Inappropriate

Prologue: Junior Year

Author's note: I kept hearing from my English and Creative writing teachers, "Write what you know." In this project, I did just that. It takes place in my home state of Florida and features real places I've lived or visited. Most of the characters are loosely based on people I know, and the plot is inspired by real events.

The one rule I haven't followed is to know how it ends before I begin. I've worked on this story off-and-on over the last year, and my attitudes toward my characters have fluctuated a lot in that time. One minute I wanted a happy ending, and another I wanted everyone to die in a freak accident. I guess we'll discover together where this going!

I hope you come to love/hate Kale and AJ and company as much as I have. -KJ :)

"Tiffy, if you do it again, I swear I'll push you off the stage." Okay, maybe I wouldn't actually try to cause her injury, but her cutesy, flirty giggles were about to cross the line from annoying to nauseating.

We, the theater club, were in the school auditorium rehearsing for an upcoming drama festival and I was helping Tiffy and her partner practice their scene. It was their first run-through without scripts so I was prompting them with their lines as needed. Not for her sake, I assure you. Tiffy's partner was my buddy AJ.

AJ and I had met last year during auditions for the fall musical and instantly bonded over a mutual disdain for the director's pet actress. We didn't have any classes together, but we did share a lunch table with several other theater club members. It was during one of these lunches that he'd given me the nickname Kale, claiming that my given name, Kaleigh, was complicated and pretentious. Despite my initial protests of the vegetable name, it stuck and I reluctantly began to like it.

"I can't help it," Tiffy argued, playfully slapping AJ on the shoulder. "He's making faces at me!" The script called for a kiss at the end and three times in a row, she had botched the scene by giggling just as AJ bent toward her.

"I only did that the first time. The rest were all you," AJ said in defense.

"Alright! Enough!" I pressed my fingers to my temples to ward off the headache that was threatening. "AJ, no faces. Tiffy, no giggles. We have fifteen minutes left of rehearsal time. Let's just get through this once and call it a day. Start at AJ's line, 'What am I supposed to do?' Go." They almost made it that time, but it seemed Tiffy made the mistake of looking AJ in the eye. I could see her holding it back, but she inevitably broke into a full belly laugh.

AJ threw up his hands and rolled his eyes. "What am I going to do with you? You're killing me here!" He was almost ready to give up, I could tell. I was about to throw in the towel myself.

"Tiff, we talked about this. Try not to look him in the eye."

She finally managed to compose herself and glared at me. "If you think you can do better, by all means, show me."

"Come on, Kale," AJ chimed in. "Let's show her how it's done." What are you doing, AJ? He knew I'd never back down from a direct challenge like that. The question was why did he challenge me to do this?

"Are you kidding me right now?" I asked him, wondering how I was going to weasel out of this.

"No. I need to rehearse and my partner is clearly useless for the rest of the day. You know the scene, so you're the understudy by default." I gave him my best "I don't think so" look. "Please, Kale. Help me out here."

"Fine," I said, pretending that it was only a minor imposition. Truthfully though, I was petrified. Sure, I knew the mechanics of a stage kiss, just like I knew the mechanics of a stage punch and a stage fall, but as a techie who usually worked behind the scenes, I didn't practice any of it very often. I much preferred handling lights and costumes to dealing with actors and divas.

I bravely rose from my chair and switched places with Tiffy, handing her the script. As soon as Tiff was

out of earshot, I quietly scolded AJ. "I agreed to help you with lines and blocking. No one said anything about teaching your partner basic staging."

"You're saving my life here, Kale. It's frustrating working with Laffy McGiggles over there. You should have been my partner to begin with."

"You know I prefer not to perform."

"But you're so good on stage. Your monologues are amazing."

"Those are easy. Memorize lines. Add some blocking. Perform to empty room. Impress judges. Done."

He laughed. "Your passion for your craft is astounding," he said wryly.

"Hey!" Tiffy interrupted. "Less chatting, more rehearsing!"

AJ took my hand and turned our bodies as we had blocked out earlier. "Let's do this," he said encouragingly.

My nerves went into overdrive. This will be over in two minutes, I told myself. Just get it right the first time and hand AJ back over to Tiffy.

"What am I supposed to do?" AJ asked, having shifted into character.

I yanked my hand out of his and turned downstage toward the audience, as Tiffy's character would, and recited the next line. "Just turn around and walk away. Don't look back."

He grabbed my left shoulder and turned me around so that my face would be mostly hidden from view. "You know I can't do that, Libby. I can't lose you." He then placed one hand on my cheek with his thumb over my lips, in what would appear from a distance to be a romantic gesture, and the other on the back of my head. The placement would disguise the fact that he would really just be kissing his own thumb. That's it, Kale, just a series of well rehearsed movements that don't mean anything. No different than practicing new choreography.

Then he stepped in close until his torso nearly touched mine and mechanics and objectivity went out the window. Despite the warmth of his body, I felt goosebumps rising on my skin and my heart began to beat double time. I was aware of the faint scent of his cologne, something spicy and woodsy. Stunned, I broke my own rule and looked into his eyes which were a darker blue than usual and appeared to be filled with love and conflict. Damn, he's a good actor!

As he leaned down to me, his thumb swept over my lips, causing me to shiver. "Kale," he whispered low enough that only I could hear. "Relax. I'm going to kiss you now." At the last second his thumb slid over to my cheek and AJ's lips were directly on mine.