Sunlight

Chapter Two

The Killing Moon // Echo and the Bunnymen

3 years ago

Kyra

How am I reliving the same nightmare from last year all over again?

Trapped in a cabin with Pete for the week.

I was stupidly excited when Jeff planned this trip for all of us. He wanted to come up with his girlfriend for a one year redux of the night they met at the Moonlight music festival.

I was down, especially when it was obvious that Jeff had guilted Pete into coming up, too. I thought the situation would be the perfect set up for my own little redux. A second chance at that epic kiss I've been dreaming about for twelve long months.

But once we got here, and Pete pretended like I wasn't along for the ride, or up on the mountain, or in the same damn room, I finally realized what a fool I had been.

Even with a house full of people he pretends I'm not here, ignoring me with every part of his body. His dark eyes won't glance my way. He keeps himself as distant as possible, going as far as getting up from his spot at the table to sit on the opposite end as me if I dare to sit too close.

I've put that one to the test at every meal. And every time, like clockwork, he moves his spot.

Tell me you hate me without telling me you hate me.

Jeff hasn't noticed. But Jeff doesn't notice much other than his girlfriend, Alison, these days. In fact, there are so many couples on this trip it's no wonder no one's picked up on the tension at the table, yet.

Tonight is the next to last night which means bigger names taking the festival stage to perform. It's been a lazy afternoon of resting after hitting the festival hard the last few days. Citizen One is closing tonight's show and no one wants to pass out and miss it.

While I sit on a barstool at the kitchen island scrolling on my phone–or faking like I'm scrolling because what I'm actually doing is watching Pete from the corner of my eye–he sits at the kitchen table mirroring my position. Fake scrolling his phone while trying not to acknowledge my presence. He can't possibly be blind to the tension between us. But he might think ignoring it long enough will make it disappear.

He's in for a huge disappointment because I ain't going anywhere. Not until he and I have a conversation that's a year overdue.

One year ago Pete kissed me. That kiss took what had been a naive, school-girl crush and blew it up into a full on obsession. If Jeff knew how often I have dirty daydreams about one of his best friends, he'd kill us both. It's all Pete's fault, and I say that with zero irony.

There are two Kyras now. The Kyra before Pete kissed her, and the husk of a woman left after he kissed her and walked away without looking back.

Ruined is no exaggeration.

I just graduated from high school. I spent my senior year heartsick over a kiss and the boy who gave it to me. The boy, no, the man who took the kiss of my childhood fantasies and twisted it into something ugly.

Didn't he feel what I felt?

How could he just walk away?

If he felt anything close to what I did, there'd be no walking away. He would have crossed the biggest desert, climbed the tallest mountain to have me.

Which means I'm alone in this made up relationship of my dreams.

It's as if he dumped me without ever saying a word, without ever even dating me. But what else do you call what he did after claiming me with his lips?