With that, he turned and walked away. I felt my mouth drop a bit and couldn’t move. His comment would stay with me the rest of the day, making me more distracted than before.
2. Kyle
It was another week before I saw Kyle again, yet I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I wondered why, in a school of 1800, I had trouble seeing him even once a week. Did he skip class? How long was he in school? Did he even go to school? It was agonizing not seeing him or being able to continue our conversation. I had thought a lot, maybe too much, about what our entire conversation would have been like if he hadn’t walked away.
Not being known for my patience, I made up my mind on Friday to actively seek him out and discover what he really thought of me. I figured lunch was probably a better time than any, so I ditched Aria and Krissa and gave them the excuse that I had to talk to my math teacher.
My first stop was the auto shop parking lot where all the people who could drive hung out. Most were there smoking since it was far enough away from school that they wouldn’t get caught by the assistant principal. He patrolled religiously, but for some reason didn’t come too close to this particular parking lot. To get an overview of it, I walked to a concrete walkway known as “the overpass” that bridged the school and the parking lot. I knew I’d find him if he was there, but only saw a few people dressed in Carhartt jackets, none of them with curly blonde hair.
My next stop was a bank of senior lockers on the second floor where I caught a glimpse of Nikki hanging out with Collin, Tye, and Joe. She had been hanging out with Collin a lot, and this time when I waved a hello I noticed she had her fingers intertwined with his. They must be an item now.
I kept walking, trying the first floor. I doubted he’d be there, but sometimes you could catch a senior or two walking through. Mostly freshman and sophomores had lockers there on the first floor, but a few were also on the third where mine was located.
Searching through the sea of students there I tried to find Kyle, but no luck. I decided to chance running into Aria and Krissa and did a stealthy sweep of the commons area. I looked out beyond the large windows that lined the commons and noticed Aria walking outside with some guy dressed in black jeans and a black leather jacket. He looked like trouble, but those were the types Aria usually went for. Krissa was nearby sitting on some guy’s lap in the middle of the commons, playing with his hair.
“What is it with everyone?” I said under my breath and kept walking, glancing again at Krissa and the guy with the hair.
“What do you mean?” said a voice out of nowhere. I stopped short, almost running into the thick, round pillar that Kyle was leaning against. He had heard me above the dull roar of the lunch crowd. I guess I hadn’t commented as quietly as I’d hoped. When I didn’t answer, he pulled a half-smile and asked, “Are you looking for someone?”
“Oh, yeah. Actually, I was looking for you,” I surprisingly answered. He continued to lean against the pillar with his arms crossed over his chest.
“And here I am,” he said nonchalantly. I couldn’t tell if he was just cocky or uncaring, but I’d figure it out later.
“I need to go outside for a sec,” he said as he unfolded his arms, turned around and walked away. I started to turn and make my way to anywhere else, but he spoke again and caught me by surprise. “You coming?” I turned to see him looking at me with a questioning look on his face.
“Yeah, I’m coming,” I said as I jogged to catch up with him. I’m not a mind reader.
We stepped outside in the misty cold. It wasn’t raining, but I was sure it soon would be. As we walked through the parking lot, Kyle dug into the inside pocket of his faded brown Carhartt. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, offering me a cigarette but I shook my head no. He lit up, taking a drag every once and a while and we walked in silence.
“You’re pretty quiet,” he mentioned between drags of his cigarette. “Were you looking for me to talk, or …?”
“Talk,” I cut him off, not knowing what the ‘or’ was about. “Listen,” I began, taking in a slow breath and wondering if he could see my hands shaking. “I like you and want to get to know you. I thought we might hang out or even go out sometime.”
“What do you mean, ‘go out’?” Kyle had a smirk on his face. “Like dinner or a movie or something?”
I smiled to answer that’s what I had in mind. It was like when I was back in seventh grade, going to the movies with my boyfriend. Kyle only shook his head, took the last drag on his cigarette and stomped it out on the sidewalk.
“Hey, Kyle! Are you coming or what?” I looked up ahead and saw another senior sticking his head out of a red Toyota truck.
“Yeah, Jon, be right there.” Kyle turned toward me. “I’ll see you later. Thanks for the company.” He turned and jogged off to get into Jon’s truck.
I watched them drive away, noticing Jon glance at me and then turning toward Kyle, who I caught laughing and shrugging. Jon was sure to ask Kyle who I was, and I wondered what Kyle was telling him. Her? She’s just some frosh. My anger began to rise as I balled up my fists, trying to shake his words from my head. Why am I letting him get to me?
The first bell rang as I entered the school building after Kyle took off with Jon.
“Mia! Mia!” I turned to see Aria running toward me, yelling. She was out of breath and I could only guess why.
“What were you up to?” I asked.
“Oh, probably the same as you—I saw you walking with Kyle. What’d he have to say?” I didn’t really want to talk about it, so I changed the subject.
“Who’s that?” I nodded toward the guy in the black leather jacket and black jeans who I had seen Aria with earlier. He was now walking away across the parking lot. Aria tightly grabbed my arm and pulled me in as we started toward our locker.
“Oh … my … God … he is so fine! His name’s Jack Rexson and I met him yesterday. Today he asked me if I wanted to walk to the deli at lunch, and he’s coming over to my house this weekend.” Aria broke into a wide grin.
“So, you two are together or what?” I asked, a little impatiently. I was still upset at Kyle, but Aria failed to catch my snippiness.
“Not yet, but I’m sure we will be after this weekend.” Her eyes sparkled at the mention of the weekend.
I rolled my eyes ever so slightly and checked my watch. We had three minutes to get to our locker before class started, so I grabbed Aria and pulled her along. “C’mon, you don’t want to be late for class.”
That afternoon after school, I was lying on my bed and trying to figure out my geometry homework. My thoughts kept going to how Kyle had acted earlier. At first he had wanted me to go with him, but then all of the sudden he blew me off and left with his friend. There’s no figuring him out.
I put my pencil down and sat back on my bed against the pillows with my arm over my eyes to block out the light pouring through the window. Almost immediately I imagined Kyle’s face, but this time instead of blowing me off he was leaning in and softly kissing my lips. “Let’s talk about this on Saturday,” I heard him whisper. “I’ll pick you up.” My fingers reached up and stroked his chin before I leaned up to kiss him once more before he left.
Kyle’s lingering kiss was only a dream, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I rolled over, letting my geometry book fall to the floor. No bother, I’d ask Krissa about the assignment later. Right now all I wanted was to get back to my dreams of Kyle. Leaning back deeper into my pillows, I let myself drift off to sleep.