A High School Story

Let me walk you through my past two days: I made sure to pick Keyla up early so I didn’t run the risk of seeing Nick as he left for school, I spent homeroom studying my Physics notes so that he didn’t have reason to think I had time to chat, I spent Chemistry on the opposite side of the room as room so I wasn’t forced to be his partner, and I spent all the free time in English chatting with Keyla as I ignored the frequent glances coming from him as he sat in the desk next to me. I had made sure that I gave Nick no reason what so ever to think that he could make any form of contact with me after the way things ended on Wednesday. I was pissed beyond belief at the boy and he knew it. If he hadn’t gotten the hint by the way I was ignoring him at school I’m pretty sure he did when I ignored his friendly wave a few hours ago when Keyla and I were going into her house.
“I still say you talk to him about,” Keyla said and pulled me out of my thoughts as she painted my toenails.
“There’s nothing to talk to him about,” I replied and leaned my check against my knees.
Tonight was one of those rare occasions that we were spending a Friday night at her house instead of mine. Keyla’s parents had cooled their tempers and arguments for the past two days so she thought it would be save for me to hide out here while Angelica ran around the house crazily while trying to prepare everything for my dad’s arrival home tomorrow. My dad was a bit more lenient when it came to my grades then mom was but he was still an extremely difficult man to please.
“I’m sure he just lost his temper for a minute,” she protested.
“I remember you telling me that about another certain boy too Keyl,” I reminded her plainly and she blushed guiltily, “Just trust me on this one, that boy is turning into bad news.”
“I talked to Joe about it,” she piped in and my neck sprang her way as my eyes widened, “He says that he hasn’t any noticeable changes in his brothers’ behavior besides the fact that he’s been a bit down since he got home from school Wednesday.”
“Well that’s Nick’s fault now isn’t it,” I scoffed and laid my head back down on my knees.
Truth be told, the more thought about that afternoon the more I thought it had all been a mistake. I should have told Mrs. Franklin to enroll me in Creative Writing class, I should have explained everything to Nick instead of hiding it from him, and I should have been more patient with him. I still think that he had no right to say those things to me but I could have handled the situation better than I did.
“So what do you want to do?” Keyla asked and once again pulling me out of my thoughts, “You’re toenails are dry and the night is still young.”
I smiled at her and she returned it as she started putting away all of her nail polish.
“Let’s talk about you and Joe,” I insisted and she immediately blushed, “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” she lied a bit to quickly and I stared her down until her shoulder rose and feel as she sighed deeply, “I haven’t really talked to him lately to be honest. We only had time to discuss that whole incident with Nick and then he had to go in and help his mom make dinner.”
“Now listen to me young lady,” I scolded her and a small smile played on her lips, “I don’t want you wasting valuable flirting time trying to figure out why Nick is acting like a moron. Got it?”
“Whatever you say mom,” she teased me and I laughed before pulling her into a hug.
“Didn’t I tell you to stop moving things without telling me!” a voice yelled from upstairs and we both looked up at the ceiling.
“I’m telling you that I didn’t touch it!” a deep voice boomed in response and Cooper ran into the room with his tail between his legs.
“And things were going so well,” Keyla sighed while leaning back against her bed.
“Well my shoes didn’t fly across the room by themselves!”
“Maybe Cooper moved them, have you ever opened your small stubborn mind to that?!”
There was a bang that suggested that Keyla’s mom had thrown yet another shoe at her husband but had missed and hit the wall instead.
“Come on,” Keyla whispered before slipping on a pair of flip flops and grabbing Cooper.
I quickly pulled on a pair of her converse before following after her. She opened the back door and let Cooper run into the backyard freely before stepping out into the night and waiting for me to follow before she closed the door again. The sound of screaming voices was muffled by the glass and I knew that we would probably out here for awhile before the voices died down completely.
“Look,” Keyla mumbled in my ear and followed her line of vision to see that Joe and Nick were sitting on their back porch with the light shining down on them. I looked around and knew immediately that they couldn’t see us do to the fact that Keyla hadn’t turned the back lights on before we came out. Cooper was somewhere behind sniffing wildly and I held my breath hoping he wouldn’t give us away.
“Sounds like they’re going at it again,” Joe sighed as the yells of Keyla’s parents carried throughout the night.
“You would think that they would run out of things to argue about,” Nick said while leaning over his guitar and writing something down on a scrap of paper.
“If you listen hard enough then you’d realize that it’s always about the same things.”
“Meaning?”
“Money, lack of respect, ignoring the others needs, how to raise Keyla,” Joe explained and I gripped Keyla’s hand tightly; he spoke the truth.
“She’s almost eighteen so I don’t really see why they would need to argue about how to raise her. She’s turned out fine anyway,” Nick replied and looked over at his brother.
“Yeah…she did,” a smile slowly spread across Joseph’s face and I distantly saw Nick roll his eyes before he went back to strumming her guitar.
“Cooper!” Keyla yelled loudly as Cooper barked even louder and jumped the fence before running after something, “Cooper come back here right now!”
Keyla ran over to where Cooper had disappeared over the fence and squinted into the dark as she looked for her dog.
“How long have you been out here?” Nick demanded as he stared at the two of us.
“Since that started,” I answered without looking at him and nodded in the direction of the house where the screaming had become even more pronounced, you were able to catch bits and pieces of swear words and insults if you listened hard enough.
“Cooper!” Keyla yelled impatiently before climbing over the low fence and jogging over to the sidewalk, “Damn it!”
“Which way did he go?” Joe asked as he placed his guitar in the chair he had just been sitting in and started towards Keyla.
“It was too dark to tell,” Keyla answered and sighed before shaking her head and running her hand through her hair.
“We’ll find him babe,” I assured her while jumping over the fence and landing softly on the balls of my feet, “He couldn’t have gone far.”
“That stupid dog was never ever to resist squirrels,” she laughed and I smiled before pulling her into a hug.
“He’s straight out of Up! I guess,” I joked and she shook with silent laughter as she buried her face into my shoulder, “We should split up. We can cover more ground that way. Can you guys help?”
“Of course,” Joe said immediately and Nick glanced at him quickly before turning his attention back to Keyla and me.
“You two go down that way and we’ll go this way,” I said and pointed in said directions.
“Don’t you think it would be saver for one of us to go with one of you,” Nick piped in as Keyla and I started to walk away.
“We can take care of ourselves,” I snapped.
“Do either of you have cell phones?” Joe asked causing Keyla and me to look at each other.
I remembered taking my phone out of my jeans pocket and placing it on her bed when we were changing into our pjs, she had done the same.
“I’ll go with Keyla,” Joe chuckled happily and I looked at her for support.
She gave me a pleading look and I sighed before turning around and heading down the opposite side of the street that I had been walking towards before.
“Let’s go Jonas!” I yelled over my shoulder and I heard a set a shuffling feet behind me.
I saw Nick’s figure appear next to mine and I fought the urge to knee him in the crouch and let him lie on the sidewalk until someone else found him. I hadn’t found any sense of security in the fact that Nick would be accompanying me on this late night journey to God knows where instead of Keyla. If anything, it made me even more nervous.
“I’m sorry,” I heard Nick mumble from next to me and I looked over at him threw my hair. He was looking at me closely and I suddenly felt self conscience in my gray short shorts and tight black camisole.
“For what?” I probed.
“For the other day after school, I was way out of line,” he answered and rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
“Damn straight,” I scoffed while crossing my arms over my chest and staring at the sidewalk in front of me.
“Can you work with me here?” he asked with a slight sense of irritation in his voice.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I demanded and flipped my hair out of my face before glaring at him.
“Let’s please not start this again,” he sighed and looked at me pleading as all sense of irritation flooded out of his voice.
“Start what?” I stopped walking and fixed my body posture to reflect my own irritation and anger.
“Another argument,” he said and turned so that he was face to face with me, “Can’t we just work through whatever happened Wednesday?”
“Do you even know why I’m so pissed off at you right now?” I questioned and turned my head to the side slightly so I could obverse him better in the dim light.
“Because I got mad at you?” he guessed.
“You think that I’ve been avoiding you for the past two days because I’m such a spoiled brat that I can’t handle people getting angry with me?”
I could barely believe what I had just heard from him and my eyes would barely it when he nodded.
“Are you serious?” I half laughed, half scoffed.
“Well…isn’t that why you’re so pissed off?” he looked at me curiously and I rolled my eyes before starting to walk down the street again in search of Cooper, “Mollie!”
“If you can’t figure out why I’m so ticked off then you can just think about it until you do figure out,” I called over my shoulder and I heard him sigh.
“Can’t you just tell me so I can fix it!” he asked desperately and I bit my lip as he jogged after me, “What did I do that’s so horrible?”
“Think back,” I whispered.
“Mollie can’t you please just tell me what I-“
“You grabbed me Nick!” I yelled and looked up, desperate for him to understand, “You grabbed me like Mike always does! You talked to me like he always has! You called me a spoiled brat and tried to stop me from going until you got what you wanted out of me. You magically turned from a nice guy with a caring heart to him.”
“I lost my temper, that’s all,” he tried to assure me but I could hear the bluff in his voice.
“You’re turning into him Nick, slowly and steadily,” I looked up at him with my pleading eyes and they bore back into his unsure ones, “I’ve seen what happens when people get too attached to Mike and I don’t want you to end up like them.

~Keyla’s POV~
*Same time*
“Let’s go Jonas!” Mollie yelled and Nick sighed lightly before starting after Mollie’s retreating figure.
“She doesn’t like him very much does she?” I asked Keyla as we started down the street.
“It’s not that she doesn’t like him. It’s that he crossed the line,” I explained.
“What do you-“
“It’s a long story. I’m not allowed to talk about it anyway,” I interrupted him while looking around frantically for Cooper.
“Oh, alrighty then,” he took in a long breath and walked with me silently for a minute, “So how did you and Mollie become friends?”
“I can’t exactly explain that in full detail either,” I sighed.
“Why not?”
“It’s…complicated,” I rubbed my arms awkwardly and finally looked over at him.
I felt my breath catch in my throat as the dim street lights rebounded off of his shirtless torso.
“Is there anything you can tell me about your life then?” he asked and chuckled lightly as he smiled down at me.
“Um…”
Oh crap, something about my life? Did he really expect me to focus on something as silly as my life when he abs were right there in front of me staring me in the face?
“Are you an only child?” he probed after I failed to provide any information on my own.
“Yep, the one and only,” I joked lamely and he smiled, “It must be nice to have three brothers though.”
“Most of the time,” he laughed and I brushed some hair out of my face while waiting for him to continue, “It gets sort of old when we all want to be the one to play the new video game first but besides that it’s pretty nice.”
“You guys seriously fight over who plays video games first?” I asked while suppressing a giggle.
“Only the new ones,” he corrected and then looked around.
What on earth was he looking for? Cooper! Right, I was supposed to be looking for Cooper.
“It still seems like something really stupid to fight about though,” I said and tore my eyes away from him before squinting down the street in hope of finding my insane dog bounding down towards us.
“We don’t really fight about it, we just bicker,” he replied and I shrugged lightly before looking down at my gray sweats and white tank top, I should have picked out a sexier pair of pjs for tonight.
“Bickering can turn into fighting pretty quickly, trust me,” I sighed and wrapped my arms around myself.
“I’m sorry about your parents by the way. I can see it’s been pretty hard on you,” he commented and I shrugged again.
“I’m used to it. I’m just being dramatic anyway,” I laughed out the last part and brushed some more hair out of my face, “I do that sometimes.”
“You’re so weird,” he laughed along with me and I looked up at him again.
“How so?” I questioned while shooting him another Keyla original smile.
“I don’t know…” he trailed off and thought for a minute, “You’re different than most girls.”
“Is that good or bad?” I asked and he looked down at me with an amazing sense of caring in his eyes.
“It’s good, trust me,” he answered and took my hand in his.
“Just making sure,” I chuckled before looking down the street again and hoping he hadn’t seen my blush when he took my hand, “Cooper!”
Cooper barked happily while running up the sidewalk towards us. I reluctantly pulled my hand out of Joe’s and bent down so I could examine my precious puppy more carefully.
“Can you call Nick and tell him we found him?” I asked Joe while stroking Cooper along the back.
“No problem,” he sighed and put his phone to his, “Yeah she found him. Okay, we’ll meet you two at the house.”
“We should probably go before Mollie murders your brother,” I laughed before standing up and grabbing hold of Cooper’s collar.
Joe nodded silently before turning around and walking along side of me. He didn’t say a word the whole way back and neither did I due to the fact that I had always been bad at breaking the ice with guys I liked.
“You found him!” Mollie yelled happily and then dropped to her knees in the grass to great Cooper.
He licked her cheek happily and she giggled before petting him before the ears. Nick stared down at her with fascination and wonder written plainly across his face.
“Well…we’ll see you guys later,” Joe said quietly and started walking towards the back gate where their guitars still sat on the porch.
“Bye,” I said disappointedly and Mollie waved to Joe with a large smile on her face.
“I’ll talk to you later,” I heard Nick whisper to Mollie.
“We’ll see,” she whispered back in response before standing back up.
“What’s with you and him?” I asked teasingly out the side of my mouth as the two of us waved good-bye to the boys who had stolen our hearts.
“He still won’t think about the fact that Mike’s got more to him than he leads on. I got him to understand why I was so pissed though,” she answered quietly and let her hand fall back down to her side as the guys closed the back door, “What happened with you and Joe while you were gone.”
“Nothing major,” I lied as my hand began to tingle again.
What was this boy doing to me?
“If you say so,” she laughed before nudging me playfully and then climbing over the fence into the backyard.
“You could open the gate you know,” I teased her while doing so and letting Copper run in before me.
“Well, I could do a lot of things,” she replied and I rolled my eyes before opening the back door and letting Cooper into the house, “Did you feel that?”
“Feel what?” I asked and stopped halfway through the doorway.
“I felt like…rain!” Mollie exclaimed as the night time clouds opened up and let the water they had been hording fall back down onto the ground.
“You are insane!” I laughed as she started twirling around in circles while the light from next door reflecting off her body in the most flattering way.
“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it!” she said and pulled me back out into the yard causing every inch of my body to become soaked.
“Mollie,” I whined but she just laughed before starting to twirl again.
I looked next door as I saw a small movement in an upstairs window and saw Nick’s figure standing there with the same look of fascination and wonder across his face as he stared at Mollie while she danced in the rain. Someone moved into the window frame next to him and I saw Joe stare down at me before smiling and waving lightly. I raised my hand into the air but before I could wave Mollie grabbed it and started twirling me in circles.
“What are you doing?” I asked while letting a loud laugh escape through my lips.
“Living life!” she replied before letting me go and twirling on the spot like a ballerina.
I shook my head before looking back up at the window again; both boys had left and let the curtains fall back into place.