Go Around

Kennedy was lying on her back on her bed with her head hanging off the end. Audrey was sitting on Kennedy’s chair, observing Kennedy to see what she was going to do.
“Look on the bright side,” Audrey started, “you were already planning on leaving with me anyway so it’s not going to be so different,” Audrey finished with a shrug of her shoulders. Kennedy turned her head and glared at Audrey for her idea and Audrey just shrugged as if to say that she was sorry and then Kennedy turned her head back to looking at the ceiling. “So I’m guessing that didn’t help?” Audrey asked, standing up and opening Kennedy’s large window and sitting in the window seal while lighting one of her cigarettes.
“Not exactly,” Kennedy choked out and for once in her life she wished that Audrey wasn’t with her. She wished that she could just be alone and just think about everything that was going on.
It had been a few days since her mother had first told her the news. It had been Monday, the day of Kennedy’s first exam, and now it was Friday, the day that Audrey was leaving. Kennedy had gotten out of school on Wednesday so she’d already been out of school for two days but she didn’t feel in the mood to celebrate and party like she normally would have. This was the end of her high school career and she couldn’t even muster up enough fake enthusiasm to go to a party with her friends but Audrey didn’t have a problem going without her. Audrey had called a cab to come pick her up at seven o’clock so that she could catch her flight and it was already six fifty two. Kennedy was glad to see Audrey go, but she would never admit it.
Kennedy was supposed to be leaving on Sunday morning and Kennedy still hadn’t told any of her friends besides Audrey, of course. Supposedly whenever you make a mistake you’re supposed to learn from them to better yourself and even though Kennedy knew she made a mistake the previous year when she didn’t tell Alex and Jack that she was going to be moving, she still hadn’t learned and part of her was contemplating doing that again for the same reasons she had last year – she didn’t want to hurt them because hurting them would kill her and she didn’t want to deal with that.
A car honked outside and Kennedy shot up from her back and Audrey looked at her with wide eyes, “I think my cab’s here,” Audrey announced.
“I think so,” Kennedy agreed and threw her legs over the side of her bed and got up, “Isn’t it a little early?” Kennedy asked, glancing at her alarm clock.
“Oh well, I’d rather be there too early rather than too late,” Audrey said with a smile as she grabbed her cardigan and her suitcase and Kennedy walked her downstairs. Audrey pulled Kennedy into a hug as the cab driver outside honked his horn again.
“Call me,” Audrey demanded as she pulled away from Kennedy and opened Kennedy’s house door.
“Same goes for you,” Kennedy retorted and Audrey stuck her tongue out at Kennedy and then turned her back on her and walked toward the cab. The cab driver got out and put Audrey’s suitcase in the trunk and then opened the door for her as she got in. The car took off and Audrey waved goodbye as it did.
Audrey and Kennedy had come up with a never-say-goodbye policy. They never wanted to say goodbye to each other because they knew that they would talk soon and that they’d see each other eventually and saying goodbye made everything seem more depressing.
Kennedy shut her door and pressed her back up against it and slid down so that her knees were to her chest. She sucked in a deep breath and rested her forehead in her knees.
She knew that she should tell Jack and Alex that she was moving this time, but it’s not like they expected her to stay in Maryland forever – they knew that she was going to college and her moving away three months earlier than planned shouldn’t make that big of a difference.
Kennedy stood up and pulled her hair up into a ponytail and slid on her flip flops and then grabbed her purse and walked out of her house and down her walkway to her car.
She slid into the driver’s side of her car and pulled away from the curb. Her mother had gone back to living with her boyfriend, Bruce, because apparently his family was better than hers. Lorelei always had done better when she had a man in her life because it made her feel important and wanted.
Kennedy looked out the window as she pulled up to Alex’s house. She hoped that he would be alone but knew that he most likely wouldn’t be – it was the second day of summer break after all. Kennedy felt the same ominous feeling come over her like the last time she had to do this. Kennedy sucked in a deep breath and got out of her car and marched up to his door and knocked as hard as she could and as quickly so that she wouldn’t lose her nerve.
The door swung open and there stood Jack in his tidy whiteys and shirtless. “Kenne? What are you doing here so early?” Jack asked with a yawn and scratching the back of his head.
“Jack, it’s seven o’clock,” Kennedy told him and his eyebrows knitted together in confusion as though her statement proved his point, “in the evening,” she clarified.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Alex and I stood up pretty late last night,” Jack said and moved out of her way so that she could come into the house. “Alex!” Jack yelled.
“Yeah?” Alex yelled back and it sounded like he was a few rooms over.
“You’ll never guess whose here!” Jack responded and pulled Kennedy into a quick hug which she gratefully returned.
“Who?” Alex asked and it sounded closer, like he was walking down the hallway toward her and then he saw her and a smile spread across his face. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to say no to me for much longer,” Alex said cockily.
Kennedy stuck her tongue out at the practically naked boy who was holding a bowl of cereal and then sighed. “That’s not why I’m here, actually,” Kennedy told them and then saw herself to his living room which they followed her into and she sat down on his chair.
“What’s up, Kenne?” Jack asked.
“There’s something I need to tell you guys,” she started and looked up at their reactions and they were both just looking confused. “Okay, so you guys know my mom and how she jumps from boyfriend to boyfriend? Well, she’s found a new boyfriend and she… wants, um, me to move with her and her boyfriend and his sixteen year old daughter to his summer home in Montana until I start college,” Kennedy finished and then looked up at them again. She looked at Alex’s reaction first because his had been the one she’d been most worried about.
“Is this a joke?” Alex asked in a cruel voice.
Kennedy shook her head, “I wish it were but it’s not. My mom told me on Monday and –” Kennedy started but Jack cut her off.
“You found out on Monday and you’re just now telling us?” Jack asked.
Kennedy let out a sigh and shook her head, “Okay, you’re lucky that I’m telling you at all. I contemplated just moving again and having you guys figure it out for yourselves that I was gone, but I didn’t want to hurt you guys like that again, so I came to tell you, okay?” she asked and Jack nodded.
“Sorry, I guess I’m just a little sensitive on the subject,” Jack admitted with a shrug.
Kennedy chuckled, “It’s okay,” she said and then looked over to Alex who hadn’t really said anything more since she explained. “I’ll be right back, I’m going to go get some water,” she told them and then got up from her spot on his chair and walked out of the living room and into the kitchen. She grabbed a glass from the cabinet and poured water from the jug in the fridge into and took a sip.
She turned around and Alex was standing less than a foot away from her. Kennedy jumped slightly, “I swear, I have to put a bell on you,” she commented and he laughed and moved closer to her so that every inch of his body was pressed up against hers except for his face.
“Please don’t go,” he whispered to her and brought his forehead down to hers.
Kennedy let out a painful sigh, “It’s not like I want to go. I wanted to stay and hang out with you and Jack but I don’t get to do that,” she said and tried to look up at him.
“Come on,” Alex said suddenly and led the way back to the living room where Jack sat on Alex’s couch. “There’s something we wanted to tell you, too,” Alex informed her as he sat down in his original spot on the same couch Jack was sitting on. Kennedy took her spot in the chair.
“What?” she asked, scared of what they were going to say from the looks on their faces.
“Well, we’re not exactly staying in Maryland this summer, either,” Jack started slowly, gauging Kennedy’s reaction.
“Where are you going?” Kennedy asked, confused and her muscles tensing.
Alex scoffed at Jack’s lame explanation. “Have you ever heard of Warped Tour? It’s a tour of, like, thirty bands that go around the U.S. and play for a bunch of people out doors and we’ve been invited to go on it with a bunch of other bands, so we’ll be doing that this summer. We actually leave next Wednesday,” Alex explained in a much cooler tone than Jack had done.
“Oh, so I guess it doesn’t really matter if I move or not then, does it?” Kennedy asked, hurt that they had just now decided to tell her this when they’d known for how long? She guessed she now understood what they felt when she hadn’t told them.
“No!” Jack exclaimed and both Kennedy and Alex turned and looked at him. “That’s not true. We were actually going to ask you to come on tour with us,” Jack told her and Kennedy glanced over and Alex. His eyebrows were knitted together and he was trying to concentrate.
“That would have been nice,” she told him with a soft smile on her lips.
“You still can,” Alex said, not looking at her but staring at the same spot on the floor he’d been staring at since she’d told him.
“No, I can’t, remember? I’m going to Montana,” Kennedy told him in a voice that said ‘hello, where have you been?’.
“Kennedy, you’re eighteen – she can’t force you to move with her and therefore you can come on tour with us and she can’t do a damn thing about it, understand?” Alex asked, getting up from his spot on the couch and walking over to Kennedy and kneeling in front of her. “I would love it if you came,” he told her with a wink.
“Really?” she asked, unsure.
“Positive,” Alex said and nodded.
“I would love it if you came, too,” Jack put his two cents in and Kennedy smiled.
“I don’t know…” her voice trailed off in thought and Alex glared at her.
“You don’t know if you want to hang out with your best friends for an entire summer before you move away to god-only-knows-where to go to college?” Alex asked and he sounded furious.
“Alex, it’s not like that. It just seems so sudden and it feels like I can’t really wrap my head around the concept, okay? I can’t picture myself on tour with a bunch of smelly guys who don’t know how to use a deodorant stick, alright?” she asked and Jack started laughing behind Alex which caused Alex to start giggling, too.
“Please just come with us,” Alex pleaded with her.

[.x.x.x.] [.x.x.x.] [.x.x.x.]

Kennedy walked out of Alex’s house briskly and to her car. She started it as quickly as possible and drove back to her house. Her mother’s car was sitting in the driveway where it had been a few days prior and there was another car, a truck, behind it. Kennedy got out of her car and walked up the concrete walkway and into her house. There were a bunch of boxes everywhere and she heard her mother yelling things – directions.
“Mom?” Kennedy yelled as she had to step around a bunch of their fragile objects such as lamps and figurines that were laying about the floor.
Lorelei came walking down the stairs with a small and a teenage girl in tow behind her and she had a smile plastered to her face. “Honey, this is Bruce. Bruce, this is my daughter, Kennedy,” Lorelei introduced them. Bruce was not the type that her mother usually went for – usually she went for tall, muscular, handsome guys, but Bruce was around 5’10” which was just a little shorter than her mother and had a bit of a beer gut. He had dark brown hair that was starting to thin out on the top, but no one would notice unless they were looking for it.
Bruce gave a goofy smile and stuck his hand out to Kennedy, “Hi, Kenney, it’s nice to meet you,” he said as she shook his hand.
“Likewise,” Kennedy said and then turned to her mother and just as she was about to say something, her mother interrupted her.
“And this is Layla, Layla, this is my daughter Kennedy,” Lorelei finished and wrapped her arms around Layla’s shoulders which Layla seemed to dislike as much as Kennedy with having to meet them.
“Hi,” Kennedy said and shook Layla’s hand. Layla didn’t say anything back and Kennedy took her to be a rather shy girl.
Lorelei smiled and then finished walking down the stairs, “Okay honey,” Lorelei started talking to Kennedy, “we need you to pack all of your things because I don’t know how you have them organized and –”Lorelei started but Kennedy cut her off.
“I’m not going with you,” Kennedy told her with a strong stance.
Lorelei turned around to look at Kennedy and tilted her head, “I’m sorry?” she asked.
“I’m not going with you,” Kennedy repeated herself.
“Oh really? And why’s that?” Lorelei asked, crossing her arms across her chest.
“I found somewhere else to stay,” Kennedy told her with a shrug of her shoulders.
“But I made sure…” her mother’s voice trailed off as she started to process what Kennedy had just told her and then she gave a malicious smile, “So Alex or Jack is willing to let you stay with them, then?” her mom asked.
“Not exactly, but yes, I guess that could be the same,” Kennedy agreed and nodded.
“What do you mean, ‘not exactly’?” Lorelei asked.
“Well, they’ve been invited to be on Warped Tour and they want me to go with them and sell merch and stuff like that, so I am,” Kennedy told her.
Lorelei scoffed. “You can’t possible –”
“Mom? Honestly, I don’t care about your opinion anymore. Anything you say is not going to get me to change my mind, so sure, I’ll pack my stuff in my room, but it’ll be kept at Alex’s house until I go off to college next year,” Kennedy informed her.
Lorelei was speechless and Kennedy took that as the perfect opportunity to go upstairs to her room and grab all her clothes in a suit case and all of the really important things she wanted to keep. It didn’t take her long because there wasn’t a lot of stuff that she actually wanted to keep, but Kennedy walked downstairs and passed Layla and turned to her. “So, I have a lot of extra stuff in there – if you want any of it, you can take it. If not, just throw it away,” Kennedy told her and gave her a wink.
Kennedy started toward the door.
“Kennedy, darling, I really wish you would reconsider your choice. I mean, us going to live in Montana for the summer gives us ample opportunity to become close again,” Lorelei said and Kennedy could tell that she was genuinely sad, but that wasn’t going to stop Kennedy.
“Mom, it’s your fault we’re not close anymore. You always chose your boyfriends over me,” Kennedy said simply and shook her head slowly and shrugged her shoulders, “so you actually helped make up my mind.” Kennedy turned and walked out the door and to her car. She put all her belongings in her trunk.
Kennedy hadn’t given Alex an answer before she left, she just got up and left and she hoped that this was answer enough for him.
Kennedy pulled up in front of the curb of his house and grabbed one of the four boxes she had packed and was sitting in her trunk and then walked up to Alex’s porch and knocked on the door.
Alex looked sullen as he opened the door and then realized who was sitting in front of him and a smile spread across his face. “What are you doing here?” he asked, pushing his brown hair away from his brown eyes.
Kennedy showed him her box she was holding, “I hope its okay, but I’m going to need a place to stay until Wednesday,” she told him with a shrug of her shoulders.
“Why Wednesday?” he asked, pretending to be confused.
“Because that’s the day I leave to go on tour with my friends,” she told him and he smiled and took her box away from her and tossed it aside and pulled her into a hug.
“Are you sure? I don’t want you to come if you’re not sure,” he asked as he pulled away from her, but not far enough away.
“I was sure the minute the words came out of Jack’s mouth,” Kennedy reassured him. “Where is Jack, by the way?” Kennedy asked, trying to glance behind Alex’s tall frame to see if he was still in the house.
“He left a few minutes after you did,” Alex shrugged off and then put his forehead against hers. “Can I ask you a question?” he asked.
“Of course,” she told him and nodded. She shut her eyes as she reveled in the fact that Alex was holding her. His arms were around her hips and his fingers interlaced behind her back.
“Can I please kiss you?” he asked and after asking let out a little laugh.
“I thought we were trying to be just friends,” she brought up.
Alex shook his head, “I was never trying to be just friends with you, Kenne,” he told her.
Kennedy let out a sigh. “How’s this going to work, Alex? I mean, I’m only going to be on tour with you guys for three months and then I go to college. I’m not going to be near here,” she told him.
“Shh,” he soothed her and pulled her so that he head was resting on his chest, right below his head. “We’ll deal with that when we come to it, alright?” he told her.
She nodded. “Okay,” she whispered and then he took her face and tilted her chin up slightly and he bent down and kissed her lips softly. She threw her arms around his neck and started kissing him back more passionately but Alex pulled away.
“Can I tell you something?” he asked.
“Yeah,”
“I think the reason we always hurt each other whenever we get involved is because we go to fast. With us it’s usually all or nothing and that’s not the way a relationship’s supposed to be like, you know? I think that we should just take it slow,” Alex told her and she laughed.
“Usually it’s the girl saying stuff like that” she teased and he stuck his tongue out at her.
He moved closer to her and stroked her hair whispies away from her face. “Slow,” he whispered as he bent down and kissed her again.