kid krow (a collection of short stories)

Heather

The night was freezing. I had this not so thick jacket wrapped around me as we rounded the curb. Heather was having menstrual cramps so we had to get out of the fucking party real fast just to get her medicine in the convenience store.

He turned off the engine and they both got inside the store. The hell I was doing here in the first place?

To finally see with my own two eyes that he's never going to break up with her? To finally accept the bitter truth that I'm never going to be her?

Maybe that's what I'm really doing. Maybe this is all just what I need.

A bag in hand, he briskly walked back to the car while I sink down the backseat, pretending to be asleep. But I know that he knows that I'm not.

He turned the heater on and I had to bite my lip not to thank him. It's just going to start another conversation that's probably going to end once Heather comes back. I don't think I have enough energy to remember the lines we're going to exchange any minute now.

"So..." he trailed off. God, that raspy voice. How I wish I could just resist not talking to him at all.

"Yeah?"

"Sorry I had to drag you out of the party. Couldn't risk you getting drunk without me."

I rolled my eyes in secret. "Yeah, sure."

"So... Heather, huh?" I asked, forcing myself not to wince at the mention of her name.

"Yeah?"

I sighed. "Am I gonna see more of her from now on?"

He threw his head back and laughed, turning to me. "You know... I really like her. And we're going to the same college so what are the odds?"

I smirked in the dark. "What are the odds that you're gonna break up?"

He rested his elbow on the dashboard, still looking at me. "She's a really nice girl... And smart, too. And I really like her so can you please just be nice to her in the least?"

I rolled my eyes again. "I'm nice," I said, trying to convince him.

He laughed. "No, you're not."

I spotted Heather walking back to the car and immediately got inside. Her hands were freezing and she had to whisper something to him that I didn't quite comprehend. He turned the car in reverse and sped through the busy highway.

They were laughing now. My eyes lingered on the sweater she was wearing. Just last month, I was the one who was feeling his warmth around that sweater. And also just last month, I was the one who was sitting in the shotgun seat and not her.

How I wish I can just tell him what I really feel.

How I wish he just knew that I like him more than she ever will.

Maybe, just maybe, we wouldn't even know Heather at all. But maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part.

In another world, maybe it's still going to be another Heather; because it's never going to be me.