Kiss Cam

Ch. 38 - Preppy Boy

"Are you ready?"

I nod and unbuckle my seatbelt. "Are you?"

"Nope!" Zander replies cheerfully and turns the engine of his car back on. "I'm out of here!"

Sighing, I lean to twist the keys out of the ignition and take them away from Zander. "Come on, it won't be that bad. You've gone to school without Sam before, bud."

"Yeah, but that was when I had the promise that I could still bring her chicken soup directly after school!" he complains. "I can't bring chicken soup to a girl in Nebraska!"

I pout my lip, trying to think of a way to convince Zander. "Look, Z, I know you miss Sam; I do too. This is a hard day for us to begin with. Now, I have the added pressure of possibly seeing my ex or my brother's ex or my ex's ex best friend. I hate to be selfish, but I have it a heck of a lot worse than you."

He squints his eyes and lets out an annoyed sigh. "I know that, Riley! But you're all strong and confident and can handle stuff like that. I'm Zander who needs to be in the comfort of his loving girlfriend to survive."

"Can you handle being in the comfort of your loving best friend to survive today?" I ask.

"Sam's my best friend," he says curtly. "However, you are runner-up for the position."

"And I'm honored," I say. "Now let's go."

Finally, Zander climbs out of his car and walks with me to the school.

Sam only left yesterday, so the whole thing hasn't really kicked in for me yet. I still feel like I'll be able to go over to her house after school and talk about my boy troubles, which are still adamant on destroying my life.

Asher hasn't stopped calling my phone and driving past my house since Saturday. At one point, my dad got so fed up and sprayed him with our water hose when he passed. Although, not even the hose stopped him from continuing his pursuit. He's relentless.

It won't be a surprise if he attempts talking to me today. I can't really escape, but luckily Wren and I came up with a few situational plans. Most of them end with me sprinting down the hallway, and I'm okay with that. I wore sensible shoes.

As Zander and I walk through the hallways, people whisper and point their fingers. Please, make it more obvious!

"I told you my hair looked good today," Zander says triumphantly as we stop at his locker. "Did you see all the looks I got?"

I pat his shoulder. "Yeah, buddy, I'm sure that's what they were all looking at."

"What? Do you think they were looking at you? You're so conceited, Riley," he mutters. "You're so conceited."

I smile and lean against the locker next to his. "My apologies. I just thought maybe they were looking at me because- oh, I don't know- the whole junior class was at the party where my drunk brother told the world my boyfriend was using me?"

"No," Zander decides, "nobody cares about that drama. This beautiful mane is the talk of the century."

After Zander gets his books, we head to my locker. I let out a dramatic sigh of relief when I see no tall, blonde male standing next to my locker. Instead, there's just Georgia.

"Tell me everything!" she says after hugging me tightly. "I didn't want to go to the party because I heard Jedi was going to be there, but if I had only known... Oh! Are you okay? Did you break up with him? How is Wren? And oh! Did you see what Franny Waltz tweeted? She's such a bitch!"

"Hey," I respond simply and open my locker.

"Hi!" she chirps. "Oh, hey, Zander. So sorry to hear about Sam. You two were really great for each other."