The Perfect-ish Brother

~9~

Kaycee

There is a considerably large fraction of silence as I try to compose myself in front of someone I never imagined would willingly speak to me, talk more of bringing my bag.

"Um...Yeah-Thank you" I clear my throat loudly while collecting my bag from her.

She gives me a weird look and my eyes widen in urgency.

"What? Is there something on my face?" My fingers graze my cheeks lightly.

"You're in my way" She shoves me aside and briskly leaves the compound with her signature stoic expression.

I facepalm myself and sigh deeply before following after her; hoping for the love of all things, we would be able to get along.

Kess and I walk in the same direction for two minutes in awkward silence and I struggle to supress all the questions burning through my mind for fear that she might either deem them inappropriate, offensive or outright annoying.

Questions like, 'Where is her brother?', 'Why isn't he picking her up?', 'Why is she leaving school so early?', 'Does she know about the suspension?'

I steal a subtle glance sideways at Kess trotting along besides me; she shields her eyes from the intense rays of the afternoon sun using her left hand as a visor, her light skin glistens with sweat as she breathes heavily with each step.

I guess trekking isn't something she does regularly.

"Here" I hand her my school uniform vest that I always carry with me to school. I never actually wear it so it's always in my bag.

She stares at me wide eyed in confusion.

"Just put it on your head like a scarf to shield your eyes, it's more effective" I explain.

'Oh' She tentatively takes it from me and places it on her head over her face.

We walk a few more steps in silence before I muster up the courage to ask her, "Where's your ride?"

"Where's your crew?" She counters.

"Fair enough" a nervous chuckle escapes my lips and I dart my eyes aimlessly around the street.

A few vendors are busy at their respective stores, some look at us warily; probably wondering what we're doing out of school this early.

While some are too occupied to even notice us.

Nonetheless, the street is still and serene and this contributes to my discomfort, I keep looking around weirdly and I clear my throat a lot.

"Um-"

"Look, I'm feeling just as awkward as you; so chill" Kess states in a matter-of-fact tone.

I nod in response, but honestly her confession does nothing for me. It just makes me worry about how accurate she was.

Am I really that easy to read? Or is she psychic?

If she is, then I need to get better at masking my sentiments, I can't risk anymore of my secrets being used against me.

Kess lets out a sigh and it sounds a bit strained, "My brother's on his way to pick me up-He said something came up"

I blink in surprise, I never expected her to respond.

"I wanted to...." She starts but then looks at me cautiously.

"No problem. You don't have to tell me, I'm just making sure you're okay" I assure her.

Her honey brown eyes grow as wide as saucers, and she gapes at me like I just said the most outrageous thing ever. But, she instantly regains her composure and her gaze softens.

She lets out another sigh, "Curls-I mean Kaycee, I actually wanted to apologize for-" A blaring horn interrupts her mid-sentence.

We both turn left to the direction of the sound, a familiar Red Camry is parked on the opposite side of the road.

"My brother" Kess states in a flat tone.

"Your brother" I dumbly repeat, unaware of how to interpret the scenario.

Here I am, with the girl whom her brother warned to stay away from. My heart beat increases.

"Relax, he's all talk. He won't hurt you" She admonishes.

"I find that very hard to believe" At this point, Kess' brother had come out of the car and was leaning on it with his arms crossed. His tall figure and muscular build makes my knees go weak.

"Whatever" She waves dismissively and adjusts her bag. She turns around and starts to walk towards the car.

I immediately let out a breath I wasn't aware I was holding, I find it really hard to believe that Kess and I just had an halfway civil conversation, without taunts or insults and aggravations.

She didn't even mention my suspension...Maybe she doesn't know.

"Kaycee!" I look up from my position of soliloquy at Kess who was already about to enter the car.

"Yeah?!" My voice comes out hoarse.

"Happy Suspension!" She yells back, enters the car and zooms off; leaving me on the opposite side stupefied.

Kess really knows more than she lets on and that disturbs me.

I board a taxi home and in my mind I wonder what it was she was about to apologize for.

What could she possibly be sorry for?

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Thank you for reading!!! Although this is pretty short.

I think I'm going to try updating every two weeks or something like that.

That is if I don't get writer's block, but either way I'll make more effort for you guys!

Vote and comment. God bless!