued.
Katie stared at the two of them in disbelief. "So you're saying that you think he might have been telling the truth when he said those things?"
"We're not saying anything, we just thought you should know. We were going to wait a day or two to tell you, but..." Linz looked down.
"You wanted to tell me before I got into anything serious with Will?" Katie finished. Linz nodded, and Katie sighed. "Actually, Will and I decided to just be friends because we have so much in common."
"Then why did you say that he gave you his number?" Kevin wondered.
"He did," Katie replied, holding up a slip of paper that had Will's name and a phone number written on it. Kevin started to say something, but she cut him off. "I'm way ahead of you, Kevy."
Kevin looked so confused that Linz and Katie could help but laugh. Then Katie's face turned serious. "I still don't think that A.J. was being sincere though. If he really did care about me, he would've known that I care about him too, and he wouldn't have had to use those damn lines on me to reassure himself of my feelings for him."
"Whatever you think, sis," Kevin replied, his tone
blank of any expression, as he stared out the windshield.
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