A Kiss in the Dark

Chapter 2

Parker

Mackenzie's name was all I could hear as I made my way to the drama block. I groaned internally, though thinking about it, I couldn't tell if it was because I too had to kiss him or because I was sick of the female population's adoration and idolatry of Mackenzie Bradford.

The truth was that I liked him, I liked him a lot. I wasn't one of those gushy girls, I rarely had crushes, but I had a small one on Mackenzie. It wasn't major enough for me to worry about it; nothing was going to come of it, not when he liked someone no-one knew of and I was still trying to work out how I felt about MK1994.

I had my notebook, my phone and a pen. I was the reporter who would write about the girls going in and out, Samantha would interview some girls and Mackenzie, and Nate, another reporter, would write about the announcement and the ball.

By the time I entered the third floor, most of the girls were already there, chatting amongst themselves about how they reckoned it would feel to make out with Mackenzie.

"Parker!" Mace shouted, and quite a lot of the girls turned to look at me, some giving me looks.

"Hey," I said, pushing through the crowds to where he stood at the door of the changing rooms. He was on duty. I smiled. "When's the first girl going in?"

"In a minute," Mace replied, grinning. He hadn't drunk last night, saying he wanted to be alert for this, but his dark brown hair looked as if he'd just climbed out of bed. He probably hadn't combed it. "Christie just has to give the yes for the sound system." I knew he found this all amusing.

I shook my head. How Christie got involved in helping out I didn't know. "Where is she?"

"Right here," Christie's voice said. She moved to stand beside me. "Everything's set up," she said to Mace, "you can start sending the girls in."

My best friend and I moved away from Mace as he yelled, "Silence please!" Every girl became silent and turned to look at him. "We're going to start calling you by number into the room. You will need to show your ID to confirm your name."

In my peripheral vision, I noticed Georgia, Francine, Dani, Helena and Paula walk into the area. It was obvious that they were doing it to promote Georgia's superiority. They smiled at Christie and I as they passed, but now I could barely smile back.

There was something writhing in my gut and I realised that one, I would hate it if Georgia won the date with Mackenzie, she was a bitch and it would mean that she'd be right, they matched, and that I'd have to watch them together for the rest of my college days. The second thing I realised was that I wanted to be the one to win. The nervous feeling was originating from the fact that regardless if the kiss made no change to Mackenzie's attitude towards me, I'd never be able to look at him the same way.

"Number one!" Mace's voice broke into my voice.

A small, blonde girl made her way through the crowd towards Mace and he led her into the changing room. I could hear him whispering the rules to her again and noticed her cheeks go pink. I smiled a little.

The one minute went by silently because everyone was too curious. The girl came out flushed and the whispering started.

"It was amazing," I heard her whisper to her friends and the sickly feeling in my stomach went up by a thousand notches.

Christie and I glanced at each other.

"What number are you again?" she asked. She was number three hundred exactly.

"Three hundred and thirty," I replied. "We've still got a while."

After the first few people had gone through, the novelty of waiting in silence had worn off, but the nervousness had not been eradicated and the conversations still rested on the guy in the dark.