Leigh

"I need a picture, immediately! What's his website domain, I'll check to see if he's got any photos!" Katalina gushed fanatically.

I shook my head at her words, grateful that she couldn't see my eyes rolling. I almost forgot how unapologetically obsessive she could be.

"I don't know about any website, my dad set everything up and just gave me an address to go to."

There was a long pause over the phone before she griped at me. "C'mon. At least give me something to go on. What's his name?"

I made a face at her persistence, wondering if it was just a universal characteristic for teenagers to be stubborn. However, I relented as I knew that she wouldn't drop it until she exhausted all her options. It took me a moment to recall his full name as I only heard it once.

"Vinn? No, Vaughn Ackerman. I think..." I muttered hesitantly, "but there's gotta be a bunch of people with that name, how are you going to-"

"Ackerman Offices. Is that the place you went to? Specializing in Therapy and Psychology." Katalina read off smugly and I groaned at how adept she was at stalking people on the internet.

"How did you even..."

"Google search is a hell of a thing. 14 Million results in less than a second."

I smiled wryly before sneering at her over the phone. "Praise be to the internet and its holy disciples."

"Hmm." Kat hummed in a puzzled manner and I resisted the urge to immediately ask her what was wrong. For whatever reason, I had the strangest feeling of nervousness wash over me.

"There's just some lady on the front page. Brown hair, dark skin, and freckles."

I breathed out, the odd tension in my gut having vanished all of a sudden. "Oh that's probably... the woman at the front desk. I didn't catch her name."

All I could remember was her being overly peppy.

"There's also a photo of an old guy with graying hair and a mustache, and it says he's Dr. Ackerman. You sure your therapist was young? This guy looks really strict."

"Huh? I'm positive." I replied with furrowed brows. "Hey, FaceTime me. I'm too lazy to look it up myself." I muttered halfheartedly, and soon enough Katalina's pale face popped up on my screen with curious blue eyes. She was in her pajamas, her red shoulder length hair splayed out messily. I wanted to comment on how comfortable she looked, though I held my tongue as her live video feed flipped to her computer screen. I leaned in closer to my own phone and my eyes scanned the webpage, confirming Katalina's findings.

That's a little weird, the Dr. Ackerman that I saw isn't displayed anywhere. Maybe I had the wrong website? But the woman at the main desk was shown clearly in front of the office on the homepage.

"Ah whatever-" I heard Katalina grumble dismissively and squeeze her eyes shut. "Next appointment you go to, definitely snag me a picture!"

I couldn't help but smirk at how easy she was to please, as well as how quickly she fired herself up only to resign at the drop of a hat. Doing trigonometry all day will do that to you.

"You mean if my dad forces me to go. Why don't you go fangirl over your K-pop idols and leave my therapist out of this?" I suggested with a widening grin.

"Oh, don't think I can't do both." She declared slyly before her face lit up all of a sudden. "Hold on a sec, did you find a date for the prom yet?"

I inwardly cringed upon hearing about the overhyped, supervised disaster zone for misfits like me. It was one thing for me to go just to joke around and poke fun at our overzealous classmates with Kat... unfortunately for me, Katalina had other plans. I pushed my now soggy bowl of cereal away in disgust and averted my eyes. "No... not everyone has a doting boyfriend like Brandon who hires a whole orchestra for a promposal."

I tried to conceal it, but the bitterness of feeling betrayed by my best friend still managed to seep out in my tone. My eyes flickered back to Kat and I watched as a brief flash of guilt crossed her face.

Shit. I thought I had gotten over it when she first told me they'd be going as a couple, but I didn't intend to hurt her with my own feelings.

I really had no right to be mad at her for deciding to go with her significant other. I was just so used to us doing everything together that when Brandon showed up, It was like I was thrown into a side character role. I almost opened my mouth to apologize for my tone, though Kat quickly offered a feeble cover up.

"Eheh... he really went the extra mile." She uttered meekly before I could visibly see the moment that she feigned excitement again. "Aww you gotta go, there's still plenty of time left!"

"No, I'm not going." I decided firmly. I love Katalina, but there's no way I'd be trying to screw another wheel onto this bicycle. It's an awful feeling to compete for attention with someone you care about, I already had enough of that to deal with at home. My heart sank just as I saw the red head's face fall. Her big blue eyes became half lidded with disappointment, her lashes being so long that it cast a shadow over her pinkish cheeks. She almost looked like she would burst into tears.

"But... it's right around your birthday! Don't you wanna have fun with us?" She pouted.

No offense to her, but I absolutely refused to be a third wheel to her and Brandon. They could go and have a 'magical' evening without me. Dad would be in the middle of his business trip to Boston, and he'd already dismiss trying to spend my birthday with me. Our conversations were so broken now that he didn't even attempt it anymore. I'd just peacefully sit at home and turn 18 as I binge watch some anime on Netflix. Kat was the only one I could talk to... Brandon was alright, but we didn't have too much in common and never talked much unless she was around.

"Sorry... I'm just, not feeling up to it." I explained gloomily and folded my arms on the counter. Thankfully, she didn't try to press the matter anymore and acquiesced, offering me a slight smile as she wished me good night. I couldn't help but feel like an awkward jerk as my phone blinked back to my home screen, the room now devoid of the laughter and merriment from earlier. A sudden emptiness began to consume me for the rest of that night as I got ready for bed, falling asleep in the a.m to the sound of keys clattering at the doorstep.