Loving Kiera

7| Sooner or later

Shane

It was four-thirty when I returned home from my run, my whole body dripping with sweat.

Right at six, Sylvester was in our driveway, honking his horn loudly. I cursed him as I picked my backpack and threw it over my shoulder.

My mom was peering out through the curtains at the stranger who was blasting our ears off this early morning. Realizing it was Sylvester, she shook her head and went back to her pancakes.

My dad had already left for work, so I exchanged a few words with my mom before I went out. Syl was thrown back in his white convertible, and I frowned at him.

"I didn't ask you to pick me up." I grumbled. "I can drive myself."

"Well, good morning to you too, babe." He replied, making me glare at him.

"Remind me to kill you. Please." I said as I slid into the passenger's seat and threw my backpack at the backseat. "So, why'd you pick me up?"

"Because I'm in a very good mood." Syl shrugged, but I didn't buy it. I have cars, yes, plural. I can drive, or could make a chauffeur drive me if I couldn't. I wasn't one to be picked up by any of my friends, so I suspected Sylvester had something up his sleeve.

"That's bull." I chuckled at him. "Tell me what's going on."

Sylvester hesitated, then finally gave in. "It's Debbie." He said, and suddenly, I was alert. She called me over and over again last night, though I ignored her. "She left for Missoula last night. Her mom's not well, so she had to leave along with her sister and father to help take care of her at their hometown."

"What's wrong with her mom?"

"Cancer, I think." He mumbled quietly.

My stomach dropped. God, what kind of friend was I? She called over and over again, in dire need of my help, or at least my response to her goodbye, and I didn't even pick up, because I'm a selfish jerk who only cared about himself.

"She called everyone to say goodbye," he continued, "but she said she couldn't talk to you because you weren't answering your phone, so I should say goodbye to you in her stead first thing in the morning, and here I am."

"I left my phone somewhere." I gulped. A lie. "I wish I had talked to her."

"I wonder if she'll ever come back." His voice broke, and my eyes widened in realization. God, the guy was freaking in love with Deborah! How could I not have noticed all this while?

"Maybe she would." I offered, even though I wasn't so sure myself. Sylvester didn't believe me either, and he turned his head to stare out of the window. I caught the moisture under his eyes before he looked away though, and I thought I understood what he was going through.

What would you do if someone you really loved had to go halfway across the country from you?

What would I do if Kiera ever had to move back to Cali?

Wait- did I just use Kiera in the above context?
What a hopeless man I am.

I sat patiently with Sylvester, waiting for him to pull himself together, since it was the least I could do. I didn't even want to hurry to school anyway. I didn't want to bump into Kiera. I might hide from her throughout the day.

This time, it wasn't just the guilt of not picking Kiera's call that weighed down my shoulders. It was also the addition of the guilt resulting from not picking Debbie's call that weighed down my shoulders and threatened to suffocate me. I felt so awful, and I couldn't even deal with it, nor talk about it.

It was a long time later that he pulled out of our driveway, and I felt better a bit to know that just my presence had provided some sort of solace to Sylvester.   He needed me, and for once, I was there.

Jefferson was same old, same old. Same old, as Sylvester parked his car in a spot reserved for "Teachers only." Like he, or any of the rest of us gave a damn. No one questioned us either. We were above.

The hallway was crowded with students at a certain spot, which meant one thing:

Corner That Loser Period.

CTLP is a period, usually held in the morning, where a certain group of students who had nothing better to do would surround the school's biggest geek, an Afro-american whose name I never bothered knowing. 

Anyway, they would surround this girl and torture the hell out of her, leaving her helpless and more broken than the last time every time.

Sylvester shook his head in casual dismissal at the crowd, thinking how foolish they were, and moved on.  I followed suit.

But throughout classes, there were whispers about the "new geek", and I wondered who she was. I tried asking my friends, but they too, just like me, had no idea what was going on. They hadn't been to school early.

It was worse during lunch. The whole cafeteria was filled with plottings on what to do to bring down the new geek, plots to break her, to destroy her, and even I cringed, feeling bad for her, whoever she was, for getting in the bad books of the students of Jefferson High.

Veronica was chattering our ears off on her own plots to bring down the school's geek also, and like everyone else at our table, I was bored to death.

Deborah's departure was constantly on our minds, and she was who we were all missing and caring about, not some poor new girl who would have to suffer at the hands of Jefferson High students for the rest of her stay here.

I constantly caught Sylvester glancing towards Deborah's seat, now empty. It was almost heartbreaking to watch him hurting so much but trying his best to hide it.

I made a mental note to ask him if something went on between him and Debbie.

Lunch finally ended, and I slipped out of the company of my friends stealthily and walked alone to my locker. I still hadn't seen Kiera today, and I wondered if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

A part of me ached so much to see her, to have just the tiniest glimpse of her beautiful face, even if from afar, while the other part wanted me to stay as far away from her as possible.

He was the coward; the other part who didn't want to face her.

I quickly packed my books into my backpack when I reached my locker. My intentions were to get away to class as quickly as possible, and I set my mind fiercely to do just that.

Even if I avoided her right now, we had English the next period, which meant it was inevitable that I was gonna face her sooner or later.

More like sooner.

Kiera was sitting in front with the school's biggest geek right next to her when I entered, and I shot my gaze towards them in surprise, which I quickly masked into cool indifference.

Her green eyes flickered behind her glasses and held mine for a moment, and I moved on.

I was feeling damn guilty.

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Ann out. ;)