Go Around

A few weeks passed and Kennedy was all caught up in all of her classes. She and Alex barely spoke two words to each other even though Kennedy had hoped that them having a class together would bring them closer together, she had been wrong.
She had tried calling Jack a few times but he never answered and Kennedy was starting to believe what Alex had told her, about them most likely never being able to forgive her.
Coincidentally, Kennedy and Lisa were becoming quick friends, they had a lot in common; their taste in music, the clothes they likes, the stores they shopped at, the books they read, partying, drinking, and academics. Kennedy hated to admit it but she really genuinely liked Lisa.
While Lisa and she were sitting in class one day, working on their presentation, Lisa started up a conversation with her, “So, you know that the guys are in a band, right?” she asked her, nonchalantly. It was the first time they’d ever talked about Alex and Jack because Kennedy was pretty sure that Alex had given Lisa the full story of everything that happened the prior year.
“Um, I knew that they had aspirations to be in a band, and that they were covering Blink songs,” Kennedy admitted, but she never really took any of it very seriously. She had always been a strong believer in finding a real career and even if you wanted to be a rock star to make sure that you were good at something else to fall back on in the future when you didn’t make it to your rock star status. She had tried to convince Alex and Jack many times to try to do better in school so that, in case their band dreams didn’t come true, they wouldn’t end up homeless.
“Well, they recently got signed and they’re playing a concert tonight. I was wondering if you would want to go with me.” Lisa said and sounded very hopeful about it.
Kennedy, on the other hand, was a little apprehensive. They had never let Kennedy listen in on their rehearsals because they didn’t want her lecturing them and they didn’t want her to watch them perform. Kennedy knew that Alex wrote the majority of the music and she often wondered if how much, if any of it, was written about her.
“I don’t know if they would want me there…” Kennedy told her. Maybe Alex hadn’t completely filled Lisa in on all of the history between them.
“Oh pretty please? It would mean so much to them – I know it would. Even if they’d never say it aloud, I know that they want you to see them play,” Lisa told her, turning to face Kennedy and grabbing her forearm with her tiny hands.
“You said it was tonight?” Kennedy asked, still contemplating whether she really wanted to do this. She didn’t want them to be mad at her for going with Lisa – she was pretty sure that Alex would be getting furious if he found out how close of friends Kennedy and Lisa were becoming.
“Yeah, it’s at seven,” Lisa nodded furiously, “we can stop by your house before we go and we can change and get ready and look smoking hot,” she said and giggled when she rubbed her shoulder sexily up against Kennedy who joined in the laughter.
“Sure, I guess I could go if you really want me to,” Kennedy conceded and she was really hoping that she wouldn’t regret doing it.
“I do,” Lisa said, sounding so sure. “We can head straight to your car from here and preferably get there before Alex gets to his car and then we’ll go to your house,” Lisa said.
“That sounds great,” Kennedy said with a nod. The rest of the hour they continued working on their project and the minute the bell rang, Kennedy and Lisa bolted out the door and to the parking lot. They hoped in Kennedy’s car and Kennedy sped out of the parking lot just as Alex was walking out of the doors. Lisa texted Alex to let him know that she was getting a ride home with a friend.
They got to Kennedy’s house and Kennedy showed Lisa around and Lisa said that she really enjoyed her house, but Kennedy wasn’t sure. They went up to Kennedy’s room and worked on their project until four o’clock and then they both started getting ready.
When Kennedy had lived in New York she had become extremely obsessed with labels so the clothes in her closet were either vintage or Louis Vuitton, or something equivalent. She picked out a Betsey Johnson dress that hit her mid-thigh and was all black and ruched on the torso and had four black tiers. She paired it with a pair of Jimmy Choo’s that had a four and a half inch heel and was a peep toe bootie; it had a cut out from the end of the toe to the beginning of the ankle and laced on the toe and around the ankle.
She curled her hair in big, loose curls and put on silver and black makeup and when she looked at Lisa, even though Lisa was beautiful, Kennedy knew that she looked better.
They headed out at six thirty and the venue was a place that Kennedy had never even known existed. They got in and stood in back and watched other bands play and the majority of them were awful. Kennedy hoped that Alex’s band wasn’t as awful as the other ones were. Kennedy didn’t even know their band name and it made her feel horrible.
But she saw them setting up on stage and her heart started skipping a bunch of beats and she was praying that they would be fantastic.
“Hey, we’re All Time Low…” Alex said and as he continued talking Kennedy kind of zoned out. She thought about their name and she was trying to place where they came up with it because she knew that she knew where it stemmed from.
They started playing before she could place it and the minute Alex started singing she fell in love with him all over again. There had been times that he would sing her to sleep when they’d been together, but she’d never heard him sound so fantastic. She and Lisa danced to the music for the next hour until they were done. She wondered how many of the songs were about her because now she was positive that most of them were.
“Let’s go see them,” Lisa said in a loud voice over the next band.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Kennedy said trepidaciously.
“Oh, come on! We should go and tell them they sounded great,” Lisa tried to persuade her and tugged on her arm to follow her to the back. Kennedy went along with it even though she knew the guys wouldn’t be happy to see her. Somehow Lisa managed to get them back stage and she led them back to the room where they were as though she were an expert at this type of stuff.
She opened a door and ran in and gave Alex a gigantic hug while Kennedy stayed in the doorway, too afraid to walk all the way in. “You were so good!” Lisa told him and gave him a kiss on his cheek and a wide smile to match. Alex laughed and kissed her back.
Alex didn’t notice Kennedy until he stepped away from Lisa and he had to do a double take to make sure that it was actually Kennedy. “What are you doing here?” he asked her but not sounding angry, just curious.
“Well, Lisa invited me,” Kennedy told him sheepishly. She wished she’d stayed out in the club and listened to the horrible music.
“How did you like it?” Jack asked, “It was the first time you’ve heard us, right?”
“Yeah, you never let me listen to you practice before and I thought you guys were fantastic,” she told them genuinely and hoped that her being here might break the ice between all of them a little bit.
“I’m glad you came,” Jack told her as he got up and gave her a hug. Everybody except Lisa was shocked, but no one was as shocked as Kennedy. She quickly wrapped her arms around him as soon as she comprehended what was happening and they just held each other for a minute. It took all she had not to cry.
Jack led her into the room and shut the door behind her and eventually everybody started talking and getting more comfortable with each other. “It’s good to finally meet you,” a boy said as he came up to her. He had hair that looked similar to Jack’s and she wished that she knew who he was.
“You, too?” she asked.
“Sorry, I’m Zack,” he laughed and stuck his hand out to her which she shook happily.
“I’m Kennedy,” she told him.
“Oh, I know who you are,” he told her as though it were obvious.
“Is that a good or a bad thing?” she asked, sounding a little worried.
“It depends on who you ask,” Zack laughed before walking away. Kennedy knew that she and Zack would get along really well if they ever had the opportunity to really get to know each other.
Kennedy got up from the couch she was sitting on and started walking back to find the bathroom. “Where are you going?” Lisa asked her; apparently Lisa was the only one who noticed that Kennedy was leaving.
“Restroom,” Kennedy said and pointed to the back and Lisa nodded. Kennedy continued moving back and eventually found the bathroom. She washed her hands and made sure that she still looked good.
She opened the bathroom door and Alex was standing right in front of it and pushed her back into it instead of letting her out.
“What are you doing here, Kennedy?” he asked her in a serious voice, his face only a few inches away from hers.
“What do you mean? Lisa asked me to come with her and she is a very hard person to say no to,” Kennedy said as she was pressed up against the sink counter.
Alex didn’t say anything more, but his face softened and he looked into her eyes while he brought his hand up and stroked her cheek. “Kennedy,” he whispered and brought his forehead to hers and it made her long for the days before; before Lisa, before New York, before Rob, before he slept with The Skank, before she retaliated, before when everything was just perfect between the two of them.
He brought his body closer to hers so that every single inch of their bodies were touching. After a second he kissed her softly and she reacted by wrapping her arms around his neck and making sure that he wouldn’t break the kiss. He moved his hand away from her face and stoked down her sides until he wrapped them behind her and interlaced his fingers right next to her lower back.
She broke the kiss first by turning her face away from his, “I can’t do this, Alex,” she told him in nothing but a mere whisper.
“What do you mean?” he asked her, confused.
“You’re dating Lisa and she’s my friend,” she told him even though she wasn’t sure if that was entirely true, “and you love her.”
Alex gave a halfhearted half smile and let out a scoff, “I may love Lisa, but it will never be the way that I love you, Kennedy. You are so special to me and you don’t even realize how much. I know that I’ve been telling you to just let Jack and I go, but truth-be-told, I am still so in love with you,” he told her and it made her melt.
If she were any other girl she would be worried that he was just playing her and he was just saying that to get a lay, but she knew that he wasn’t because he was so torn with his feelings for her; on one hand he wanted to hate her for leaving and he just wanted her to leave him and his friends alone so that he could move on, but on the other hand he loved her so much because she had left a mark on his heart that no one could replace no matter how hard they tried.
She turned her face back to his and started kissing him again and she knotted her fingers in his hair. He lifted her up so that she was sitting on the edge of the counter next to the sink. He moved up her dress and she stripped his shirt off of him.
She rubbed her hands down his smooth chest and he roamed every single inch of her legs with his hands. She wrapped them around his hips and brought them close enough so that she could feel his hard on. She undid the zipper of his pants and he quickly pushed them down along with his boxers and then he stripped off her panties.
He slowly thrust into her because he knew that she liked to enjoy the sensation of having it first enter her. She gasped and let out low moans.
He whispered her name quietly in her ear and told her how much he’d missed her. She scratched his back because she couldn’t let out the screams building up inside her and he responded forcefully just like he always had. She moaned his name because she knew that was his favorite part; giving the girl so much pleasure that they had to say his name.
He climaxed right after she did and they both were gasping for air and she withdrew and curled her knees to her chest and leaned up against the mirror.
He pulled up his boxers and his pants and buttoned and zipped them up. He grabbed his shirt and put it on. He looked at her, “Kennedy, I don’t want you to think that I did that because I don’t care about you,” he told her.
“How do you mean?” she asked him.
“Well, it felt sort of rushed, right? I don’t want you to think that I did it just because I wanted sex. I love you and that’s why I decided to do it,” he told her.
“You should probably go back out there. They’ll be wondering where you are,” she told him, not entirely knowing how to respond to what he’d just told her. She could tell that he was disappointed that she didn’t say that she loved him back, but he knew that she felt that way – she’d told him so many times that she felt that way.
He nodded once and opened the bathroom door slowly and walked out and shut the door behind himself. She wondered how long they’d been in there – it felt like hours, but she knew it couldn’t have been that long or someone would have come back to check on her since they most likely didn’t know that Alex had been back there with her.
She curled her knees tighter to her chest and let her head fall between them. She tried her hardest not to let too many tears fall because she didn’t want to ruin her makeup, but she let a few fall down her soft cheeks.
She wiped them away and stayed in there a few minutes longer then washed her hands and walked back out into the area where everybody was still talking.
“What took you so long?” Lisa asked while she was sitting on Alex’s lap. Alex looked at her with a worried look on his face.
I was having sex with your boyfriend. “I think I might have food poisoning. I started throwing up and that’s why I was in there for so long,” she explained to them and Alex looked relieved at the lie.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Lisa said and jumped off of Alex’s lap and raced to Kennedy’s side, “do we need to take you home?” she asked, genuinely concerned about her and that was something Kennedy rarely got from girls.
“I think I might. I’m sorry to ruin your night. You don’t have to go with me if you don’t want to, I’m sure Alex could give you a ride home,” Kennedy offered up partly because she wanted the freedom to cry as much as she wanted on the ride home to her house, if she could remember how to get there.
“Are you sure?” Lisa asked.
“I’m positive,” Kennedy said.
Lisa turned to Alex, “I could get a ride home, right?” she asked him.
“Of course, honey,” he told her and that was enough to make Kennedy want to vomit.
“Alright, well give me a call and let me know that you made it home alright, okay?” Lisa made Kennedy promise and it made Kennedy giggle.
“I’ll call you the minute I step through the door,” Kennedy promised.
“Good,” Lisa said and pulled Kennedy into a hug, “Get feeling better,” she commanded.
Kennedy didn’t respond and as she tried to leave Jack walked in front of her, “Avoiding giving me a hug?” he asked her, pretending to sound hurt.
She laughed, “Now why would I do that?” she asked and he opened his arms wide and she accepted his hug.
“Get feeling better, sweetie,” he told her and kissed her forehead.
Zack also gave her a hug, “Good to meet you,” he said and she said thank you then walked out of the room and moved her way back to the club and out to her car.
She drove home in complete silence and she found her way home pretty easily and her mom still wasn’t home when she got there. She looked at the clock in her car before getting out. It was ten o’clock.
She got out of her car and went into her house and made herself some macaroni and cheese and ate it while watching Moulin Rouge, the most depressing but amazing movie known to man. She also downed an entire pint of ice cream before the movie was over and by the time it finished it was after midnight.
She made her way up to her room and stripped off all of her clothes and hopped into the shower. She scrubbed her body ferociously, trying to scrub away all the grossness of the club and because she felt bad about having sex with Alex while he was dating Lisa when Lisa had been so great to her.
She got out of the shower an hour and a half later and she just let her hair air dry. She plopped onto her bed and just curled her knees to her chest and tried to make herself fall asleep but she kept thinking about Alex and Lisa.
She wondered how this (the night and her and Alex having sex) was going to affect her at school after the weekend.