A High School Story

*Keyla’s POV*
“Why can’t you do anything right!” mom yelled angrily from the floor above me and I let my head fall back against my headboard before closing my eyes.
“What did I do now?!” dad yelled back just as angrily and I grabbed my phone and iPod from my bedside table as I stood up and then headed out of my room.
Cooper looked up from where he was laying beside the front door before standing up and trotting after me as the voices grew louder upstairs. This was already the fifth time they had started screaming since I got home and it was only six thirty. Chances are, there would be at least three more out bursts before they called it a night. This was why I never wanted to date. As far as I could tell, every married couple either ended up screaming at each other multiple times every night or only seeing each other a week out of every month if they were lucky. I didn’t want any of that. Why would I when I was fine being single?
“Sometimes I think you’re the only one that cares,” I sighed to Cooper as he ran in front of me on the way out the back door.
He barked gruffly in protest and I smiled.
“Yeah, I know that they love me but sometimes it all just gets to me,” I replied and he stared at me with a transfixed expression on his face, “I know! I know! Mollie loves me too!”
He whined and then looked over at the Jonas’ house before looking back at me.
“I have no clue what you’re talking about,” I protested and crossed my arms stubbornly across my chest.
He growled quietly while sending a low glare my way. I returned it before sitting down on the cement and waiting for him to come over to me. His paws brushed against my bare legs as he sat down in front of me and I sighed while rubbing the back of his ears.
“If he cares then why is he acting like this?” I questioned him and he let another gruff bark, but this one sounded more like a scoff, “Well I wouldn’t be asking if I knew, now would I! Don’t give me that look mister, or else you’ll be sleeping on the floor in the living room for the rest of the week!”
He immediately stopped rolling his eyes before whining and leaning in so that he could kiss me on my cheek.
“Yeah yeah, I know that you love me too,” I laughed while whipping all of the dog saliva off my cheek.
He smiled at me while wagging his tail and I let my eyes fall closed before I rested my forward on his.
“Maybe I should give Dan a chance,” I whispered and he whined in protest again, “I’m not just doing it to make Joe jealous!”
He made yet another scoffing sound and I opened my eyes again before glaring at him.
“Dan is a very nice guy and if he really wants to go out with me then I shouldn’t let captain screw ups brother stand in my way of giving him a chance!”
I looked away from Cooper and starting going through my contacts in search of Dan’s number. He whined loudly while pawing at my phone.
“You have to learn how to share me eventually,” I reminded him and he whined irritably before getting up and running to the other side of the yard, “Fine! Be that way!”
I looked back at my phone and found Dan before pressing the green phone.
“Hello?” a familiar cheerful voice asked barely a second after the second ring.
“Hey Dan, its Keyla,” I replied reluctantly and I swear I could feel his cheerfulness dripping out of the receiver.
“Hey Keyla! Did you think it over enough?” he asked and I smiled lightly at the thought of him not caring that I wanted to think it over before making a decision.
“Yeah, yeah I did. And I decided that…I’d love to go out with you sometime,” I answered and I saw Cooper huff out a heap full of air from a few feet away.
“That’s great!” he chimed, “When is good for you?”
“Um…anytime really,” I replied and turned my head upward as the voices from inside intensified greatly, “Now would be a perfect time if you’re available.”
“Now?” he repeated with a slight sense of shock in his voice.
“Only if you’re up for it,” I assured him while trying to block out the slurs of profanities and insults that my parents were currently shooting at each other, “We could wait for a better day if you’re busy-“
“Now is great!” he protested quickly and I smiled, “I’ll pick you up in ten minutes, okay?”
“Do you remember how to get to my house? It’s been awhile since we had to work on that Spanish project together last year,” I chuckled out the last part and he joined in before assuring me that he would be able to find it and then hanging up.
I heard the familiar banging of a patio door as I slipped my phone back into my skirt pocket and I turned my head in secret anticipation.
“Hey,” Nick smiled at me from next door and I returned it with a hard glare, “You’re mad at me, too, I’m assuming?”
“No duh dib shit,” I scoffed while standing up and walking over to the fence that separated our yards, “Why you thought you could kiss her and then act like that is beyond me.”
“It was a stupid thing to do, I know. I regret it, I really do,” he apologized and my glare turned into a sneer.
“You regret kissing her?” I questioned.
“Of course not!” he yelled and shook his head frantically, causing me to smile slightly in amusement, “I mean that I regret not telling Mike to back off of her.”
“How many times has Mike come onto Mollie like that in front of you?” I asked.
“A couple times…” he whispered and looked down at his feet.
“And how many times have you told him to stop or stuck up for her?”
“None,” he sighed and I pursed my lips in annoyance.
“And how many times have you let him talk about Mollie in ways that would make a nun faint?”
“A lot,” he admitted and I waited for him to look up at me, “You don’t understand, okay?”
“No Nick, you don’t understand,” I protested and slowly shook my head, “Mike has done things that you don’t know of-”
“And so have you, and so has Mollie,” he interrupted me, “Isn’t that what friendship is? People looking past the others flaws and past mistakes?”
“Friendship? Mike doesn’t have friends, he has cronies,” I laughed and Nick glared lightly at me, “I hate to break it to you darling but he doesn’t give a rat’s ass about you.”
“That’s not true,” he mumbled, “He’s my friend.”
“Whatever you want to believe Nick,” I sighed and patted him lightly on the shoulder, “I’ll see you tomorrow or something.”
“Where are you going?” he questioned as his eyes narrowed slightly.
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I have a date,” I explained and his eyes widened to the point where they were nearly half the size of his face, “What?”
“But what about Joe?”
“Not that this is any of your business either, but your brother has been avoiding me for the past few days.”
“So you’re giving up?”
“I never said that.”
“But you’re-“
“It’s just a date!” I yelled at him impatiently, “It’s not like I’m planning to marry the kid!”
“Whatever,” he scoffed while holding his hands in the air in a defeated sort of way.
I rolled my eyes at him before turning on my heel and heading out to the front yard. As I closed the gate behind me, a semi-familiar Jeep pulled into the driveway with a brightly smiling face sitting behind the wheel.
“Hi Keyla!” Dan called excitedly as he jumped out of the car.
“Hey,” I chuckled and lightly returned his done crushing embrace.
“So where do you want to go?” he asked, “I’m up for anything as long as I’m with you.”
I felt my face start to burn and a guilty knot tightened in the pit of my stomach. This was a horrible idea from the go.
“Um…anything is good with me,” I answered as we began to walk me to the passenger door of his Jeep.
“We could go bowling,” he suggested and I felt my face burn even hotter as his hand met mine on the door handle to the passenger door.
“Sounds great,” I mumbled while pulling my hand away quickly and trying to think of a way to sink into the cement.

“I let you win!” I protested and Dan scoffed loudly from the seat next to me, “I did! If you would have agreed to one more game than I would have kicked your butt!”
“I’m sure you would have Keyla,” he laughed, “Just like you could have taken down that biker that cut you in line at the shoe return.”
“I could have taken him!” I tried to convince him as the street lights illuminated the houses that bordered each side of the road, “He was all fat and I on the other hand am all muscle!”
“Yeah right,” he teased.
“Daniel Morgan are you calling me fat!?” I demanded and he burst out laughing, “What!?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me! You’re like a tooth pick! That biker could have snapped you in half!” he smirked over at me lightly and I rolled my eyes as I crossed my arms over my chest.
“I could have taken him,” I grumbled to my lap.
“I’m sure you could have if you had the right motivation,” he chuckled and patted my knee softly, “It’s too dark for me to tell, which house is it?”
“It’s two down from here,” I answered and pointed my house out to him, “The one with the front light on.”
“I hope your parents don’t mind you being out so late on a school night.”
“It’s nine-thirty!” I laughed while trying not to dwell on the fact that they probably haven’t even noticed my absence.
“Well I do hope that you have your homework done young lady,” he scolded me and cut the engine to his car after he pulled into the driveway.
“Young lady?” I asked and raised an eyebrow at him curiously.
He shrugged and flashed me another bright smile.
“Um…well…I had a great time tonight,” I said after a few awkwardly silent moments and rubbed the back of my neck, this had definitely been a bad idea.
Dan was a nice guy and I honestly do think that he cared about me but I just couldn’t bring myself to let go of the one person who seemed to want nothing to do with me at the moment. Whatever hold Joe had on me, it wasn’t a healthy one.
“Me too,” he chimed and shifted his body so that he was facing me, I didn’t like where this was going, “I’d love to do it again sometime. Maybe even this weekend if you’re free!”
“Mollie and I have plans for this weekend already,” I answered truthfully and he nodded.
“That’s cool. I understand, you have to put your friends first,” he replied, “Maybe the next weekend then. I have a family thing on Saturday but we could go see a movie Friday night or something.”
“Dan…” I trailed off and tried to find the right words to explain this to him, there were none.
“Yeah?”he probed and leaned in a little bit closer.
“Dan…I…” I could feel my chest tighten significantly as he came closer and closer, “…I…I can’t do this to you.”
“Do what to me?” he asked and stopped mid way to my lips, “Keyla, what are you talking about?”
“I like you a lot Dan…but just as friends,” I sighed and he immediately sprang back to his own side of the car again, “I thought that I could change that if I went out with you but I just…”
“There’s another guy isn’t there?” he whispered and my stomach dropped at the pain that was dripping from his voice, “Be honest with me.”
“Yeah, there’s another guy,” I mumbled and he nodded to himself before sighing and looking back up at me again, “I’m sorry for leading you on like this. I know it was wrong and I really do hope that we can still be friends.”
“Of course we can still be friends,” he chuckled and smiled just as brightly as he had been before, “Just because we’re not going to work out in the way that I hoped doesn’t mean we can’t be friends!”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
I returned his smiled and he spread his arms before allowing me to hug him tightly.
“Good luck with your mystery man,” he teased me and I chuckled before kissing him lightly on the cheek and climbing out of the car.
“I’ll see you tomorrow at school!” I called as he backed out of the driveway and he waved before driving off.
“He seems nice,” a voice grumbled from behind me and I jumped in surprise.
“Gees Joe! Way to scare me half to death!” I laughed and looked up into his serious, emotionless face.
“How was your date?” he questioned with a slight edge to his voice and my laughter immediately ceased, “Nick told me all about your night time get-a-way with Dan.”
“It was just a date,” I assured him while trying to brush off the negative energy that seemed to be flowing off of him.
“It’s never just a date Keyla,” he replied sourly, “If you agree to go out with someone there’s usually a reason behind it!”
“I never said that there wasn’t a reason behind it, I just said that it was a date,” I scoffed while trying to push my way past him so I could go in the house.
“Do you have feelings for him?” he demanded while pushing back on my shoulders so that I couldn’t walk past him.
“He’s a friend, that’s all,” I answered as I started to get irritated.
“Friend or friend with benefits?” he probed and it took me a few seconds before I caught on to what he was implying.
“I’m not sleeping with him Joe!” I yelled angrily.
How could he even think that I would be sleeping with him when all I did was go on one date with him?
“Are you sure, because I was getting mixed signals from you when you were in the car with him. Didn’t want to kiss him eh? Figured it was no good unless you got the whole package deal?” he scoffed and my eyes began to blur as tears started to collect at the brim of my eyelids.
No! Not here, not now. Not in front of him.
“How can you even think that I would-”
“Are you sleeping with him Keyla!?” he yelled.
“No!” I shook my head frantically but he just scoffed again before releasing me and starting back towards him own house, “Joe!”
“I’m not going to stand here and have you lie directly to my face!”
“I’m not lying to you! I’m not sleeping with him or any other guy!”
“Why should I believe you?!” he spun around sharply and glared daggers at me, “You’ve been leading me on so who’s to say that you didn’t do the same to Dan so that you could get him into bed for your own guilty pleasure!”
“You know that I’m not like that!” I practically cried, “All I did was go on a date with him!”
“Well what about us Keyla?! What about everything that I’ve been doing to try and make us happy?!”
“You haven’t talked to me in two days!” I yelled as I finally lost it, “You haven’t even look at me! You’ve been treating me like I’m invisible so excuse me if I thought you lost interest !”
“Don’t you dare pin this on me! I’m not the one who’s acting like a whore!”
My lungs constricted and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to hold in my tears for much longer.
“You know what Joe…” I sighed quietly as the realization of what he had just said hit him, “…forget it.”
“Keyla, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that-“
“Yeah you did,” I interrupted him and his eyes started to gleam in the moonlight, “But don’t worry, you won’t have to deal with it anymore.”
“Keyla, please, I’m-“
“Just don’t,” I held up my hand to signal him to stop before turning my back to him and walking silently towards the house.
“I’m so sorry,” I heard him finish behind me as I opened the door and I took a shaky breath while trying to resist the urge to run back into his arms.
With the front door closed behind me, I tuned out the loud voices that were echoing off the walls in the kitchen as I shuffled down the hallway to my room. Cooper was sprawled out across my bed and it took him less than a second to realize that something was wrong and that I’d need a teddy bear to cuddle tonight.
“He doesn’t care,” I whispered to him as I pulled back the covers to my bed and slid under the sheets without even bothering to change out of my clothes and into my pajamas.
He whined in protest and started snuggling up to me as the tears started to spill over my eyelids but I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t hold any of it in any longer. My parents practically hated each other, my dog was one of the only two people who understood me, and the one guy I thought was different and that I could trust just called me a whore and thought that I was sleeping around on him.
“I love you Cooper,” I sobbed while nuzzling the inside of his neck, “I love you more than that idiot could ever love anyone.”