Don't Give Up On Us.

I bit my lower lip and scrunched my eyebrows. Looking deeply into his eyes, I wasn't sure if I should have told him the truth or not. If I did, Kennedy would be mad at me for who knows how long; he has a short temper. But if I covered it up with a lie, he'd soon eventually figure out. I took a deep breath and the words came out.

"You don't need to worry about anything, he tried to apologize about what happened a year ago... but it's alright, it's all in the past now... Let's go outside."
I tried walking past Kennedy but he quickly grabbed my arm, causing me to suddenly stop.
"You didn't forgive him though, right?"
Kennedy was serious about making sure I don't talk to John. He had always been over-protective, and when he figured out John cheated on me, he always pushed me away from John.
"Well-" I started. Kennedy cut through my words.
"You did, didn't you..."
Kennedy looked at his feet as I looked at him.
"Kennedy... I just forgave him. Nothing will ever..." In the middle of my sentence, I looked behind Kennedy to see a light silhouette come from the corner of my bedroom door. It was John. He was definately eavesdropping on us, and he made it pretty obvious.
"Nothing will ever what?" Kennedy then looked into my eyes.
My eyes shifted from the tall lanky shadow to the saddened boy in front of me.
"N-nothing will ever happen between me and John again. Please don't worry."
I threw myself into Kennedy's arms. I just felt so bad for him; he cared for me so much and all I did was the opposite of what he wanted me to do.
Kennedy wrapped his arm around my small frame while his other hand was gently stroking my hair.
"Kaitlyn," He softly spoke.
"Yeah?" I said, still in his arms.
"I love you."
My heart skipped a beat, and butterflies were litterally flying around in my stomach. Emotions went wild through my body, and I didn't know exactly how to feel. I pulled away from Kennedy and looked into his eyes. Silence was filling the room.
"I- I'm sorry... I shouldn't... I shouldn't have said that..." Kennedy nodded his head from left to right and his hands met his face.
"It's... It's alright. Let's go swimming with the rest."

I slowly took his hand as he smiled. We walked outside together, joining Pat, Garrett and Jared.
The two boys were sitting on the lawn chairs, both on their iPhones.
Jared slid his Ray Bans down to the tip of his nose, eying Kennedy's hand intertwined with mine.
"Woah... What's uh, that?" He pointed to our hands.
Kennedy and I both pulled away abruptly.
"Oh, um.." I stuttered.
Kennedy scratched the back of his head, not knowing how to respond either.
Pat quickly noticed the awkward tension and changed the subject.
"Finally you guys are out! Let's get in the pool!"
He ran up to me and pushed me in the cold, chlorine water.
I swam to the edge of the pool where he was standing.
"Pat! What the hell!"
"Hey, it's a tradition!"
He winked, and I mouthed him a 'thank you' for changing the subject.
"CANNON FUCKING BALL BITCHES!"
I turned around to the right of the pool to see Garrett jumping off the diving board, splashing water everywhere.
"GARRETT! IT'S UNNECESSARY TO SPLASH COLD FUCKING WATER ON EVERYONE'S FACE."
Garrett's head bobbed up from the deep end of the pool and he swam to my side.
"You loved it, babe." He winked.
I splashed water at his face as he laughed and shielded his face from the water.
"Hey guys, get in the pool! It's too hot to be sitting out!" I waved my hand.
Pat and Jared exchanged looks and shrugged. The two jumped in, enjoying the cool water.
Kennedy came near the edge where I was holding on.
"Come in, Ken!" I smiled.
Kennedy chuckled, took off his shirt and dove in.

After a good 5 minutes of a game of Chicken Fight- Me on Kennedy's shoulders and Pat on Jared's- John finally came out and watched all of us splash around.

"Johno! Where've you been!?" Jared asked.
"Oh, just talked to Julia about something."
"What were you talking to my sister about?" I asked, while on Kennedy's shoulders.
John didn't reply, instead he jumped in the shallow end with the rest, tackling Garrett.
I shrugged it off, thinking it was nothing- hopefully.

As Kennedy constantly flirted with me in the pool non-stop, I kept noticing John giving me weird glares. Was he mad? Sad? Happy? This was the first time i've never understood John O'Callaghan's feeling.

"Hey, come over here with me!" Kennedy pulled himself out of the pool and stood on the diving board. I swam to the deep end and looked up at him.

"What is it?" I asked.

Kennedy smiled and jumped right on top of me.

As he descended, he pulled me down with him. His lips then connected with mine, for a meer 30 seconds. His lips tasted of a bit of alcohol and salty water. The tip of his tongue glided along the bottom of my lip, teasing me in every way. Desperate for air, I quickly pulled away and floated to the top.

The two of us held onto the edge of the pool, gasping for oxygen. Kennedy looked at me and smiled.
"What?" I blushed.
"You're good at that."
I nodded my head and looked across the other side of the pool.
Everyone was wrangling each other, but John.
He just looked into my eyes with a sad feeling that- that broke my heart, just a little.
I get guilty very easily, but this time, I didn't know what I was feeling.
Shouldn't I feel relieved, because John knows how I felt when he kissed that girl?
Or should I feel bad because it was a year ago and Kennedy is John's best friend?
I had no idea what to do.