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.
The phone loudly rang, waking me out of a peaceful sleep. I glanced at the clock and noticed it was six-thirty in the evening.
“Hello?” I tried to hide the sleep in my voice.
“Mia, don’t tell me you were sleeping! You’re supposed to be going to the dance—first dance of our high school lives!” Krissa was ecstatic. She lived for anything that was a rite of passage for a teenager. We had made plans to attend when it was announced during the morning announcements in first period.
“I … I wasn’t,” I stammered. “I was trying to … to do the geometry homework,” I lied. I could almost see her roll her eyes.
“My sister will pick you up in an hour, okay? I talked to Aria and she said she’d meet us there. I think Jack is giving her a ride or something. I told her I’d call you.” There was no denying the buzz in Krissa’s voice.
“Alright,” I said, rubbing my eyes, “I’ll get ready. See you soon.” I hung up and for the next ten minutes, I stayed in bed and stared up at the ceiling. When I finally did get up, I felt drugged and unmotivated as I opened my closet doors to pick out a pair of black leggings, a black sleeveless turtleneck, and my favorite button-up hooded pullover with purple and black stripes. They were just light enough that I wouldn’t sweat too much if I actually danced. A pair of black Keds finished off my ‘first dance’ outfit, and I was quite pleased when I changed and looked at myself in the mirror. Pulling my dark brown hair up into a ponytail just might help to pull my face into a smile if I did it tight enough, I decided.
Making one last check in the mirror after twenty minutes of grooming, I touched up my mascara and lip gloss. Everything else looked to be in place and my face looked good, even though I had my arm over my eyes for most of my slumber and could have easily had red, swollen eyes. Thank God for small favors.
Glancing at the clock I saw there was enough time for a quick bite before Krissa and her sister picked me up. After a few minutes of poking around in the freezer, I decided on a Swanson chicken TV dinner with mashed potatoes, corn, and a brownie. Nothing like home cooking. Five minutes later, I was enjoying my quick bite.
As I picked at the chicken I thought again about Kyle. Why did he have to be so smooth, so good-looking? His eyes seemed to hide a lot, yet they were warm and drew me in. I remembered the way his lips looked when he took a drag from his cigarette; pink, slightly plump, soft. I shook the thought out of my head and finished eating. I had to stop before I became obsessed—or maybe I was already there.
A quick time-check showed that I only had about fifteen minutes left before Krissa and her sister would be by to pick me up. It was just time enough to brush my teeth and kick-back for a few minutes. Leaning back in front of a silent television, I closed my eyes and immediately saw Kyle leaning against one of the pillars that bordered the commons. I could see his casual smile, the way he crossed his arms as he leaned, his curly blonde hair. Oh, I’m hopeless.
Two car honks from outside startled me. My eyes fluttered open and I jumped up, grabbed my purse and keys and opened the door. Krissa was on her way up the steps of the little two-story house I shared with my mother.
“Hey, you ready?” she asked, but before I could answer she added, “come on, my sister’s waiting.”
We climbed into her sister’s new Chrysler Eagle Talon, taking care not to bump our heads on the low door frame. Kylie, Krissa’s sister, turned around and greeted me.
“Nice car,” I told her. “Birthday present?” Kylie had just turned seventeen and had been driving a 1985 silver Ford Tempo.
“To myself,” she answered. “Work has been very good. Are you ready to see what this baby can do?”
Kylie smiled ruthlessly as she looked in the rearview and grabbed the stick shift, slamming it into reverse and shooting the car backward. Kylie then threw it into first and shot forward with my stomach meeting my spine. The car was fast, that was for sure.
Kylie got us to the school in three minutes flat; a record time. As the three of us unloaded from the car and walked up to the school, I couldn’t help but scan the line of waiting people to see if Kyle was one of them. No luck. I did see Aria and Jack, though, in a deep lip-lock.
“Ugh, get a room,” Krissa said, echoing my exact thoughts out loud.
Aria must have developed exceptional hearing, because she stopped kissing Jack just in time to see us walking their way. “Hey you guys, over here!” she yelled. “We saved you a place in line!”
I wasn’t particularly happy cutting in front of other people, especially when they gave you the evil eye; however, no one was going to say anything with Jack right there.
Aria could barely wait for us to get in line before making introductions. “Mia, Krissa, this is Jack. Kylie, you know Jack already.” I couldn’t help but catch the way she said the last bit as Kylie and Jack politely acknowledged one another. It took a minute for him to notice Krissa and me.
From what I could tell, Jack had a hard shell outside. He smoked, started fights, and probably did drugs as well, but I liked him the moment Aria introduced him. He seemed to be a complete teddy bear toward Aria, and anyone who was a friend
