Go Around

Kennedy was laying on her couch, still watching the Power puff Girls marathon going on on Cartoon Network and she had a pair of arms encircling her waist and he was laying behind her.
She looked back at him as well as she could, “I’m glad that you came over,” she whispered to him and nuzzled back slightly so that her body would be closer to his and he chuckled.
“Me, too,” he said and he nuzzled his head into her hair and sucked in a deep breath that made her laugh. She always thought it was weird when people smelled her hair, but she had gotten many compliments telling her how good it smelled.
“Have I mentioned how much I love the Power Puff Girls?” Kennedy asked, now diverting her attention to the action on the screen. The girls were confused as to why bad things were happening to them and then it panned out to a scene of Mojo Jojo plotting how to take the Power Puff Girls out.
He laughed, “I don’t really think you needed to – it’s pretty apparent,” he said to her and she laughed along with him. She had officially been watching Power Puff Girls for four and a half hours and she wasn’t even close to the end, but when it did end she had all of their movies upstairs in her bedroom.
Kennedy jumped slightly when someone started knocking on her door. The boy behind her sat up slightly, trying to look out the window to see who it was, but there was no way to tell. “Do you want me to get it?” he asked.
Kennedy shook her head, “Whoever’s knocking obviously isn’t someone I want to see,” she said but she realized that it probably wouldn’t make sense to him.
“What do you mean?” he asked and cocked his head to the side.
She laughed quietly, “I mean, I wanted you here – you didn’t knock because I invited you and you just walked in and Audrey certainly wouldn’t knock because she’s living here at the moment and you two are the only two people who I want to see therefore anybody whose knocking obviously isn’t someone I want to see,” she concluded and he laughed at her.
“You’re very odd,” he told her and kissed her cheek, “but I’ve grown a fondness of you.”
“A fondness?” she asked and laughed at the same time because you never heard people her age using phrases like that.
He laughed with her, “Shut up,” he told her and she giggled.
“You with your big NYU words,” she scoffed.
The knocking on her door didn’t stop but she was determined not to answer it because she honestly did not want to see anybody. Apparently, the person on the other side of the door got sick of Kennedy not answering their call and knew her well enough to know that she rarely keeps the door locked, so her door swung open and she tried to keep her eyes forward, but the boy behind her couldn’t help himself. He peaked up.
“Who are you?” Alex’s voice boomed over them and Kennedy cringed. She knew it had been him. Audrey had gone to his party and she must have talked to him and told him that Kennedy overheard what he and Lisa had said about her and now he was over at her house to explain.
“Um, I’m Mike, and you are?” Mike asked from behind Kennedy, trying to sit up because he could feel the tension in the air.
“I’m Alex – Kennedy’s boyfriend,” Alex said and he sounded pissed. Kennedy didn’t care. She watched the Power Puff Girls fighting Mojo Jojo with flashed of pink, green, and blue flying across the screen each time they punched or kicked him.
“You have a boyfriend?” Mike asked and sounded betrayed in his voice.
“He’s not my boyfriend. He has a girlfriend and her name is Lisa,” Kennedy informed him and it blananly apparent that Mike didn’t know who to believe; the girl he just met last night who had ditched him in the morning, or the pissed off guy who had stampeded his way into said girls house. What a dilema.
Alex walked around the couch and into the living room and positioned himself so that he was standing in front of the TV.
“Please move,” she said sweetly, refusing to make eye contact or even look at any other part of his body besides his shoes.
“Kennedy, we need to talk,” Alex said, trying to ignore the big, burly, muscular guy laying behind her.
“I don’t want to talk to you, Alex,” she said softly, looking down.
Mike sat up which in turn made it unfomfortable for Kennedy to remain laying down so she sat up next to him, but curled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.
“Kennedy, please, just let me explain,” Alex pleaded, now moving out of the way of the TV in favor of coming and sitting on Kennedy’s empty side which made her feel even worse.
“I don’t want to hear your explanations!” Kennedy exclaimed at him and then shut her eyes, trying to push back the tears that were trying to make their way to her eyes.
“But you don’t understand – ” Alex started, but Mike cut him off.
“Look, Kenne is making it very apparent that your presence is making her uncomfortable so will you please leave until she is over… whatever it is that you guys need to talk about so that you both won’t be so rash?” Mike asked and Kennedy knew that Alex was thinking ‘where the fuck did she pick up this guy?’ and it brought a smile to her face, but both of the boys took the smile for the wrong reason. They took it as ‘I like that this guy’s protecting me’ kind of way, but that wasn’t the case. She didn’t like it when people stood up for her because she was perfectly capable of standing up for herself.
“I won’t leave. I’ve known her for almost five years and she is one of my dear friends so if anybody should leave, it should be you,” Alex said, back but neither of them were asking what Kennedy wanted, but then again, she had made it pretty apparent that Alex was the last person she wanted to talk to at the moment.
“Mike,” Kennedy whispered, not making eye contact with him, “maybe you should go. I’ll call you later, okay?” she said, now wanting to get her conversation with Alex over with.
“Sure,” Mike said and he went a lot easier than Alex would have if she’d said the same thing to him. Mike got up and walked away from her living room and out the door which he shut quietly behind him.
“Who was the guy?” Alex asked the minute Mike shut the door.
“A friend,” Kennedy said simply, looking in the opposite direction than where Alex was sitting.
“Kenne, we need to talk,” Alex started.
“Then talk, Alex. Please, give me your excuses,” Kennedy said with venom oozing into her voice.
Alex was shocked by how harsh her words were but started anyway, “What you overheard wasn’t what I thought. For the past few weeks Lisa has been getting on my case about you thinking that I still love you and that I have the hots for you and stuff like that so last night when she kept asking me what I thought about how you were dressed, I just picked a few hurtful words so that she would be satisfied and hopefully leave me alone for a little while at the least about it,” Alex explained. Kennedy nodded.
“Well, I guess you did as you thought best,” was all Kennedy said and she looked into his eyes and he could tell that hers were filled with anger and that was on the brink. “Besides, she should be getting on your case about still being in love with your ex because you are,” Kennedy told him and leaned back against the back of the couch.
“Yeah, but she’s my girlfriend, Kennedy, she shouldn’t feel threatened,” Alex said, leaning back as well.
“Oh my god, Alex, shut up. She should feel threatened because we’ve been having sex behind her back for almost three months,” Kennedy said, “I’m sick of your shit and I’m sick you playing both Lisa and I.”
Kennedy knew what this was really all about, she knew why Alex was so reluctant to break up with Lisa. Even if Kennedy had said ‘yes, I want you to break up with her’ instead of what she really said he still wouldn’t have done it. Because he’s scared. He’s scared that she, Kennedy, would run away again like she did the first time and he would have to go through that hurt all over again except this time more intense because this time their love was definitely more intense so he figured that if he kept Lisa around and Kennedy did run away that he would have Lisa to fall back on to make sure that the pain wasn’t as intense. But Alex was living in a dream world. Whether he did or did not have Lisa would make no difference, the pain would still be pain and it would still kill him inside if she ran away from him again.
“I’m not playing anybody,” Alex protested.
“Yes you are, Alex,” Kennedy said back.
“Everybody knows that I would choose you, Kennedy,”
“Then why haven’t you?!” Kennedy asked and now she started to cry. She put her feet on the ground and placed her face in her hands and her elbows on her knees. “If you really love me as much as you say you do then why haven’t you chosen to be with me?” Kennedy asked through a series of sobs.
“You never asked me to,” Alex said softly, stroking her back which she lurched away from.
“I shouldn’t have to,” she told him, not removing her face from her hands.
“You’re the one who told me not to break up with Lisa,” Alex kept using his excuses.
“Alex,” Kennedy started and brought her face up, which had tears streaming down her face to look him dead in the eye, “no girl, no matter what they say, wants to be the mistress.” She said to him and it started on a whole new set of tears.
“You’re not my mistress – you’re the girl I love,” Alex protested.
“What do you think I am then, Alex, if I’m not your mistress? We’re not in a relationship, you’re dating another girl, and all we do is have sex – that is practically the definition of a mistress,” Kennedy informed him.
“That’s not how I think of you,” Alex said.
“That’s how everyone else thinks of me!” Kennedy exclaimed. “I know that I told you to stay with Lisa because I was worried about everybody hating me, but I was hoping that you would come to the conclusion on your own to leave her because you loved me,” she said, but paused to sob some more, “because Iwould rather have people hate me and be yours than have people like me and be your mistress,” she told him and just sobbed but she didn’t want to look at Alex.
“Kennedy…,” he said, obviously confused by what she had just said. “I’m sorry, I –” he started but she cut him off.
“I don’t care what you have to say Alex,” she told him and shook her head.
“I love you,” he told her anyway.
“Get out,” she demanded, looking at her clear glass coffee table.
“What?” he asked, confused.
“Get out. I don’t want you here, I don’t want to see you or talk to you, just get out of my fucking house!” she yelled at him and it took him a minute, but he raised up from her couch and walked out of the living room and opened the door.
“I’ll wait for you, Kennedy,” he told her, pausing in the doorway, but then walked out without another word and shut the door behind himself.
Kennedy waited until she heard his car take off and then laid back down on the couch, curled her knees tightly to her chest so that she could scarcely breath, and then started on a new set of sobs.