Coffee Shop Soundtrack

A knock at my door rang through my apartment, waking me up. I rolled over and grabbed my phone. It was already past noon. I stood up and walked to my door. Who would it be this time?

I swung the door open. “Makenna,” I said, not completely surprised that she showed up after the voice mail message I left her. “What are you doing here?” I became aware of my disheveled appearance from just waking up but I was too tired to care.

“Oh my God,” she said, her eyes widened.

She reached a hand up to my right eye and I winced. Just her light touch made the black and blue bruise around my eye ache.

“Did Derek do this?”

I didn’t answer because she already knew. I left the door open and walked a few feet over to my couch, letting her know it was okay if she followed.

I listened to her shut the door and watched as she made her way to the opposite side of the couch.

“Why are you here, Ken?” I asked again, leaning back against the cushion.

“I came to apologize,” she said, “For Derek.”

“Yeah,” I rolled my eyes. “Okay, why are you actually here, Ken?”

She shook her head, “I don’t know.”

“Where is he?” I asked, changing the subject. “Your knight in shining armor?”

She sighed, annoyed at my sarcastic nicknames for her husband. “He’s at lunch with my mom.”

“And he doesn’t know you’re here.”

She shook her head.

“He told me to stay away from you,” I said, recalling the conversation from yesterday afternoon.

“And since when did you listen to what other people told you to do?” Makenna asked.

“When this happened.” I waved at my bruised up eye. “I think you should go.”

She looked at me but didn’t say anything.

“Ken,” I sighed.

“He leaves in a couple of days.”

I groaned and put my head in my hands. “I really don’t care,” I lied.

“John,” she said, scooting down towards me.

I felt her hand on my arm and I brushed it off immediately. Just her touch made my skin tingle and I didn’t want to deal with this right now. I could hardly look at her without feeling the need to grab her and kiss her. But I couldn’t do that. Things with us had already gone way too far this summer. I would always want more from her and she would never be able to give it.

“John, I didn’t ask him to come here,” she said, “I had no idea he was coming."

I sat up and looked at her. “It doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, you’re still with him.”

“But you’ve known that this whole time,” she said.

“Yeah, I did,” I said. “But seeing him with you-” I sighed. “It’s just different now. You don’t know what it’s like for me, seeing you together.”

She didn’t say anything. How could she? She didn’t know what it was like. No matter how many girls she saw on my arm, she was always the one I ran to at the end of the day. I wasn’t the one that Makenna ran to though, she found someone else for that.

“Do you want to know why I’m really here?” She asked, finally breaking the silence.

I shrugged, “Why?”

“I came because-“ She looked at her feet, hesitating. “I came because you were right.”

“Right about what?” I asked.

“I gave up something real for something... safe.”

I didn’t say anything. I was surprised that she said this, because I didn’t think that I was right. She didn’t give me up for him. She just didn’t want to wait around for me anymore. And now, I didn’t want to wait around for her, because I would never get her.

“John,” she said, “I love you.”

She got closer to me and I felt her hand wrap around my neck. This time I didn’t push her away. She moved her face closer and pressed her lips onto mine. It was just enough to make me want to engulf her in my arms, but I restrained.

Makenna pulled away and looked at me with a slight smile.

I shook my head. “Kenna,” I sighed. “Please just leave."