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

school?" Marie wondered.

"Yes," she admitted. "I was a freshman when he was a junior. But not in Stonedale High. Thank goodness I never went to that place."

"Oh," Kate commented again. "Well, okay."

"Kate also studies in IT. We're in the same class," Chris informed his friend.

"Wow. You must be lucky," Tiffany said, slightly elbowing Chris while smiling at him. He just grinned before looking back at Kate.

'Wait. There is something I am missing...' she trailed off in her thoughts. Her gaze swept over Tiffany again. Something about her made her remember the conversation she had with Chris when she had gone to his home for his sister's wedding. Specifically, she remembered him telling her about a girl he likes.

'Black hair, brown eyes, studied in high school with Chris, now studies in the same university with him.'

Something clicked in her mind. Marie was sure about the description of the girl he had been talking about, and she was shocked to realize she was looking at her.

Kate's heart clenched when she acknowledged the current situation. She had just come from being with Chris, and now, she was meeting the girl he had a crush on. She looked pretty, more so than her. It made Kate understand why Chris liked her. All hope of finally getting to date him disappeared at that moment, and Kate tried hard not to reveal her sadness.

"Well, I'm sorry, but I have to go," Marie announced.

"Now?" Tiffany asked her, surprised. Chris also mirrored her expression. 

"But I just got here. I thought we could get to know each other."

Marie smiled at her before saying, "I just received a message from my roommate. She told me there was some kind of emergency, and so I have to go help her."

"Emergency?" Chris questioned.

"Oh, you know how she can be," Kate shrugged. "I think it has something to do with her plans for Christmas break. Or maybe she lost the keys to our dorm..."

Kate was surprised with the way she was lying to their faces. She wondered how she was pulling it off when it was killing her to be in the same room as them.

"I can take you back," Chris offered.

"No! No," Kate tried to keep a straight face. "I'll be okay. In fact, I need the walk."

"In this cold weather?" Tiffany said. "It's okay. I don't mind. He can take you back. I know the dorms aren't that far from here."

"Don't worry," she told her with a smile. "It will just be a short walk if I rush back."

Kate looked back at Chris. His confused stare told her that he was trying to figure out if she was hiding something. She summoned all the energy she had to look convincing.

"Okay," he finally said.

Kate smiled at him and Tiffany before moving towards the exit of the house. She grabbed her coat along the way, knowing that it would be cold once she was outside.

"It was nice to meet you," Kate said, moving out of the door.

"You too," Tiffany waved at her with a grin.

She turned to the door. She grabbed the knob, and she stood frozen for a couple of seconds as she tried to control the emotions that threatened to have her cry. Chris approached her from behind and wrapped his arms around her form. It made her heart beat fast, and it had her eyes start to tear up.

"I'm so sorry about Tifanny," he told her. "I know we had plans for this weekend, but it's her, Kate. We haven't talked in a while so--"

"Chris," she cut him off, "it's okay."

"We'll talk soon," he whispered to her, tightening his arms around her. Kate's eyes teared up again, and she forced herself to control her emotions.

Chris soon retracted the hug. The loss of his arms around her made Kate feel incredibly sad. She quickly headed out of the house, not wanting to look at Chris.

Kate started a slow walk back to her apartment. Her mind remained blank for a moment as she moved along the snow-covered ground. She forced herself not to stare back at Chris' house, knowing he could be staring at her. 

The moment she heard his door close, her vision turned blurry. She collapsed on the snow-covered ground on her hands and knees. She could feel her heart breaking with each breath, but she was determined not to let the emotions take over.

With a deep sigh, she stood up to continue her walk back to her dorm. Her vision remained blurry for the few minutes that followed, and Kate had to blink them away to avoid tripping on her feet.

'I will not cry. I will not cry,' she told herself, but she found herself doing the exact opposite when her vision became unclear once again. Her mind went back to the sight of Chris and Tiffany. She remembered how happy they looked to be in each other's presence. Chris had looked excited to see her. They had known each other far longer than Kate had known Chris. Tiffany looked like a fun person to hang out with, and so it was kind of clear why Chris wanted her.

Kate could not hold the sadness back anymore. One tear started trailing down her cheek, and then another followed. More continued falling rapidly, and she was soon crying.

Marie stopped walking as she silently cried into the night. She let go of the control she had over her emotions, exposing herself to the sorrow she felt at that moment.

'And he told me,' she reminded herself, shaking her head and smacking herself on the side for being stupid. Chris had told her that he wanted someone else. She just met that person, and the thought of them being together was unbearable.

Kate wondered if he would make his move. She wondered if he would let Tiffany touch and see him the way he had done with her. She wondered if he would kiss Tiffany just as he had recently kissed her. But the answer seemed obvious, seeing they were alone in his house.

Anger and jealousy coursed through her veins. Kate wished she was the one Chris wanted, but she felt furious over what had happened. He had touched her. He had shown her pleasure, the likes that she had never experienced before. She had been naked in front of him. He had tricked her into believing he wanted her the same way she wanted him, only to be thrown away when Tiffany came. She felt used.

'I am such an idiot!'

Kate continued to cry, letting more tears fall down her cheeks. She paid no attention to the people who had passed her with curious looks. Her heart was too broken to acknowledge how awkward she looked in public.

'Get it together, Kate!' she told herself, wiping her cheeks as she observed the sky. Clouds had begun to gather again. With the way things were going, Kate knew that it would snow once more. She stopped to calm herself before she continued her walk back to her dorm.

More than twenty minutes had passed before she found herself entering the living room of her dorm. She looked around, noticing that her roommate was not inside.

'She's probably hanging out with Ben,' she thought.

Her phone soon beeped with a notification.

'Are you there yet?' read a message from Chris.

It hit her in her heart, and she started tearing up again.

'Yes,' she struggled to reply, some tears falling onto the phone. She wiped them away, knowing it was futile when she sniffed as more began clouding her vision. Her phone soon beeped with a reply.

'Good. Tiffany is still around, but we will talk when she's gone.'

Kate's heart clenched at the message. She did not bother replying to it. 

She proceeded to remove the coat she had worn, allowing the heater in the dorm to do its work. With quick steps, she moved to her room. She closed the door behind her before collapsing on her bed.

She cried as she remembered Tiffany and Chris. Images of them kissing and touching each other filled her mind. She felt jealous, but then sadness and loss became the emotions that reigned. There was nothing Kate could do. She had to accept that she couldn't have Chris. She had to accept that nothing other than their friendship could happen between them. 

It was time to move on.

 

 

Chapter 29

 

Two weeks later

Christmas break had come and gone faster than anyone could sneeze. Kate wished it could have run on longer because it meant she had to go back to college. 

The holidays had been a wonderful distraction for her. It had been nice to spend the break with her parents, and they caught her up with everything they had done. They had also shown her pictures of the countries they had visited in their traveling. 

She looked all right in front of them, but she had been down ever since she had left the college for Christmas break. She was successful at hiding it, but as the days until the reopening of the campus shortened, her sorrow started showing up.

Marie did not want to see Chris, especially after what had happened the last time they were together. It made her wonder what she would do if she returned to her campus routine.

"Honey, are you going back to college today?" her mother asked, directing her attention back to her.

"Well, yes," she told her as she cut an apple on the kitchen island.

Kate was back in her hometown with her parents. The house that had been undergoing renovations throughout November was ready before Christmas, and they wasted no time moving in.

"Aw, there's my smart girl," her mother said, walking towards her and embracing her in a hug.  

Kate's mother looked like an older version of Kate, even though she was a bit shorter than her. Kate had gotten her skin from her mother, and she had gotten her hair and brown eyes from her father. She looked like a combination of the two, but in a nice and normal way.

"Mom," Kate groaned, still welcoming the hug.

"You go back there and get that degree of yours," she told her with a smile. "Now, your father and I are heading back to the Bahamas today."

"Already?" Kate exclaimed.

"What? You seriously don't expect us to be around the area in this cold weather, now, do you?"

Marie shrugged, knowing that her mother had a point. It was winter, and the temperatures in Stonedale could get very low at times.

"Now you understand my point," she said. "We'll be leaving at the same time as you."

"Mom, I'll be leaving around three," she told her. 

"Oh," her mother commented. "Well, your father and I were hoping that we would all leave in the afternoon. Why did you change your mind all of a sudden?"

Marie wanted to avoid any possible encounter with Chris on her way back to college. She felt calm knowing he lived nearby, but the thought of actually seeing him rattled her nerves.  

"Um, it's nothing," she lied. "It's just that I wanted to check on some things before I leave."

"So you wouldn't mind if your father and I decide to leave in a few hours?"

"I won't," she told her with an accepting smile. "Besides, we'll be heading towards different directions."

"You're the best!" her mother clapped before embracing her in a hug once again. It had caught her off guard.

"Okay, Mom,"