I tried as hard as I could to forget about everything that had happened. Brooke and Ashley tried to help me forget also. Rob called every night and I pretended that everything was back to normal. I had only seen him one time since the formals incident. He came up for a night and took me out to dinner. We had such and awesome time and I managed to push all of the bad memories out of my head. It was hard to make time for one another because of the end of the semester and finals and everything, but we made plans to see each other before we went home for Christmas.
Finally, that day had come. I had jut finished my last final. I came in and collapsed on the floor. Brooke laughed at me:
“A little tired, are we?” I nodded:
“So happy finals are over!!” Just then there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see Rob standing there with a dozen red roses:
“Hi baby!” I threw my arms around him:
“You are so sweet!” Brooke smiled at us:
“AWW! How cute! Well guys, I’ve got to go. I promised my parents I’d be home by dinner.” I gave Brooke a hug goodbye and wished her a Merry Christmas. Then she was gone.
Rob grabbed me and gave me a long, deep kiss. As we moved to the bed, the door flew open. Drew burst into the room with Ashley following close behind:
“Hey guys! I have the best news.” Rob sighed:
“Drew, you have perfect timing, you know that?” Drew smiled:
“See these?” He held up four plane tickets:
“My dad gave them to me. They’re four tickets to Florida. He can’t use them so he gave them to me and told me to use them with my friends. “ I j just looked at him, surprised:
“When are they for?” Drew sat down and explained everything to us:
“We leave from Newark the day after Christmas and we’d be there until January 8th. We have reservations at the Marriott in Tampa. Two rooms.” I started jumping up and down:
“That’s when my parents are going to California. Oh my god, this is so perfect!”
Everything was settled. We had all talked to our parents and they had said yes. Mine didn’t like it all that much but they eventually agreed when I convinced them that I would be sharing a room with Ashley and not with Rob, which was obviously a lie.
*** *** *** ***
It happened again. I don’t really know how it all got started. It was the day that Rob was leaving and we had gotten into a fight about something or other. I don’t know even remember what it was all about. Something so stupid. But Rob was really angry at me and he hit me again. Then he just left. No apologies or anything. He just got in his car and left. I sat on my floor and cried. Ashley walked in and immediately noticed something was wrong:
“Kate, you’re bleeding!” I reached up and touched my forehead. Sure enough, there was blood trickling from a cut on my forehead. Ashley sat down and hugged me:
“It’ll be okay, honey. I hate to bring this up now, but what are you going to do about Florida?” I sighed:
“I don’t know. I can’t back out now. Drew will wonder. My parents will wonder. Too many questions that I don’t feel like answering.” She nodded sympathetically:
“I understand. Maybe he’ll realize what he’s doing by then and wise up.” I nodded, though deep down inside I didn’t buy it. But I could hope.
Rob called me at home that night. He told me over and over how sorry it was and how it would never happen again. And he told me he loved me. At least a hundred times.