Left Behind

BRYCE

I parked my car on the driveway, and turned it off. I tapped my hands on the steering wheel, hesitating if I should go into my house or not after sneaking away all night and not even attempting to make it back in time.

I sighed, nervously, and got out walking up to the front door of my house that acted more of an entrance to hell. When I walked in, my parents were standing in the kitchen talking with Mr. and Mrs. Pistole. I was puzzled, and wondered why they had brought their dinner to my house. I didn’t want to be bothered with them.

“Look who showed up tonight,” my dad said sarcastically. Brad and Shannon laughed in their 'rich people' voice, as I called it. He glared at me. “Where’ve you been?” he asked in a more serious tone.

“I told you that I had to help a friend.”

My mother shook her head in disappointment. “And we told you, no, Brycen. Since when did you deliberately disobey us?”

“Since you stopped listening to me,” I replied calmly.

Brad cleared his throat to reassure us that he hadn't disappeared. Disrespectful bastard.

“Son, you didn't speak to the Pistole’s,” my dad said.

“Hey,” I replied and walked past them and into my room. They were nicer than normal. I expected a severe punishment or some crazy unnecessary lecture. Either it was because they didn’t want to be rude in front of their guests, or they were sick.

When I walked into my room, I found the reasoning for their niceness laid out on my bed. I sighed catching her attention, as she sat up immediately with an unreadable expression on her face. “Hey, Bryce,” she said quietly.

“Get out.”

“No, listen, I don’t want to be here anymore than you want me here… trust me. My parents forced me to come here, and I tried to make up an excuse, but they just wouldn’t listen. I assume you know exactly how I feel.”

I nodded, and sat on my bed, as far from her as I could get. “You know they’re only doing this for business purposes, right?”

“Who?”

“My parents are being selfish, and want me to date you. They think that keeping us together will keep them a job. This is so stupid.”

“I know, and I wanted to tell them that we aren’t together anymore, but they started telling me about how in the future they’re handing the business to me and you. They want to keep it ‘in the family’.”

“They can keep it in the family, if they give it to you. I’m not part of your family, and most likely will never be.”

“I agree,” she laughed. “And you don’t have to act so… rude and nervous. I hope that you know I’m over you. Calm down, Bryce.”

I shook my head in complete disagreement. I had no intentions of ruining anything that could possibly happen with Carter by getting caught up with Kristen again. “I am calm,” I lied. I was nervous as hell.

“Why are you so far away then?”

“Why are you in my bed?”

She scoffed and got up, moving over to the bean chair that I used to play my video games. “I was just watching TV. You stood me up anyway, so don’t come here being disrespectful to me.”

“I didn’t stand you up, Kristen. I told them that I wasn’t gonna come in the first place.”

She shrugged. “Yeah, whatever. Where were you anyway?”

“With Carter,” I smirked awaiting her reaction.

“Fun?”

“Uh… if that’s what you want to call it.”

Kristen got a call on her cell phone. She answered it and I heard a muffled voice on the other end of the phone. She laughed a couple of times, and began smiling. I can’t say that I didn’t miss her even a little, because I did. She just needed a reality check, and I think she may have learned her lesson. She was turning into a completely different person, and maybe I wanted to get to know her all over again.

She hung up the phone and glanced over at me. “What?” she giggled. Don’t you hate when you zone off, and don’t notice that you’re looking at someone, so they think that you were staring at them? Well, this wasn’t like that. I was staring at her purposely.

“Nothing. Who was that?” I curiously asked.

She shook her head, a smile still on her lips. Whoever it was, he, or she, made her pretty happy. “Oh, that was Trevor,” she blushed. “He was checking on me… or whatever.”

“Who’s Trevor?”

“Why are you asking so many questions?” she chuckled again. “He goes to our school. He’s like one of those preps or whatever, but totally not my type. I mean, he’s not very wealthy, comes from a poor family, doesn’t talk to many people…but I think I might like him.”

“No way! Kristen Pistole doesn’t like anyone who doesn’t have much money! This is a conspiracy!”

She walked over to me and slapped me, playfully. “God, stop it Bryce. You make me sound like a bitch,” she laughed.

“You used to be, but apparently you’ve changed a tiny little bit. It’s weird…”

She sat on the end of my bed again. “It’s weird for me too, honestly. I don’t hang out with any of my old friends anymore, I’m actually much happier, and did you know that when you actually get to know people, they aren’t that bad?” She smirked at me.

“And we’ve been trying to tell you that for how long now?”

“I don’t know. It took a lot to make me listen. I’m glad that all of my friends turned on me, because it taught me a huge lesson… Gosh, that didn’t sound like me.”

“I’m sorry,” I blurted before I could stop myself.

She raised her eyebrows at me. “Why?”

I didn’t know what to say at first. “Everything was so… sudden? I didn’t mean for everybody to turn on you like that, Kristen. It’s like, as a boyfriend, I wanted you to learn your lesson, but I didn’t want to hurt you as badly as I probably did, you know? Forgive me?”

She smiled sincerely at me. “Well, yeah,” she responded. “And that should be the least of your concern right now.”

“Well, since you know about my concerns, what should be at the top?”

She rolled her eyes at me. “You and I both know the answer to this.”

“How about you tell me?”

“No, I think you can figure this one out on your own,” she replied.

I think I already knew what she was talking about. I changed the subject. For some reason, I wanted to take a break from the drama and sadness in my life. And that lead me to Kristen?

“How’s life? Without me in it?”

She smiled at me. “It’s so great,” she said motioning a rainbow with her hands. “But, on a serious note, it would’ve been great either way.”

“Yeah?”

“Of course. I was very happy, and I’m sure you noticed it. You were too, but you won’t admit it.” She shrugged as if it were no big deal and started to braid her hair.

“No, I’ll admit it. I was happy, too. It was just some of the things that you would do, were over the top. But now, I realize that that was the cute part about your dramatic ass.”

She burst into laughter, and tilted her head back. That’s what she did when she was in a deep state of heart failure because of how hard she was laughing. I didn’t even think that what I said was funny.

“Bryce, you’re a mess.” She scooted towards me, and hugged me. “Thanks for everything, babe.”

I nodded. “Hey, Kristen?”

“Yeah?”

“Guess what?” I whispered as I held onto her.

“What?” she whispered in return.

“I really miss you.”

“Hey, Bryce,” she repeated.

“Yeah?”

“I really miss you too.”