Dear Summer

Kinsley pulled out her iPod speakers from her ears and sighed. Being bored just wasn't something she was good at. Checking her phone for the fiftieth time in the past ten minutes, she began to grow more angry than just annoyed.

The screen read "0 new messages", something that seldom appeared on Kinsley's Blackberry. Being a loner wasn't Kinsley's thing, but Abbey failed to mention the plans she had for the night and randomly disappeared before everyone else took off to a party that Travis Clark from We the Kings was throwing.

Kinsley decided to stay in, waiting for Abbey to get back. Two hours had passed since that decision, and she had yet to receive word of Abbey's whereabouts. Kinsley checked her phone one more time, then threw it in frustration. It wasn't just Abbey that she hadn't heard from, but Kyle's texts had ceased around the same time the guys left for the party.

Retrieving her phone, Kinsley noticed she'd knocked over some random poster-like picture of a guy in a purple jersey with bad eyebrows. She went to pick it up, but somehow found that she felt better leaving it there on the ground. It gave her some sense of getting back at everyone who'd left her behind.

She tucked the cell phone in the pocket of her black hoodie and walked off of the tour bus into the chilly dark night.

"Kinsley!"

The voice startled her, and now she could feel goose bumps coming on.

Kinsley slowly turned to find Jack standing behind her. "You really shouldn't wander in the dark like this, you never know what kind of people lurk in the shadows waiting to do nasty things to pretty little girls like you," Jack winked with an exaggerated smile.

Kinsley rolled her eyes and brushed past him. "Stop being such a fucking creep, Jack."

"Woah there!" Jack spun around and jogged to catch up with her. "You okay, Kins?"

"Fantastic as always," she fake-smiled.

Jack nodded and preceded to follow her. "You going somewhere?"

"Being that I'm tired of sitting alone in your empty tour bus, yeah, I'm going somewhere."

Jack linked arms with her and tried to get her to walk at a slower pace. "You could have come to the party, Kinsley. There's no use in getting all wound up," He paused and looked for any change of expression on her face. There was none. "It was actually quite lame anyway. Why don't we just hang out? We can google map the closest movie theater and go catch something funny."

Kinsley sighed then smiled slightly at Jack. It was nice to have another friend around to try to distract her from her best friend and whatever Kyle was to her from ignoring her.

"Thanks, Jack. But I was actually on my way to go find Kyle. He was at the party, right?"

Jack was quitet as he remembered all the faces at the party. "Yeah, but, um... I think he left early too. Like I said, it was lame."

Kinsley looked at Jack confused. It wasn't like Kyle to leave any party as long as there was still alcohol around.

Jack caught on to what Kinsley was thinking. "Usually Travis's partys are pretty sweet, but I think something happened with him and his girl earlier, so he's been pretty bummed all night."

Kinsley nodded as if she understood. Truthfully, she didn't even know Travis was seeing anyone, but that wasn't too odd; she'd only talked to the guy once.

"Well if that's the case, I should go find Kyle. I'm sure a lame party's left him bored. Maybe we could just go hang out on the FTSK bus. You up to it?"

"I don't think that's a good idea," Jack said quickly. "I'm pretty sure Jonathan said something about one of them drinking too much and getting sick. It's probably pretty gnarly."

Kinsley frowned. "Oh," she shrugged, "I guess that explains a lot."

"Yeah, so... you wanna take Monster for a drive to that movie theater?" Jack tried once again.

"Sounds good to me. Thanks, Jack."

Jack smiled triumphantly "No problem-O!"

*****

"Kinsley, pull over! I have to pee!" Jack insisted, trying to steer Monster from the passenger seat.

Kinsley slapped his hand away then gripped the wheel toghter.

"Kinsleeey!"

Kinsley turned up the music so that she didn't have to hear him any longer. "Jack, you just went to the bathroom. Twice. I'm not pulling over."

Jack turned up the volume even more. "Whaaat? I can't hear you! Just pull over!"

Kinsley sighed. "Okay, where do you want me to pull over?"

Jack began to open the door with the vehicle in motion. Here. I gotta go now!" He practically screamed.

Kinsley began to slow the Volks Wagon bus down. "But there's nothing th-"

She was interupped by Jack jumping out of Monster. "Don't peek, missy!"

Kinsley shook her head. "Wasn't planning on it. Really."

Jack jumped back into the bus and shut the door behind him. There was a slightly awkward silence as Jack realized he hadn't zipped his pants back up and began to do so.

"So, pretty good movie. Am I right?" Jack asked pushing buttons on the radio, trying to find something he liked.

Kinsley giggled. "Personally, I saw more of Adam Sandler than I would have preferred. Jacky, please don't touch my radio when you didn't wash your hands after you... you know."

Jack threw his head back in laughter. "Kinsley, you can't honestly think I wash my hands every time I piss. And I think it showed the perfect amount of Sandler."

"Ew, ew, ew." Kinsley said, trying to get either of Jack's confessions out of her thoughts.

"I'm just kidding! Back to Zohan, though. I have never wanted to be Arabic more in my life."

Kinsley's glance shifted from the road to Jack, then back to the road. "Wait, aren't you Arabic?"

Jack shurgged. "Why are we talking about religion?!"

Kinsley's mouth opened as she began to speak, then shut it before speaking again. "But you're the one who brought it up."

"So maybe I did. What religion are you, miss Kinsley?"

"We were talking about you!"

Jack's face lit up with excitment. "I love this song!"

Kinsley rolled her eyes, then started singing along with Jack and the Maroon 5 song on the radio.

As the two headed back to the tour bus, Kinsley spotted a familiar brunette walking outside them.

"Abbey Road!" Kinsley called, putting Monster in park then turning him off.

Abbey starting strolling quickly to the bus as Kinsley and Jack exited it. "Where the hell were you?" Abbey laughed, hugging Kinsley around the neck.

Jack walked around the vehicle and swung his arm around Kinsley. "We wen't to go see Don't Mess With the Zohan, cause we're cool like that."

Kinsley pointed her thumb at Jack. "What he said. By the way, I can ask you the same question. I was waiting up for you."

Abbey knit her eyebrows together. "I told you, I went to the party. I didn't feel like waiting for the rest of them because Matt's girlfriend would have taken forever. It was a pretty killer party, though. Why weren't you there, Kins?"

Jacks face went white as Kinsley's began turning red. "You didn't even mention the party to me! And you need to stop being so mean to Matt's girlfriend, she's really nice."

Abbey's jaw dropped. Was Kinsley really mad at her?

Jack started walking backward trying to avoid the crossfire, but he was too late. Kinsley turned on her heel and shot him the deadliest glare he's ever seen. How could those wide, happy grey eyes look so cold?

"So the party was 'lame'?" Kinsley spat. She was overreacting, but at this point she really didn't care. Without wanting to hear any more from either of them, she turned back toward Monster and sped off. It really just wasn't her night.

Jack and Abbey stood in the cold outside the tour bus.

Abbey crossed her arms to try to stay warm. "What was that all about?" she asked Jack.

Jack took a deep breath and sighed. "She was having a bad night when I found her. I was just trying to cheer her up. It worked. For a while."

Abbey pulled her hair tie out and let her brown hair cover her cold neck. "I see that. What was that about lying?" she inquired.

"I might have told a little white lie," Jack confessed. "I think I saw something I wasn't supposed to. "

Abbey raised an eyebrow. "What'd you see?"

Jack inhaled sharply. "Kins really seems to like Kyle, doesn't she?"

Abbey thought about the question for a moment, trying to connect it to the subject. "For as long as she's known him, yeah, I guess. I haven't really talked to her about it much."

Jack took this in. "Thought so. Look Abbey, I think I saw Kyle leave the party with some other girl tonight. I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I didn't want to chance it. I told a couple lies to keep her from going to find him."

"We have to tell her!" Abbey demanded.

Jack shook his head. "But I don't know if I've even right about this. I don't want to ruin things for her if it's not necessary."

Abbey looked at him for a while, digesting his words. Kinsley was normally strong. But at the same time, she normally didn't get mad or take off without trying to talk about what was bothering her. Jack was probably right. If they didn't know what was going on, they should stay out of it.

*****

Kinsley had just turned into a McDonald's parking lot. She'd decided to go back and find Abbey. Kinsley knew she was being ridiculous, and she just didn't understand it. She needed to talk to Abbey about what was bothering her. She never had a problem with it before. It wasn't even like Abbey'd done anything wrong. Sure, she forgot to tell her she was going to the party. No big deal. Abbey hadn't really been around a lot lately, but the girls had plans on making the most of their summer. Abbey was.

Maybe Abbey wasn't the problem at all. The feeling of being ignored was coming from more than just Abbey. It was Kyle too.

This has to stop, Kinsley thought to herself. He's not even your boyfriend. He's just a friend. That you like. A lot. Kinsley was starting to feel like she was obsessing. That was definitely not like Kinsley.

She turned Monster around and headed back to the parking lot by the Holiday Inn where most of the tour busses were parked.