To Kiss Kate

3. Alex

Jackson Michaelson:

I had managed to almost forget about Kate since the day of the lacrosse tournament. Until I saw her again.

She was glowing. She walked in the door of the house, Jason's arm around her. She was smiling wide at Hendricks and another boy, laughing. She was wearing typical party clothes, jean shorts and a white tank top. She looked beautiful. Nothing new. She carried a water bottle and her phone in one hand. Cheers were yelled as they walked in, and it was when I first realized she was known. Everyone looked, everyone smiled, everyone said hello.

I was at a party at a house on the beach, a block or two away from mine. I was with Brad and Ashton of course, we had been invited earlier that day. We had spent the last few days hanging out with a lot of townies, and I was surprisingly enjoying it. They were all cool, and relaxed. It was a refresher from all of the money and clothing obsessed teenagers in Brooklyn. Don't get me wrong, these kids had money too. But, most of them had old money, inheritance from their great-great money and it raised them to be primarily modest instead of New York City shallow. I enjoyed it. I was rare in New York, even my friends were another level of douchey that just wasn't my thing. I didn't know how it happened, I just was born modest. What can I say?

"Hey! You again!" I heard her voice and I turned. She was talking to me, reaching for a hug. I hugged her back, she smelled good. Jason shook my hand and said hello as she pulled away.

"Hey!" I said.

"Told you it wouldn't be the last of me." She said, grinning wide and her eyes glazed over. Was she drunk? Already? It was barely even 9:30, the party had just started. Jason rolled his eyes behind her.

"You were right." I said, chuckling.

"I'll talk to you later!" She said happily as she turned and Jason guided her away. Interesting. Brad leaned over my shoulder.

"That the girl?" I had forgotten he was even standing next to me.

"Oh. Yeah. Dude, I'm sorry I should've introduced you. You guys haven't met." He cut me off.

"Don't worry. I'm sure we'll have time to say hello. You're right. She's hot." I nodded slowly, still thinking about the interaction. "Let's go outside." He handed me a beer and turned, I followed.

There were a lot of girls here, of course. Some of them were hot, but none of them were as good looking as Kate. I recognized that I had somehow got myself in way too deep for a girl I had barely even met. She made me want her.

"Hey." A girls voice said and I turned. "I'm Alex. I've never seen you before." She was blonde and smiley. Her teeth were perfectly white and straight, and her boobs were more than peaking out of the top of her shirt.

"I'm Jack. My parents just bought a house here." She took a step closer.

"Oh, you're the new kid. The one with the D1 friends." I let out a breathy laugh. It wasn't often that I was referred to as someone else's. I was used to being the one. The one everyone knew, whether they liked it or not. In high school, I was the hard one. The one who could've had anyone, done anything, been whatever I wanted. But, I hated that for myself. I didn't want to be a douchebag to everyone, so I chilled out a little. Don't get me wrong, I knew how to get what I wanted, and I rarely failed, but I didn't care about the little things nearly as much and after freshman year I had tried to lessen the acceptances of girls who wanted my dick.

"Yeah, I guess so." I looked around for someone that I faintly recognized. Failure.

"I watched your game at the tournament. You must've been the hot one I didn't recognize." She tried, but I wasn't retaliating. I thought of previous me, and I knew my friends would easily support me hooking up with her. They'd probably cheer me on. But I was on a path of maturity, and I planned to keep it up.