AllFreeNovel
Share Us
~ * ~
That night, Kylie sat on her couch snuggling with Captain and sneaking him potato chips while watching a British mystery show. She was only half paying attention. The other half of her brain was replaying her last few conversations with Derek.
Planning the fair was something she could keep busy with at least. She’d found a way to prove her skills and responsibility to Brad, and it was something she was good at, and she enjoyed event planning.
So why-oh-why did it have to be a project with Derek?
She knew she should be over stuff from high school, but whenever she talked to him, she wanted to wrap her arms around herself and flee.
There was another conversation with Derek she often replayed in her mind. It was from senior year. She had a crush on him since seventh grade but never told anyone except Audrey. Kylie didn’t open up like that.
He’d approached her one day in the spring while she was at her locker switching out books between classes.
“Hey Kylie,” he said.
They often had classes together and talked to each other in groups, but he’d never come up to her for no reason.
“Hey. What’s up?” There was that familiar shiver of excitement she got whenever he was paying attention to her.
“I wanted to ask you something.” A few paces behind Derek, Adam and Nick were snickering. What was going on?
“Okay.”
Derek shifted on his feet, his gaze darting around the hallway. When she followed his gaze, she saw other students had stopped to watch them. He cleared his throat, and Adam and Nick’s snickering turned into laughter.
Everyone up and down the corridor had stopped what they were doing to find out what the captain of the football team and his cronies were up to. And she was stuck in the middle of whatever was happening.
Derek cleared his throat again. “I was wondering if you’d like to go to prom with me?”
At that moment two things happened. Her heart rate sped up then pounded like it was going to explode out of her chest. Was Derek Carson asking her to prom? It was literally a dream come true. But in the same moment, Adam and Nick burst into full out howling. Followed by giggles and pointing from other students.
Oh.
It was a joke.
Derek waited for an answer she couldn’t give. As much as she wanted this to be real, she was sure as soon as she said yes, he would start laughing too. Foolish Kylie for thinking that smart, cute, popular Derek was actually asking her to the prom.
She needed to get out of there. Immediately.
“I’ll…um…think about it.” She slammed her locker and, despite her class being in the opposite direction, she hurried away.
The incident had crushed her. He’d always seemed like a good guy, but good guys didn’t prank people by asking them to prom for jokes. It was cruel. Even if he hadn’t known she liked him, he had to understand the power dynamic. And so many others saw it. The rest of the week she had to watch kids eyeing her and talking behind their hands as she passed. After his prank, she’d known she had to get out of Camden and start fresh somewhere else. Thank God, she’d already been accepted to Humber College in Toronto. If she stayed in Camden, she would always be awkward Kylie who had a few friends, but never got asked out and was sometimes the butt of jokes. If she could be different, maybe she could find people she really fit in with.
That wasn’t exactly how things panned out though. She did what she always did and drifted around, making mild impacts on different groups of friends. The friends she’d left when she got fired had been her longest-standing friendships since high school, but she’d only been hanging out with those women for the past two years. And it wasn’t even real friendship.
“God, I’m pathetic.”
Captain cocked his head to the side.
“What? Are you judging me? Et tu, Captain?”
He licked his snout, and she gave him another chip.
“You’re right I suppose.” She picked up her phone and dialed Audrey’s number.
“I knew you’d call.” Audrey snickered on the other end of the line the moment she picked up.
“Really?”
