Yellow, Blue, Red, Green, and Grey

Keely Rickens

Keely had no idea why her father was gone or when he was coming back. She didn't really care. He was all the way across the country working for some big boss and he sent cards with money in them on her birthday. That was it. She didn't have a dad to boss her around and he got to live out his workaholic dream.  Everyone was happy. He had left her with his family friend, Mike Vandalin, who didn't nag Keely about her late nights or lack of school attendance, as her father surely would have.

Mike didn't really do much, except for at night when he went out with his friends. During the day, he would sit around the cramped apartment on his computer, doing whatever he considered as work. Keely assumed it was something illegal. He had a thick, gelled brown head of hair and scruffy stubble on his face. His clothes were baggy during the day and sharp at night, making him look like the head of some corporation. He liked to try to impress people.

During the few nights when Mike was out and Keely was out-partied and actually in bed, she would wonder what Mike was doing. She almost felt jealous that he wasn't in the apartment with her, sauntering around and asking her if she needed anything. It was nice to have a grown man's attention on her sometimes. It was comforting to hear the creaks in the apartment and know that he come to her at a moment's notice.

Sometimes Keely got the feeling that Mike wasn't only having her in his apartment for the sake of her father. She thought there was something else behind the whole thing. It wasn't an uncommon feeling for her, she was an attractive young woman. With long, straight brown hair and challenging eyes. At first, she had just ignored it, along with Mike, and stayed away from the apartment in favor of clubs. Then, however, she had sat down with Mike one night, tired, and they began to watch a movie.  They talked a lot that night; she found him easy to talk to. She told him a lot of things that she hadn't told anyone before. The first time she told him a secret, Keely was hesitant and he started to talk to her with this concerned voice. No one had worried about Keely since she could remember, and it felt nice.

Looking back on it now, it killed her, but Keely had actually started making up all these stories and admissions for Mike. It hadn't felt like lies, it had felt like the truth. Keely had always been good at convincing herself of things that weren't true, and it became addicting. She felt like some strong survivor in Mike's eyes and she found herself dependent on his worried voice.

She knew she was being selfish on those nights when she wished he wasn't out at some bar. She didn't know if she actually had any feelings for Mike or not. On those long nights, though, she could imagine herself loving him. And so she thought she did. But something always kept her from acting on it, some sort of warning in her head that she thought was only because of their age difference, and so, one day, she disregarded it.

They had just been talking while sitting down at the kitchen table, just a regular conversation. Mike subtly flirting in some kind of weird parental way and Keely pretending to be oblivious. He was telling her some funny story, she couldn't even remember what it was about now, and he had just delivered the punchline. She had laughed while looking at a painting on the wall across from her, of some fruit bowl. When she looked back, Mike had been staring at her with that familiar look on his face. Usually, she would just smile back in a friendly way and go back to looking at the painting, changing the subject. But, this time, she looked at him a moment too long and was stuck staring back. He smiled an accomplished smile right before they kissed.

Keely should have realized that the kiss didn't feel special. It felt like all those other kisses with all those random strangers she had met amongst the adrenaline and strobing lights of clubs. But, because of those long nights alone, she thought she had finally had that one kiss girls dream about. They pulled apart and Keely exhaled happily, leaning her head on Mike's shoulder and curling her fingers into his brown hair. For one moment, it was blissful. Then, Mike coughed and patted Keely's hand awkwardly.