I knew you before

Pay back...

Chapter 2

I was so shocked by what I'd uncovered that I didn't even see Kyle waving his had in front of my face and wailing my name as though he was looking for me in a deep dark cave.

"Chris?" I jerked my head up as I looked up into his light blue eyes. "whoa! You blanked out for a minute there. Come on, the bell's rung. We have to go to our next class. You did that in Asia, right?" he asked stupidly.

"Oh right! Come on then! Stop lazing around!" I said, ignoring his last question. Duh; of course I did!

I followed Kyle through the packed corridors. This boy sure was popular! Everyone seemed to know him. He introduced me to some people. One guy in particular seemed familiar.

"Hey! You're Christi Wood right?" he asked. "I'm Nat. Your neighbour?" so that's where I knew him from. I must have seen him while I was laying around in my back yard.

"Oh yes!" I exclaimed. "sorry, we just moved in" I stated. "that's why the roads been packed with removal lorries!" I giggled nervously. God, I must have sounded so shallow!

"Okay! I'll see you around then Christi. Tell your brother that he can come over and play sometimes" wait - what? This guy played with little kids? "I have a sister about his age. Marisa" he must have read my mind.

Or realised how awkward he sounded.

When morning break finally came around I was so relieved. I'd only had 3 lessons that morning but I was completely and utterly shattered! Kyle had dragged me round the whole school about 21 times and I was ready to sit down.

But Kyle, however, had different plans. Very different.

"Right, Chris. We need to reunite you with your old best friend, katy. Then depending on how things go, you can choose to stay with her or -" or what? Act like a lost puppy? "tag along with me." I think I preferred the later option. Your ex-best friend is hardly going to let you off easily after you abandoned her 8 years ago with no warning.

And then failed to keep in touch.

At least, that's how I expected her to react.

Instead, as soon as she saw my face, she rushed up to me, embracing me in her arms. Well; that was unexpected.

"Oh my goodness Chris! I've missed you SO much!" she said into my shoulder. She was about a head shorter than me.

And I'm not even that tall.

"Why didn't you keep in touch? I emailed you every month for a year. You never replied!" I didn't even know I had an email address when I was 8!

"Maybe you got he wrong email address?" I wondered aloud.

Again, I got that feeling of memories rushing back into that thick lump of muscle that they called my brain.

Katy Stevens, my best friend, hates the colour red, smartest girl in year 4, horse rider, gymnast, rubbish at art, perfectionist.

"I'm sorry!" I confessed. "we were all so busy when moved and our computer arrived half a year late."

Christi, stop lying. Your hopeless at it, I told myself.

"It's okay!" Geez. This girl was forgiving! "me and the girls are going out to this guys party tonight in town. You wanna come?" she asked hopefully.

I hadn't been to a party since the year before when my boyfriend Reece took me. Reece, oh I missed him so much! He'd left before term finished to go back to Italy. I never really went out without him after that.