Crazy for You//K. Bryant

Chapter 6

Kris and I grew closer after our day out. It had been a over week since then, and we found ourselves passing from the acquaintance territory and more into the friendship territory. Over the course of the week, we hadn't seen each other every day but we had hung out several times. We had gone out to breakfast (the only time Kris was available because of his games) once, and I had found myself at his place after games twice. On the days that we weren't together, Kris made sure to keep up with me by texting and Snapchatting me throughout almost the entire day.

He had left for a road trip five days ago, though, and I already found myself missing him. Since I had met Kris, I hadn't spent an entire day in front of the computer. That place also happened to be where I had spent the last week or so. Without Kris there to distract me, I was consumed by my work, only stopping whenever he (or someone else, but that was extremely rare) contacted me. The keys on my laptop were wearing out, and my couch was likely gaining a body imprint. My food supply was drastically waning, and I couldn't wait for Kris to return. He was scheduled to get home that day, and I had told him we could hang out once he got back.

That particular day, I had grown tired of sitting in my dark living room with the only light coming from my laptop and the television. Ashley had already left for work, so I found myself dressing and deciding to get coffee. There was a little shop a few buildings down that was nice and decently cheap, so I decided to go there.

Already dressed in a burgundy Vineyard Vines shirt and a pair of Nike shorts, I slipped on my Roshes and headed out the door, not bothering to switch from glasses to contacts. My hair was haphazardly thrown into a messy bun and I wasn't wearing any makeup, but the only thing on my mind as I shut the door to the apartment was the black iced coffee that I would be holding in my hands in only a matter of minutes.

What I did not expect as I left the apartment was to run into Anthony Rizzo's girlfriend at the coffee shop. I had been standing in line for my drink for almost two minutes when there was a tapping on my shoulder and a voice in my ear.

I turned around and found myself face to face with a brunette girl. She seemed to be close to my height and had a somewhat timid smile spread across her face. She was already holding a drink in her hand, so she must have come to the line with the sole intention of speaking to me.

"Sorry to be a bother," she told me, "but are you Kennedy Simmons?" Her hands fiddled with the lid of the coffee nervously, as if she were genuinely worried that I would get upset with her for talking to me as I stood in line for a coffee.

"Yeah, that's me," I nodded, pushing back a stray hair that had fallen out of my bun.

The girl bit her lip and stuck her hand out to me. "My name's Emily. I'm Anthony Rizzo's girlfriend. Kris has told us a lot about you."

I took the girl's hand, but my mind was moving a mile a minute as we shook. I had known that Anthony and Kris were best friends, but I hadn't known that the friendship extended to Emily as well. I also hadn't known that Kris talked about me to them. It made me both slightly nervous and a little bit excited.

"He has?" I asked as we pulled away from the handshake and the line moved up. We both took a quick step forward to stay with the crowd and resumed the conversation.

"Oh yeah," she nodded, "He never really shuts up about you, actually." The last sentence must have been a slip-up because the hand that wasn't holding her coffee flew up to her face and covered her mouth. Her eyes widened and she shook her head quickly before withdrawing her hand and saying, "Sorry, I'm sure Kris wouldn't appreciate me saying that. Let's pretend that didn't happen."

The line had moved up again during our conversation so I quickly told her that I wouldn't tell him and stepped up to order my drink before the people behind me got upset. I ordered my drink from the exhausted looking barista and paid, expecting Emily to be gone by the time I was done. When I turned away from the counter, however, she was standing just a few feet away from the line and looking a little bit anxious.