Anger Issues

thirty five

Jessica

Kyle came over to my house after school to work on a project, so we got started on that right away. We already bought all the materials, and just needed to print the work, and set up the poster board.

Bringing a few snacks to the kitchen island, I put my laptop down, as he did his.

"Can I talk to you about something?" He asked. I nodded my head, turning to him. "Do you know if anyone likes.. or is interested in Kayla?" He nervously questioned.

A smile appeared on my lips and my eyes went wide. "No, nobody. Not at all," I said. Realizing that it sounded rude, I quickly corrected myself. "Not that I know of," I recovered. "Why, do you?"

He smiled and nodded his head, looking at the keyboard on his computer.

I smiled even bigger, and stood up. "This is amazing. Ask her out," I said. "What- no, I can't just ask her out," he said. "Sure you can," I began. "Yo, Kayla. You should go out with me. There, just like that," I laughed.

"No, I can't. I want it to be cute, and.." he trailed off. "You have two options," I held up my fingers. "Take her on an actual date, that Austin and I can help you with," I began. "Or, just go for it and.. you know," I judged him.

He shook his head, pulling his nails away from his teeth. "No, I don't know," he said. I sighed, dropping my hands to my side. "Kiss her, just out of the blue, it's adorable," I explained.

"I can't just kiss her," he argued. "Tell that to Austin," I said. "He did it to me, now look at us," I smiled.

"C'mon, please. I'll let you think about it but promise me you'll tell me what you're thinking," I said. "Alright, okay," he chuckled. "I promise."

I sat down in victory, as he quickly pulled our attention back to the project.

—

A few hours passed and we finished writing the main parts of our project. After printing them out and returning to our poster board, we started putting it together.

Then, the front door opened, as Dad walked in.

"Hey Jessica, hi Kyle," he smiled at us. "Hi, Mr. Reign," Kyle politely smiled. "Please, you can call me Ben by now, Kyle," dad laughed.

Kyle nodded his head, while Dad went upstairs.

"My dad actually likes you," I mentioned. "Is that a bad thing?" He asked. "No, of course not."

I always thought that Dad would be chill about any of my friends, as long as they were safe and all. He liked Kyle, he liked Kayla, and pretty much anyone else I'd brought over to the house.

He liked Austin too, but once we started dating, his mood changed. The only explanation he ever gave for that, was the obvious rumor about him.

I like to think that dad just never liked the fact of us being together, but it seemed unreasonable. I probably wouldn't ever find out why he really didn't like Austin.

About an hour later, we both dreaded the rest of our project.

"Can we just print out pictures and glue them on?" Kyle asked, resting his head in his arms. "I gotta get home soon."

I reached for my phone, seeing it was almost 7 in the evening.

"Might as well," I shrugged. "It's fine, I'll finish it up tonight," I assured him. "Are you sure?" He asked. I nodded.

He packed up, getting his things together before we walked out to my car. I drove to his house and dropped him off, tiredly driving back home. Luckily, by the time I got there, Mom was already cooking dinner.