She Had Me At Bonjour

Can we talk? Can we talk?!

“Yeah, sure.” Krysha hesitantly took the empty seat next to me on the bench – our bench.

“Look, I’m really sorry about what I said earlier. I shouldn’t have blamed you for something as stupid as that.” She’s right. She shouldn’t have yelled at me for all of that. But at the same time, I feel like it’s partly my fault.

“I’m sorry for blowing up at you. I kind of over reacted.”

Everything was quiet; the only thing you could hear were the waves crashing against the bottom on the harbor.

“I just… I don’t understand why you, Kara, and Rian hate Marcus so much. Did he say something to you guys? What did he do?” Krysha twiddled her thumbs, her eyes focused on her lap.

“As much as I’d like to tell you, I promised Kara I wouldn’t.”

“I have a right to know! He’s my boyfriend!” I flinched at when she said boyfriend, but she didn’t notice.

“If he’s a good boyfriend, he’ll tell you himself.” But he’s not a good boyfriend.

Krysha was quiet for a while. I could see her from the corner of my eye; she seemed to be thinking.

“You’re right. He should be able to tell me.” She shifted in her seat and faced me, looking me dead in the eyes. “Zack, I’m really really sorry about everything. I’ve been s huge bitch lately, haven’t I?” I didn’t answer, I just stared. She laughed to herself and whispered, “This is so wrong.”

“What is so wrong?”

She took a deep breath and looked from her lap to me. “I have f-feelings for you. Feelings that I-I shouldn’t have considering I have a b-boyfriend.” Yes, she stuttered on ‘boyfriend’. “Zack, do you… have feelings for m-me?”

“I do. I always have.” She took my hands in hers and her thumb massaged circles on my hand. Her eyes dropped to our hands and she sighed. We sat like that for a few minutes before she looked back up at me, her expression unreadable.

“Then let me try something?” I hesitated, but I nodded anyways. She sat there staring at me for a while. Before I could ask what she was going to do, her lips crashed into mine. In that moment, every stress and every care just washed away and the only two people in the world were Krysha and I. It was like we were the only people left and we were just fine like that. No Marcus, no Juliana, no All Time Low, no Cree and Angela.

When we broke apart, she looked truly happy. Her smile was wiped off her face in 5 seconds flat and it was replaced with a mix of guilt and horror. “Shit. I shouldn’t have done that. I-I’m sorry Zack. I have to go.” She stood up and ran to her car, driving off in the direction of her house. I sat there knowing exactly why she looked that way. She was dating Marcus, and not me. But unlike her, I didn’t feel guilty at all.

_ _ _

“And oh my god, he is the sweetest guy! I think he’s the one, Zack.” Cree was bouncing around my room, gushing about some guy she met.

“Can’t you talk to one of the girls about this?”

“Not really. Kara and Rian are on a date, Angela is baking cookies with Jack, Juliana is spending the day with her family, and Krysha has been locked in her room for like, the past few days and she refuses to talk to anyone. She’s acting the way she does when she feels really guilty about something.

“So please just listen to my gushing Zacky? Pleeeease?” I nodded and she squealed, sitting across from me on my bed. “Okay so where was I? Oh right. I think he might actually be the one for me!”

“When did you meet him?” Cree put her hand on her chin and paused, thinking back.

“Last week at the beach, when Krysha went to go find you. Everyone was in their cars and I was looking for something that fell out of my bag when he came and helped me. We started talking a little bit and we exchanged numbers. We’ve been texting and talking on the phone nonstop, except for the occasional time he has football practice. We’ve also been on 2 dates so far. He’s just so perfect!” She stared off into space and bit her lip, obviously thinking about this guy. When she snapped out of her daze, she laughed and said sorry.

“So what’s this guy’s name?”

“OH right! I’m sorry! His name’s Conner Wright. Cute, isn’t it?”

“Uh, yeah?”

Cree took out her phone and pressed a random button. She got up from the bed and grabbed her bag, looking back at me before putting her phone back in her pocket. “Thanks for listening to me ramble, Zacky. I’m going to go meet Conner for lunch. Bye!” She walked out of my room and when I heard the front door open, I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. I don’t know how girls can deal with listening to that. It’s pretty annoying.

I heard the front door open and close again, then a pair of feet walk into the hallway. My door opened and Rian was standing there. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned into the doorframe. “Have you heard anything on Krysha since the beach?’

“Well apparently, she’s locked herself in her room since then and refuses to talk with anyone. Cree said she does that when she feels really guilty.”

“Zack… did anything happen to make her feel guilty?”

“We kinda, sorta… kissed? But she kissed me, not the other way around. It was her idea.”

Rian sighed and shook his head, walking away from my room. “Just think about what you’re getting the two of you into!”

I shook my head and lay down on my bed and stared at the ceiling. What felt like 2 minutes ended up being 2 hours. I sighed and looked around my room for something to do. Nothing caught my eye, so I went into the living room and turned on the TV, flipping through channels. I settled on some movie on HBO that I wasn’t really paying attention to. Alex burst through the front door and ran into the hallway and into his room. A few seconds later he walked back into the living room and turned to me.

“Was Cree here earlier?”

“Yeah, a few hours ago. Why?”

“No reason. I just smelled her perfume in the hallway.” I didn’t even notice the smell of Cree’s perfume.

I shrugged and Alex went back into his room. I couldn’t concentrate on the movie playing; I just stared at the wall. All I could think about was Alex’s reaction when he finds out about Cree’s new “boyfriend”. He’ll either be crushed, or extremely pissed.