I'll Never Be the Same

I glared at Darren’s house from my car which I had parked in the street. As he had requested, I had come here right after school, but I had been sitting here for several minutes not wanting to go inside. I knew that Darren knew I was here too. I kept seeing his face in the window that was in his living room. He kept making funny faces at me, probably in some hope to cheer me up, but I just kept getting angrier.

Finally, I heard my cell phone ringing. I didn’t even bother looking to see who was calling.

“Yes, Darren?” I answered in a fake sweet voice as I answered the phone.

“Why hello, Hailey,” he said. “I was just calling to see if you were going to come in soon because I would really like to get some help with this reading for English. I really don’t want to fail my next quiz.”

“No, we wouldn’t want that,” I said sarcastically. “I’ll be in shortly.”

I hung up and flung my car door open violently. I grabbed my bag before closing the door again and started the walk up to Darren’s front door. He opened the door when I was half way across his yard and leaned against the door frame, grinning at me.

“Now that wasn’t so hard was it?” he questioned when I was closer.

“Shut the fuck up,” I said nastily as I pushed past him into his house.

“Language!” Darren said cheerfully.

I glared at Darren again before following him to his bedroom. I watched as he closed the door and then sat on his bed.

“Aren’t you supposed to leave that open?” I asked.

“My mom’s not home,” he said, smiling at me. I sighed and sat down on the chair near his desk.

“So, why are you forcing me to come to your house?” I asked.

“I thought we should talk about the other day,” Darren answered.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” I said. “You’re lucky I didn’t slap you.”

Darren let out a soft chuckle.

“I don’t think you would have slapped me,” he said. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you kissed me back.”

“It meant nothing,” I said.

“Keep telling yourself that,” he said. “But sooner or later, you’ll realize you want me.”

I rolled my eyes, standing up.

“I’m going home.”

“Not so fast,” Darren said. “We’re not done talking.”

“Yes we are,” I said.

“Just wait a minute,” he stood up to stand in front of me. “I want to try something.”

“What do you want to try?”

“Just a little experiment… to see if that kiss really did mean nothing.”

“I’m not interested,” I said, taking a step back.

“Just give me a chance,” he said. “Just go along with this, and if you still want me to, I will leave you alone for good.”

I pushed air through my nose forcefully.

“Fine.”

“Awesome,” he said, taking a few steps so that that he was directly in front of me. “Just relax and go with the flow.”

He smiled at me. I looked away from him when I felt his hand resting on my waist, his other hand went to the back of my neck and he pulled me closer. My eyes moved back to his face as he started to pull me closer.

“Relax,” he said quietly when his lips were almost on mine.

His lips brushed mine softly at first and then he kissed a little harder. I didn’t know what to do with my own hands and I didn’t want this to be happening yet again, so they remained at my side.

Darren pulled away.

“You could at least get a little into it,” he said, smiling at me yet again. I sighed before leaning forward and taking the initiative just so he’d shut up.

I raised my arms and wrapped them around his neck, pulling us even closer together. Darren’s tongue had just moved against my lips when there was a sharp knock on his bedroom door.

“Darren?” his mom called as we pulled apart quickly. I felt my face heat up as he opened his door.

“Yeah?” he asked. His mom saw me standing there, but I didn’t make eye contact.

“Oh,” she said stiffly. “I didn’t realize you had company.”

“I was just leaving,” I said, moving towards the doorway. Without another word, I moved past Darren’s mom and quickly left the house.

When I got home, my phone went off and I had a new text from Darren: So?

I replied: A deal’s a deal. Leave me alone from now on.