She Loves Him. He Doesn't.

Chapter 2

Kieran found himself getting lost on the way to the diner, even though he spent most of his time there. He just couldn't possibly keep his mind off her.

He kept thinking of her sparkling dark brown eyes that curved up perfectly, the way her lips tasted like mint, the feeling of her chest pressed up against his stomach.

He was driving himself crazy running the image of her through his head over and over, and was surprised when he found that he was pulling up safely into the parking lot of Lucy's. He put his truck in park and glanced at the green flashing numbers on the old Ford's digital clock: 4:12. He was late.

Kieran quickly grabbed his wallet, shoving it into his pants pocket. He looked up through the front windshield and stopped.

A slight figure wearing a yellow dress was standing underneath an awning, looking up at him through the thick glass of his truck's window. Her curly black hair was strangled into two braids tied with navy blue scrunchies. Piper looked beautiful.

Kieran yanked his keys out of the ignition, threw open the door, and ran over to her. She looked him up and down, her face worried.

"I shouldn't have dressed up," she muttered, eyeing his black t-shirt and dirty blue jeans.

He smiled. "No. You look great. Greater than great." he added awkwardly.

Kieran never found himself awkward in front of girls, even the prettiest ones. But something about Piper made his stomach flip and his heart beat a little faster to the point where his mouth didn't seem to work correctly.

She looked the same way. She was holding her arms tightly around her shoulders as if she were cold, so Kieran slipped off his sweater to give to her. His finger brushed softly against her shoulder as he draped it across her back.

The contact sent a spark up his arm and she looked up at him through a pair of thick, dark lashes.

"Thank you," she said softly, "Should we go inside?"

Kieran nodded and opened the door for her and she stepped inside in front of him.

Lucy's was normally jam-packed after school, but today it was awfully quiet.

Piper ran over to a small booth in the corner and slid inside, smiling over at Kieran and patting the seat beside her.

After sitting down and ordering a burger for himself, Kieran turned to Piper. "Hi," he said.

"Hey," she answered.

"So tell me about yourself."

"Why would you want to know that?" she asked.

He reached up and tucked a lock of dark hair behind her ear absently, shrugging. "I don't know. Like, what are your hobbies?"

Now Piper shrugged. "Nothing really. I read a lot at home. Boring stuff mostly."

"That's the least boring thing I've ever heard."

Piper blushed. "So how 'bout you? What are your hobbies?"

"I like writing poetry sometimes," he answered, playing with a straw wrapper on the table.

Her eyes almost bugged out of her head. "You, Kieran James Anderson, write poems?"

He nodded slowly, aware that he was being silently made fun of. And then he was reaching into his pants pocket.

He laid a crumple of paper on the table in front of her. They were mostly receipts with words scrawled on the backs.

After reading through a few, she drew her eyebrows together. "These are so... dark." She held up one to Kieran that was written on the back of an expired Burger King coupon. "'The ink of my pen is the blood of my soul.' What does that even mean?"