The Variations by Jones M (christmas read aloud txt) 📖

had lowered her inhibitions. It took her mind a while to register what she had asked.

Chris sighed, and he remained quiet for the seconds that followed. Kate thought he wouldn't reply, and so she went to change the subject.

"I transferred," he replied. "And so did Alex. Nothing much happened after that. You?"

Kate should have seen the question turned to her.

"Oh. You know about my long stay at the hospital."

"Yeah," Chris replied with furrowed eyebrows. "By the way, what was up with that?"

"Well," she ignored his comment, "after that, I didn't go back to high school."

Chris was quiet for a while. He turned to face her before asking, "What? Why?"

"I didn't feel like it. I was embarrassed," she replied. "I had spent two years there, and I had barely grasped anything that was being taught."

"You still could have gone back," Chris stated.

"But I didn't. I was afraid of what everyone would think of me. I didn't want anyone to remember me as the brainless idiot."

"Kate--"

"And I couldn't bear the thought of starting over when everyone I knew was ahead of me," she continued. She looked at Chris, and she noticed the shocked look he was giving her.

"Yes, I know. My reasoning sounds absurd. But after all the shit we went through, I was afraid of it happening again."

"I understand," Chris stated. "But, Kate, what did you do if you didn't continue with high school?"

She knew the question was coming, but she was nervous about how he would react.

"I took a GED test before I joined a community college," she explained. Chris didn't say anything for a while, and it had her on edge.

"What?" he finally spoke.

"It's basically how I got in TUCD in the first place," she continued, looking away from him. She tried to maintain a calm exterior, but she was worried about how Chris would receive her confession.

"It was either that or have my parents forge a high school diploma. The latter sounded to be illegal and to have too much work, so I went with studying everything I could for the test."

"It's okay, Kate. You have no reason to be embarrassed. It doesn't change the way I think about you," he said, and her form hunched as she sighed in relief. Chris moved to hug her, and she welcomed the embrace. 

"I know it must have taken some guts to tell me and to even go through with it. But I am glad you did it. You managed to prove to yourself that you have a brain in here," he said, lightly tapping on her head with a smile. "More importantly, I get to be around you."

"Me too," she replied, her form relaxing on his shoulder.

 

Chapter 15

 

Kate took out the leftover slices of pizza from her fridge. She placed them on a large plate before putting them in her microwave.

"Is it done yet?" Gwen's voice echoed from her bedroom.

"I'm just starting," Kate replied with a shout, sighing as she set the timer. She had just taken a bath and dressed for another IT class. She was heating up breakfast for herself and her friend before they could leave their dorm. 

It had been a few days since the party where she had confessed about her GED to Chris. The month of October had officially passed. It had been busy for the students of Charles Darwin University, especially for those with group assignments. Chris and Kate's project had taken up their time away from class, and it was because of the characters they had to design for their story. Fortunately, they had gotten some inspiration, and they had finished drawing every character for their short film before Halloween.

The microwave dinged to signal the food was done.

"Ready!" Kate called out. In an instant, she heard the sound of rushing footsteps coming from her roommate's bedroom. As she placed the food on the small island, Gwen entered the kitchen.

"Thank goodness. I am starving!" she exclaimed before taking out a plate from the kitchen shelves. She took a couple of slices and placed them on it.

"Hot, hot, hot!" she said, waving her hands hurriedly over her mouth after taking her first bite. Marie laughed at her.

"Go slowly," she advised her.

"I'm as hungry as a pig. You try to go slow," Gwen said before taking another bite. She groaned in pleasure.

"Why the hell didn't you eat last night?" Kate asked her, amazed at how fast her roommate had finished the first pizza slice. She was just getting started on hers.

"You know about my diet," she replied.

"You had a diet?" Kate inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"Have," Gwen corrected.

Kate's expression turned to doubt before saying, "I think you broke it. Doesn't pizza ruin all the progress you've made?"

"Today's my cheat day," she replied.

"I don't think skipping a meal is good for your diet. I also don't think that eating three slices of pizza can count for a cheat day," Kate stated as she watched her roommate chew out half of her third slice. By the looks of things, it seemed that Gwen wasn't full.

"Shut up," Gwen said before taking her fourth slice.

'Thank goodness I ordered two pizzas last night,' Kate thought as she started on her second slice.

The two said no word as they ate, only making appreciative sounds at the taste of the meal.

"Oh, crap. What time is it?" Gwen suddenly asked.

"7:20," Kate replied.

"Crap!" she exclaimed, rising from her seat. "I've got to go."

"What?" Kate stated as she opened her yogurt. "Already?"

"Yeah," Gwen replied. "There's this place that makes a smoothie blend that can help with my diet. The earlier I get there, the earlier I will be to class."

"You don't need to go on a diet," Kate sighed, but her friend ignored her. "Oh. Well, okay. See you later."

"Bye," Gwen said, moving to exit the room. The door closed behind her as her footsteps receded.

Kate sighed, deciding to hurry up with her meal before she could leave the dorm. She couldn't afford to be late to her own class as well.

************************** ****************************************** *************  

Kate had made it to her class ten minutes before Mr. Bernard, and she had taken that time to greet the people she knew.

Soon, the class was in session. Kate had switched on her phone's recording app, turning it so that the microphone faced her professor. He was speaking about a topic she had forgotten but planned to find out after he was done. Around her, students were taking notes on either the computers or on the books.

It went on for a while like that. Marie was typing something on her computer when her stomach made a low gurgling sound. She stopped and focused on the source of the sound. She thought it was from something or someone around her, but when the same sound appeared again, it came with a sensation in her stomach.

'Oh no,' she thought in worry. Her mind had turned away from the professor at that point.

'Calm down. Maybe it's nothing,' she told herself. She believed that it was the start of a belch, but nothing came afterward.

She sighed in relief, believing it was nothing as she returned her focus back to the ongoing lesson.

Then the sound came not less than three minutes later. It was quickly followed by a pain that settled below her stomach.

Kate hunched her form in pain as her gaze was directed to the keyboard. She questioned what was going on in her stomach, and her mind replayed what she had eaten that morning.

Had the pizza been going bad? Was it the position she had taken while eating?

It did not take long for Kate to remember the vanilla yogurt she had accompanied with her meal.

She mentally cursed at herself, swallowing as she tried to hold in her pain. Her drink choice for the morning had been a big mistake, and it made her worry about people spotting her predicament.

"Hey, are you okay?" Chris whispered beside her. She turned to face him, trying to hide how surprised she was that he had noticed.

"I'm fine," Marie answered with a stiff nod just as her stomach rumbled again.

'Oh crap,' she thought. Chris continued eyeing her for a couple of seconds before turning to face the professor. Kate could have relaxed in relief were it not for the pains she was experiencing in her stomach.

She tried to think of something to distract herself, and her mind played the memory of the party she had gone to recently. It was the wrong time to have such thoughts, but she still could not believe she had told Chris about getting her General Equivalency Diploma test. Truly, there was nothing to be ashamed of, but Kate had worried he would look down on her education history like her last boyfriend did. But he didn't. In fact, he said he was glad because he got to hang out with her.

It made any remaining doubts she had about trusting him with her secrets disappear. It was puzzling yet comforting.

Another grumbling noise sounded from her stomach. Kate shifted in her seat, but then a small fart escaped.

'Uh oh,' she thought, visibly paling. She hoped that no one had heard, but then she noticed that Mr. Bernard had paused to look around the class. 

"Who did that?" he asked. No one replied, and Kate hoped no one would discover it was her. Luckily, he resumed the lesson.

'This is bad,' she thought, feeling a familiar pressure reside near her backside. Marie worried about asking to head to the bathroom because it would lead everyone to find out it was her.

She looked at the time on her computer.

'Fifteen minutes left,' she calculated, and she sighed as she adjusted her posture on the seat. 'Maybe I can hold it for that long.'

So Kate braved through the tension in her gut for a period that felt like hours. She turned to look at the clock on the computer.

To her dismay, only five minutes had passed.

'I don't think I can hold it in,' she said, and the words rang through her mind. Her body was tense all over, and the pressure in her butt had increased.

She released a small whimper, and that had Chris looking at her in concern. He was going to say something when a song played out loud.

'Let it go, let it go,

Can't hold it back anymore...'

Demi Lovato's version of the popular song from Frozen echoed in the room. 

"I'm sorry," a girl at the front apologized with a sheepish grin as she sent the call to voicemail. Still, Kate's face paled at the lyrics. Even though they weren't discussing her dilemma, they seemed to do so at the moment.

It did not help matters at all.

'Ah, fuck it,' she thought, rising from her seat. The action had several heads turn to face her, but she didn't care. 

"Kate?" Mr. Bernard asked.

"I have an emergency," she said with a grimace. She moved to him, even though it was hard, and whispered, "I forgot my pads."

The professor's eyes widened in shock.

"Go!" he practically screamed the word. With quick steps, she had made it out of the class. Then she ran through the hallway to head to the nearest bathroom.

************************** ****************************************** *************

"That was embarrassing," Kate stated as she made her way into Chris' house. He trailed behind her, laughing as he shook his head in disbelief. "I don't think I can go back to class after that."

Chris' laughter bounced through the walls, and he had to hug