Cuts on Paper Hearts, They Can be Awful Deep

Boy You Gotta Get Away

Chapter 5: “Boy You Gotta Get Away”

“A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love”

-Stendhal

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                The past week passed by in a mind numbing blur, I felt like a walking corpse, trapped in an eternal daze. Kaydence hadn’t signed or written a word to me, and I was left reeling, questioning everything that I thought I had meant to him. Now it was Saturday once again and there I was, sitting on my plush bed, twiddling my thumbs, rolling the idea of showing up at Kaydence’s house for a lesson, around in my mind.

~*~

                Without even realizing it, I was now sitting on the rough stitched seat of my truck, revving the engine and taking in a deep breath. Gaining confidence, ounce by ounce, I suddenly slammed my foot down onto the gas pedal and swiftly yanked myself out of the driveway and started speeding down the small town road towards Kaydence’s run-down house. Before I knew it, I was pulling into the sun baked, cracked driveway. I kept my chin up, and strut my way to the maroon door.

I banged my fist up against the rough wood and tapped my foot on the brick patio, not sure what it was that I should anticipate. Suddenly the door was swept open just as I wielded my hand once again, standing there was Kaydence, with his hair messy and ruffled. My eyes absorbed his state, shirtless, and with his pajama bottoms slung low, his eyes puffy as they had been all week, from exhaustion. He stared at me lazily and stepped aside, I took this as a sign to go inside. I quickly made my way inside, instantly greeted by the cool air conditioning.

Kaydence brushed past me and I shivered at the first contact we had in a week. My eyes followed him as he made his way into the kitchen, I settled down into the worn out couch and stared at the chipped walls, noting how the paint was peeling and dirty. After a few moments, Kaydence settled down into the loveseat across from me, a cup of coffee gripped in each hand. He hastily slid a cup over the coffee table, toward me, and set his down, a ring of the light brown liquid settling around the as the coffee slightly spilled over. He leaned back into the chair and stared at me with piercing eyes and a cocked eyebrow. I knew it was his way of asking why I was there.

“You haven’t spoken to me all week. I wasn’t sure if you were still up for the lesson..” The more that rolled off my tongue, the more my confidence dwindled and the more sheepish I became, I ended it with a whisper. We sat there silently staring each other down, surreptitiously contemplating the other’s next move. My breath caught in my throat as I sat there, accepting rejection, and just as I grabbed my shoulder bag from the ground and slung it around me, Kaydence abruptly rose, and ascended the stairs that led to the upper floor, more importantly, his room. Unable to decide if I should follow, I sat there, confused and alone, on the couch. After a few moments of hesitation, I too, rose and followed in the ghosts of his footsteps up to his room.

When I entered, I realized that he had gone upstairs to get out the remainder of the books from his maple shelves, I drew the books from my bag and gently tossed them onto his unkempt bed. At my movement, he crooked his neck to look at me, and patted at an empty spot on his bed with his pale hand, not daring to make him angry, I quickly sat down, gently enough, so that nothing on his bed would become displaced.

After he was satisfied and found all of the books that he would need, he ripped a piece of paper cleanly out of his crimson notebook and began scribbling onto it, then handed it to me. On the top it read, “Pop Quiz” I scoffed, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” I whined. He just shot me a challenging look that instantly shut me up. I read over the instructions, I had to read each word and then sign it out for him. I quickly sped through it and he marked my paper with the same speed. He tossed the paper at me, I hungrily searched for my mark and quickly found it to be 80% and scribbled underneath of it was a word that was now becoming prominent in my life, “Study”. I just rolled my eyes and stuffed the paper into my bag.