Stepping Out of Me

29

KIERA

Kiera pushed the food around on her plate as she sat in the cafeteria. She couldn't help but wonder why Lance followed Mariah. He hadn't said anything to her after seeing them in the hallway that day then he goes to Mariah instead. He didn't say anything after the voice recordings were sent out either. Maybe he was on her side after all.

"Kiera?" a voice pulled her from her sinking thoughts.

She looked around to find three concerned faces staring back at her. "I'm fine, really." She replied before one of them could ask.

They tried to find out what happened. More so Halle and Luca but Josie had to call them off. Kiera was grateful and not so grateful that she already knew what happened. On one hand, Josie would help with situations like this which made her feel like she had someone who knew what she was going through. On the other hand, she didn't like the feeling of someone knowing that this happened to her.

"We should go to the winter formal together," Halle stated. "It'll be fun." She glanced at Kiera and Luca.

"I already have a date but sure," Luca replied.

Halle looked at the boy with wide eyes. "Why didn't you tell me? Who is it?"

"You'll see when the time comes."

"Luca, please." Halle pouted.

Kiera let out a soft chuckle at the two.

"We know it's Marc from math class." Josie ratted him out.

A smile broke out on Halle's face. "Did you ask him or did he ask you?"

"He asked me," Luca replied as he tried to hold back a smile. "But enough about me. Kiera, are you going?"

Kiera averted her eyes from them. "No, I don't have a reason to."

"What? The reason is to have fun." Halle said, her voice losing some of its brightness. "You don't have to come but I'd love it if you did."

"I'll think about it." Kiera stated.

Thankfully, Halle knew her well enough to know that any trying to convince her after that would make her less likely to go. They resumed their chatter while Kiera went back to playing with her food.

* * *

The sun beamed down on them as they exited the school building. Kiera said her goodbyes and proceeded to head to her car but Josie stopped her.

"Can I talk to you about something?" Josie asked.

Kiera nodded but the thought of it made her heart race. She wondered what Josie could possibly have to say to her that it needed to be a whole talk. Still they left Halle waiting and walked over to Kiera's car.

"So what's this about?" Kiera went straight to the point.

"It's about you and Lance."

Kiera was about to reply but Josie raised a hand to stop her. "Hear me out first. I see you looking at him a lot of the time. It's clear that you still like him." Josie began. "You said he didn't do anything wrong but you still won't speak to him. It just seems like you're punishing yourself for some reason."

"You don't even like him so why do you care?" Kiera replied in snappy tone.

Josie raised a brow at the girl as if she knew something Kiera didn't. "I don't like seeing my friends hurt. It doesn't matter how I felt about Lance," she said. "Yes, felt. I have no hard feelings toward him anymore. I put those behind me when you two started dating." Josie sighed as she leaned against the car and rested her foot on her skateboard. "When you were with Lance that was the happiest I'd ever seen you since you got here. I don't know what he did but he had an effect on you Kiera. That's how I feel when I'm with Halle and I wouldn't want to lose that."