Wonderwall

Kennedy was not doing so well. He stood in John’s kitchen, pouring himself an alcoholic drink to try and calm his nerves. John was supposed to be arriving at any time, with his darling cousin with him.

Kennedy was good with girls, for the most part. He wasn’t exactly smooth, but girls liked his small attempts at being romantic. This was a whole different area for him though. This was John’s cousin, his family. John practically talked about her like she was his sister.

If Kennedy screwed up, even if it was in just the slightest, a whole chaotic mess would follow. He wasn’t sure how he could deal with that. The band was his life, but he’d been in situations before with rivaling band members and it had never turned out alright in his experience. There was no way he could chance losing the band.

That left him with only one option. Sweep her off her fucking feet. Kennedy frowned as he stared down at his full cup. He definitely didn’t like the plan, but what else was he supposed to do? Act like a douche so she wouldn’t be interested? He didn’t think John would like that anymore than if he just screwed up.

Kennedy sighed and shook his head before tilting it back and letting the warm liquid burn his throat on its way down. Someone started to yell his name from the living room and he shuffled his feet there, half full cup still in hand.

“Kenny! Hide behind the couch!” Eric directed him and Kennedy raised both eyebrows. “Uh, hide a little faster! John and Darcy are walking up the sidewalk as we speak!” He shout whispered the end of his sentence just as the front door opened.

Kennedy’s attention was turned toward the door. He was caught like a deer in the headlights as John entered. Everyone else was trying to hide; making it look like Kennedy was just relaxing around the house on his own. His cheeks flushed a little as he finally noticed the smaller figure coming in behind John.

His mouth opened as he stared at her. She was short, maybe 5’5 or 5’6, and she had long dark brown hair. Her eyes were a bright green color he could see clearly from across the room. Her smile was dazzling and her dimples were cute. Kennedy was just simply stunned as he stared at her.

Then everyone stood and screamed surprise. Darcy tore her vision from the frozen boy to scan all the unfamiliar faces. She attempted a smile to them, even though she hated surprised. Her eyes widened when she found one familiar face.

“Eric!” She yelled and took off running. The small crowd watched as she jumped into the skinny boy’s arms and wrapped her legs around his waist. “Oh my god! I completely forgot about you!” She gushed as she squeezed him.

Eric slowly put the girl back on the ground and then frowned at her. “Well, thanks.” He sarcastically responded as he grabbed her hand. “I missed you too, Darc.”

Darcy frowned and squeezed his hand before pulling hers from it. “That’s not what I meant.” She signed with her hands and then sighed. “My mind’s just been under a lot of pressure lately. I promise I really truly missed you.” She smiled a little as Eric nodded knowingly.

“How is your dad?” He cautiously asked. Sometimes this was a touchy subject. He was hoping this wasn’t one of those times.

“He’s doing alright.” She rolled her eyes and continued to sign.

“Wow, is she deaf?” Garrett blurted as he stared at the girl in amazement, just like everyone else in the room. Darcy laughed.

“I’m a CODA. Child of Deaf Adult. The signing is just out of habit. I promise it’ll mostly go away after a week or two.” She grinned and then extended her hand to the copper haired boy. “I’m Darcy, by the way.”

“Garrett.” He replied and shook her hand. Kennedy was still trying to shake himself from the shock. He hadn’t been sure what to expect, but he surely hadn’t been expecting this.

She was elegant, and witty. He watched as John introduced her individually to everyone. There were only about two handfuls of people, meaning it didn’t take that long for the two to reach him. He hurriedly wiped the dumbstruck expression off his face as they approached.

“This is Kenny.” John smirked as he put one arm around Darcy’s shoulders. “Kenny, this is my lovely cousin, Darcy.” She rolled her eyes and elbowed him in his ribs before extending her hand yet again.

“It’s, uh, a pleasure to finally meet you.” Kennedy tried smiling as he shook her hand. He was ten times more nervous now and the look John was giving him was not helping.

“Hey, I’ve got an idea.” John casually threw his other arm around Kennedy’s shoulders as he started to lead the two toward his kitchen. “Why don’t you two go out back on the porch and get to know each other a little better?” He pushed Kennedy toward the sliding glass doors first.

“Real subtle, John.” Darcy remarked sarcastically as he gave her a little shove forward.

He ignored her sarcasm and continued to guide the two out the doors. “I’ll check back in on you guys in a little bit.” He winked at her before closing the door behind them. Then he waved and turned to go into the living room again.

Darcy let out a slow sigh as she watched him. “I’m sorry about this.” She muttered before gazing over at Kennedy. He stood awkwardly beside her, hands in pockets and eyes trained on shoes. Darcy smiled. From the little glances she had gotten inside, she’d determined that he was attractive. Just thinking the word made her blush.

Kennedy chuckled a little. “Don’t be. It’s just John being John.” He shrugged and sneaked a peak at her. She was still staring at him, with a small smile on her pretty lips. He bit his bottom lip and looked over the backyard, gesturing to the steps to the deck. “You want to sit down? He’ll probably keep us out here for at least an hour.”

Darcy nodded and strode to the steps, sitting down on the top one and stretching her legs out to the third and last step. “Yeah. John can be hard headed at times, but he means best.”

“Right.” Kennedy sat down beside her, making sure he wasn’t too close. He fidgeted with the cup still in his hands and frowned as he realized he didn’t have anything to offer her. He considered giving her his own cup, but then he didn’t think she would be too keen for it.

Darcy noticed his odd behavior. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want. I’m sure if I bat my eyes enough he’ll let this crazy idea go. All you have to do is say the word.” His head snapped up and his eyes connected with hers.

It was too dark out to really see the color, but she could see them glisten from the faint light coming through the glass doors. She bit her bottom lip as she admitted to herself how handsome he was.

Kennedy bravely cleared his throat and smiled a little. “I don’t mind.” The honesty dripped from his mouth as he stared at her. He was sure he was getting himself in over his head.

“Really?” She arched both her eyebrows. She wasn’t certain that she was ready for anything, if that was what he was even suggesting, but then she remembered why she came back to Arizona in the first place. She wanted to have fun.

“If you don’t mind.” His courage wavered as he read too much into her doubt. He watched her bite her bottom lip again and then he nearly fell over as she scooted closer.

Darcy smirked, and Kennedy swore he could see that same mischievous glimmer in her eyes that was often in John’s. “I don’t mind at all.” She leaned her head on his shoulder and gazed around the yard.

Kennedy’s insides squirmed. It seemed way too easy. There had to be something wrong. He couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that this gorgeous girl he’d just met was this close to him. He tried hard not to move as a silence settled between them.

Darcy was mostly dazed out. She was taking in all the details she could see in the dark but her mind was in a completely different place. To be specific, it was all the way in Wichita, Kansas. It upset her that all she could think about was the reason why’d she’d ran away, but as hard as she tried she couldn’t forget it.

Kennedy was seemingly cool on the outside, as he too stared out into space, but on the inside he was still freaking out. His thoughts would jump from one bad scenario to the next. He couldn’t imagine a single scene where any of this ended well. He tried to calm himself down with the fact that technically, there wasn’t a ‘this’.

He was not in relationship. He was not about to enter into a relationship. He was just simply sitting on a friend’s back porch, in the dark, with a pretty girl at his side. Close to his side.

He licked his lips before trying to start up a conversation. “You know, John just redid all of this earlier this year. The backyard looked like shit when he bought the place.” Kennedy wanted to smack himself for starting on such a lame subject.

Darcy sighed. “It must have taken forever. I love the little twinkling lights along the fence.”

Kennedy snorted and nodded. “He had to re-do those like three times. The first time, he broke one bulb while he was setting it up so half the lights stopped working. The second time, he accidently bought red lights instead of the plain white ones. But you know they say, third time’s a charm.”

“Well, they look beautiful now. And I still can’t believe he has a pool. It’s totally unfair.” She pouted and he smiled.

“But now you get to swim in it whenever you want.”

“That’s not a bad idea.” She smirked and pulled her head up, patting his shoulder as she stood up.

Kennedy furrowed his eyebrows. “Where are you going?” He curiously watched her as she went down the rest of the steps. She was slipping off her shoes when she glanced over her shoulder at him, still smirking.

“Going for a swim, of course.” Her laughter played in his ears as she tiptoed to the side of the pool. There wasn’t a second hesitation as she jumped in fully clothed. The spontaneity of the action set her senses on fire and the minute she surfaced, her giggles were uncontrollable.

Kennedy couldn’t help but grin as he stared at her, bewildered. “Having fun?”

“Loads.” She pushed her hair away from her face and inhaled deeply. “You coming in?”

He started to decline the invite, but then stopped. “What the hell,” he muttered as he placed his cup down, shoved off the deck, and walked over toward the pool. He ditched his shoes next to hers and pulled his shirt off. Then he stood tentatively at the edge.

“The water’s warm.” She purred from her corner of the pool, persuading him more to come in. A minute later, water splashed up into her face and she giggled harder as she rubbed her eyes. When he surfaced, he was laughing too. “See, wasn’t that fun?”

“You mean, was scraping my ankle against the bottom and totally soaking my last pair of clean clothes fun?” He shook his head, making the water from his hair fly toward her. He grinned as she squealed. “Why, yes, it was tons.”

“Told you so.” She sang as she swam over to the ladder and climbed out of the pool. Kennedy watched her in bewilderment as she scooped up her shoes and tiptoed back to the deck.

“Where are you going now?” He asked as he followed suite and climbed out of the pool, grabbing his shoes and shirt. Darcy turned to him with one hand on her hip and one eyebrow raised.

“Aren’t you tired of asking that question yet?” She stared at him and waited for an answer while he merely shrugged since he didn’t have one. “Hmm, remember to notify me when you do. In the meantime,” she turned back around and went to the glass doors. “I’m going inside to get dry clothes and a drink.” She tried to slide the door open but then groaned as it didn’t budge.

Kennedy leaned over her slightly and rapped his knuckles on the glass, loud enough to grab attention from the other room if there wasn’t too much noise. Darcy smiled a little and muttered a thank you as they waited.

Eric appeared in the kitchen doorway and quickly came over to unlock/open the door for them. He eyed them suspiciously as they walked through, soaking wet. “Uh, what happened to you two?”

Darcy rolled her eyes. “I wanted to swim.” She shrugged and then vanished out of the room, through the living room, and up the stairs to search for John’s room and clothes.

Kennedy and Eric were still stuck in the kitchen, befuddled. “Damn.” Eric sighed as he finally snapped back to normal first. He closed the glass door again behind Kennedy. “That girl is a mess.”

Kennedy snapped back fast. “Mess?” He repeated worriedly. She was mysterious and strange, and Kennedy could handle that, but mess? He couldn’t deal with drama or chaos.

“Dude, you just came inside soaking wet after being alone with her for forty-five minutes. Do I need to explain?” Eric raised his eyebrows and then left Kennedy to think it over.