Hold Your Breath

Kennedy dialed Cole’s number the first thing next morning. He asked her if she and Louise would like to hang out with him that afternoon. He was surprised at the happiness he felt when they agreed.
Kennedy went to the place they agreed on around 15 minutes earlier than the girls. For someone who wasn’t keen on meeting the girls again just a few days before, he was pretty excited. He stood up as soon as Louise and Cole entered the coffee shop but immediately questioned why he did such a thing so he sat back down. He looked both excited and nervous probably because this is gonna be the first conversation he was going to have with the two in a long time.
“Hey, Jo-Kennedy!” Lou caught herself but just hid her mistake with a smile. She was glad that she got one back from Kennedy. “Hey, Lou. What’s up? Cole, hey.” Kennedy motioned for Cole to take the seat beside him but Cole didn’t notice.
“Ken-can we call you Ken? We’re so not used to this whole “new name” thing,” Cole started. “I think you’re still Jonathan to us.” She ended her statement with a slight drop in her voice. Her sadness was catching up to her. The events and the new things she found out in the past couple of days were slowly sinking in and she just realized how much has changed in just less than a week in Arizona. She wondered if she would still be the same Nicolette from Chicago by the time school starts.
“I’m really sorry, girls but I really don’t like to be called that anymore. I’m pretty sure you know what happened between our parents, Cole. After that, things were never the same in my family. My father was scarred. He can’t handle anything that has to do with my mother and his attitude kind of rubbed off on me. Although I don’t think erasing her from our lives was enough for my dad. He became a drunk and he barely comes home since I started high school. The sad thing is, I kind of felt like I needed to find my own escape. I have, well, issues. I guess we’re not exactly strong but this is how we dealt with it, so please, just bear with me.” What Kennedy told the girls seemed to make up for all the time they spent apart. Kennedy opening up to them seemed to be the key to opening up their friendship once again.
“Ken, we totally understand. You used to be our best friend. You still are. We love you! Don’t worry about it, ‘kay? We don’t have our parents around here and we have each other again! Let’s just savor it, don’t you agree?” Louise said, full of smiles. “You have your band don’t you? That should keep us all happy, at least for the summer!” As Louise said this, the smile from Kennedy’s face dropped and Cole opened her mouth as if to say something.
“Uhm, Lou, about that. I think-“ Cole started.
“I left my band, Lou.” Kennedy interrupted Cole. “She knows the whole story. She can tell you later.” He said as he motioned towards Cole.
“Oh. Okay. Well, why don’t we go to the amusement park?” Lou awkwardly suggested.
The three left the coffee shop and started towards the amusement park. The walk to their destination reminded Louise so much of their childhood. Cole and Kennedy were walking beside each other while she was lagging behind. She was fine with that, of course but she never thought about it as seriously as she was now. She wondered if that would be the case when they got to the rides, especially since most of the rides only allowed two people per cart.
“Hey, guys? Why don’t you two go on and I’ll try to catch up later. I forgot I had to finish something back at the apartment.” Louise told the two in front of her.
“Are you sure?” Cole frowned. “We won’t have as much fun without you, Lou. I thought it was going to be us three again!”
“I’m certain. Go on, guys!” Lou motioned for them to go along and as she went the opposite way, she can’t help but notice the blank expression on Kennedy’s face.
Instead of going straight back to their apartment, Louise spent more time roaming the streets and reading random signs and flyers she saw plastered on the walls. As she stopped by a sign that was about a job as a part time cashier at the coffee shop, someone stood beside her and started talking to her. “So, cashier, huh?” he asked with a laugh in his voice. As Lou started to reply with a snarky remark, she saw that he was someone she knew.
“Garrett! Hi!” Lou was surprised to see him. “So, I think I owe you a drink right now.”
“Yeah, you do! Let’s go.” Garrett immediately grabbed her hand and pulled her to the nearest ice cream parlor.
“I thought I owe you a drink. Not dessert.” Lou was laughing as she saw where Garrett took her.
“Milkshake’s a drink. Come ooooon.” Garrett looked at her with pleading eyes but the humor was evident. “This is my favorite ever since I was a kid. No judging.” As Garrett placed his order at the counter, he didn’t even pull his wallet out. Lou surprisingly found this cute.
“Strawberry? That is SO manly!” Lou teased Garrett as they went to a booth. He shot her a look that was a cross of hurt and “what can I do.” “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I forgot. No judging.” She was still chuckling as they took a seat.
“So, tell me about yourself!” Garrett immediately asked as Louise’s laughter died. She told him about how she was from Chicago, about Cole and about Kennedy. The topic of Kennedy brought a serious look on Garrett’s face. “So, I take it you know Kennedy?” Lou asked, noticing Garrett’s expression.
“Yeah, we went to the same high school. He graduated and I’m not until next year. He actually wanted to be a part on The Maine but when he learned that we already have a lead singer, he kind of threw a fit and formed his own band just days after.” Garrett said with a frown.
“Woah, what kind of fit?” Louise asked, surprised.
“Well, he started shouting obscene stuff and he hit almost everything he can reach. Good thing we were in the hallways back then so he didn’t destroy much. Just dented a couple of lockers, nothing major. But still, it was kind of scary. He’s kind of known to have violent tendencies but we just learned to deal with it. Luckily when he started that band, his outbursts became less frequent.” Louise was finding more and more about Kennedy that day and the recent information made her want to talk to him, just the two of them.
“I didn’t know Kennedy was like that. He doesn’t look like he’d do such stuff! I mean, I know that he gets angry but I didn’t think that it was this bad.” Louise was picturing Kennedy’s young face that always looked so innocent.
“Yeah, well I’m sure that you didn’t think that I’m gonna eat your brains but I totally am!” Garrett lunged for Louise’s head, acting as if he was a zombie and Louise once again immediately started laughing. Garrett smiled because his little joke was successful at letting him hear Louise’s angelic laugh again.
The two went on talking and getting to know more about each other and they didn’t notice that it was getting dark. “Gare, I-uh, I need to go.” Louise hated to say goodbye but she thinks that Cole might be home already and she might get suspicious as to where Louise might be. “Woah, it’s late. Will I see you again tomorrow?” Garrett smiled as he handed Louise a piece of paper with something scribbled on it-maybe his number.
“Of course you will!” Louise and Garrett went their separate ways and as soon as Louise reached her apartment, sure enough Cole was already there.
“Where were you? I thought you had to finish something here?” Cole asked Louise with an accusing tone.
“I was with Garrett! You know, the other bassist from the show?” Louise sent a sorry smile down Cole’s way.
“Yeah, whatever. I just wanted you to know, little miss, that I was right. The amusement park was not as fun without you. I don’t know what happened but Kennedy was pretty much a rock the whole day.
Louise was wondering what might’ve happened that made Kennedy switch moods that afternoon. She remembered that right before she left, Kennedy was already stoic.
“Cole, look. I found out a few things about Kennedy through Garrett this afternoon.” Louise told Cole about their conversation about Kennedy.
“Well, that’s nice. Kennedy really is a little fireball. He told me that he has anger issues but that outburst was stupid. He didn’t need to get violent over that. He found a band afterwards right?” Cole sighed then continued, “I told him to not stop making music. Maybe we should talk to him about this tomorrow.”