When the day met the night

Chapter 2

Kennedy

I wake up at nine with the sound of someone pounding on the door to my room.

"Ken doll, are you dressed?" Benny shouts from my living room. I groan and roll over as he opens the door. "You're right, why should I care if you're decent?"

I slam my head into my pillow three times before sitting up and glaring at Benny. "Really? The first day that I don't have to get up early, you're making me anyways?"

He laughs as he pulls back my blankets and starts going through my drawers for my clothes. "Babe, nine is not early. You can get up. We have to go shopping. I have a date."

I get up and swipe my sweater from his hands. "Stop stealing my stuff!" I scold him. "We can go, just give me a second to get dressed. Change your shirt, it's hideous."

He takes it off and puts on one of my t-shirts with Billy Joel's face on it before looking at me for approval. I nod and give two thumbs up. I slowly get up and put on some clothes before going to the bathroom to put on some makeup. I've never been a huge fan of the stuff on myself, but I love to practice applying it. I use some light concealer and swipe some eyeliner on, making sure the wings are the same. I add a little blush and some tinted chapstick.

I brush my hair out and try to quickly give it some curls. I guess I took longer than I thought though, because when I get out, Benny has some coffee and toast ready for me. He hands me the coffee in a to go mug and the toast in a paper towel.

He leads me down to my car with my purse and keys in his hand. He hops in the drivers seat so that I can eat. "So, I might have lied." He tells me, glancing back as he puts my car in reverse.

With my mouth full of food, I look at him and raise my eyebrow, asking him what he means.

"You know how we talked about that road trip last year? Like, you wanted to go places or something and only travel by car?"

I swallow my food and take a sip of coffee. "Yeah, what about it?"

"Well, I thought that we should do that. You know, like a fun little thing for just the two of us. Wouldn't it be fun?"

I stare at him. "You mean to tell me that you woke me up early not for a date, but to ask if I wanted to go on a trip?"

He laughs. "No Ken doll, I woke you up early so we could get a head start on shopping for the trip!"

"Ben, we can't go on a trip. We both just got fired, we have to pack our stuff and get things ready, you probably need to get another job-"

"Honey, relax. It's going to be so much fun. Just you and me, a long road, some barf bags, and a lack luster location to get to." He speeds up and passes a car, cussing and flipping them off. "So much fun."

I sigh and turn to my window, finishing my coffee. It's not that I don't want to go on the vacation with my best friend, but I have a lot to do right now. My dorm opens in just a couple of weeks, and I want to get everything ready to move in there. I wanted to get another job.

When we finally pull into the parking for the mall, Benny looks over to me and grabs my hand. "I know the last couple of years have been really hard, Ken. I know. But this is just what you need."

I nod, somehow finding it in myself to open the door and stand up. That was a big thing for me a year ago. Finding the will to stand. My mom got arrested, my dad announced he was starting another family, my sister's boyfriend started sending me death threats. Through all of it, I just had to find the will to stand and make it another day.

***

Benny and I are about to go into some store when he turns and looks at me. "Okay, look. There's this really hot guy in there, and if we go in together, he might think we're dating."

It takes me a second before I realize what he means. "Oh, yeah. Okay. I'll just go next door and look at the..." I look at the store next door. Its windows are filled to the brim with shoe boxes and colorful contents. "...shoes. I needed a new pair anyways.

He kisses my hand, tells me I'm the best, and practically skips into the store. I laugh a little before I try to have the same enthusiasm for the shoes. I walk in and start examining the wall. There are some cute canvas shoes. They are white with rainbow laces and rainbow rubber around the bottom. Looking at the stack of them, I don't see my size. I walk up to the counter and try to contain a laugh.

Turned towards the back of the register is Ashton, the girl from the coffee shop. She's packing some shoes into a box with some colorful tissue paper. She looks up at me and frowns.

"So did you track me down or do you want help with shoes?" She asks me, not bothering to sound like she cares.

"I was looking at those shoes over there and I didn't see them in my size."

She rolls her eyes. "Wow, I'm glad there's only one shoe over there, or else it might be hard to tell which one you want. And in what size."

I walk back, get the rainbow shoe, and slam it on the counter. "I want this shoe in a size six, please."

She looks up at me, slightly stunned, and walks back to the storage room with the display shoe. She's gone for a minute before she returns with three boxes. She sets them on the counter, opens them, and looks at me for approval. One of them is rainbow, one is red and orange and white and pink, and the other is purple and blue and pink.

"So, which is it? Which shoe do you want?" She asks.

I look at her, amused. She's asking me to come out to her. "What does it matter to you?"

She rolls her eyes again. "I just want to know what shoe you want so that I can sell it to you. I don't really care which you like the most."

I pick up the pink, white, red, and orange shoe box and hand it to her to scan. She looks at me and scans it, making sure to tuck it into the back as carelessly as she can. "Your total is on the screen."

I swipe my card and take my bag before she has a chance to print out the receipt. What a bitch. I just wanted to buy some shoes. She should be trying her hardest to get a sale, especially at a shoe store. They know that the shoes are over-priced. That means that they have to work harder to sell it. Then again, I did just buy the shoes anyways, even if she was rude.