Go Around

Kennedy walked out of the doors of the school and toward her car that was parked less than one hundred feet away. Alex was sitting on the hood of Kennedy’s car and it made Kennedy smile – she didn’t know what it was about her car but it just welcomed people sitting on it and leaning against it.
“Hey,” he called out and put something he’d been fiddling with in his pocket.
“Hey yourself,” she called back but continued to saunter toward him, moving her hips in just the right way and he noticed.
“How’d your first two exams go?” he asked, looking behind her which caused Kennedy to turn around and see if anybody was there. Lisa was walking with one of her obnoxious friends who Kennedy had met the very first day when she had moved back and had shown up unexpectedly at Alex’s house only to find he had a girlfriend.
“They went great. If I didn’t get an A on them, I at least got an A minus,” she said confidently and nodded her head as she came to a stop in front of where he was sitting. “What about you?” she asked, cocking her head to one side.
“I think I did semi-good. At least a C so that way I’ll at least pass the class and be able to graduate,” he laughed and she tried to laugh along with him but found it rather difficult. She had always had a hard time accepting that Alex and Jack wanted to be famous rock stars and tour around the world because Kennedy herself could never be that ostentatious so when Alex never really tried in school and didn’t even apply for a university based on his dream to be in a famous band – it made Kennedy slightly uncomfortable.
“So what are you doing right now?” Alex asked, sliding off the hood of Kennedy’s car which landed him right in front of her with his legs on either side of hers, trapping her from moving, and placing his hands on her hips. He was less than two inches away and Kennedy wanted to just stand on her very tippy toes and kiss him softly, but decided against it.
“Going home,” she said and she knew that she sounded like a boring person, “you know me – I’ve got to study,” she informed him.
“Oh yeah, I forgot about what a nerd you are,” he teased and poked her nose and she shook her head. He chuckled and kissed her forehead.
“Shut up,” she demanded but was smiling, “I don’t think you’d like me nearly as much if I wasn’t so intelligent,” she told him and stuck her nose in the air.
“Love,” he corrected.
“What?” she asked, confused about the random word thrown into their conversation.
“You said you didn’t think I’d like you, but I was correcting your word,” he explained to her and just him saying that made her a tad bit uncomfortable being there now. They’d been getting on fine all day with acting like nothing had happened in the past year and she thought that they might be able to be just friends, but now he’d gone and made her feel all uncomfortable.
“I should probably go,” she said in a soft voice, looking at the ground, and backing away from him, but his hands were still placed firmly on her hips so she didn’t get as far as she’d wanted to.
“Hold on a second. I see Jack and he’s coming over here,” he informed her which caused her to look in the direction he’d glanced in and indeed she saw Jack in his tight skinny jeans and a Blink 182 t-shirt walking toward them with his skunk-like hair over his deep brown eyes.
“Could you possibly try to make this less uncomfortable than it is right now?” she asked under her breath to him and he smiled.
“I don’t think it’s uncomfortable. As a matter of fact, I am really overly comfortable,” he informed her and now sat down on the hood of her car again but was further down this time so he was still able to have his hands on her hips and his feet on either side of her legs to trap her.
Just as she was about to say something Jack walked into her peripheral vision and had a wide smile on his face. “Hey guys,” he greeted then pointedly looked at where Alex’s hands and feet were placed and his eyebrow raised in confusion. “Are you guys dating again, then?” he asked and looked up at them.
“No,” Kennedy said quickly and shot Alex an evil glare and tried to take a step back from him but he wouldn’t let her.
“It doesn’t look that way,” Jack commented.
“How were your exams, Jack?” Alex asked because he obviously didn’t want to talk about him and Kennedy’s current relationship right then.
“I don’t know, I think I did alright, but I’m hoping I did pretty good. Just because of my mom, you know?” he asked, forgetting their previous topic to both Kennedy’s and Alex’s relief. “What about you guys?”
“I think I got a C,” Alex stated and Jack nodded then looked to Kennedy for her answer.
“Well, I’m hoping for an A, but I think I got an A minus,” she shrugged and they could tell that she was disappointed in herself but they always laughed at her whenever she got that way because she still had a 4.2 GPA.
“Yeah, you’ll really disappoint me if you get A’s in all of your classes, young lady,” Jack scolded and shook his pointer finger at her and Alex and Kennedy giggled.
“So what are you doing right now, Jack?” Alex asked, but not taking his eyes off Kennedy.
“Going home. Why?” Jack asked.
“I need someone to hang out with, but Kennedy wants to be a nerd and go home and study,” Alex said and stuck his tongue out at her which she grabbed and pulled before letting it go. “Ow. That hurt,” Alex said, sounding like he’d just bitten his tongue and Jack and Kennedy laughed in unison.
“Alright guys, I really got to go. I’ll see both of you tomorrow,” she said and luckily caught Alex off guard so she was able to pull away from him and she maneuvered herself so that her feet were no longer stuck in between his and walked to the driver’s side of her car. “Bye,” she waved and Alex got off and watched as she got in the car and started it and then backed out of her parking space and out of the parking lot.
Kennedy’s ride home was serene. This was the first ride she’d rode home without having Audrey in the car with her because Audrey had decided to sleep in that day because she no longer felt it was necessary for her to wait around for six and a half hours a day while Kennedy learned.
Kennedy was glad that this year was finally coming to a close. She’d just confirmed her spot at the college she’d chosen to go to yesterday and in doing that it made everything seem so much more real; her no longer having to go to school, moving out on her own, being her own person, but she already did most of those things since her mother was never home anyway.
Kennedy pulled up in front of her house and her jaw hung open as she saw her mother’s car sitting in the driveway like it was there every day and was meant to be there. Kennedy turned off her car and walked up her walkway and into her house. She walked down the hallway like she had a purpose and saw her mother and Audrey sitting at opposite ends of the table but having a lively chat that involved both of them laughing and drinking coffee casually, like they were best friends.
Lorelei looked up at Kennedy and stopped midsentence of what she was saying to Audrey and gave Kennedy a warm smile. “Hello, darling,” she greeted her and got up from their table and walked over to her and pulled her into a hug.
“What are you doing here?” Kennedy asked, as she pulled away from the unwanted hug.
“What do you mean? I live here,” Lorelei laughed and looked at Audrey and made a ‘my daughter’s insane’ face at her and Audrey laughed politely.
“Mom, I seriously haven’t seen you for months, haven’t talked to you for weeks but now you just pop in like it’s an everyday occurrence that you’re here,” Kennedy said and walked into her kitchen and grabbed a glass of water because her throat was starting to get dry and was sore.
“You’re exaggerating,” Lorelei said with a laugh. “You didn’t tell me that Audrey was staying with us, darling,” her mother said to her and Kennedy could tell that her mother was upset because Kennedy hadn’t asked permission for her best friend to stay at their house for a few weeks.
“Sorry. Maybe if you answered your cell phone than you would have known,” Kennedy retorted.
“There’s such a thing called a voicemail,” Lorelei said back and Audrey coughed and looked down at the table. “Not that it matters of course, because Audrey’s always welcome to stay with us,” Lorelei finished after Audrey reminded her that she was still in the room.
Kennedy walked out of the kitchen and sat down at the table where everybody was sitting and Lorelei had her hands clasped together on top of the table. “Honey, there’s something I want to talk to you about,” Lorelei started and hearing those words again made Kennedy’s heart race. Last time her mother had come back to her house unexpectedly and started off saying something similar resulted in moving her away from her home and friends back to New York.
“About what?” Kennedy choked out and took another sip of her water.
“Well, I’ve met somebody and I really, really like him – no, I love him. We’ve been dating for a few months and he’s a great guy. I know that you’re not going to trust my judgment on him after Rob, but Bruce is a really great guy. He has a daughter a couple years younger than you and I’ve been living with them for the last few months. Now, I know that you’re going off to college in a few months but Bruce wants us to move into his summer home with him for the summer and I think you’ll really enjoy it,” Lorelei was explaining but Kennedy cut her off.
“Where is it?” Kennedy asked, her eyes narrowing in on her mother.
“Well, that’s the thing. I realize that all you’ve really known is city life and you don’t know any other way of living so Bruce’s house is in Montana and both he and I think it would be a great experience for you before you move out and go to college to live somewhere where you can ride a horse and all that stuff,” Lorelei finished and stared at Kennedy with hopeful eyes.
Kennedy was speechless. Kennedy was never speechless. She was trying to wrap her head around the idea of living in a podunk small town and riding horses and picking up their shit but she just could not grasp the concept. “What are you talking about?” Kennedy finally asked and Lorelei’s face fell.
“Well, Bruce said –”
“I don’t give a fuck about what Bruce said. Does Bruce know me? No, he doesn’t fucking know me therefore he wouldn’t know if sending me to live in Montana for three months would be a good experience for me or not. Not to mention I already had summer plans – I was going to go back to New York with Audrey for a few weeks,” Kennedy yelled at her mother.
“Calm down,” her mother said softly.
“I will not calm down!” Kennedy yelled and stood up. “Do you realize that this is the second man you’ve fallen in love with in less than a year and this is the second time you’ve uprooted me and taken me away from my home and my friends in less than a year? Don’t you care about what I want or what’s best for me?”
“Of course I do, honey, but I know that it would really show you how lucky you are if you lived somewhere where you weren’t so spoiled,”
“Obviously you don’t want what’s best for me because if you did then you would let me stay here and go away with Audrey,”
“I don’t think New York is such a good place for you,” her mother said and shook her head.
“Oh really? And why’s that?” Kennedy asked sarcastically and crossed her arms across her chest.
“Because it just made you do really bad things like going to parties and getting drunk and having sex. I don’t think the people there are a good influence on you,” Lorelei turned to Audrey and gave a sympathetic smile, “No offense,” Lorelei directed at Audrey and Audrey just gave a fake smile and nodded once.
“Well, luckily, I’m fucking eighteen years old so I don’t have to move with you if I don’t want to,” Kennedy shot back at her.
Lorelei laughed and smiled. “Well, we already sold the house so unless you want to be homeless than you’re going to be moving with us,” Lorelei smirked.
“I could move in with Audrey,” Kennedy said and looked at Audrey who looked guilty and looked away. “What?” Kennedy asked.
“I’m sorry, Kenne. After your mom told me the first thing I did was ask my dad, but he said no because he thinks you need to reconnect with your family but that’s really code for he wants to have sex with his trophy wife in the kitchen,” Audrey said with a shrug and Lorelei gave a triumphed smile.
“Looks like you’re moving with me,” Lorelei said smugly and Kennedy shook her head and stalked off up toward her bedroom.