Kat could only nod in agreement with Gabby as she responded to her comment about Ari, but her smile faded quickly when the blonde turned the conversation to focus on her. Katherine was far more emotionally malleable than her friends, which was why Gabrielle's words admittedly probably did bother her more than they would other people. She trusted her friends and liked to believe that everything they said was being said with the best of intentions. Even so, though, she wasn't stupid, and she could think for herself more than she was given credit for. If nothing else, what resonated her was Gabrielle so casually claiming that cheating was genetic, and that she should basically just expect Tim to do it, if she wasn't constantly making an effort in keeping him interested. It didn't bother Katherine to an extent where it made her upset necessarily, but she knew that Gabby was a smart girl. She was smart socially, and academically, so making a claim that even Katherine knew was dumb, seemed odd. She supposed that maybe it was because she, herself, was a product of an affair, and she was well aware of how her father participating in that had nothing to do with her. She wasn't more inclined to be a homewrecker, just because her father had been one, years ago. Even if Gabby's claim seemed even a little bit logical, Kat easily reminded herself that following Timothy's father cheating, he had been in what seemed like a happy and healthy marriage for years. As far as Katherine knew, Mr. Cargill wasn't a serial cheater, and if it wasn't even something that seemed ingrained in the man's DNA, it made absolutely no sense to assume it would be passed along to his son.
Natalia's words allowed the caught off guard expression on her face to soften a bit, but she did nothing more than respond with a nod as the girl spoke, and eventually excused herself to get to class. Nat's words were the ones that Katherine preferred to hear, and a part of her wanted to just take those and pretend that she had never heard anything that had come out of Gabrielle's mouth, but that made her feel ignorant. She didn't want to be one of those girls who were blind to the problems in their own relationships,and now a seed of doubt had been planted in her mind. "He wouldn't cheat on me," she responded, in a way that sounded far less definitive than she wanted it to sound, and only after Natalia was gone. "And at least right now, even if I wasn't with him, I wouldn't want to be on the market." She paused then, her words probably sounding far more somber and serious than she was even comfortable with, so she added a smile in as she continued with, "Not with you out there as competition, now." Thankfully, she received a momentary distraction with the short return of Lennox, followed by Timothy slipping an arm around her waist. Knox had not given her enough time to even respond to his request for her to find him, but given that classes would be starting soon, she doubted that she would see him before they were both sitting down in chemistry class. Given that Kat didn't take the course as seriously as she should have, she was content with the idea of just discussing whatever he needed to discuss then.
"Sorry, Gabs, but if you don't mind, I've got to steal this Kitten for a minute," Timothy said, approaching the group that had turned from a trio of girls plus Lennox, into just a Kat and Gabby duo by the time that he had fully gotten over there. He had let Lennox off without even a playful punch to the arm after his comment, but only because he was out of reach by the time that Tim heard what he had said, and besides, he was also now more interested in Kat. With an arm still around her waist, and a playful smirk on his face, he pulled the brunette into the side hallway that he knew she had to go down anyway, to get to her locker. It was still busy over there, but less crowded than the main hallway, and he was able to find an empty area by some lockers to lead her to. Although he didn't bother to look to see if any teachers were around to begin with, he got lucky that there weren't any there to see him initiate the PDA, as he gently pushed her back against the lockers so that he could get a few seconds worth of kissing in.
Tim had acted too quickly for Katherine to decline separating from Gabby, but it was worth noting that had he given her more of an option, she probably would have insisted that they stayed with the Queen Bee. After the unsettling words that Gabrielle had left her with, Kat did not necessarily want to stay with her, but she was just used to the idea that it was unacceptable to simply abandon Gabby. Gabby had tons of other friends and Kat knew that it was silly to overthink it,but it still just felt like something that she wasn't supposed to do. Given Gabby's words though, and how Kat really didn't make the choice herself to run off with Timothy, she allowed herself to feel more relief than guilt now that they had separated. "You couldn't have stolen me at a better time," she said, her arms still draped around his neck, even though she had pulled away from his kiss. "But you know that I can't afford to be late to chem yet this year."