burrahndee

This Feeling
chapter 17

He pulled up to a McDonalds and I laughed. We ordered and sat across from each other at a booth close to the soft drinks fountain. We talked more about general subjects, but eventually we got around to talking about what happened to us.
“Have you broken any other girl’s heart after me?” I teased.
He smiled, what I thought to be a melancholy smile. “Naw, after you left me, I never looked at another girl.”
“What?” I said surprised, accidentally dropping the fry I was holding.
“I’ve never been with another girl since we broke up.” His eyes were purposefully looking everywhere but at me.
“Why? You were like a serial dater.” I was still appalled by this revelation.
“No one compared to you.”
“Maybe you forgot, but you broke up with me, because I wouldn’t give it up to you.” I was getting angry at this whole situation.
“You have got to be kidding me right now. I never broke up with you. You were the one that walked out. Did you seriously take me getting angry as a way of me breaking up with you?”
“Yes. I know how you operate. You just recycle girls like I recycle plastic bottles.”
“Maybe you didn’t fully understand when I said you were different.”
“I don’t know. I thought it was one of your suave player moves,” I said. He suddenly laughed, but sobered up when he saw I wasn’t laughing along.
He looked at me with sorrowful eyes. “Well it didn’t help that you didn’t answer any of my texts or phone calls or visits for a whole month. Your doorman looked like he was going to pummel me every time I showed up.” This time it was my turn to laugh.
“I still think it was wrong that you tried to steal my virginity.”
“Okay, so I was mad that we didn’t do it, but that didn’t mean I didn’t care about you. I thought we were going somewhere, and you just stormed off leaving me to believe that it was just some sort of fling for you.” I could feel my cheeks tinting to a light pink. “You’re cute when I embarrass you.”
Was Adrian flirting with me? I felt a little tingling in my heart, but my thoughts reverted back to Kyle and what was going on with us. At that moment I realized I never really got over Adrian like I kept saying I was. I realized how bitter I was still about our break up and how it never really left my heart. I hated this feeling of being torn between two things; it frustrated me to no end.
“I guess we were both wrong.”
“Yeah.” He stared off into the distance. After a few minutes of eating in silence, he looked at me again with a hopeful look. “Let’s try again.”
I blew out a breath and took my time to think about his sudden suggestion. I thought about what could have been if we went through with the relationship, and thought that maybe I did have what it would take to hold his sincere attention. And Kyle was being weird to me recently, and he probably didn’t reciprocate the feelings I had begun to have for him lately.
“We’ll do it right this time. I don’t know if you know Gen, but I’ve changed a lot after you left.” He continued to speak when I didn’t answer. “So what do you say?”
“Okay,” I replied in a tiny voice, made for him to hear only. His face lit up like a candle in the dark, and grinned. I grinned right back and felt like I made the right decision.

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This Feeling
chapter 15

The weekend had finally come. I was reading a magazine in the living room on Sunday, chatting with Doris when we heard the intercom buzz with Tommy’s voice.
“Ms. Moore, there are two fine ladies here to pick you up.” Tommy was a young doorman with good looks who always knew how to flirt with Devonne and Blair.
I smirked and pressed the button to let them up.
“Do you want me to get anything for the girls Gen?” Doris asked, getting up from her seat.
“No thanks Miss Doris. I think that we’re just going downtown to go shopping today.” Just in cue, the elevator doors slid open with the two girls rushing out straight to tackle me on the couch, their voices becoming a blur as questions shot out of them like wildfire at me. I laughed with them and told them to calm down or I wouldn’t tell them anything, and in a matter of seconds they hushed up. I heard Doris chuckling behind us in the kitchen.
Devonne began again, with a serious look on her face, “Tell us everything. Now.” She commanded in a voice that couldn’t mask her excitement.
I wasn’t giving in that easily, so I gave an innocent smile and batted my eyelashes. “Not until Blair tells us about her date with Gage.”
Blair pouted and protested, but Devonne squeezed her arm and egged her on.
“Why did the spotlight turn on me?” she grumbled.
“If you don’t tell us, I’m not telling anything.” I pretended to zip my mouth and lock it with a key before throwing it away.
“Fine, fine. He took me to this giant field that I didn’t know even existed somewhere towards the suburbs of this city. It was incredible. We sat on this emerald green field for what felt like forever, just laying next to each other and talking, you know. After, we went to a small, tiny, hole in a wall restaurant, and just sat talking about everything again. It was the perfect first date.”
While she was talking, she had this faraway look in her eyes that made it seem like she was in a different planet. She snapped out of it as soon as she was done talking and looked at us. Devonne and I probably looked like idiots, bobbing up and down on the couch, trying to not bust the seams of lips open to scream. She rolled her eyes at us, before pinching me. “Tell us what happened yesterday.”
This time, Devonne and Blair looked like idiots as they waited for my response, puppy dog eyes in tact. I felt bad, as I was about to burst their happy bubble.
I picked up my magazine and shrugged. “We went to the library to study for our chemistry test.”
Behind my magazine, I knew they were giving me incredulous looks, probably shooting daggers at me with their eyes right about now.
“You are lying.”
“No I’m not,” I replied, but in truth, I was. Kyle and I snuck out yesterday night to see what Hayden and Natalie were up to since we got news that they were heading off somewhere to talk about what happened in her room.
“For the millionth time, I didn’t do it,” Hayden began to sound exasperated due to the constant accusing from Natalie last night.
“Well it’s obvious you did. There’s no one else at our school with the initials HC.” We could tell that she was trying real hard not to scream in the small restaurant. Kyle and I were discreetly hiding at a nearby booth, peeking over our menus, trying to not be seen by anyone.
“Why on earth would you even think I would do such a stupid thing? Seriously, do I look like I have the time of day to come over to have a food fight in your room by myself?”
“I don’t know. Gen told me that it was you.” My heart stopped as I stretched out to hear what they were saying.
“What?” Hayden’s voice came out in a fury.
“Gen told me you were asking me to homecoming.”
“Obviously she was the one who did it.”
“Why the hell would Gen…” She stopped in midsentence. “Do you think Kyle told her about us?”
“No. He wouldn’t. Would he?”
“I don’t know.” Even from afar, we could hear the panic begin to fill their voices. I peeked over at Kyle, wondering why being infidel was such a big deal all of a sudden. He looked at me too and just shrugged.
“What if he told her about the arrest? Did he?”
Hayden shook his head with a lot of force. “Of course not. He doesn’t even know.”
I looked to Kyle to answer the questions that popped into my mind, but when I did, he wasn’t in his seat. I quickly scanned to whole restaurant and to my shock; he was approaching their table. I tried to wave him back, but it was hopeless, he made up his mind.
“What arrest?” Kyle’s eyes were narrowed and staring down at the two people who were sitting in a daze. I saw Natalie pinch the bridge of her nose, exhaling, and Hayden’s face went from tranquil to alarm in seconds.
The three of them chatted in hushed voices, so I couldn’t really make out what they were saying. After awhile, Natalie and Hayden got up to leave, and Kyle came back with a blank face, yet full of anger. I raised my eyebrows at him, signaling him to tell me what happened, but he just shook his head and told me to go.
The rest of the ride home was quiet. I didn’t want to sound like I was nagging, so I just shut my mouth the whole time. He didn’t volunteer to say anything, his face looked like he was contemplating something very heavy. I quietly said goodbye and closed the door behind me before walking into my building with Tommy opening the door for me.

This Feeling
chapter 14

Kyle’s POV
The two of us were standing next to my locker once again like this morning, except this time, Genevieve wasn’t interrogating my every move. She looked quite pretty today with her long blonde hair down, her cheeks warm from running. We actually got back earlier in time for another class before chemistry.
She was in the middle of trying to explain to me the material we had to know for our chemistry quiz, when some cleared their throat behind me. I turned my head to be face-to-face with, none other than Natalie. I looked back at Gen, whose eyes had widened, but she composed herself before anyone else could see.
“Hey Natalie,” Genevieve chirped next to me.
Natalie threw her platinum blonde hair over one shoulder and gave her a wide grin, “Hey Gen, how’s it going?”
“Pretty good. Um, I should be going now.” During this whole exchange, I couldn’t find my voice. I gave Genevieve a pleading look, but she just smiled and kissed my cheek. “See ya in chemistry later. Bye Natalie!” She walked off without another word.
“Are you guys together or something?” Natalie’s blue eyes narrowed as Genevieve walked away.
“No, we’re just friends,” I said slowly.
“Do friends kiss each other on the cheek?”
“It’s just this thing she does, I don’t know, it’s kind of like…What do you need Natalie?”
“Oh. Well, the homecoming dance is coming up,” she started, but I finished for her.
“I’m not asking you. We broke up like a year ago. What are you trying to start here?” I said; getting frustrated that Genevieve wasn’t here to pacify things out.
“Kyle, I know things went crazy and I did something unforgivable, but don’t you remember what we had?” She looked at me with painfully sincere eyes.
I sighed. “Listen Natalie, you’re a great girl, but I can’t look at you anymore without seeing what you did to me.” To my upmost surprise, before Natalie could respond, Genevieve ran up to me, holding something in her hands.
“Hey,” she said a little breathlessly, “I forgot to give these back to you.” She handed me back my chemistry notes.
“Thanks. Natalie and I were just discussing the homecoming dance, and she doesn’t have a date. Weird, huh?” I turned to Genevieve so only she could see my face and mouthed ‘help.’ She stifled a giggle and looked up at Natalie with a mischievous face only I could recognize.
“Didn’t Hayden ask you today?” She asked innocently, but she clamped her hand over her mouth and turned to me. “Oops, I wasn’t supposed to say anything,” she whispered to Natalie.
“What are you talking about?” Natalie asked a little hesitantly.
“I wasn’t supposed to say anything, but Hayden told me he was asking you today after school. Something like a surprise in your room.”
Natalie looked trumped while I did a double take. We chatted a little more and Natalie went away.
“You are so evil.” I was secretly pleased by her behavior.
“They deserve it.” The warning bell rang and we headed towards our classes.
“You’re acting skills were impressive if I do say so myself.”
“No biggie, just, you know, doing me.” We just stopped then and laughed at what happened in the middle of the hallway as people walked by us, staring. I never heard laughter like hers, so genuine and addictive, like chimes were going off in my head.
“I’ll see you in chemistry,” she gasped, tears in her eyes.
She pecked my cheek and stalked off into her classroom. I groaned, realizing I had gym. I was so tired and now I had to face the world of high school guys in one locker room and their obnoxiousness. I pushed the door open to the clean locker room filled with guys changing. I headed over to my locker next to Ben and began changing.
“Coach wants us to do laps today,” he said as he saw me approaching.
“Thank goodness. I don’t think I have the strength to do anything else.”
“You always have energy. Does this have to do with your little stint of missing class this morning?” He was onto me and quick too.
“No, I’m just stressing for tomorrow’s game.”
He looked at me curiously, but nonetheless dropped the subject and headed out to the track, ear buds in his ears.
Almost twenty-four hours later and we were in the same position, getting ready for the second game of the season.
“Are you ready?” Ben’s voice broke into my thoughts. He was standing in front of me with his navy and black jersey on, holding his helmet in one hand while the other grabbed the back of my head so our foreheads were touching.
“Let’s do this!” I shouted. I rallied up the team and energy and headed off to run out onto the field.
We charged like a pack of wolves, tearing through the banner the cheerleaders held up. From my peripheral view, I could see Natalie evilly eyeing me in her cheerleader outfit. She must have found her little secret last night.
I shook my mind off of that and focused on my team and the game we were about to play tonight. There was nothing like the feeling of running out with my family onto the field, playing the game we all loved so much.
I searched the sea of people that came to root for us on the bleachers, trying to look for the three girls that were usually present at our games. After a few moments, I caught two blondes sitting next to a brunette waving excitedly in my direction. I zeroed in my focus on Genevieve, who was smiling at me excitedly. I could faintly hear her shouting ‘Go number 12’. I smiled and waved at her, feeling confident about the game all of sudden, and she blew me a kiss. I pretended to catch it in my hand and placed it on my heart. She tilted her head to the side and smiled.

This Feeling
chapter 13

I looked at Kyle, who was a foot away from me, and he looked distracted, messing with the buttons on his blazer. After a few moments of just standing there in the middle of the empire state building’s platform, a grin stretched across his face.
“Let’s do something bad,” he announced enthusiastically.
“Huh?” I was dumbfounded by his announcement.
“No questions. Let’s go.”
I opened my mouth to object, but he grabbed my hand too quickly and next thing I knew, we were heading down.
Natalie Smith didn’t live in a high rise, but rather, a gigantic mansion off in the suburbs of New York. We were standing off to the sides on her green grass off the sides that flanked the beautiful ivory mansion in the middle.
“We can’t do this. This is illegal,” I whispered to him, clutching onto his arm, as we hid behind a fruit tree.
“I know, but let’s do it anyway.” He mischievously grinned, and oddly, I instantly felt comforted. We crept across the greenery, trying to hide behind tree trunks, knowing that there were security cameras watching us at every angle. We tripped and stumbled, which made us laugh and even more uncoordinated. By the time we reached the backdoor to her mansion, we were in fits of laughter.
Kyle shushed me and guided me towards a white fence with cutouts, making it almost like a ladder, leaning against the side of the house, leading to a window.
“I used to do this all the time when I sneaked over here,” he whispered, gesturing me to climb up.
“Oh, well that makes me feel better,” I replied sarcastically. I tried for the window, whole heartedly wishing it would be stuck or locked, but the window slid open smoothly in one motion. I carefully climbed through to find that this room was the library, where the walls were actually oak shelves, stocked with collection after collection of books.
“This is beautiful,” I said in a hushed tone.
“Yeah, yeah, c’mon.” Kyle grabbed my hand and made our way out the library. After we stepped out of the library, I was basically lost, but Kyle knew every nook and cranny of this mansion, and led us silently down the deserted and pristine hallway.
“What exactly are we doing here in Natalie’s house?”
“Just, hanging out.”
I rolled my eyes, and tried to keep my nerves under wraps, afraid of security jumping out at us at any second. After a few moments of scurrying down the halls, Kyle pushed a door open to our right and suddenly we were standing in a chef’s kitchen, all the stainless steel appliances glistening back at us. He tugged on my arm and led me to the double door fridge, and pulled it open, revealing a neat and organized system. He handed me a bottle of ketchup and mustard, grape juice, whip cream, chocolate syrup, and a carton of eggs.
“What the heck Kyle!” I said, trying to balance the ingredients in my hands without letting it drop.
He ignored me and grabbed half the stuff before heading back out the door. After a turn here and a turn there, we reached another door. He carefully twisted the doorknob, making sure it didn’t squeak and pushed the door open. Right away, I knew we were in Natalie’s room. It stuck out like a sore thumb to the rest of the modernized house, surprisingly cozy and girly.
“What are we doing in here?” I half shrieked.
“Having some fun.” He took the ketchup bottle from me and opened it, squeezing its contents into a giant heart onto the plush white carpet in the center of the room.
“What!” I screamed. He shushed me and handed me the mustard, motioning me to write inside of the giant heart.
“Write NS + HC.”
I rolled my eyes at him and followed his order, neatly writing the initials into the center of the heart. For the next few minutes we decorated her room with our colorful ingredients, implying that Hayden was the culprit. Much to my surprise, I was actually having fun doing this illicit activity.
We were back in the kitchen putting away the stuff when we heard voices coming towards the kitchen. Quickly, Kyle grabbed my hands and pushed us both into the pantry that was in the kitchen.
“Omg Kyle. What are we going to do?” Panic filled me.
“Shh. Don’t talk.” He held onto me in a tight embrace. The pantry was fit, provoking us to stand very closely, chest to chest. I began to not concentrate on the fact that we were about to get arrested since my mind drifted off to how solid Kyle’s chest was and how I liked laying my cheek onto it, listening to his steady heartbeat. After a few moments lost in his rhythmic heartbeat, I jumped when he opened the door to the now empty kitchen.
“They’re gone.” Overwhelmed with relief, I busted out to a loud laugh that I couldn’t stop. Kyle soon joined in, but urged me out the door. We were running across the lawn laughing our butts off, just running down the endless lawn onto the streets after we passed the gates.
I clutched my stomach, trying to gasp for air. “I can’t believe I just did that.”
“Well believe, because you did.” He checked his watch and looked at me with raised eyebrows. “We can make it back to chemistry class if you still want.”
“After this? I guess we have to though, or people might suspect things.” He nodded in agreement.

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This Feeling
chapter 11

The Carson’s kitchen was easily double the size of mine’s, not that my kitchen was too shabby or anything, but maybe, because they had a chef’s kitchen that was separated from the home kitchen. This probably came from the fact that the twins were the children of Billy and Lola Carson, both incredible renowned chefs of the world. I was excited to see food lain out on the countertops as finger food, which I greedily grabbed and ate the delicious delicacies. Hayden’s head was stuck in the commercial size fridge, scanning for something to drink.
So far, Hayden had been a gentleman, driving me here and even offering to work on the project alone with all his brains and whatnot, but even with that, Kyle’s blunt words about him were still nagging in the back of my mind. It’s been three days, and Kyle still wouldn’t tell me why Hayden was such a bad person to get to know. I knew I was starting to get on his nerves, so I decided to cool off, and find out for myself. Finally, his head came out with two bottles of water and a sheepish grin.
“I guess we’ll just deal with these.” He handed me one and came to sit next to me on the leather couch in his just as large living room. I took it gratefully and took a swig of it. For the next two hours, we carefully planned and worked out problems in changes of enthalpy, heat transfer, and even drew up a possible lab we could use as part of our project. We took a little break when Gage walked through the elevator door from their apartment. He was kind of glowing in a manly way, and came over to sit with us on the couch.
“Hello there mister. What are you smiling about?” I asked him with a knowing smile.
“Nothing. Just the usual things going on.”
I remembered that thing about Hayden and formed a plan right on the spot to figure this little mystery out. “So you say. Hey, remember you wanted to show me that thing in your room? You don’t mind for a minute do you Hayden?” I stood up quickly as Hayden shook his head, and Gage looking at me with a confused face. I motioned him to follow me, and his befuddled facial expression reverted back to a normal one and he led me the way to his room.
“What’s up Gen?” He plopped down on his bouncy bed.
“Why doesn’t Kyle like your brother?” I got right to the point.
His easygoing smile faded right away and turned into an uncomfortable one, his hands fidgeting with his hair. His light green eyes, I could tell, was contemplating on whether or not he should tell me. He looked up at my expectant face and sighed.
“It’s something that we don’t really talk about. It’s really old and embarrassing.” He waved his hand around like it was something miniscule and unimportant, trying to dismiss my question, but I persisted. I hit him in the sore spot.
“Gage, you better tell me or I’ll tell Blair everything I know about you, and I know a lot.” I instantly felt a little guilty for blackmailing him, but this was an important matter I wanted to address.
He sighed and gestured me to sit down on his desk chair.

This Feeling
chapter 10

I quickly grabbed my stuff from my locker and raced down the hallway to chemistry class, and slid into the lab table before the tardy bell rang. I blew out a breath, making a mental note to myself to walk faster next time, or accept the ride that they hottest guy at our school offers. Class started immediately, our chemistry teacher, Mr. Lakewood, paired us to do a lab project together over the next few days.
In my mind I was silently willing him to pair me up with Kyle, and my heart deflated a little when he was paired with one of the other football players in the class. In the end, I got paired up with Hayden Carson, coincidentally Gage’s twin brother. He actually looked exactly like Gage, with his auburn hair falling a little past his eyes and light green eyes under them. He was more bookish than Gage, but he still filled out that muscular guy look without the football hoo ha to him.
“Hey.” I was a bit startled by the greeting, realizing it was Hayden’s. Surprisingly, his voice was a bit more developed and more mature sounding than Gage’s, and sounded rather…sexy.
“Hey Hayden. How are you?”
“Pretty good. Just busy with school. So, uh, do you know what you want to do our project on?”
“Let’s do it on calorimetry.”
“Alright, that sounds good.” One of my favorite things about going to a prominent and privileged school is that all the kids are forced to be intelligent and witty. I couldn’t even imagine going to a school with dimwitted people, no offense, but I was sure glad I was surrounded by people who don’t question me when I use a word like deleterious. For the rest of the class, the two of us worked out a schedule for the project. We had time to spare at the end, so I decided to get to know this secretly attractive guy.
By the time class ended, I learned that he was a mathlete, enjoys rowing, has impressive grades, vice president of our student body, sometimes has twin telepathy with Gage, and likes pineapples. After that, we even walked out together and still were talking.
“I kind of really want to be a vegetarian, but I love meat too much,” he revealed.
I nodded my head in agreement. I was so wrapped up in our conversation that I didn’t realize someone was tapping my shoulder. I spun around and looked up to see Kyle’s brilliant eyes looking at me, which made me lose all thought of Hayden, yet reminded me to say goodbye to him, but he vanished before I had a chance to do so.
“A little excited for your chemistry project now are we?” he asked playfully. Was there a hint of jealousy?
“No. I just never realized Gage’s twin brother was so intriguing before.”
He snorted, but continued the conversation. “Hayden is someone you don’t want to get involved with.”
What? “What? Why not?”
He shifted his weight as we walked. “Um, I can’t say, but you should be careful with him.”
I didn’t feel like arguing, but I still had curiosity attached to me, but by the time I wanted to ask him, we were standing in front of the door to the boys’ locker room.
“Do you want to come in? None of the guys are here yet.”
I gave him a doubtful look, “What if they come and see me in there?”
He rolled his eyes and dragged me into the room anyways, which was surprisingly clean and bright, the sunlight reflecting off the shiny black lockers and squeaky-clean linoleum floors, resembling quite similarly to the girls’. The floors were so shiny I was scared that my shoes were going to leave scuffmarks. I saw showers lining the opposite wall of the lockers, and the sight of them made me blush as I thought of Kyle taking a shower.
“What exactly am I doing in here?” I asked, my voice slightly echoing in the vast room. He ignored me and led me to his locker and pulled out his gear for practice, which was just a gray jersey and black basketball shorts. I sat down on one of the benches across from him, shamelessly watching him undress and dress, the sight of his bare chest almost gave me heart palpitations, which I was sure happens every time I see him anyways.
“I just didn’t want to be alone in here.” He was packing his uniform neatly away in his bag when he stated this simple statement.
Right after he said that, I heard the guys begin to pour in, causing me to stand up too quickly, and almost slip on the clean floor, but like old times, Kyle caught me around him. This was a very intimate position that the guys saw us in when they came in all the way into the room, beginning the round of twenty questions, or rather twenty assumptions. To make matters worse, guys apparently undress as they walk into places, so half of them were half – naked when I saw them.
“Kyle, care to share!”
“Hey Gen, since when did you become so naughty!”
“Ow, Ow, Kyle’s putting in some action in the room!”
I was half expecting Kyle to laugh along with them, display me like some sort of bimbo, but to my surprise, he gave them a curt growl, and led me out the backdoor, a shortcut to the fields. From behind me, I heard the wolf whistles and comments still trailing us.
“No offense, but can I ask you a question?” I asked him while we walked towards the field. Out of my peripheral vision as we passed the parking lot, I saw Ben and Devonne making out against his car.
“Shoot.”
“Since when do you care about the treatment of women?”
“Since the woman that was being treated is my friend.”
“So to clarify things, you don’t have that many friends that are girls?”
“No, you have respect for yourself and I will defend that. I don’t usually help girls who give themselves away so easily.”
I was so appalled by this statement that it took me a few moments to process what he just said thoroughly. We were now sitting on the bleachers together watching his teammates assemble on the field, and Devonne approaching me with a smile. Kyle got up to leave, but I caught his hand before he went, “Thank you Kyle.” He gave me a smile and headed over towards his team.

This Feeling
chapter 9

“Slow down Blair. I don’t know what you are saying,” I laughed.
“Please come to homeroom with me before the bell rings. I need to tell you something!” She was giddy with excitement, but tried to become civil as she noticed Kyle standing with us. I gave Kyle an apologetic ‘I don’t know’ look, and saw him nod his head in response. I went over and pecked his cheek before running off with Blair to homeroom.
“What is so important that you needed to tell me that you needed to pull me away from only the hottest guy on this earth?” I asked her with a giggle.
She ignored my comment and rushed, “This morning, when I got out of my car, I saw Gage standing there with his friends and he came to me and get this, right in front of his friends, he asked me out!!”
I could tell she was flustered with happiness, so I played along. “In front of his friends? What did they do?”
“They hooted and whatever, but I wasn’t really paying attention to them.”
I squealed with her out of excitement. “So what are you guys going to do?”
“We don’t know yet, but it’s going to be special.”
“I see.” We both looked up to see Devonne and Ben hovering over us all of a sudden with fake curious looks plastered on their faces. I laughed.
“You guys are so mean,” Blair joked.
“Girl, we all knew it was bound to happen.”
Ben smacked his forehead. “Man, now this is all I’m going to hear during football practice.”
“Ooh, speaking of football practice. Devonne, I’m coming with you to watch today,” I said.
“Really? Oh yay!” She beamed at me as homeroom began.
The day at St. Mary’s Academy dragged on as usual, classes too long, class work too hard, classmates too annoying, all the same. It was finally lunchtime and Devonne, Blair, and I were at my locker, waiting for me to put away my stuff. I was patting down my backpack, looking for my keys since it was my turn to drive us out to lunch, but I began to panic, as I couldn’t find them. My parents would kill me if I lost this expensive car, so I began to panic even more. Blair tapped my shoulder, trying to get my attention.
“Gen, you drove here with Kyle this morning, remember?” Blair’s revelation calmed me down instantly.
“Oh yeah. I forgot. Oops, can one of you guys drive? I’ll double up next time. Promise.”
“Or we could walk down to the little café around here,” Blair suggested.
“Since when do you like walking?” I asked.
“Since she knew Gage is over there. And while we are walking, you can tell me all about your morning ride with Kyle,” Devonne answered playfully.
We entered the café, and it seemed that the whole football team decided to come here too, because they were all crammed into a corner, eating. We saw Ben get up and come towards us, except he was just really coming to see Devonne. He kissed her hello and led her back towards the corner of the bar with all the other guys.
I rolled my eyes, because this meant Blair and I had to follow her over there later after we ordered our food. We quickly ordered, but walked arm in arm slowly over to the corner to where they were all shouting and eating in contrast to their proper uniforms. We tried to make a beeline to the seats closest to Devonne, but there was a blockade of football players that were in our way.
“Come sit here,” a masculine voice shouted over the crowd. We made our way through the throng towards the voice, and found a beautiful Kyle at a table with two chairs across from him.
“Why thank you. You are too kind for saving us.” I skipped over and sat next to him on the booth, ignoring the empty chair that was now next to Blair. She gave me a pout, but I motioned my head towards someone who was walking over to join us. Her eyes widened as she mouthed a thank you over to me when she saw Gage advancing towards us, instantly ignoring me, so here I was with Kyle.
“Are you planning to drive me home?” I asked casually, taking a bite of my avocado sandwich.
“That was the plan, but this means you have to watch one of our football practices.”
“You and your evil little plans. Don’t worry, I already told Devonne that I was going with her today.” I took another bite of my avocado sandwich and checked on Blair, who was so enamored in her ‘staring contest’ with Gage that I had to look away from the intensity. “Looks like lovebird one and lovebird two are having a staring contest.”
Liquid sort of bursted out of Kyle’s lips as he struggled to restrain his laughter, but failed after two seconds, orange soda sprayed all over the table, which in turn, caused me to bust into fits of giggles. In between breaths I managed to tell him that it wasn’t even that funny, what I said.
“I know, but the way you said it was hilarious.” He managed to calm down enough to formulate a normal sentence.
I was throwing away my wrappers when Devonne told us she was going to hitch a ride with Ben back to school. I looked over to Blair, who was still attached to Gage, and asked her if she wanted to walk back with me. She quickly agreed and got up to leave.
“Are you sure you don’t want a ride back?” Kyle pointed to his bike parked outside.
“Yeah. I’m sure Blair has a lot of girlie stuff to tell me anyways. I’ll see you in chemistry, yeah?” He nodded and left with the rest of the crowd. Blair grabbed my arm and started jabbering right away as soon as our feet hit the concrete pavement outside the café.
“He has the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen. Like magical,” Blair sighed into my arms.
“Well Gage is pretty cute.” We giggled about other girl things on our walk back to school, and I was going along just fine until she asked me the most ridiculous question ever.
“So, did Kyle ask you to be his girlfriend yet?”
My mouth sagged open when she said that. “Why would you ask that? We’re just friends.”
“Mhmm, if you say so,” she said, unconvinced. I rolled my eyes, and let the subject drop before it could go any further.

This Feeling
chapter 8

I woke up the next day feeling a bit empty realizing there was no one besides me. I dragged my tired body out of bed and turned on the hot water to my shower before heading to my closet to take out my uniform. After the relaxing hot water, I went down to find our housekeeper, Doris, making some breakfast.
“Good morning Genevieve,” her lovely voice filled the kitchen. She was probably one of my best friends, whom I could tell anything to without feeling judged. She has been with me since the day I was born and has never left since.
“Good morning Miss Doris,” I greeted, taking a seat at one of the stools against the massive granite countertop.
“Cheese omelet this morning. Someone left a message for you a few minutes ago. Said his name was Kyle and he was going to be by in twenty minutes. Got a new boyfriend you didn’t tell me about?” She joked with me.
“No. You’ve met him before. Kyle Thompson. Ben’s best friend.”
Realization dawned on her face as she placed a plate in front of me. “I see.”
I was slowly chewing on my omelet when we heard the intercom system in the apartment buzz, hearing the doorman’s voice echo through. “A Mr. Thompson here to see you Ms. Moore.”
I skipped over to the intercom pressed the button to respond, “Thank you Tommy. You can let him up.”
Before long, I heard the elevator beep, signaling the arrival of my fellow classmate. Kyle stepped in wearing his uniform, but his tie was loosened just the right amount, his dress shirt tucked in to look casual, and his blazer fitted correctly over his pressed slacks perfectly. I stared down at my similar ensemble, except I wore a skirt, and wondered if I looked like the high - class supermodel he did.
“What’s up?” I said to him, walking over with my omelet.
He smirked at me. “I thought you’d like a ride to school with me.”
I spill my guts to him in a few days, and we were suddenly best friends. I didn’t mind it, but I didn’t want him to get the wrong impression of this fresh clean slate of friendship we were working on. “I’m capable of driving myself, thank you.”
Before Kyle could put in a rebuttal, Doris’ voice came out of nowhere in front of me. “Don’t be rude to the fine young gentleman, and accept it with grace. Hurry off now you two, or you’ll be late to school.” She shooed us away, taking my plate away from me.
Instead of protesting like I wanted to, I obliged knowing that if we didn’t leave soon we would both be picking up tardies, so I picked up my backpack and gave her a peck on the cheek, before following a grinning Kyle out towards the elevator. Our hands touched when we both reached for the lobby button, I felt a little electricity zing through my fingers, so I quickly snatched it back, letting him press the button. When we went out, I saw that he drove a different vehicle today, one that was not as humongous as his Jeep.
“I thought that you’d enjoy a different pace,” he said. When I say ‘not as humongous’, I mean what we were taking to school was a motorcycle.
“Seriously. You’re like a storybook guy. You’re getting as a cliché as getting a motorcycle.” I slapped my hand over mouth when I realized I said that out loud, but he just chuckled and handed me a helmet.
“It’s easier to maneuver through the New York traffic congestion in a motorcycle,” he said as a matter of factly. “You have to kind of hold my backpack if you don’t want to lean against that.” I took his backpack from him, and waited for him to climb on first. “No protest?” he asked.
I was unlike the storybook girl who was afraid of this machine. I loved thrills. “No, why? Should I? I always wanted to ride one of these things.” I carefully slid my legs over the seat and balanced myself behind him with the two backpacks. He started the engine and told me to hold on tight over the roar. I wrapped my arms around his solid midsection, and pressed my body against his warm one, opening my eyes to see everything that whizzed passed us.
He was a very smooth driver, manipulating the piece of steel where he wanted with content ease. I kind of wished I wasn’t wearing a helmet, so I could feel my hair whipping behind me in the crisp air. I felt so safe behind him, even though it felt dangerous to be doing this. The fact that his back was against mine was making me blush and hard for me to breathe, but I relaxed when I realized he couldn’t see my face. I screamed while we were flying past whatever we were flying past, and I heard him laughing, as he pulled neatly into the school parking lot.
I was numb from the whole ride, so I had to wait for him to get off, so he could help my awestruck body get off from the motorcycle. I shook my hair out from the helmet and handed it back to him and his backpack.
“I’m guessing you enjoyed it.”
“I did, even though I have to deal with helmet hair,” I replied, pointing to my hair.
“Don’t be a sass.”
Before I could even respond to the insult, Blair bounded up to me, squealing about something and Gage.

hi hi :) I changed the title to "This Feeling." It seems more fitting!