Simple in the Moonlight

“You know, they say a watched clock never ticks.”

The girl sighed, keeping her eyes focused on the object made of black plastic that sat across the room from her, “I’m just hoping that if I stare at it for the long enough I will acquire some sort of Jedi force and make it move itself over here.”

Her friend chuckled, narrowing his green eyes at her, “Is that your roundabout way of asking me to get the remote for you?”

Blake smiled, “You can take it however you want to, Kenny.”

She winced as Kennedy took the remote from the couch and threw it at her, hitting her stomach with a thud. He smiled, “Beggars can’t be choosers!”

She rolled her eyes as she flipped through channels, folding her legs underneath her. Even though she was indoors in an air conditioned house she could still feel sweat building on the back of her neck from the Arizona heat. “Kennedy,” Blake pouted, batting her blue eye at her best friend. “Make the heat go away.”

“Oh Blake,” he smiled, taking a seat next to her and lying his head on her legs, “You know I would if I could. This heat makes it hard to leave my house.”

“Then why are you always over here bugging me?” She laughed, brushing her blonde hair into a bun on the top of her head.

“Don’t act like you don’t appreciate my company,” he replied simply, taking the remote and changing the channel.

Blake sighed and mumbled as Jackass turned into Cake Boss, “Yeah okay its cool. I wasn’t watching that or anything.”

“Good then.”

She chuckled softly as she mindlessly played with her best friend’s brown hair that was falling into her fingers. She and Kennedy had been best friends since they were twelve years old, so this behavior was completely normal for them. That’s just how they were.

They told each other everything; they cried on each other’s shoulders, they held each other when they needed comfort. Kennedy had been there for her in every wrong thing that had happened in her life—good and bad, just as she had been there for him.

Blake was the only person he would talk to for an entire summer after his mother had died. She was the only one who had ever seen him in complete ruins—and he trusted her enough to help piece him back together.

Though her life troubles may have been more trivial, a passing grandparent being the only real troubling matter she had been through besides the few randoms that she thought at the time had ‘broken her heart’, Kennedy was there. He would bring her ice cream and bash on romantic movies simply telling her that all the things Hollywood stated was ‘romance’ actually never really happened in reality just to make her feel better.

They truly were the definition of best friends.

“I’d appreciate it if you would stop talking about my sister now,” her brother stated to his friends that were following him into the living room of the house.

Blake laughed as she heard Eric Halvorsen not so subtly talking about the kiss they had shared in the third grade, reminding John that he was her first boyfriend. “Don’t flatter yourself, Eric,” she called out. “I also had a huge crush on Sean Penn at the time.”

Kennedy shifted in her lap turning his green eyes to look at her, a laugh on his lips, “Ew really? He was like, a major drug addict.”

Blake winked, smirking, “You know how I like those bad boys.”

Her friend rolled his eyes, muttering a soft ‘yes, I do’ under his breath. If one thing had stepped on the toes of their friendship—it would be the choices she had made in men. He didn’t understand why she always chose the boys who were set to break her heart, and neither did she for that matter; she was just drawn to them like magnets.

She always fell for the same boy. He would have messy hair, a dry sense of humor, and an obvious attraction to her. She liked the ones who played with her mind—the ones who kept her on her toes. But one thing about them was that she always ended up hurt. She would fall and they would find someone else and then she’d run to Kennedy to pick her up like clockwork.

And he always did.

Maybe that was why she held onto these simple moments with him so tightly—she was scared of the day he would get tired of her up and down relationships; that he wouldn’t be there to pick her up someday.

Even though he always kept his mouth shut when she was crying, or bashing on the latest hopeful, she knew he wanted to tell her she was an idiot—that she was stupid for even being in these push and pull games; but he never did.

He silently held her as she cried, and kissed her forehead, whispering to her that she was beautiful and better than those other girls. He would tell her that she deserved more and he would make her feel important again.

Kennedy was her rock.

“Blake, mom said she wants you to clean the house tomorrow,” John said, taking a bite out of the pizza he had brought home with him from the store.

She frowned, “But I cleaned it last weekend. It’s definitely your turn.”

“I’m the golden child,” he replied in a ‘duh’ tone. “And besides, my clean and your clean hold different standards.

Kennedy snorted tossing a couch pillow at his friend, “Your clean looks like my hamster’s cage, JohnO.”

“You have a hamster?” Eric exclaimed, looking at Kennedy.

Blake smiled as she looked at her best friend, thinking about the white fuzzy creature that held a place on his desktop, “Her name is Chi Chi.”

“Well isn’t that just adorable,” John laughed, using a faux gay tone.

“Why are we watching Cake Boss?” Eric asked, watching as Buddy made a fire truck cake.

John scoffed, “Why wouldn’t we be watching Cake Boss? Kenny and I record it every single day.”

“Hell yeah we do,” Kenny laughed, looking up at Blake with a small smile.

She laughed at her brother and her best friend, knowing that though it sounded like they were kidding they really weren’t. She remembered about one year previous where he and John had bought her baking supplies and forced her to make a cake in the shape of puppy. They complained that it looked more like a dinosaur and threw it at each other as a result.

They were hard to please.

“Do you remember when Blake made that horrible attempt at a puppy?” John laughed looking at his sister.

“It looked like a puppy! And it was cute!” she laughed, crossing her arms over her chest.

Kennedy wrapped his arm around her and laughed, his breath falling onto her ear, “Ah, close, but no cigar.”

She rolled her eyes as she looked at her best friend, “That is the third idiom you have used in a twenty minute period you know that?”

“That paper that Mr. Walther gave us really stuck with me,” he laughed. “They just apply so well to everyday life! There’s a website for them and everything. I read a new set of letters every day. Yesterday I read all the way to ‘I’.”

Blake laughed and made small comments to tease her best friend. She was actually just surprised that he actually did the assignment.

“Wait,” Eric cut in, looking at John, “Totally new topic. Why did you give that chick at the store your number? I thought you were trying to get serious with Elisha?”

“Well,” John began, “As Kennedy would say, ‘don’t put all your eggs in one basket’.”

“Wow, thank you for the support, JohnO,” Kenny laughed.

Blake shook her head at the boys she had grown up with, joining in their playful banter. They made simple slams at one another for a while, just enjoying the first week of their last summer before their senior year.

“You guys going to the party tonight?” John asked, pressing a bottle of water to his lips.

“When and where?” Kennedy asked, nodding his head.

“Alex Hampton’s house. The kid is fricking rich as hell,” Eric commented, lying back onto the O’Callaghan’s couch.

John rolled his eyes as he looked at his sister, speaking with a teasing voice, “Austin will be there. He’s back in town for the summer.”

Blake felt her cheeks heat up at the thought of the boy. Austin. Austin Gibbs. She had met him three years ago—he played on a summer baseball league with her brother and they instantly became friends. He was over at their house all the time, and to say that Blake didn’t make sure to hang out with John more that summer would be a lie.

Austin Gibbs went to a college in California. He had tattoos, a mustache, he smoked cigarettes, he could drink more than a fish, and he swore like a sailor. He was the epitome of a bad boy—and every time he came home Blake made sure to say her hellos.

Whether it was in front of her brother at a party or in the steamy back seat of his car, he always made sure to say hi to her as well.

The only part that was bad about Austin was that although he always said hello—he rarely said goodbye. And every summer Blake had to prepare herself for that—and Kennedy had to be ready to put her back together, once again.

As far as everyone knew it was just a crush. They weren’t aware of the way he touched her cheek, or lifted her dress behind closed doors. They weren’t aware of how every summer they stepped closer and closer to having sex.

To the guys it was a crush that she would never get; a fantasy.

But to Blake it was real.

*

Blake stepped out of her foggy bathroom, clutching her pink towel closer to her body as she saw a boy lying on her bed. Her hand flew to her chest as she calmed from the surprise, “Kenny, what are you doing here?”

He shrugged as he looked at her, lying back in her plush pillows, “No one is at my house and I’m ready so I figured why not?”

Blake chuckled softly, walking over to her dresser and grabbing a matching set of white panties and bra. She pulled them on below her towel before taking the cloth and wrapping it in her hair. She walked over to her bed and lay next to her best friend, not caring that she wasn’t technically wearing an appropriate amount of clothing. He’d seen her many times like this before in the hot summers of Arizona when she’d walk around her house in simply a bikini.

She watched as Kennedy’s eyes flickered to her chest before traveling down the rest of her body and back up to her eyes. “Did you just check me out, Mr. Brock?” Blake smirked, looking at the boy from the corner of her eye.

He was wearing dark blue skinny jeans, a white v neck, and old converse sneakers. His brown hair was a tousled mess and he had a small blush on his cheeks from the words she had just spoken to him. “Well, you’re body is in like Flynn.”

Blake cocked an eyebrow at him, “And what the hell does that mean?”

Kennedy smiled softly, looking down at his shoes, “It’s an idiom. It means successful, usually when talking in a sexual manner.”

Blake chuckled as she looked at him again, a smile on her lips, her cheeks tinting pink. “So my body is successfully sexy?”

“Essentially, yes,” he laughed.

She shook her head and laughed, closing her eyes and using her forearms to cover her blushing cheeks. “Well, you have a nice body too, Kenny.”

Kennedy smiled and laughed softly, “Thank you, Blake.”

She crawled off of her bed, ignoring the burning of Kennedy’s eyes on her body. Sure, she was used to it, but she didn’t know why tonight it was making her blush. She didn’t usually get nervous around him—but right now she was worried about if she was skinny enough. Maybe it was because she was about to start her period.

Blake listened as the door opened from behind her and she listened to her brother shriek. “Oh my God put some clothes on! Ew, ew, ew, ew!” John yelled, slamming her door shut and continuing to yell through the door that they were leaving in an hour.

Blake dried her hair and put on a small amount of makeup before walking over to her closet to find something to wear that would impress Austin. He was in college now, surrounded by college girls; her jeans and t-shirts wouldn’t stir him anymore.

Blake pulled out a soft pink dress with a tight, padded bust, and flowing skirt. She slipped on a black ring with a skeleton cameo on it. She grabbed a pair of black patterned heels and placed them on her size six feet. She walked over to her bed, smiling as she listened to small snores emitting from her best friend’s lips.

She placed one of her knees on either side of his hips and lay forward on his chest, resting her chin on his sternum. “Kennedy,” she whispered. “Kennnnnnnnny.”

She listened to him stir and after a few seconds he opened his tired hazel eyes to be met with her own green ones that ran in her family. Kennedy smiled and wrapped his arms around her waist, hugging him to her chest. “Good morning,” he mumbled softly.

Blake giggled and pushed off the boy’s chest, standing up and walking across the room to grab her body spray. She turned around after looking at herself in the mirror. She faced Kennedy and placed her hand on her hips, “Do I look okay?”

Kennedy’s eyes traveled her body as he bit his lower lip softly, “Y-you look amazing, Blake.”

She turned to face her body length mirror once again, her hand falling nervously to the bottom of her dress. Kennedy appeared behind her in the mirror, looking at her body with his cheeks slightly red. “Are you sure?” She questioned insecurely.

The boy placed his hands on her hip and rested his chin in her shoulder, “I would never lie to you, dear.” Blake sighed again, observing her smoky eye makeup and her loose blonde curls. Her legs looked thin and tan and her chest looked a size larger than normal thanks to her padded bra. “Why are you trying so hard to impress him?”

Blake sighed, “Let sleeping dogs lie, Kennedy.”

“Seriously, he’s not worth it.”

“Let corpses lie?” She questioned, wondering why he wasn’t even chuckling at her lame attempts at idioms.

“Blake, he’s just using you to get his.”

“Apparently you haven’t gotten to the ‘L’s’ yet,” she muttered, rolling her eyes. “Kennedy, it’s not your problem.”

“He’s trouble, Blake. Not only does he hurt you every single time he comes here, but if your brother found out about the things I know he would kill the both of you,” Kennedy replied, his worry becoming apparent in his voice. “Have you even thought about the outcomes of this?”

“Kenny, just stop, okay?” Blake said, placing her hands in the air as if to physically tell him to ‘stop’. “Stop worrying about me. I can handle myself.”

Kennedy laughed, running his hands through his hair angrily. “That’s the thing though, Blake. You can’t handle yourself. You follow him anywhere, do whatever it is you two do that you think I’m not naïve enough to guess and then you run back to me! Every single time and you know it.”

“You know what then, Kenny? If it’s so hard for you then why don’t you just leave? Don’t complain about me always running to you when you’re the one pulling me into your arms!” Blake yelled, her arms rising in the air.

He chuckled as he looked at her, his head shaking, “Is that really what you want, Blake?”

“Maybe it is,” she mumbled, looking down at the floor.

Kennedy nodded his head before turning his hazel eyes to her, “All right, fine. When he leaves you once again I won’t be there to hold you, or make you feel better. You can do it all on your own. But Blake, don’t you ever wonder why he doesn’t take you on dates? Or why he doesn’t text you good morning? Or just call you to talk? He only wants you at night, Blake.”

He started walking towards her door before she processed what was really happening. “Wait, Kennedy,” she said, grabbing his shoulder with her perfectly manicured hand.

He shook his head as he turned to look at her, his thin pink lips pulled south at the corners, “Call me when you respect yourself, Blake. Maybe then you’ll realize what you’re missing out on.”

*

As soon as Blake walked into the party she made sure to find the kitchen and pour herself one, or three shots. Kennedy had told John that he ‘wasn’t in the partying mood’ and decided to go home. She was forced to ignore her brother and Eric’s teasing questions about their ‘lover’s quarrel’ and try to forget about him altogether, but it was hard.

He was her best friend, they weren’t supposed to fight like this.

Hell, she couldn’t remember a time they had ever fought like this; maybe once, when Camilla Swenson had cheated on him and Blake had punched her in the face against Kenny’s wishes because he was trying to be ‘the better person’, but she wasn’t having it.

No one got to hurt her best friend like that, especially not a dumb girl. No, he was so much better than that. Kennedy was the perfect boyfriend to every girl he had ever dated. He bought them presents, and he cuddled with them even when they were sick. He watched sappy love stories with them and bit his tongue at the pathetic storylines just to make them happy.

Hell, Kennedy was the perfect boyfriend to Blake—and they weren’t even dating. She could only imagine how many more perks his actual girlfriends got.

She sighed as she took another shot of Goldschlager, letting the alcohol hit her blood stream quickly. Two more shots and she was feeling buzzed, indefinitely.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the littlest O’Callaghan,” she heard him smirk from behind her.

An instant smile graced her lips as she turned to face the boy. His dark hair was slicked back and he had a perfectly groomed fur above his upper lip. “Nice stache,” Blake said simply, trying to play confident when really she was beat up from this fight with Kenny.

Austin smiled as he walked to the counter near her and leaned against it. “Yeah, well what can I say? It’s my little buddy.”

“Does he have a name?” Blake asked a small smirk on her lips as her brother walked by and told them that they ‘better be talking about Austin’s mustache and nothing else’.

Austin rolled his eyes at John before smiling at her, “I call him El Capitan.”

She chuckled, grabbing a wine cooler and pressing it to her lips, “You drink too much.”

“How is my drinking problem relevant?” He smirked, his brown eyes shining.

“How else could you think of something so lame? You could have named him Terminator, or the Hulk,” Blake laughed.

“Well, fortunately I already have something else named that too,” Austin said with a smug smile, “Don’t tell your brother I told you that though.”

“I don’t tell me brother anything you tell me,” Blake smirked, lowering her eyes.

His lips found the hollow of her neck as he whispered a small, “Good.”

She watched as he walked away, his eyes tracing over her body as he left the room. She took another sip of her drink before joining the escapades of the party. She played beer pong with her brother bringing the ‘ultimate O’Callaghan domination’, she danced with strangers, and she laughed with her friends all the while making eyes at the suave boy from across the room.

She tried not to feel jealous as he flirted with other girls, reminding herself that he wasn’t hers, no matter how much she wanted him to be. Blake felt her cell phone vibrate in her pocket, reading a text that said: upstairs. First bedroom on the right. Ten minutes.

She watched as Austin shamelessly flirted with a short blonde for the next seven minutes before she started walking up the stairs, telling her friends she was going to the bathroom. She sat on the bed, waiting for him to walk in. She stared at her phone, contemplating on texting Kennedy and saying she was sorry.

Even as she hung out with her friends and flirted with Austin she couldn’t help but to let her thoughts drift back to the boy. She hated feeling this way, like she had hurt him so badly.

The worst part was that she knew she did; she could see it in his eyes.

Blake looked up from her phone, shutting it instantly as she saw Austin walk through the door, closing and locking it behind him. He gave her a small smile as he leaned his back against the door, watching her as she stood up by the bed.

“Hey,” she said quietly, the soft moonlight flowing from the window and lighting up his face.

He smirked, stepping towards her, “Howdy.” Blake bit her lip and looked down at her heels nervously before looking at him. He was wearing black skinny jeans and a button up shirt, with brown boots. “Why do you look so nervous?”

She shrugged, feeling a blush come onto her cheeks, “I’m not. I just, I haven’t heard from you in a while, you know?”

Austin’s body tensed and he looked away from her, “What were you expecting, Blake?”

Blake shook her head, trying to stop all of this thinking. Where were all these worries coming from? She could only find one reason: Kennedy. “I-I don’t know,” she mumbled, suddenly feeling ridiculous. She felt young. She was barely eighteen and here was Austin, almost twenty-one.

He laughed, a throaty laugh before stepping towards her, “Stop thinking, Blake. Just go with it.”

She looked up at him, closing her eyes quickly as he pressed their lips together tightly. He tasted like rum and his breath was hot. He pressed her down onto the mattress instantly, the moonlight being the only source to illuminate the room. She felt his hands roaming her skin, but her mind was sobering up and Kennedy’s words were lingering in her mind. Why didn’t Austin want to talk to her any other time than at night?

Austin sighed and pulled away, looking her dead in the eye, “What’s going on, Blake?”

“I just, why can’t we do this all the time?” She wondered aloud.

He chuckled before going back to kissing her neck, sucking lightly on the skin. “We can, just call me whenever you need me. I stay up late.”

Blake put her hands on his chest as she pushed him away, “That’s what I mean, Austin. We only talk at night, and what we’re doing I wouldn’t consider talking. Why can’t we be like normal people and go on a date?”

He groaned, “Blake, we do this all the time. Why are you getting all clingy?”

She felt her chest tighten as she realized Kennedy was right. She did deserve better than guys like Austin; a lot better. Asking to go on a date wasn’t clingy—it was simply asking for respect. “I—I have to go,” she mumbled, pulling down her dress and standing up, her heels clicking across the floor.

“Blake!” Austin called, walking down the stairs behind her.

She turned around and faced him, “Being clingy and asking for respect are different, Austin. I’m done—with whatever this was. It’s really not much, at all. But whatever I thought it was worth—it’s not.”

Blake walked from the house, sending John a text that she was okay and that she’d see him in the morning. She began walking through the familiar neighborhood, her thoughts running a thousand miles an hour.

When she told Kennedy ‘to let sleeping dogs lie’ maybe she should have taken her own advice. Austin Gibbs was trouble—and he certainly had consequences. And whatever they were or weren’t really, had consequences, one major one: she would get hurt and it was inevitable.

And honestly, he wasn’t worth it. Maybe no boys were worth it.

She could only think of one boy ever that would be worth giving up everything for besides her brother (in a family way) and that was Kennedy. He gave everything up for her all the time—as she did for him.

Blake sat on the corner of the street, her knees folding into her chest as she pulled out her phone and dialed a familiar number. It rang six times before it went to his voicemail. She called again and this time, it went straight to voicemail, signaling that he had either ignored her call or shut off his phone.

Either way it hurt.

Blake huffed as she got up and began walking towards Kennedy’s street which luckily wasn’t too far away. She couldn’t let him stay mad at her—she wouldn’t. She couldn’t imagine going a day without a text from him to make her smile, or a night where he would throw rocks at her window until she let him in at two in the morning just to talk. Or a day without hearing his laugh as he said a simple joke that would without a doubt make her laugh.

She didn’t want to go a day without him.

His lanky figure that would hold her tightly, or his hazel eyes that saw straight into the core of her even when she didn’t say a word. His cute smile that would make her pulse race at random moments, or his calloused hands that would wipe away her tears.

Blake bit her lip as she thought about him. She and Kennedy had never once kissed as many of their friends had guessed they had. They had always kept their friendship completely platonic—but that didn’t mean she never wondered what it would feel like to touch his lips with hers, or have him hold her in more intimate ways.

They had just never really gone there; they were always just friends.

Blake stood outside the two story house calling his cell phone once again before hearing his voicemail, “Hey this Kennedy’s phone, I’m not here so leave me your number and I’ll call you back…maybe, probably not.”

Blake picked up a rock and threw it at his window, and then two more as he didn’t reply. She knew he was awake. If she was freaking out about this fight so was he and wouldn’t be able to sleep.

She sighed; he was going to make this difficult. She slipped off her heels and placed them at the trunk of the tree that was outside his window before jumping and grabbing a branch. She pulled herself up and began climbing higher until she was perched on a branch, shaking as the wind swayed the tree. She knocked on his window, trying to keep her footing and ignore the splinters she was sure were in-between her toes.

“Kennedy!” She pleaded in a hushed tone. “Kennedy, come on! Open up. I’ll stay out here all night if I have to. Kennedy!”

After a few moments she watched as his white window sill opened, revealing the boy. His eyes looked tired and his hair was tousled from his hand running through it. “What? What, Blake? Are you here to cry?—because honestly I’m not in the mood to hear about how Austin hurt you again.”

Blake bit her lip and kept her voice soft, “Kenny, can I come in?”

She watched as he debated the thought in his mind before taking her hands and helping her through the window. He released her hands as she was stable, and looked at her with sadness in his eyes. They stayed quiet for a moment before she spoke.

“You were right,” Blake said quietly.

“Blake I don’t want to hear your ex—wait what?” Kennedy, said looking at her surprised.

She sighed and sat on her bed, “You were right. He’s an ass.”

He grabbed her hand in his, looking at her worriedly, “What happened? Did he do something to you? I swear I’ll—

“No, no…I just, I asked him if we could do a date or something and he just—you know, for once I really don’t want to talk about it. I don’t know what I saw in him,” Blake sighed, looking at her hands. “I deserve better.”

Kennedy smiled, running a hand through his hair, “Blake, you’re beautiful, you know that?”

She stayed quiet, biting her lip and shrugging. His hand was rubbing her knee softly and for a second she felt a new feeling in her stomach—was it butterflies? His hand placed itself under her chin and forced her to look in his hazel eyes. Yep, definitely butterflies.

Her breath caught in her chest as she looked at his cute features; from his beautiful eyes that his brown hair fell into, all the way to his dimples as he smiled at her.

“Can I try something, Blake?”

She stared into Kennedy’s eyes that were illuminated by the moonlight and felt herself blushing at the short distance between their lips. She nodded her head, instinctively closing her eyes as he moved closer.

Kennedy’s lips pressed to hers, his hand cupping her cheek instantly. She felt a spark in her chest and her head literally felt as if it was spinning when she kissed him back. Her hands found his chest and she grabbed his shirt, pulling him closer. He pulled away too soon for her liking, his breathing ragged. They stared at each other silently, honestly not sure of what to say. They both laughed quietly, in an awkward silence.

“I’m going to go out on a limb here and just say that I really liked that,” Kennedy said softly, his cheeks tinting with red.

She giggled gently, “You’re going ‘over the top’ with these idioms, babe.”

He chuckled, “You like it.”

Blake bit her lip, before laughing as she spoke her last words before connecting their lips again, “Without a doubt.”