The It Factor

Chapter 4

Living in Maryland, despite what I originally thought, was not all that bad.  In fact, the first three weeks went smoothly, and I was loving it.  Not that I would admit it to my mother.  Nope, I continued to be a bitch to her.  I don't know why, but I just couldn't bring myself to say she was right.

I spent most of my time with Kyle.  Sometimes I would feel bad and think I was taking him away from his band, but then I would remember he's the one who would show up at my house every morning.  We had a routine.  Kyle would pick me up, we would get breakfast at a small cafe near my house, and spend the rest of the day working on his music.   

There were a ton of song that he had started, but never finished.  He said they were crap, and that he had just given up.  Somehow, I had managed to turn that around by changing a few words, or guitar chords, and he loved them.  The only thing I never did was sing.

Kyle asked me too, begged me to actually, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.  I wanted too, and I trusted Kyle, but I just couldn't do it.  I couldn't even sing for my own mother, for God's sake. 

One day, just as the sun was going down and we were about to call it a night, Kyle looked at the clock and groaned.

"Crap,"  He muttered, quickly shoving all our papers back in his guitar case, "I'm going to be late for rehearsal again, and I still have to take you home..."  I don't think he meant for me to hear it, but I did.  My stomach clinched with guilt.

"Well..I could go with you if I really need to," Kyle's head shot up, looking at me with surprise.  I shrugged, trying to make it seem like not that big of deal.  I was probably going to regret that, seeing as it was Sunday and my first day of school was tomorrow, but it just popped out.

"Would you really?"  He asked, "I mean, I wouldn't ask, but I'm already forty five minutes late..."

"Yeah, sure,"  I smiled, picking up some notebooks we had been using and shoving them in my bag, "But if you're that late, we better hurry."  I haden't realized that I had been taking up so much of his time.  I bet I had pissed off a lot of his friends.  Great.

The place we were going ended up to be right down the street.  It was a pretty large looking house; two stories, several windows, a well kept garden, beautiful double doors, and a black iron fence surrounding the house.

"Wow," I muttered to myself, "it's beautiful."

"Thank you," Kyle smirked, "My mother takes great pride in her gardens."

"This is your house?" I asked, following Kyle up to the front door.  It made me feel self conscious about my house.  It was dirty most of the time, and our yard was just pitiful.  All the flowers were dead, and the grass was brown and brittle.

"Last time I checked, yes.  But you never know.  My mom might decide to kick me out, depending on how well my friends have behaved without me."  I rolled his eyes at his smart ass remark, letting my eyes trail over his beautiful living room.  It was perfect, nothing was out of place.  It was almost freaky, in a way.

"Mom!"  Kyle yelled, kicking his shoes off, "I'm home!"  Without waiting for a response, Kyle started to jog up the stairs.  After some hesitation, I followed him.  I wanted to introduce myself to his mother, because I wasn't sure how she would take a random girl in her house, but I decided not to.  Without her son that would be a little awkward.

Kyle pushed open a door, and shouts hit my ears.  I winced slightly and stepped forward, taking in what I presumed was Kyles room.  Two boys were wrestling on the floor, and two more were cheering them on.  I was somewhat shocked to see that no one was trying to stop the fight.