Stepping Out of Me

14

KIERA

"Hi." she found herself smiling back at him.

"Hi Kiera," the guy on his right said.

"Hi..." she trailed off as she completely forgot their names.

Fortunately, the guy smiled without taking offense. "I'm Dylan, and this is Kyle."

Kiera made a mental note of their names in her head. "Okay, Dylan...Kyle."

An awkward silence ensued and they soon took the cue. Dylan and Kyle excused themselves to go get food for the three of them. 

"Are you okay?" Lance asked her.

"Huh?"

"You seem a little uneasy," Lance told her. "You're not hanging out with them?" He nodded in the direction of Halle and her friends.

"Oh." Kiera shook her head. "Yea, I am. But I'm kind of a fifth wheel now."

Lance nodded. "Well lucky for you my group has an uneven number. You could be our fourth. What do you say?" He spoke in a sing-song voice and held his hand out to her as if it was a mic.

Kiera found herself chuckling. Something she hadn't done in quite a while. Then she nodded. "Sure."

Kyle and Dylan came back with the food and Halle called Kiera. "We're going inside now, Kiera."

"I'm going to sit with Lance," Kiera informed her.

Halle's face fell. "Oh ok."

Lance walked up to them and then said. "We can all just sit close. Problem solved." He smiled at his sister who returned a glare.

She didn't say anything in return as they all entered the room. The movie hadn't started yet so it was still relatively empty. Josie found an empty row and she pulled Halle to sit next to her. Mariah sat next to them and then Luca. Kiera sat next to Luca, Lance sat next to Kiera and Lance's friends sat next to him. 

Kiera absentmindedly stared at the seat in front of her as they all chatted with each other. "Popcorn?" Lance said after a few minutes.

She looked over as he had his large bag of popcorn turned towards her. Kiera shook her head.

"Suit yourself," Lance replied.

Soon more people had settled inside. Finally, the room light began to dim and the curtains opened up. As the movie started everyone went silent. Kiera found herself zoned out at parts of the movie since it wasn't really the type of thing she'd watch. 

Some minutes in Kiera decided to excuse herself and headed outside. She went to the restroom and locked the stalls. She didn't need to use it but just wanted to kill time.

After a while, she heard footsteps enter the bathroom and two voices. Josie and Mariah. But it was mostly Mariah and Josie consoling her.

"He went to her as soon as he showed up," Mariah said in a shaky voice. "He was basically tripping over himself to sit next to her. I hate seeing both of them."

Kiera's eyebrows furrowed. She couldn't have been talking about her and Lance.

"I have to see them at school every day. Now tonight." She banged something against the counter. Mariah seemed like the complete opposite of whoever she was in public. She seemed so shy as if she couldn't hurt a fly. Now here she was aggressively venting.

"I know it's hard," Josie replied. "I know what it's like. It happened with my first girlfriend."

"Did you also have to watch her fall for another girl in front of your eyes while her sister also tries to befriend said girl?"