invisible string

01

"are you okay?" micah asked me from the drivers seat.

"i should be asking you that." i sniffed.

"why didn't you tell me that he was hurting you sooner?" he asked, looking slightly hurt. i shrugged.

"i didn't think it was that serious. and i didn't want you to over react, like you just did." i respond.

"kylen, that wasn't overreacting. that was me protecting you." he laughs darkly.

back to micahs party, 2 years later. rhett has had it out for micah and i ever since that night. both boys play football and basketball, so when our schools play each other at games, it is pretty dirty. they both try to hurt each other as much as they can without getting thrown out of the game. normally, we don't invite anyone from lakewood to parties and avoid going to parties thrown by lakewood people, but boston, being the party animal he is, seems to have forgotten about this little rivalry.

"i'm not sure if rhett will show up. i don't even know which lakewood people boston invited, just that he invited some." micah tried to comfort me. i leaned into his chest and took a few deep breaths as he wrapped his arms around me.

"i'll be okay. it's been two years, he can't seriously be holding that much of a grudge." i say, mostly to try to convince myself that everything will be fine.

"i won't let anything happen to you." micah mumbles into the top of my head.

-

about an hour later, i'm dancing with my friends. i've had a few drinks, so i'm feeling a more wild and carefree than i would be at any other time. there's a ton of people packed into micah's house, mostly from our school but some from surrounding towns schools. i've seen a few lakewood people, but luckily not rhett or any of his friends. sylvie and boston are dancing on each other, not to my surprise. they've always had a thing between them. camryn and i are dancing together, while micah and reece both have random girls all over them. it's about 10 pm, and i'm already tired.

"i'm going to get some water." i yell to camryn over the music. i make my way through the huge crowd and finally reach the kitchen. there's only one other person there, a guy i've never seen before. he's leaning against the counter on his phone. when he hears my heels clicking on the floors, his head snaps up to look at me.

"hey." i greet him, grabbing myself a water bottle from the fridge. he looks at me for a second, and then gives me a friendly smile.

"hey. you're kylen hayes, right?" the mystery guy asks me. i'm a little shocked that he knows my name, considering i'm pretty sure he doesn't go to my school and i'm not close friends with people from other schools.

"yeah... how do you know my name?" i ask. his eyes widen slightly, like he's been caught with something.

"you're kinda well known at my school." he says, laughing slightly.

"meaning....?" i trail off, cocking my head to one side.

"all the guys think you're hot as fuck." he says bluntly. i'm taken aback for a second at his bluntness, then i examine him for a second. he's tall, i'd say about 6'2, and definitely very muscular. his hair is blonde and wavy. his eyes are a piercing blue.

"so when you say all guys, does that include you?" i ask, flirting a little. can you blame me? he's cute, and i'm tipsy. he laughs and i see his eyes scan my body, taking in my short dress, which exposes a decent amount of cleavage and clings to my curves.

"yeah, it does." he replies after a moment. i smile.

"what's your name?" i ask him.

"alex perra." he responds. "i go to kingston." so that's why i didn't recognize him. he's not from charlestown or lakewood.