It was Monday. I had gotten a lot of sleep over the weekend so I wasn’t tired, but I still didn’t like having to get out of bed to go to work. I took an hour getting ready, taking my time in the shower and blow drying my hair. I threw on my uniform t-shirt, which was a red polo.
I ran downstairs and grabbed a pop tart to eat in the car, then grabbed my keys and went to my car. My shift wasn’t supposed to start for an hour, but there’s fifteen minutes drive time and I could use a little extra overtime money.
When I got to work I saw that Katie had the same idea. Since the store wasn’t open for half an hour she was sweeping the store floors. I took out the trash and made sure we had the receipt printing paper stuff. We always did these odd jobs when we came in before we were open.
A few minutes before we opened officially, a ding rang through the store, meaning someone was walking in. I looked up, expecting to see Mr. Goldman, but instead saw a guy walk in. Katie stood up straighter and I could tell why. He was cute, even if I wasn’t interested. He had dark hair and a green eyes.
“Um, excuse me, but we’re closed.”
He looked at his watch. “Don’t you open at nine?” I looked at my own watch and felt instantly stupid. It was nine fifteen.
“Oh, right, I’m sorry. Is there anything you need help finding?”
He shook his head and walked to the other side of the store and came back a moment later with a laptop and a few books. “I did some research. This computer is supposed to be really nice, right?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I have one just like it. It works really well.” He handed it to me and I rang up all his stuff. He used a credit card and I gave him his things.
“Thank you, Elaine.” For a second I wondered how he knew my name, but then I remembered that I had a nametag on.
I looked at the screen with his credit card information and read his name. “Thank you, Kyle.”
He smiled and Katie came over and held out his hand for him to shake it. “Hi! I’m Katie!” he smiled and shook her hand.
“So you girls go to school here, or do you just work here?”
“We’re starting in the fall semester.” Katie was taking over the conversation so I went over to make sure the isles were organized.
When I heard the ding again I looked to see if he had just left, or if Mr. Goldman had walked in. it was both, so I walked back to the register to meet him.
“We came in half an hour early, daddy. And we cleaned up a bit.”
“Right, right, so then why does the sign still say closed?” Without a word I ran to the door and flipped the sign.
“What are you talking about, sir? It sys open.” I winked at Katie and we burst into laughter. Mr. Goldman stepped into his office and got to work with whatever. She smiled and sat up on the counter next to the register. “So, what did you think of Kyle? He was super hot, don’t you think!”
I nodded. “I guess. He just isn’t my type.”
She frowned. “And what is your type Lainey? A douche bag that didn’t even bother to call you! Get over him!”
I stared at her, fighting tears. “You promised you’d never even bring him up again!”
She looked frozen in place, no remorse on her face. I walked away, letting her take over the register. I walked to the store room and started opening boxes to unload.
“I’m sorry, Lainey. But it had to be said! You know that it’s true! You need to just get over him, it’s been three years!”
“Look, Kat, I’m over him. I hate him, but I’m over HIM! I’m just not over what he did. I got hurt, and I don’t think there’s a single guy in the world that isn’t like him at all.”
“Lainey, you need to move on! He was just one guy who never meant anything to the world! Just forget him.”
I stopped what I was doing and looked down. Fighting tears I responded, “no, he meant nothing to anyone. Except me.”
With that the tears started rolling down my cheeks. I didn’t want to be here any longer so I ran outside. Mr. Goldman would understand. I started running to my car when I heard a somewhat familiar voice calling my name.
“Elaine! Elaine what’s going on? Are you okay?” I looked behind me to see Kyle from earlier standing just a couple feet away from me.
I shook my head and opened the car door. I knew better than to try and talk through tears, because my voice gets shaky and no one can understand it. I sat in my car for a second, closing my eyes and trying to calm down. I took deep breaths and put my key in the ignition. I looked out the window and saw that Kyle was still standing there.
I rolled down my window and leaned closer to it. “Can I help you?”
He shook his head. “No, I guess you can’t. But if you want to tell me why you’re crying, I would love to listen to you. I’m minoring in psychology, and would love to play shrink for a day.”
I shook my head. “No, I just got in a fight with my best friend, and need some comfort food or something to get my mind off it.
He nodded and started turning around. Then he stopped and ran o the passenger side door. I was really shocked when he opened the door and started getting in. “What are you doing? Get out of my car! I mean it! I will call the cops if you don’t go away!”
“Hey, calm down! I’m not going to kill you or anything! I just want to know what’s going on.”
“Well I don’t particularly like sharing my deepest thoughts with complete strangers.”
He faked pain on his face. “We aren’t complete strangers. You know my name! Now drive on Elaine!”
“No! now get out of my car!”
He ignored me and reached for the radio dials. The local rock station came on and I looked at him. “What are you doing! Get out!” I cut the engine and the music stopped. I reached over him and opened his door, signaling for him to get out.
He shifted in his seat and calmly whispered, “Look, I’m not getting out of this car. You are a mess and it’s not safe to drive like that. Now, stop telling me to get out and drive!”
He closed his door and I sighed. He used safety against me. It’s not really that I’m scared of death, it’s that I’m scared of getting injured and waking up in the hospital. I have a phobia of doctors and hospitals and those things. “Fine, but as soon as I’m home safe, you leave me alone. Got it?”
He slowly shook his head. “You do work at the store that I’ll have to go to for the next few years. Plus, I would really rather we went to the movies or something. Get you distracted and have some fun.”
I sighed. “You’re not going to let me say no to that are you? I just want to go home and cry into my pillow. I don’t want to act like nothing’s wrong.”
“Well then why don’t you tell me what’s wrong? I’m a really good listener.”
“I won’t tell you because I have no reason to. Okay? You want me to be a safer driver? Distract me. By all means, distract me.”
“Okay, well, first, start driving, and we can talk about music or something.” I complied. “So what kind of music do you like? You seem like a country/pop kinda girl.”
“Well, I do like those, but I also like rock and some hip hop. Emphasis on the some.”
“So who’s your favorite artist?”
“Well, which style? It varies.”
“Um, okay, Rock. What bands do you like?”
“Evanescence. I also like Flyleaf and Paramore, but Evanescence is the band that made me love rock.”
“I love Evanescence! Especially my immortal. The band version, that is. The original is kind of slow and boring.”
“I definitely completely agree. Oh, and what about Taking over me?”
“It’s not my favorite, but I still know all the words.”
We were quiet for a minute and I focused on the music playing through the radio. It had a good beat that I recognized from some other song, but I couldn’t figure out what. I had never heard it before so I turned up the volume.
From the queen of England to the hounds of Hell.
The beat got louder and Kyle started tapping it out on the dashboard. I looked at him and took in what he was wearing. A plain blue t shirt and faded blue jeans that made his black hair seem really dark. He had green eyes that made me think of… stop looking at them, and you’ll stop thinking about him Lainey!
“So, I’m just going to drive home, and let you catch a bus back to campus or wherever you live. That okay?” He looked like it wasn’t really okay, but he nodded anyway.
“So, I’m Kyle Wolf, by the way.”
He held out his right hand when we got to a red light and I took it. “Elaine Butler. My friends call me Lainey, but I’d rather you just stuck with Elaine.”
I was on the verge of babbling out reasons why, so I shut my mouth. The light turned green so I turned and faced the road.
“So, you’re taking a psychology class? That’s cool.”
“Yeah. I am pretty good in that class to tell you the truth. What are you planning on taking?”
“Uh…” I didn’t know if I wanted to tell him about my poetry. After a while I figured, why not. “I’m going to take this advanced creative writing class.”
He looked a little shocked. “You like to write?”
I smiled awkwardly. “Yeah. I’ve been into poetry since I was sixteen. But no one knows so…” I pretended to zip my mouth and throw away the key and he followed my actions, nodding.
“Well, I’d love to read your work sometime. I love poetry. Have you heard of unitedworldpoet.com? I go on there a lot.”
“I love that site! You write?”
“No, I just love to read. I’m wolfman91. You?”
“InsaneElaine101.”
“No kidding! I just read your poem confusion a few nights ago! I really loved the end where you said, ‘I know…”
“Yet I’m stuck in a state of confusion. You remembered that?”
“Yeah, it was the best poem I ever read on that site. I looked at your other work, but it was all so dark. Are you emo?” He laughed a bit at the thought of me cutting myself no doubt.
“No, I’ve just had a rough few years I guess.”
“What’s been going on?”
I looked down. Then back up at him. “If you want to know, read my poems. That’s all I’m going to say.”
I realized that we were on the front porch to my house. I turned around and almost ran inside when he grabbed my arm.
I looked at my arm where he touched it and my skin tingled in a way that was extremely unpleasant to me. Then I looked up at his eyes and saw a seriousness I never would have expected.
I pulled my arm away. “What the HELL!”
I was a little freaked. His eyes darkened and he whispered, “we need to talk.”
[Author’s note: I really hope you guys like this story, but I don’t know, so please vote and comment! If you comment I will dedicate a chapter to you! And also, if anyone wants to try and design a better cover, I will dedicate a chapter to you! One more thing; unitedworldpoet.com is real and I have an account. confusion is a real poem I posted on there. And I have the high score of tetris on it, just saying.]