The Fountain Girl

Chapter 28

It's amazing how word of the incident hasn't spread like wildfire. Bryan's whole gang had been sent to military school, and no one blinked an eye. Even with the arrival of the police that came to handle the situation at the warehouse, which surprisingly enough didn't attract the attention of the media and the public, no one had heard about the news.

Except someone.

She dragged her feet across the school hallway floor, a white winter hat on her head, unnoticeable lipstick that I'd just noticed covering her lips. She'd never worn lipstick before. She bit her lower lip. The hand that used to hold Colman's was now empty.

"It's you," She was the first to say something, as we came to a stop in the middle of the hallway, lockers lined on either side. I could smell her warm breath as she exhaled, forming a small mist in the cold air.

"How are you?" My voice was monotonous, void of feeling. I stared straight ahead into her hair, taking caution not to make eye contact with her. I could already see, from my peripheral vision, that she was trying to make eye contact with me.

"I'm fine, thank you," she started sobbing. She wiped a tear from her eye with her over-sized cardigan sleeves. That always made her cute. No, Ryan, no feelings. The cardigan made her look silly.

I risked a glance down into her eyes. Those same, brown eyes, "You're crying."

She smiled as her eyes began to well up in tears again, "I know. I'm crying for you."

"There's nothing to cry about," I said with much difficulty as I looked down into her eyes, pleading for something - but what? She was crying for me?

Without any warning, she took two quick steps towards me and gave me a full hug, in front of many other students in the hall arranging their lockers and emptying things into their bags. Her wet eyes emptied their tears into my fleece jacket. I wrapped my arms around her in comfort and dug my fingers into her silky hair, even though I had no idea why we were hugging. I patted her on the back gently, "There, there, Katie. It's going to be alright."

She pulled her face away from my shirt, "Do you know what it was like without you?" She asked. The question confused me slightly. She continued, "It was like you've had all you could wish for in your entire life, and then one day you look in the rearview mirror of your existence that someone whose importance you only realize too late is gone, and here your bland past meekly follows, sluggishly scraping its feet on the floor."

It was quite a metaphor because she, too, was scraping her feet on the floor earlier, but I kept that comment to myself. I supposed that I had meant a lot to Katie.

"Colman's gone. I'd broken up with him," she said, confusing me even further. Didn't Katie plan to be in a longer relationship with him? "This whole time I've been thinking about you, not him, you were really the goal, Colman was just there to be the bait. You were supposed to be jealous," she laughed a little, "It's foolish, I know, but when you're at my point of view, you'll understand."

"You know, Katie, I've never really liked Jess. It's always been about you."

Before I could say anything else, Katie grabbed my collar and pulled my head down, and she tiptoed, and in a flash, our lips were touching. Two teenagers, in high school, standing in the hallway in front of the rest of the school, kissing. The feeling made my stomach go up and down, made my throat tingle with excitement. Katie, my best friend, and now possibly my lover, was kissing me. Eyes closed, I let the adrenaline rush through me, the thrill of my first kiss. Before a full minute was over, we pulled away from each other and blushed.

"You're really pretty today."

"Tell me more about yourself, will you?" She giggled as we walked down the hallway into homeroom, hand in hand.