Stay

Oh well, I was planning on having a good day the next day. Well, apparently Connor found another friend. Wait, I didn't mean friend.
I saw a girl with long, silky blonde hair and blue eyes. Her name was Anna--the most popular girl at school. She had the beauty, the smarts, everything to get a guy. That was the first though I had when I saw her with Connor.
Literally. Everything.
I started to get jealous, even so I’d never admit it to anyone. He says I’m beautiful and smart, then starts being all flirty with her? I was so angry that I felt like I was going to explode. My whole face had turned red.
Someone tapped on my back. It was Kelly. “Hey, Kelly,” I was hoping my face would turn back to normal before she could see the anger. Even though Kelly knows everything that goes on in my life. I have no control to stop it.
She raised an eyebrow. “You’re not jealous Miss Perfect is flirting with Connor?”
I had to reach into my best lying abilities for this one. “No, of course not. I’m not his girlfriend. He’s new, he can date and be friends with people who he wants to be with. I don’t think they’re dating anyways.”
“Are you sure you have no feelings for him?”
“Kelly!”

“I think you do,” she did her I-know-your-secret grin. God I hate that grin.
I saw Anna and Connor dispatch, so I was happy that I could talk to him again. If I was around Anna I'd get shaky.
“Hello,” I said, walking up to him.
“Hey,” he smiled at me. I guess that meant we were still friends? I’m not quite sure after Anna got to him. Stop being so paranoid, Kayla!
“I see you met Anna.” I said. Ah crap that was stupid! What the hell is wrong with you??!
“No, she kind of came up to me and introduced herself. She’s pretty popular. We got a lot of people staring at us.”
“Yeah . . . ‘pretty popular’ doesn’t cut it. Everyone knows her name.”
“Well she went out of her way to make sure I know her name.” He grinned.
“Yes, she did. Everyone has to know her name for her to be satisfied.”
He laughed. “Ah. I have to go to class. See you, Kayla.”
I waved.
The rest of the day I was really happy. Connor and I were pretty good friends, and I felt like we might even be more than friends soon. I was guessing Anna didn’t have much interest--I’m thinking she just wanted to introduce herself. Because Anna will take any attention. And I mean any.
At the end of the day A.J. said that she saw Anna and Connor talking.
“Yeah. You know Anna, she’s always seeking for attention. She just introduced herself this morning.”
“No, I saw her later. At lunch. Hey, and where were you at lunch?” A.J. looked serious, as if she actually cared about my love life.
“I sat with Connor. But I had to leave after five minutes because I had to retake a test.”
“Really? Oh, now I remember!” James said.
“Thanks James, you’re really helping,” I said.
“Well after you left, Anna plopped next to him and began to talk. I moved tables to see what they were talking about. You know how I like to spy--”
“What the hell, James? ‘You know how I like to spy’?”
“Whatever. Continuing, I heard them talking. She was being really flirting, and moving in really close--”

“James!” Kelly said. “Why would you say something like that!? Kayla was actually pretty happy today. She was all fluttery and weird stuff like that.”

“Kelly--” I said, being cut off, seeing Anna and Connor together. They were laughing, and Anna had her arm around Connor.
A surge of jealousy went through me--I wanted to rip her arm off of him then chuck it to Asia. “Hey, Kayla!” Connor said to me.
“Um hi,” I said, blinking a little too much.
“Who’s that?” Anna said, blankly staring at me.
“That’s my friend, Kayla. She’s really nice, she kind of showed me around.
Figures. Anna doesn’t know my name.
I guess Anna saw me as some sort of threat, so she began to glare at me. “Do you want to tell your friend the news, then?” she said sweetly to Connor.
“News? What news? Gosh if there was another bombing somewhere in the world--”
“No, Kayla.” Connor said, not meeting eye contact.
“C’mon, tell her,” Anna said.
Still not looking at me, Connor said, “We’re dating.”
My heart rate went up fast. Fast. I couldn’t really describe the feeling. I was frozen, shocked, and I could speak. My eyes were wide, and looking at the ground.
I quickly snapped out of it. “Oh, that’s wonderful,” I lied. I was still very breathless, but I had to put something out there. God, if he knew I liked him . . .
Anna’s face looked shocked. Did she think I’d be jealous? Well, I am, but I’d never show that to her. It would be on Facebook in seconds if I tried to rip her arm off, or something along those lines.
“It’s so nice that you’re fitting in here, Connor,” I said. “I’m glad you’re happy.”
“We gotta go,” Kelly said to me.
“Bye, Kayla.” Connor said.
Just then, Anna grabbed Connor and began to kiss him. I had the same shocked feeling, my heart rate up.
I lunged.
Kelly grabbed me by my arm. “No. I’m not letting my best friend in the whole world get embarrassed like that. You need to stop,” she whispered. “forget about Connor, okay?”
I blankly nodded as she pulled me to the car.