kilby girl [hs]

chapter 1

Levi Kilby // 2018

Growing up I was raised in a house with strict parents. They took me to church every Sunday, made sure I took honors and APs classes, and tried their best to uphold a 'perfect family image'. So pretty much, don't make scenes and follow a multitude of rules. My music intake is low. My parents always thought that if a song doesn't scream Jesus at you it's inappropriate.

The endless stream of rules I had to abide by consisted of no phone till high school, no social media, no boys, no two piece bathing suits, and the list goes on. For the most part I didn't mind these rules. I was never a 'wild child', I had a good group of friends and school was easy for me. I never once thought about breaking these rules. Well, that was until the end of sophomore year, I started to realize that these rules weren't in any way common. I mean, my friends got to do pretty much whatever they wanted whereas I never got any type of freedom. I was always the friend who backed out of plans with the excuse "my parents said no". But I still followed the rules up until very recently when I discovered life outside of my parents' ideas. And that leads me to where we are now.

My first ever high school party. Yeah, I'm surprised too.

My parents think I'm in a study group at the library but this is definitely not a study group.

The end of summer was nearing and I realized that I'm going to be going into senior year having never been to a party, a school dance or football game.

So leading to where I currently am. Staring at a door. To be fair it is a very nice door, dark oak with a few scratches littering the surface, a scuffed up round silver handle placed off to the left-

"Are you gonna walk inside or just stare at the door for a couple more hours?" A voice laced with amusement piped up from behind me. With embarrassment coating my face, I slowly turned around to meet the deep green eyes of a boy, clearly very entertained by my reluctance to go inside.

Dark brown curls fell onto his forehead as he tilted his head, a multi-pack of beers tucked under his arm and another held in his hand. His grip on the plastic holding the cans together tightened as he readjusted it in his hand, thus making the light from the porch shine onto the chipped off black polish adorning his fingertips.

"Eventually," I shifted my weight between my feet, "But now that you mention it, staying here for a few more hours wouldn't be so bad" I look back at the door. It is a nice door.

A laugh rumbled from his chest as he dropped his head to his chest before quickly looking back up at me, "Well, when the door finally bores you maybe try going inside, yeah?"

He gives me a hopeful look but then takes my silence as a decline.

"I promise what's behind the door is more exciting than staring at the door. Look, have this" He places one of the multipacks of beer onto the ground and pulls a can out, handing it to me with a smile before picking the cans up again and walking past me to push open the door. The sound of loud music pulses through the doorway. I turn around to look through the door he oh so conveniently left open and watch as he disappears into the crowd.

My eyes flicker between the open door and the can in my hand. Jumping the gun, I pull the tab off the can. Come on Levi, this is where your rebellious teenage stage begins. Tipping the can as it meets my lips the sour liquid glides down my throat leaving a warm feeling in my chest.

"Yeah, no that tastes like shit" I cough and use the back of my hand to wipe my mouth. I look around to find a place to hide the can and finally settle on behind the large black plant pot beside the door. They'll find that later. Well, hopefully otherwise I'm gonna feel like shit for littering.