Him and Me.

Him and Me- Thirty Two.

I stood there, frozen, the pink tulip perched in between my hands. Kyle was standing in front of me, looking really good. Nothing much had changed about him. Still tall, and well built, as manifested by the muscles outlined by his white V-neck shirt. His eyes were still a warm brown and his smile was still the same. The only thing I could point out was that his hair was much shorter now. I guess he had it cut before the start of senior year.

During the summer, having spent so much time with Colby, I seriously had pushed Kyle to the very back of my mind. We did exchange text messages once in a while, but he never called again. I figured he didn’t want to risk getting caught using his phone late at night while staying at the camp. Somewhat, I didn’t really mind. I was having too much fun the past summer to worry about Kyle making phone calls, anyway.

With that thought, I somewhat felt bad. This was Kyle, and we had gotten close before school ended. But we both had busy summers—me and my volunteering and Kyle and his basketball camp. I didn’t even know why these things were flittering inside my head. It was like, seeing him and being reminded of everything that had happened before summer was rattling me. I felt like such a drama queen right now, which made everything a thousand times worse. 

“Hey, Kayla.” Kyle’s smile widened, revealing his teeth. The too-white smile.

When I didn’t respond, Kyle’s eyebrow rose. With the smile still on his face, he asked, albeit a little uncertain, “How are you?”

“Is this from you?” I blurted out. Kyle blinked a couple of times, seemingly caught off guard by my outburst, while I was dying inside from embarrassment with my cheeks flaming. For the love of chocolates! I snapped out of my own little insane world and then I ask that question? Why couldn’t my brain function properly when I needed it the most? And why had I even asked that? For all I knew, the flower could’ve been a prank from Colby or Tyler. As I mentally slapped myself, Kyle cleared his throat. I barely noticed it, though.

“Yeah, that’s from me,” he answered in a quiet voice, but loud enough for me to hear. He cleared his throat again, and just then I noticed how red his cheeks were. At my current state of disarray, I still couldn’t help but think about how cute he looked like. Almost as cute as Colby was with pinkish cheeks.

“Is there anyone else you thought the flower was from?” Kyle asked, his expression slightly hardening. The smile on his face disappeared and his lips were now set on a straight line. The redness in his cheeks was still present, and his eyes were still warm, but it was noticeable that there was a change in his mood.

“No,” I said as I shook my head. “Well, I thought it might’ve been from Tyler or Colby. You know, first day of school pranks and all.”

I ran a hand through my ponytail and let out a breath. At least I was managing to answer correctly now.

“Oh,” he said, visibly relaxing. One side of his mouth lifted in a sheepish grin. “Sorry, I just thought…” His voice trailed off as his eyes began to wander around.

I began to look around us, too, clutching the tulip near my chest. The hallway was still deserted, and only a handful of people were walking about—probably those students who were dismissed early as well. When my eyes found Kyle again, I saw him swallow as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

Well, this was awkward.

“So,” Kyle began again, scratching the back of his head. “How are you?”

“I’m good,” I replied, nodding my head at him. I gestured at Kyle, not noticing that I had pointed the tulip at him. Quickly I drew back my hand and mentally slapped myself once again. Clearing my throat, I asked, “How are you?”