The One She Needed. **complete**

Chapter 9** Respect

Kelsie was really excited about the bonfire! She had never been to one because Darren had always said that they just weren't the kind of thing girls like her did.

As Saturday morning came, it was beautiful! The sun was shining and the weather was warm for late March. Kelsie left for the cookie shop with a bounce in her step.

When she got to work Mrs. Jasper told her that,Tom, the Jasper's son, would be home for the summer to help out and that made Kelsie's day even better. Tom was twenty four and a teacher four hours away.

Kelsie adored Tom. He was easy to talk to, said what he thought and had always treated Kelsie like the kid sister he never had. She hadn't seen him since Christmas and she really missed him. She knew he'd tell her she was stupid for agreeing to this whole 'seeing other people' thing and she kinda wanted to hear his opinion. Although somewhere deep inside she already knew what he would say. Tom had a saying he used often.

"You have to earn respect." He always said, "then, once you know you've earned it, you have to demand it"
Kelsie wasn't sure how to do that, but she figured Tom would help if she ask.

Just before Kelsie's shift ended Darren came in to borrow money.

"I don't get paid until Monday" Kelsie said, "so I only have twenty dollars. Is ten OK?"

"Yeah that's great Babe!" Darren said with a relieved smile. "I'm sorry. I ran short because I had to make the down payment for my tux yesterday." Kelsie's Jr prom was the following Saturday.

"Are we still going to prom?" Kelsie ask looking up. "I wasn't sure anymore."

"Of course!" Darren said with his big 'gotta love me' grin. "And I'm taking you out Friday night for our three  year anniversary. So don't make any plans."

"Do you celebrate your anniversary when you're both dating other people?" Kelsie ask, honestly confused.

"Yes." Darren said firmly. "Those other people are just distractions until we get back to us." He leaned across the counter and kissed her cheek softly. "It'll always come back to us."

Kelsie felt tears sting her eyes, because as much as she wanted to hear those sweet words, she simply didn't believe them anymore. She was pretty sure that Darren took the tears as a sign that she was touched by his words. So she guessed it was OK.

Kelsie dressed with care for the bonfire. It was a huge event so everyone she knew would be there. She pulled on her favorite short sleeved sweater because it was soft and the pink looked good on her. Then she paired it with her favorite denim mini skirt. She wasn't sure about the skirt, so she slid on a pair of black spandex shorts underneath. Then she slipped on her white Keds which she had laced with pink laces that matched the sweater.

She pulled her hair up into a tight French braid and decided that it was a good look. She found that she didn't need as much concealer under her eyes as usual. She didn't have the dark circles. She looked pretty healthy even without make-up. Actually, she hadn't thrown up in a while and she had been sleeping well. She fell asleep late because of her late night conversations with Scott, but once she fell asleep, she slept well.

Wally was at the door at exactly seven o'clock and Kelsie breathed a sigh of relief that he didn't honk. Kelsie's dad let her mom handle pretty much all of Kelsie's rules and discipline, but he had one hard rule on dating and that was that any guy who honked instead of coming to the door would not leave with his daughter. So far, since Kelsie had really only dated Darren, this had not been an issue.

Kelsie opened the door with both of her parents behind her and introduced them to Wally. They had stopped fighting long enough to come and meet him.