“Wow, you really have no coordination at all.”
I glared at Colby’s grinning face as he led me across the skating rink. I was holding on to his arms, with him skating backwards. Why did I even agree to this? I was a lousy skater.
Oh yeah, Colby bribed me with lunch at Burger King. And he called me a chicken. I knew it was really an old insult, but I couldn’t help myself. I was most definitely not a chicken.
Well, when it came to these kinds of things, anyway.
It was the day after our activity day, and now I found myself on skates, with Colby, in a skating rink. We were just supposed to go to the mall to cool off, since it was really hot out today. I thought a trip to the mall to do some window shopping and eat a huge bowl of chocolate sundae would help with the heat. I had never thought though, that I would be cooling off in a different kind of way.
The skating rink was big enough for it to not be too crowded. There were thick plastic panels surrounding the rink, and outside of the ice, people are milling about the mall. Some were watching the activities inside the rink, and unfortunately, that included me all wobbly on my skates. Briefly, my eyes gazed from beyond the panels, and I longed to be on the mall’s tiled floors again, wearing my chucks, instead of being on skates, standing on ice.
I turned back to Colby and gripped his arms tighter, making him wince slightly.
“Not too tight, Kayla. I’d like to have my arms intact.”
I would’ve punched him had I not been too hesitant to let go of one of his arms. I just continued glaring at him as we very slowly glided across the ice. A kid about 6 years old zoomed by, and I stared wistfully at her. I wished I had taken classes when I was younger.
“Slant your feet, and just drag them across the ice,” Colby said for about the hundredth time. I swore to the heavens, that was what I had been doing for the past hundred tries, too. Deciding to give it one more shot, I placed my skates in a slanted position against the slippery floor of ice, and with a deep breath, moved my right foot forward, picturing in my mind how figure skaters that I had enjoyed watching when I was little dug their skates into the ice. I managed to glide my right foot without flailing about, and Colby voiced out heartening words as I followed the movement with my left foot.
I repeated the action and to my surprise, I was still standing up. My eyes widened in delight as I looked up at Colby, and I beamed when I saw him smiling widely at me. I actually skated. Well, it was just a few glides, but still! They were a definite improvement from my futile attempts a while ago.
Colby gave one more encouraging nod, which I returned, and began to once again skate. We were nearing halfway the small rink, and I was beginning to feel confident as my concentration grew more and more with every movement of my skates.
“I think I got it,” I said, my brows furrowed in concentration. “Let go of one of my hands—“
Suddenly one of my foot slipped from under me, making it slide between Colby’s legs as I yelped. Colby gripped my arms firmly, but it was a tad too late as we both came crashing down the ice.
“Owww,” I moaned, rubbing my butt. I was wearing jeans made out of light denim, as I didn’t originally plan on skating, so I could feel a wet patch beginning to form through my jeans. I glanced at Colby, who was sprawled stomach down on the ice. His eyes were unfocused as he looked around the rink, as if he were in a daze. Apparently it wasn’t his plan to go skating, too. I could already see a wet spot forming on his shirt. I contemplated telling him but my butt becoming numb was the only thing I could care about right now.
Sighing, I hung my head. I should’ve never told him I couldn’t skate, and I should’ve never let him talked me into this.
My eyes went back once more at Colby, I now found his eyes fixed on me and there was a slight twitching on his lips. He was still lying on the ice, the coolness of it not bothering him as he stared at me. With all the whiteness surrounding us, I could only focus now on the green of his eyes, butt problem now forgotten.
His eyes looked amazing.
And then, of course, he began to laugh. Not just a chuckle, but a hearty, full-blown laugh that made by standers and other skaters look at us. I felt my cheeks flushed, but as the sound of Colby’s laughter continued, I couldn’t help but feel like laughing, too. I watched as his body convulsed with laughter, his eyes crinkling at the corners and blinking away tears. When he slapped a hand against the ice, that was it. I let loose, and pretty soon, one side of my body was laying down on the cold floor beneath us as well.
Colby managed to control his laughter enough to pull us both back on our feet, though we were wobbling a bit because of the occasional bursts of giggles that came from our chests. I shook my head, gripping Colby’s arms once again as we slowly made our way to exit the rink. Unfortunately, it was still a couple of meters away and that meant I was going to have to “skate” for an extended period of time.
I took a deep breath and tried to focus on moving my feet, when Colby paused. He looked down at me, a thoughtful expression on his face. I met him with a questioning one.
“You know what?” He began. “I’m gonna carry you.”
My eyes widened in mortification. “No you can’t! That’s dangerous, and if you drop me, I’ll die!”
His head slightly tilted, he rolled his eyes and said sarcastically, “Well. Thank you for the trust.” Before I could respond, he added, “Figure skaters do it all the time.”
My eyebrows shot up. “You. Are. Not. A. Figure skater!” I hissed. I calmed down though, because I saw a genuine hurt in Colby’s eyes. I sighed.
“It’s not that I don’t trust you,” I began. “You know I do. You’re one of the people I trust the most now.”
Colby blinked, and a small smile began to curve his lips. “Thanks,” he mumbled. There was a hint of shyness in his tone and I couldn’t help but smile a little at that, too. Sometimes he could really be adorable.
Then that small smile turned into a full blown mischievous one. “You said you trust me,” he said slowly, in a voice that made something very close to dread sink at the bottom of my stomach. I would’ve backed away, but I wouldn’t want my butt touching the ice anymore. And it was not like I could actually back away, not when Colby had one of his arms firmly around my waist.
“So,” he continued, “you have to trust me when I do this!”
Colby then suddenly lifted me up in a motion so fluid, it made me shout in surprise. I instinctively wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist, with my cheek pressed against the side of his head. As a string of colorful curse words flittered through mind, I could feel people looking at us, probably thinking how crazy this guy was. And they were right!
How did he even manage to do that without slipping on his skates?
And then I saw we were near the handles that surrounded the rink, and one of his hands was holding onto the handle while his other arm was wrapped around my waist.
“You ready?” I could feel the warmth of his breath on my neck.
Without waiting for a response, Colby let go of the handle and wrapped his other arm around me, locking me in place. I hung my head down, training my eyes downwards. All I could see what the white of the ice as Colby carefully skated towards the exit of the rink. I was beginning to relax when I realized that this was Colby—I trusted him fully. When he suddenly paused though, I let out a little yelp yet again. I slapped him lightly on his back and was about to lecture him when I got cut off.
“What are you doing, man?”
My eyebrows shot up at the sound of a deep voice, which seemed to have a bit of a country twang. Looked like he was talking to Colby. I wanted to shift and twist my body around to see who was talking, but Colby might lose his balance if I did, so I stayed in place.
Colby cleared his throat. Before he could speak, though, the other guy continued talking.
“That’s dangerous, you might lose your grip and she’ll fall,” the voice said. It paused for a while and when it spoke again, I could hear the slight malice in its tone. I could almost sense him lick his lips.
“It’ll be a waste of such a pretty girl.” He drawled the last few words, and I felt a chill go through my spine. I could already tell that this guy, whoever he was, was a definite sleaze ball.
I blinked once in disgust. Now I didn’t want to turn around and see that ass’s face. I felt Colby’s back stiffen, and he cleared his throat once again. His arms around my waist tightened, and I thought he might’ve closed his eyes as he took a deep breath.
“Listen, man,” Colby drawled out in a quiet, but firm and I had to say, intimidating, voice. “I don’t like it that you’re assuming that I’m going to let her fall.”
I blinked again, more rapidly this time. I had not heard Colby use this voice before. It was kind of scary, like he was going to punch this guy had not we been standing on ice with me wrapped up in his arms.
“And,” Colby continued as he started skating forward again slowly. “I think I care enough for my own girl’s safety. So, if you don’t mind, piss off.”
I heard a mumbled “sorry” and the sound of skates screeching against the ice as the other guy scampered away. My mind was floored. Colby was usually polite and nice, but now he had told someone to piss off. Plus, he called me his girl. I knew though that he only said that because he wanted to get rid of the guy. The “piss off” part though, that was something new.
I didn’t realize we were back on solid ground until Colby put me down gently, supporting me up by holding my shoulders as I stood in front of him. My face crumpled with concern as I took in his expression. He looked tense, and it seemed like he was really, really angry. His normally bright green eyes were clouded over, and the warmth in them was gone, replaced by pure coldness. Plus, he wasn’t looking at me. His eyes were trained, narrowed, at the skating rink, and I followed his line of sight. There, I saw a tall, blond boy talking to a girl on the far corner of the rink. I guess this was the guy who confronted Colby.
I poked him on the stomach with my finger, and he didn’t even flinch. Pouting, I poked him harder. He then turned to look at me, the frown on his face softening as our eyes met. His normally warm green eyes were cold and hard. Tilting my head, I raised my eyebrows before asking, “Are you okay?”
He puffed his cheeks and nodded. Releasing the air audibly, he mumbled, “Yeah, I’m okay.”
When I raised an eyebrow at him, he sighed. “I didn’t like how he was looking at you. He looked like he wanted to…” his voice trailed off as his jaw tensed once again.
Reaching out to touch his outstretched arm, I gave it a gentle squeeze. His thumb began to trace circles near my collarbone, and I gave him a little smile.
“Well, it sure looked like you scared him,” I commented. One corner of his mouth started to lift, and I was sensing that the smirk was coming. My smile turned into a mischievous one as well as I added, “You turning into another Matty?”
Colby’s mouth dropped open. He mumbled something under his breath which I didn’t quite hear. Before I could ask what he was muttering though, he turned to me with that smirk on his lips. “I am much cooler than your brother.”
It’s now my turn to look astonished and he quickly added, “Don’t tell him I said that.”
Rolling my eyes, I pointed to my skates. “Let’s go get changed to regular shoes, please.”
He gave me a small nod and together, we walked toward the corner where the skates were being rented out. Before we could reach the counter though, Colby’s hand found my arm, stopping me from going further.
I stepped around carefully to face him, ready to say that I really wanted my chucks back. When I saw the uncertainty that was back in his eyes, though, the words died in my throat and concern immediately seeped in once again.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, and Colby shrugged. He looked down once and with hesitation, lifted his eyes back up to me.
“Did you think I was going to drop you?” He blurted out.
My shoulders slumped down slightly as I looked at Colby. “Of course not,” I said in an assuring tone. He still looked uncertain, though. I let out a breath and then flashed him a full-blown smile.
“I knew you were not going to drop me. Plus, I was holding on to you too tightly,” I added. “There was no way I was going to let go.”
“Well, there was no way I was going to let go of you, either,” Colby said. I felt a rush of gratefulness surge through me, combined some other feeling that I couldn’t put a name to. The coldness surrounding us made his cheeks turn pinkish, and I was pretty sure mine were, too.
Colby cleared his throat. “I also promised Matty, remember?”
That made me smile, and I nodded. “You did.”
He ran a hand through his hair and scratched the back of his neck. “Well,” he breathed, starting to walk again towards the skate rental counter. “Let’s go get our shoes.”
“Yep,” I said, popping the p. “I want my chucks.”
At the sound of Colby’s gentle laugh, an unexpected rush of warmth invaded my body, so sudden that it almost made me dizzy. I had to blink a couple of times to clear my head. Placing a hand on my cheek, I shivered. It was funny—I was shivering in warmth. It was strange, yet pleasant.
Weird.
“Are you okay?”
In a flash, Colby was in front of me, slightly crouching down so he can look into my eyes. Creases lined his forehead and concern flashed in his eyes. I blinked once more and managed a small smile.
“I’m good,” I said. Colby raised an eyebrow, clearly not convinced, but I didn’t say anything more. I myself didn’t even know how to explain what happened just then. He grabbed my hand and led me to the shop, then pushed me down gently on the seat. He sat beside me, and I watched as he took his skates off hastily before standing in front of me, with only his socks on. I looked up at him, confused. He then crouched down, and I snapped out of whatever daze I was in just when he was untying one of my skates.
“Hey, I can do that myself,” I protested, but Colby ignored me and continued taking my skates off anyway. His grip on my leg was gentle as he took my skates off carefully. There it was again, the warmth, making me wrap my arms around myself.
Colby stood up when he finished taking my skates off, and grabbed his skates as well.
“Stay here,” he commanded. He didn’t wait for a response, and off he went to the counter to retrieve our shoes. I obediently stayed seated, after all, I couldn’t really walk around in my socks. The tiled floor was kind of cold.
A few minutes later, Colby came back with his Nikes and my chucks. He plopped down on the seat next to me and set the shoes down in front of us. He shot me a sideways glance as a smirk started to form on his mouth.
“I gather you can put those on yourself,” he said as he jammed one foot into his sneakers.
I shot him an exasperated look. Following his lead, I began to put my shoes on as well. I cleared my throat before retorting, “I believe I told you that I could take the skates off by myself.”
Colby shrugged as he lifted his foot up on the edge of our seat to tie his shoelace. “I know.”
I finished tying my shoelaces and turned to look at Colby, the same time he turned to look at me. He gave me a lopsided smile, one which I returned. Right then, there were no need for words. He knew I was grateful for his presence, and I knew that he felt the same.
We stood there for a while, staring at each other. Emotions tumbled in my chest once again, but they were the pleasant kind of jumbles, if you know what I mean.
With straightened shoulders, I reached out and grabbed Colby’s wrist. I tugged at it, and started to walk away from the skating rink, Colby in tow.
“Where are we going?” He asked.
I looked at him over my shoulder and grinned widely.
“I want my Burger King.”
*****
Colby and I spent the rest of the entire summer together. Sometimes we spent time in my house, watching movies. Other times, we spent it in Susan’s house, where we played with Cameron. The majority of our time was spent in my backyard though, lounging lazily, singing, guitar playing, star gazing, and talking about almost everything imaginable.
One night, just a couple of days before we had to go back to school, we were lying down on a big blanket that we had laid out in my backyard. There weren’t too many stars out that night, but the expanse of the black sky was enough to keep us in wonder.
“I so don’t want to go back to school,” Colby drawled out.
I hummed in agreement. As I had already mentioned, I did like going to school, but this summer had been the best one so far. Colby had been a major part of it. I closed my eyes, shutting out the stars and took a deep breath. I was going to miss this summer the most.
There was a gentle poke on my cheek and I slowly opened my eyes to find Colby leaning towards me, his head propped up on his hand. He gave me a small smile.
“A penny for your thoughts?” He asked.
I closed my eyes again, a smile identical to Colby’s stretching my lips. “I am going to miss this.”
There was a moment of silence, then another poke. “We can still do this.”
I opened one eye and peeked at Colby. “I know, I meant I’m going to miss the summer.”
Colby nodded. “Me too, especially all the things we did together.” He then laid on his back, his hands folded on his tummy. He closed his eyes, making me close mine as well. A few minutes passed, and then I felt Colby’s hand brushed mine. His finger began tracing my knuckles, my lips forming a smile once more. I didn’t need to peek to know that Colby was smiling as well.
“Let’s visit Jill sometime,” I murmured.
He hummed in approval. “I want to see Aaron too, and Melissa.”
My smile widened. “Those two are adorable.”
Now these kids had been getting closer and closer to each other. The last time we saw them was after the activity day, and Melissa had been carrying around a stuffed elephant. It was bright yellow with pale pink ears. It was a gift from Aaron, and the girl absolutely loved it.
The beauty of young love.
“I know,” Colby replied. “They are almost as adorable as I am.”
Before I could retort, Colby lifted his head up and reached for his guitar, which was lying on the grass. He then placed the guitar across our stomachs, and turned to face me.
“Play me something,” he said.
I raised an eyebrow. “Why don’t you play? You’re much better than I am, anyway.”
He raised an eyebrow back at me. “Practice.”
I pouted, and he just raised his eyebrow higher, which made me roll my eyes.
“Fine,” I sighed, pushing the guitar off me and sitting up. My eyes fell on Colby and saw that he was smiling smugly while handing out the guitar to me. I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at him and grabbed the guitar, placing it on my lap. I let my fingers run once against the strings and looked at the boy sitting across from me. The slight breeze was playing with his hair, which had gone longer over the summer, and there was that usual gleam in his green eyes. The smug smile was long gone, replaced by a genuine one, the kind that never failed to make me smile back.
“Play me something,” he repeated.
Now my guitar skills were almost close to zero, so I could only play really basic stuff. Colby had been helping me out, and it had helped, but I was nowhere near being a rock star anytime soon. Colby though, on the other hand, was really good.
As I was searching my brain for a song to play, Colby started to hum and I couldn’t help but smile again. When he asked me that afternoon of our last day at Corwin’s if I liked his singing, I laughed at him and nodded because I did like it. He had a nice voice, and he sang simply. No runs or whatever else that made singing fancy. It was pleasant to hear.
“Hey,” I said as I nudged his leg with my foot. He looked at me mid-hum and rose his eyebrows in question.
I smiled and leaned towards him, shoving the guitar in his chest. “Play that song.”
Colby smirked, letting his arm hung from the top of the guitar after placing it properly on his lap. “You can’t play it?”
I glared at him with narrowed eyes as he tried to look nonchalant. The keyword here was “tried.” It was hard to look nonchalant when one had that smirk.
“Don’t make me hurt you,” I warned, raising a fist. He held up one hand in surrender and leaned back slightly away from me. He muttered a few words and they were probably about me and my so-called violence again. He should really give that a rest—it was not like I was actually going to hurt him. It was not like I could.
Colby began to play. I automatically rested my chin on my hand, and just listened.
And then he began to sing. I closed my eyes, humming along.
When we got to a certain part of the song, a smile crept on my face as my eyes opened and found Colby’s green ones trained on mine. He had a small, contended smile on his face and together, we sang that line.
Adding up a total of a love that’s true
Multiply life by the power of two
I was pretty sure I was off key.
*****
Summer went by as fast as it came. It was true that time flew when one was having fun. Like I had said plenty of times, this was one summer I would never forget.
As I drove to school, the beautiful clear sky and trees surrounding me, my hands drumming against the steering wheel, it hit me. I was going to be a senior. Last year in high school. I shook my head in amazement. Time sure flew.
Before I knew it, I was on the school’s parking lot. Nothing much had changed, and there were already a couple of people milling about. I smiled. Freshmen, most of them. Maybe I was the only one in senior year that arrived this early on the first day of school. I gathered my things, got out of my truck and closed the door shut. I was about twenty minutes early, since I didn’t want to clamor with the other students on getting the class schedules. Hugging my jacket close to my body, I proceeded to the school’s front doors.
I went directly to the office and got my schedule. Adjusting the strap of my bag on my shoulder, I reviewed the classes I had to take and almost groaned. I had Spanish. Not exactly my expertise. The rest of my classes though, I had no problem with. Plus, I had astronomy. Oh well. This was going to be a challenge.
Squaring my shoulder, I made my way to my locker. As I neared it, my face broke into a huge smile.
“Ty!” I called out, jogging towards the tall figure leaning against my locker. His head was down, and his hair had gotten floppier, making it bounce slightly when his head snapped up. His baby blues lightened up, and when his face broke into a grin, mine did, too. I missed this goofball.
“Missed me?” He asked, gathering me into a huge hug once I had reached him. I gave his waist a squeeze and then let go, staring up at him with a serious expression on my face.
“I cried myself to sleep every night knowing that I won’t see you the next morning,” I replied, blinking up at him.
Tyler rolled his eyes, but smiled nonetheless. “I missed you, too.”
As I opened my locker, I glanced out the corner of my eye at Tyler curiously. “Why are you so early on the first day of school?”
He shrugged, leaning against the locker next to mine. “I had to drop Maya off at hers, so I got up early.”
At the mention of Ty’s pretty girlfriend, I perked up. “Oh, how are things going between you two? I bet your summer was awesome, huh? You hardly updated me at all!”
During the whole summer, Tyler might’ve sent me a text about five times. I understood that he was busy, and with Maya being there at camp with him, I didn’t really mind. After all, I had my own summer events that kept me quite busy, too.
“Things are great with Maya… wait, no. Things are perfect with Maya,” Tyler swooned. I bit my lip to keep from laughing. The first day of school would not be complete without Tyler’s dramatics.
“That’s good to know, I’m happy for you,” I said enthusiastically, fishing out a couple of papers out of my locker from last term.
“How about your summer? How was Colby?” He asked, brushing a curl off that fell on his eyes.
“This summer was great… wait, no. This summer was perfect,” I began, noticing that Tyler was narrowing his eyes at me. I chuckled.
“It was great, really. I had more fun volunteering at Corwin’s with Colby there,” I said, shutting my locker close. “We spent the rest of the summer just hanging out, but it was fun.”
“Yeah?” Tyler’s eyes lit up. “Are you two dating yet?”
Facing my friend, I frowned at him. “Why does everyone think we’re dating, or that we should date?”
“Who’s dating who?”
I didn’t have to turn around to know that Colby was standing behind me. A hand fell on top of my head and pressed down gently. Turning my head slightly, I caught a glimpse of Colby’s bright green eyes. He was wearing a white shirt with a grey jacket on top, well-fitted jeans, and his Nikes. He gave me a smile, and then nodded a greeting at Tyler while extending his hand, which Tyler slapped in a high five.
“Hey Tyler,” Colby said in a friendly voice. Tyler said hi back, and they began to talk about sports, the topic of dating now forgotten. His hand was still on my head the whole time they were talking, and I huffed a little.
“Can you remove your hand from my head, please,” I said, raising an eyebrow and in the process interrupting their conversation.
Colby looked sheepish as he withdrew his hand. “Sorry,” he said, a lopsided smile on his face. Tyler looked like he was trying to keep his laughter in. I just shot him a glare.
Clearing his throat, Colby stuffed his hands into the pocket of his jeans and stretched his back. Once he was relaxed, he asked, “So, you guys got your schedules?”
Ty nodded, waving a piece of paper in the air as I was immediately reminded of Spanish. I pouted. Colby and Tyler just finished comparing schedules (it seemed like they had no classes together but had the same time for lunch) when Colby looked at me, took notice of my pout, making his eyebrows furrow.
“Why the pout?” He asked. I sighed as I leaned against my locker, next to Tyler. Tyler, who was also looking confused, grabbed the paper from my hand and began to read my schedule. His mouth opened in understanding as he nodded. He handed back the paper to me, and I gingerly took it from him.
Colby too leaned on the locker next to mine, sandwiching me between him and Tyler. His eyebrows furrowed even more as he watched understanding flitter across Tyler’s face.
“What is it?” Colby asked again.
“She got Spanish,” Tyler answered.
Upon hearing the fact, I groaned out loud.
“Not exactly your forte, huh?” Colby said, nudging me with his shoulder. Since he was tall, he had to crouch down to hit me against my shoulder. I shot him a look.
“You think?” I asked, sarcasm rich in my voice.
“She doesn’t work well with foreign languages,” Tyler spoke up. He straightened himself, pulling away from the lockers. Picking up his backpack from the floor, he slung one of the straps on his shoulder before tugging on my arm. He gave me another brief hug, and nodded at Colby.
“My class is on the other side of the school, so I better be going now,” Ty said. “Great seeing you both, and let’s catch up during lunch later, man. Good luck with Spanish, Kayla.”
Colby raised a hand as Tyler walked to his class. He then turned his attention back to me. I knew it was very early to be sulking about Spanish, but what Tyler said was nicely put. I absolutely sucked at foreign languages. My sulkiness must be evident in my expression since Colby gently poked my cheek. He had been doing that a lot lately. When I didn’t respond, he poked my cheek again.
“I can help you with Spanish, you know,” Colby said. “Brazil’s official language is Portuguese, but it’s a bit close to Spanish so I might be able to help out.”
My head snapped up, and I turned to face Colby. “Really?” I asked hopefully. “You wouldn’t mind?”
One of Colby’s eyebrow rose, and a small smile played on his lips. He leaned down, bringing his forehead close to mine.
“Did you really just ask that?” He asked, his voice laced with amusement. “You know I won’t mind at all. I’d be happy to try and help.”
A wide grin stretched my lips. “Thank you!” I cried out as I lunged for Colby, attacking him with a hug. He teetered back a bit in surprise, but steadied himself immediately as he returned my hug.
“Sheesh, now I feel all pressured,” Colby said. There was a teasing glint to his voice though, so I just rolled my eyes as I released him from the hug. From then we both began walking towards our class, and learned that we had two classes together this year—economics and astronomy. We had the same time for lunch as well.
I had English for first period, and Colby had statistics. Our rooms were a bit far from each other, but Colby insisted that he walk me to my room. I just shrugged and told him to suit himself. After all, I wouldn’t be the one arriving late for class.
The rest of the day went by pretty quickly, with Colby, Tyler and I deciding to go off campus for lunch. We went to a small corner store and had sandwiches and shakes. My tummy was very happy. We also spent our lunch talking about our summer, me and Colby telling Ty about our summer together, and Ty babbling about the camp and his beloved girlfriend. We got back to school just in time for our afternoon classes. Astronomy was my last class, which I had with Colby. We sat on the front seat, which reminded me of our chemistry days. Our teacher, however, was completely different from Mr. Solis. Her name was Mrs. Jennings, a plump, forty-something, cheerful woman. I could tell that she was not going to be a walking sleeping pill, and I had a feeling that this was going to be my favorite class this year.
We were dismissed early by Mrs. Jennings, and I stuffed my things inside my bag while Colby stretched out on his seat beside me. Zipping my bag up, I turned to the boy beside me and nodded, signaling that I was ready to go. Colby stood up, grabbed my wrist, and pulled me up off my seat. Together, we exited the room and then went our separate ways to get to our lockers. Before we parted though, Colby said that he would swing by my locker before he goes home. He didn’t bring his bike today, he said.
“Oh, so you’re going to bum a ride off of me, then?” I called out to Colby, who had his back already turned to me and was proceeding down the hall.
He suddenly turned around and smiled widely. “You betcha.”
I chuckled and shook my head, then began walking towards my locker. It wasn’t too crowded yet, since the final bell had not rung. Luckily my locker wasn’t too far from the astronomy classroom, so I didn’t have to hurry. My sneaker-clad feet moved slowly on the tiled floor, and I noticed that the tiles were gleaming. Must be newly cleaned.
Nearing my locker, I felt my phone vibrate through the front pocket of my bag. Fishing my phone out, I read a text from my mom saying that she would be home late as there was an emergency at work. I continued walking until I was in front of my locker and replied an okay. Letting out a deep breath, I placed the phone back inside my bag pocket. I reached for the handle of my locker to open it, but stopped short. My eyebrows shot up.
On my locker, a single pink tulip was taped. Confused, I ran a finger against the soft petals and carefully took the tape off the stem. It was pretty, but I was sure someone must’ve mistaken my locker for someone else’s.
That was my thought, until I heard someone clearing his throat right behind me. I quickly turned around, tulip in hand, and found myself staring into a pair of warm, brown eyes.
Kyle.
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Okay, I know I've taken way too long again. But please understand that I do have other things to do besides write. Work has been so hectic-- I've been given more load than you can imagine. I'll be gone for 4 days too, starting on the 27th (my birthday!) for a much needed vacation. I can't say when I'll be uploading the next chapter. I am working on bits and pieces of it now, but I dunno when I can finish it.
This chapter was not proofread, and I finished this just this morning. So please be kind :P
Much love to all of you <3