Chapter 11- Test Subject

Chapter 11- Test Subject

                Katia walked slowly up behind Hale so Whitley could see her. Whitley was known to be a little jumpy if she didn’t see you coming.

                “Hey, Whitley, Hale” Katia asked quietly. She was still so upset she wasn’t sure she could relive the conversation to Whitley and Hale. But Hale had merely smiled at her before walking off to chat with Skyle Blitzkrieg. He must have assumed she wanted girl talk.

                ‘Fine,’ Katia thought. ‘I’ll run it by Whitley first. At least one of them will know, and if nothing else, Whitley can tell Hale.’

Taking a deep breath, her mind reeled. She still wasn’t sure where exactly to begin.

 

“Kellan hates Hale.” She blurted out. ‘Smooth.’ “That… What I…” Katia sighed heavily. “Can I, can I just start over?”

Whitley looked a little blankly at Katia. The two had always gotten along well, and Whitley had thought that Katia was quite different from Kellan in the weird and unexpected department. Maybe she had judged a little too soon.

“Ok, so Antony has been asking me a lot of questions about Hale. It seems that Kellan put him up to it. So I ran into him at the park and asked him to cut it out. I didn’t get why he would do that, but I thought it was just another of Kellan’s attempts to get close to me again.” This time, Katia’s words tumbled from her mouth as if she had found her footing and was anxious not to lose it again.

                “So, I left him at the park and came to eat, but he followed me. Before I could get in the door he told me he wanted to tell me a secret. I figured he was just trying to clear his part in Antony asking me funny questions but he was really trying to tell me what those questions had meant. In his opinion, at least, what those questions had meant. He didn’t make a whole lot of sense most of the time and I’m really worried about his mental health. His whole state of being really isn’t in a good place.”

                Whitley had pulled out her stand-by expression when someone was over her head and she couldn’t grasp exactly what was going on. She looked blandly at Katia, smiled, nodded. ‘Maybe I’ll ask Hale what’s she’s going on about when we get home,’ Whitley thought. ‘Maybe she wants to take Kellan to med school with her as a test subject.’

                “But, I was wrong about what he was going to tell me. Well, partly. He was trying to clear Antony, but he also wanted to tell me why he had Antony asking those things. It seems that Kellan has decided that he would be a better leader and he wants to oust Hale from the hereditary CEO’s spot in the Blue Empire and take it himself.”

                Katia had finally gotten Whitley’s full attention. Whitley wasn’t entirely sure how, or where, the first part of Katia’s speech had come from, but her conclusion made her cold. Kellan wanted to take over from Hale by force? Whitley wasn’t even aware that her jaw had dropped and that she had been silently staring at Katia for nearly a full minute.

                “Please don’t be mad at me,” Katia begged. “I had no idea Kellan was planning that. I told him straight away that it was a stupid thing to try to do. I also told him it would never work and that he needed to go out and get a life.”

                “What?” Whitley had finally found her tongue. “Get a life? What does that have to do with him wanting to kick Hale out of the business?”

                “It sounds like he’s been going all over town asking for dirt on Hale,” Katia sighed. “He wants to use that as a means to get Hale to either step aside, or to use it to get the board to give him a vote of no confidence and put Hale in in his place. But there’s more to it than that...”

Katia took a deep breath before slowly saying: “Are you having an affair with Kellan?”

                “Am I WHAT???” Whitley had almost shrieked the words, causing Katia to step back. “I beg your pardon! I thought you just asked if I was cheating on Hale… with a straight face! Whoever you are listening to-“

                “It’s not something I believe,” Katia quickly interjected. “It was something Kellan said. I didn’t want to even listen to it, much less believe it, but I needed to be sure. Ok? I don’t think anyone in town would honestly believe you would find anything in common with Kellan.”

                “I love Hale. I could never do without him.” Whitley said softly.

                “Good. That’s great,” Katia said. “I couldn’t really make much sense of the part where he mentioned you. It was all kind of garbled. But I think the gist of what Kellan said was that he wanted you by his side when he kicked Hale to the curb.”

                “What did y’all do to him as a child,” Whitley burst out incredulously after a moment of thought. “Seriously! Did y’all rip the head off his teddy bear or something? ‘Cause this is messed up.”

                Katia listened, trying to see it from her perspective. They hadn’t done anything to him as a child; the problem was they hadn’t done anything for him as a child.

                “Look,” Katia said. “I completely agree with you. It’s incredibly messed up. I’m just glad he told me. Because now I can tell you and you can tell Hale, or Mom, and something can be done about it. Maybe get him his own place, a job somewhere else. Invite Maksi over more, I don’t know what all, but get him away from you two.”

                “See,” Whitley began. “I don’t think that’s enough here. Just getting him away from us, Kellan will just spread whatever gossip around the rest of town without us being able to defend it. I can’t believe he made you think I was in love with him. That… That’s almost my breaking point. The little pervert creeps me out. It’s just too much.”

                Katia was so glad Whitley was finally taking her seriously that she almost missed Whitley’s next question.

                “So when are you going to tell Hale?”

                “Honestly,” Katia began, the smile of relief sliding off her face. “I was just going to let you tell him. I kind of figured you didn’t want too many people involved, and I don’t like to be involved with Kellan in the first place.” She paused for a moment, looking anywhere but directly at Whitley. “I know that kind of leaves you two in a sucky mess, but I just can’t deal with him anymore. I was always the one cleaning up after his messes growing up. I cannot clean up this mess. It’s not about me.”

                “You’re kidding me, right?” Whitley’s voice was tight. “I don’t even understand half of what you told me. Kellan hasn’t divulged his ‘great and mighty plan for domination’ to me. He told it to YOU, and you actually understand it. You need to tell Hale, and you need to tell him soon.

                “And Katia?” Whitley continued. “It is about you. You’re a Blue, whether you claim Kellan as a brother or not is not the question. You would be affected by this just as much. You do know that, right?”

                “I can’t do this anymore Whitley,” Katia sighed. “I just can’t do it with Kellan anymore. Sorry.”

                “Can’t do what with Kellan anymore?” Hale asked.