Sooner or Later

They spent a couple of hours over at Garrett’s house before Kenzie started to fall asleep on the couch again.

“Kenz, you’re falling asleep again,” he shook her leg a little. “Come on, you have to go to work in the morning.” She ended up falling asleep in the car on the way over to her apartment so Garrett took it upon himself to try and carry her upstairs. Try was a pretty big exaggeration. Kenzie was wide awake before Garrett could take more than five steps away from the car. He kind of hit her head on the roof of the car and then he almost dropped her before they even got to the door of her building. She walked the rest of the way up, but her friend accompanied her anyway.

“Hey Gare, thanks, for tonight,” she said as she unlocked the door and stepped into her home.

“For what?” he asked.

“I kind of dropped a huge bomb on you tonight and you handled it like a champ. Besides, I’m really thankful you’re doing this so that I can help John and Shannon out.”

“It’s no problem hun, seriously. I mean, it’s not like I have anything else going on for me, right?” he chuckled as he followed her to her room. “Shit did you buy out the whole mall?” he asked taking in the pile of shopping bags on the floor. “Bingo!” he exclaimed as the girl had her back turned, digging out a pair of pajamas. Her head snapped around to see him peering into the pink bag.

“Garrett put that down!” she exclaimed trying to snatch it away from him, but he excavated her too quickly. He chuckled evilly, grinning at the girl. Before she could even blink he had sprinted to her ensuite, locking the door behind him.

“Garrett Nicklesen, unlock the door this instant. Those aren’t for your eyes!” she exclaimed, banging on the door.

“Oh please,” he scoffed. “I’m your boyfriend, these should be for my eyes only. “ She sighed; at least it was only his eyes. She changed into her pajamas and climbed into bed. Once she got comfy she grabbed her phone from her bedside table and saw that she had a text from John.

We still on for tomorrow?

She quickly sent him a message back.

Yeah, of course! I’m really looking forward to it. Meet me at work after my shift! X

That’s when she got a notification from Instagram.

I love surprises was the caption Garrett had used for the photo of the pink bag. The photo was quickly flooded with comments, most rude or crude, from their group of friends.

“Cute,” she looked up to see the culprit in question, grinning proudly at her as he dropped the bag to the floor and climbed into bed with her once he’d removed his pants.

“And what do you think you’re doing?” she asked, placing her phone on her nightstand and rolling over to face him.

“Come on Kenz, we’ve got to sell it now. Besides, you promised me breakfast in the morning.” He turned off her lamp and pulled her into his chest before they both drifted off to sleep.

*

“You almost ready to go?” Kenzie almost screamed. She’d been sitting at the counter for the past twenty minutes reading a magazine, completely unaware that John had walked into the shop. He chuckled at her reaction. “I’ll give you a minute to slow your heartbeat down. I’ll be in the vinyl section.”

Kenzie took a deep breath, steadying herself as she made her way into the back of the store to collect her things, say goodbye to her co-worker and to punch out. She changed her shirt and went to join John.

“What? No skirts for me?” he asked, taking in her outfit. She rolled her eyes at him as they made their way out towards his truck.

“Where’s your car?” he asked, glancing around the parking lot as they climbed into his vehicle.

“Garrett drove me this morning… He, uh, stayed the night.” Why did she feel guilty admitting that? She watched as his knuckles turned white around the steering wheel he was clenching.

“Ah.” Was the only response he gave. He pulled out of the parking lot before Kenzie replied.

“Nothing happened,” she blurted out. “I mean, we didn’t… you know… We’re not there yet.” John’s tense body seemed to relax immediately. “I only had that bag because your girlfriend dragged me into the store with her.” The certainly produced a smirk on his face. “But, today is not about our boyfriend and girlfriend. Today is about us. Now where are we going?” she desperately tried to change the subject. Just the idea of Shannon showing off the underwear she’d bought to John made her want to be sick. Who wants to think about their best friend that way…Right?

“Alright, one last thing though-”

“I’m not telling you what she bought!” Kenzie quickly cut him off, making the boy laugh.

“No, Shannon wants to know if you and Garrett would want to go on a double date with us sometime this week.” The girl blushed, but agreed to the offer. She knew how excited Shannon would be to finally do this.

“Here we are,” John announced, pulling into the parking lot next to the baseball field of their old school. Kenzie put two and two together and realized this was why he was wearing a baseball tee. Cheesy little shit. She rolled her eyes at him and climbed out of the truck, leaving her bag behind and followed John out onto the diamond. He had come equipped with his old glove, a bat and a bag of balls. He tossed Kenzie the bat as he took his place on the mound. The girl smiled, this was perfect, exactly what they needed, to hang out like old times.

“Come on Wright,” he taunted later on. “You used to be able to knock it over the fence. What happened? You hit like such a girl now.” She glared at him, tightening her hold on the bat as he threw the ball in her direction. He’d already started running towards left field; she unconsciously always favored left. She didn’t knock it out of the park, but it was still a pretty solid hit. She dropped the bat to the ground and took off running towards where the bases should be positioned. She had passed second before glancing towards the field. Maybe she had hit it harder than she thought. She thought wrong though, seeing as John was gaining on her. She pushed herself to run faster but she only made it a couple of steps passed third before she was being tackled to the ground. Damn his long legs. She groaned through the laughter as she rolled onto her back to peer up at John who was hovering over her.

“You’ve lost your touch Wright,” he murmured, staring down at her, a huge grin on his lips. He reached his free hand up to brush a loose strand of hair out of her face. She wanted to respond with a witty comeback, but she couldn’t muster one. Her voice was caught in her throat and she couldn’t seem to focus on anything but those shining mossy green eyes that were inches away from hers. She coughed a little, trying to get rid of the lump, and it made both of them snap back to reality. John rolled off of her and helped her up before they both dusted themselves off a little. They went back to their former spots and continued to play as if nothing had happened.

“So, Kenz, I’ve been wondering…How’d it happen? With you and Garrett I mean?” She thought about it for a moment, trying to construct a believable lie.

“I dunno John, it just did,” she replied, hitting the ball that came whizzing towards her. “Something happened and one day, I just didn’t see him in the same light anymore.” Her mind flashed back to a familiar moment that she’d just had with the boy ten feet away from her but she forced herself to stop.

“When did this happen? Why didn’t you tell me? We’re best friends Kenz; we’re supposed to tell each other things like this.”

“I don’t know John, a couple weeks before you started dating Shannon I guess… At Halvo’s going away party,” she lied quickly. She’d spent a fair amount of time with Gare that night so it was completely plausible. “And I didn’t tell you because I was confused John… He was my friend for so long; I just sort of tried to deny the feelings as long as I could before it was inevitable. I just got lucky that he felt the same I suppose…” John nodded, accepting this explanation as he threw another ball in her direction.

Things started to make sense to him. He could suddenly piece together everything so easily and he mentally kicked himself for not picking up on it earlier. All the signs had been there.

“And when did you guys become official?”

“Last night,” she confessed, seeing as it wasn’t a complete lie. “I blurted it out to get you off my back…We’d only been seeing each other casually until then. That’s why he came over, we talked about things.” Kenzie was starting to scare herself with how naturally she could lie about all of this.

“Smooth,” John chuckled.

“Don’t be an ass O’Callaghan. You aren’t really the pro at relationships,” she snapped back. “Mr. I can’t keep a girlfriend for longer than a week.”

“Hey now!” he exclaimed. “Don’t get your pretty little Victoria Secret panties into a twist over this.”

“That’s it O’Callaghan, that next pitch is getting aimed right at your crotch.” He scoffed, throwing the ball anyway. She was full of empty threats. He couldn’t lie to say he was a little nervous when the baseball came flying back at him in a pretty powerful line drive. He caught it easily though, masking the fact that his wrist now hurt like a bitch. He was getting just as rusty as his friend. With a chuckle he strode over to her, wrapping his arm around his shoulder.

“Maybe you’ll get me next time.” They picked up the scattered balls before heading back to the trunk. Kenzie couldn’t stop wondering if he meant anything by what he’d said or if she was just overthinking things. Did she want to get him? Would there be a next time? With a sigh she shook the feeling, this was ridiculous. He was only talking about baseball…

Right?

*

The next few days were excruciatingly confusing for Kenzie. She spent her them questioning everything about John and every night waking up in a cold sweat as she dreamt of their episode in the field. The only thing she could think about was the way his body was pressed down on hers and the way he looked down at her. If she tried hard enough she could still feel his chest against hers as she breathed and how her skin tingled as he had tucked the strand of hair behind her ear. She couldn't understand what had brought on all of these feelings. Or what these feelings were for that matter. By the day of their double date she’d come to the conclusion that she was probably just feeling threatened by Shannon. She hasn't spent a lot of time with John before their outing so her body and brain were just overly enjoying any attention he'd given her since she'd missed it the couple of weeks prior. Craved it, almost. It would just take some time to get used to again, but she was convinced that she would be fine soon. Right now she had to fill Garrett in on the lies she's told John seeing as tonight was their double date.

"Well don't you look handsome," she greeted him as he stepped into her room.

"You don't look too bad yourself Wright," he replied. "New clothes?" She figured she should wear one of the outfits she's bought with Shannon. They were going for dinner and a movie so she didn't dress up too much, but figured she could still wear a skirt. It was tight fitted and high waisted with an Aztec design on it. She had paired it with a plain tank top and a pair of Toms. She had made an effort with her hair as well, straightening it and leaving it down. As for makeup, she still wasn't too comfortable with wearing much, so she kept that to a strict minimum.

“Thanks Gare, that means a lot,” She smiled at him before grabbing her, ugh, purse and they both headed out to his car.

“So, you got any more new articles of clothing on right now?” he asked as he drove towards the restaurant they were meeting John and Shannon at. He glanced over at her and wiggled his eyebrows.

“That is none of your business Nicklesen and if you want to get fake laid anytime soon you’ll have to stop asking.” He chuckled.

“If I want to get fake laid, you’ll have to provide fake details for it to be believable, so I’ll need to keep asking.” The girl rolled her eyes at him. It was kind of weird how comfortable they were about this whole situation.

John and Shannon were outside the restaurant when they pulled up. Kenzie could almost feel her blood boil at the sight of his arm wrapped around her waist as Shannon laughed about something.

“You alright Kenz?” Garrett asked as he pulled the key out of the ignition. “I thought you liked Shannon, why are you glaring at her like that?” Kenzie’s gaze shifted over to Garrett, thinking about it for a moment, until she realized that she didn’t have an explanation as to why she was doing such a thing. “Kenz, do you have feelings for John?”

“What no! That’s insane!” she exclaimed, a little too quickly. “I’m, um, I’m just really protective of John you know? He’s my best friend, I just have to make sure this girl is good enough for him,” she stuttered. Garrett seemed somewhat convinced as they got out of the car and linked hands, making their way over to the other couple. Meanwhile Kenzie’s mind went into overdrive. Could it be possible that her reactions could be because she had feelings for John?