Go Around

Kennedy’s eyes fluttered open and she woke up in her living room with her knees curled her chest and sitting up on her couch across from Audrey who was in a similar position.
Kennedy got up trying not to make any noise because she figured that Audrey wouldn’t want to go to school with her since Audrey had just gotten out of school a week prior to her coming to visit Kennedy. She snuck up the stairs and walked into her bedroom and stood against her door for a minute while trying to let it sink in that her best friend would be staying with her for the last two weeks that she was in school.
She shook her head and felt how greasy her hair was and she was immediately disgusted and decided to hop in the shower. She was in there for an hour and she walked out of her bathroom wrapped in a blue anagrammed towel and a white towel on top of her head.
She let out a little gasp when she saw Audrey sitting on her bed with her right leg crossed over her left and waiting for Kennedy. “What are you doing?” Kennedy whispered but then remembered that there was no reason for her to be whispering.
“You didn’t think that you were going to go to school without me, did you?” Audrey said, tossing her perfect hair behind her shoulder and letting her mischievous smile slide into perfect play on her face.
“Aude, you just got out of school – I don’t want to ask you to go back with me,” Kennedy told her, taking the towel that was holding her hair up out and shaking her wet hair like a dog.
“Kenne, this isn’t a request that I’m making. I’m not asking whether or not I can come to school with you, I’m pretty much telling. I am going to go to school with you – I want to meet all the friends that you boasted around me while we went to school together in New York, especially Alex. I need to make sure that he’s good enough for you,” Audrey told her, uncrossing her legs and standing up.
Every time Kennedy and Audrey were together they were both dressed to the max so when Kennedy was looking at Audrey, it was weird to not see her in heels and she never realized how short Audrey was – she was still taller than Kennedy, but only by a few inches.
“I don’t want you to be mean to anybody, Aude,” Kennedy told her while she stripped off the towel and replaced it with her silk robe.
Audrey smiled again and cocked her head to the side, “When have you ever known me to be mean?” she asked.
Kennedy looked up at her and raised an eyebrow, “Is that supposed to be a trick question?” Kennedy asked and Audrey laughed in unison with her because only the two of them knew how true that statement was.
“Besides, Maryland is only three and a half hours away from New York – how different can it be?” Audrey asked and Kennedy just shook her head with a smile on her face.
As much as Kennedy loved Audrey, Kennedy knew that Audrey was extremely ignorant in her way of thinking that she would have a complete culture shock when she went to school with Kennedy.
Both of the girls were getting ready at the same time which made doing their makeup interesting. At first both of them tried to do it at Kennedy’s vanity table, but eventually Audrey gave up and went into Kennedy’s bathroom and finished her makeup in there.
While Kennedy was doing her hair, she realized that it had gotten a bit longer. When she first moved back it had been at her collar bones, but how it was right in the middle of her chest and Kennedy came to the conclusion that she looked better with longer hair and would never chop it the way she had before.
Audrey came out of Kennedy’s bathroom in her underwear and a tank top that she wore to bed. Her blonde hair was straight now and came to the bottom of her ribs and Kennedy felt a pang of jealousy because she missed her long hair. Audrey was wearing dark blue and black makeup to make her blue eyes pop and Kennedy again felt jealous.
Kennedy’s hair was straight and her side swept bangs kept falling in front of her face and she was wearing deep reds and purple makeup and they both walked over to their designated areas to get their clothes; Kennedy to her closet, Audrey to her suitcase that was lying on the floor next to Kennedy’s bed.
“What about this?” Audrey asked and Kennedy turned around to inspect the outfit. Audrey was holding up a Betsey Johnson dress with a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes and Kennedy shook her head and Audrey pouted, looking at her outfit again. “What’s wrong with it?” she asked.
“It’s too eccentric for school,” Kennedy told her, turning around and looking at her closet again.
“The whole outfit?” Audrey asked as she placed the outfit back in her suitcase.
“No, you should definitely keep the shoes,” Kennedy advised her and she heard Audrey gasp in happiness that she would get to wear her Jimmy Choo’s.
Kennedy laughed and as she was flipping though her closet (she had reorganized it so that all of her designer clothes were on the left side, her vintage stuff in the middle, and her old clothes on the right hand side) and she came to the conclusion that she wanted to surprise Alex and dress the way she used to.
She bit her bottom lip as she smiled and went to the right side of the closet, a side she hadn’t even touched since she moved to New York, and started sifting through all her clothes. On any other day she would have asked Audrey for her advice on her outfit, but she knew that Audrey would approve unless she was wearing designer something or other.
Kennedy grabbed her favorite pair of ripped black jeans and laid them out on her bed. She was still deciding on what shirt to wear when Audrey asked, “Is this better?” and Kennedy turned around to see if it was indeed better. She held up a pair of True Religion grey skinny jeans and a Dolce & Gabbana black shirt; it had long sleeves and a turtle neck, but it was fish net and had a waist length black tank top underneath it.
“If you’re going to wear that top than I suggest the Dolce & Gabbana heels, you know, the ones with the flowery lace over them and the bow at the peep toe?” Kennedy said, trying to describe them as well as she could, but kind of failed.
“Oh, those would look great!” Audrey exclaimed once she understood what Kennedy was talking about. Audrey turned around enthusiastically and searched in her immensely large suitcase for them.
Kennedy smiled and turned around to finish looking for the perfect top to wear when her smile spread even bigger across her face.
Way back in the way, before Alex and Kennedy had ever gotten involved and Jack and Alex had just started All Time Low, one day all of them, including Rian, had been feeling down about what would happen to their band in the future so Kennedy, to make them happier, went out and made an All Time Low t-shirt at a store in the mall and ripped it up like she did with the rest of her clothes and had all of them sign it for her like she was a fan and it immediately made all of them feel better.
At the time, neither Alex or Jack wanted Kennedy to watch them practice and that was the only time they ever really saw Zack so since Kennedy hadn’t know him she asked Jack to take it to Zack and have him sign it for her.
She grabbed the black shirt with white lettering and silver signatures sprawled across it and smiled at the memory. She set it down on top of her black jeans and was now searching for the shoes. She found a pair of her shoes that had been her favorite to wear the previous year and they were black, peep toe booties that laced up the front and had a buckle just above the toe and she realized that she had found the perfect outfit.
She stripped and put her outfit on then heard Audrey clear her throat behind her. Kennedy turned around and saw Audrey with her hip out and her arms across her chest, “What are you wearing?” she asked not trying to hide her disgust with Kennedy’s lack of designer.
“I’m doing this for Alex,” was all that Kennedy said and Audrey just nodded.
“Sure you are,” Audrey said and turned around to shut her suit case.
“What’s that mean?” Kennedy asked in an exhausted tone because she wasn’t in the mood to fight with Audrey right then.
“Nothing, just that your friend from New York’s in town and you want to make it clear to the school that you’re not like her because she wears designer clothes and you’re trying to set yourself apart,” Audrey said and Kennedy could tell that she was really hurt, but Kennedy honestly had no idea why she was taking it so personally.
“Audrey, you know that’s not it. Honestly, I’m just wearing this for Alex because of the little things he says that make me feel awful about myself,” Kennedy said, looking down at the ground.
“Like what?” Audrey asked and Kennedy knew she shouldn’t have said anything because now it was just going to make Audrey predisposition to hating him.
“He doesn’t like the fact that I’ve changed; the way I dress, talk, act, who my friends are, anything and he’ll say little things about New York and he’ll do it to remind me that I hurt him. I’m showing him that I am still that girl he fell in love with before I… ran away,” Kennedy told her, trying to make him sound as less like a dick as humanly possible.
“Kennedy,” Audrey said to her as she walked over and placed her hand on Kennedy’s forearm, “don’t let him make you feel bad. You left because your mom made you and you know that you belong in New York – not here in Hicksville Maryland,” Audrey told her and Kennedy knew she was right.
Audrey and Kennedy were the epitome of New York and she intended to move back as soon as humanly possible and she knew that that would not bode well for Alex, but if he was still dating Lisa then it wouldn’t really matter anyway.
“Speaking of Alex, how’s his girlfriend?” Audrey asked pointedly as she grabbed her Fendi purse and waited for Kennedy to grab her things which she did diligently and they walked down the stairs and out of the house to Kennedy’s car. Kennedy waited to respond so that she could think of an answer that would satisfy Audrey, but she knew that nothing she told her would make Audrey feel better unless she told her that Alex and she were no longer seeing each other.
Audrey was completely against cheating because when she was dating her first boyfriend, Robert, when she was fifteen he was a senior and at the time she didn’t know that he was cheating on her, but he cheated on her with everybody including her best friend at the time and to put the icing on the cake he went around telling people what an awful lay Audrey was and she was completely devastated, so needless to say she hated it when guys cheated on their girlfriends, but she would never say as much to Kennedy, especially now.
Kennedy started her car and pulled out of the driveway, “Kennedy, answer my question,” Audrey demanded.
Kennedy let out a sigh, “Well, Lisa had sex with Jack, Alex’s best friend – so I’d say she’s doing pretty good,” Kennedy told her and she knew that she should have kept Jack’s secret, but Audrey would never say anything about it to anybody so she didn’t have to worry.
Audrey’s eyebrows rose in surprise, “Whoa, at least you know you’re not the only one who’s cheating,” Audrey said and laughed.
“I’m not cheating on anybody; Alex is cheating on his girlfriend. It’s not my fault that Alex and I fell in love with each other last year and that that love carried on,” Kennedy tried to defend herself but sounded more like one of those romance novels her mother read and she was immediately disgusted with herself.
“You’re still a part of the equation, Kenne,” Audrey said seriously.
“Look, I’m not in the mood to argue, so let’s not. You disagree with what I’m doing, but that’s not going to stop me, so let’s just stop talking about it,” Kennedy said sternly and Audrey nodded.
A few minutes of silence passed and Kennedy thought about Audrey’s point. She had always considered it the guys fault if he decides to cheat on his girlfriend with her, but it does take two to tango so does that mean that it was also her fault?
“I’m sorry,” Audrey said softly as they pulled into the school parking lot.
“For what?” Kennedy asked as she searched for a free spot.
“For jumping down your throat like that. I know that you and Alex are a special case because you two are so in love, but it just irks me, you know?” Audrey said and Kennedy nodded.
“I get it. If it were you doing the exact same thing I’d tell you exactly what you just told me,” Kennedy said even if she didn’t know if that was entirely true.
Kennedy found a spot and pulled into it. She let out a sigh, “Are you ready for this?” Kennedy asked and shook her head at Audrey’s outfit. In New York people at school or on the street wouldn’t think twice about her outfit, but here, in the suburbs of Maryland, people were bound to notice.
“I hate you,” Audrey said as they both got out of the car and it made Kennedy burst into laughter as she locked her car.
“Why’s that?” she asked as they found each other behind the car and made their way to the doors of the school.
“Because you had to fucking move here. In New York people wouldn’t care about what I’m wearing, but here they will and it’s just petty and stupid. If you still had to move, I would have moved you to LA because people there are like people in New York – nonjudgmental, you know?” Audrey said as Kennedy opened the door for her.
“I’m too much of an eastern girl. I don’t deal well with that whole ‘go-with-the-flow’ shit,” Kennedy said and it sent Audrey into a fit of laughter which Kennedy soon reciprocated.
Kennedy knew that her friends would most likely hate Audrey, but Kennedy loved her and she wouldn’t handle any of her friend’s bullshit and she would most likely end up taking Audrey’s side if they got into any arguments. Kennedy also knew that Audrey and Kennedy had so many inside jokes that would sent them into laughter that they would probably end up irritating all of her friends. She didn’t care.
If her friends couldn’t handle Kennedy’s and Audrey’s fast paced way of living than that was their problem, not hers. She was sick of having to tip toe around the subject of her life in New York because, truth be told, if Kennedy had a choice in the matter she would have stayed in New York even if that meant not seeing Alex and as much as that hurt to admit, she knew it was the truth.
Kennedy was no longer going to tip toe around the subject of New York and if that hurt her friends then it sucks to be them because Kennedy wasn’t taking anybody’s shit anymore.