I don't even like your company

 

Kat raked her brain from morning til night trying to figure out how she could get Chloe her own labubu. She'd hate to ask Darry if he could go on eBay for her. She knew Grand Betty would have a fit, and her dad might be furious, too. She doubted her mom would carry on since she was giving everyone the silent treatment.

It was best to hang out at the youth center and be up to her own devices about how to take care of the situation. Although it gave her nightmares. Chloe being furious that Kat got the labubu from Darry, and she didn't. Yeah, maybe that was why she couldn't help but be so bitter. 

"Why do you have to look so ugly?" Someone said to her while she was in her little corner looking through a stash of graphic anime that she'd looked through a dozen times already.

She looked up with the guy with hair in his face. She'd seen him around. He was Leo, and he just started high school. Still, she took him for a bully even if he was quite fashionable. She guessed he never got his hands dirty. Probably never had to wash his own clothes and had no idea what to do with a dishwasher or a kitchen sink.

"Why are you here?" She snarled back as she turned a page.

"Why can't I?" His banter wasn't nearly as growly as hers. 

Kat fumed back, but he plopped down next to her as if he owned the place. 

"Don't you shoot pool, or something?" She gave him the evil eye as she set up and put the book on the table, where kids brought old magazines and graphic novels to look at.

"What? You think you can beat me?" He thought he was cool, but it made Kat want to gag.

"I don't know, possibly." She watched a lot, but she'd never actually done it. High school boys always took over the pool table.

"Yeah, well, I'm thinking, maybe we could do something else." He shrugged.

"Like what?" She looked him over, wondering what he had in mind. His sweat radiated a certain sense she'd never been drawn to until now, and it worried her. He smelled of the gym and the cheap cologne her brother wore.

She found herself biting the corner of her bottom lip. He was making her feel a bit woozy. She didn't want to like it. She didn't. Besides, wasn't she hanging on to hope that maybe Darry wouldn't see her as a baby?

"I don't know. What do you like to do?" He gazed at her as if maybe he had a fever at the moment, but it would go away soon enough. Maybe it was the frigid weather.

"You don't even have a car," she snapped.

"Well, I will one day, and maybe if..if you go steady with me...you'll be the only one I drive around."

His words were so hilarious.

"Do you use that line on all the girls? Who goes steady?" She squinted, and her nose crinkled, and he touched it with his forefinger.

"I don't just.." he sighed as if he was losing steam. He then pulled out, none other than a real labubu.

Kat couldn't help but stare.

"How much do you want for it?" She wanted to know, wanting to grab it from his hands, but of course, he held it away from her.

"I know what you need," His lips curled up at the end.

"No, you don't."

"I've been watching you." His look told her he might be more than a stalker.

She sighed as if this might be her worst mistake.

"You go steady with me, and I'll give it to you."

Kat gritted as if she might as well drown herself in an icy lake.

"Sure." She furrowed a frown. She was definitely not gonna make it easy for this Freshman.