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When Derek arrived at Nick’s house a paper taped to the front door read,Come on in. Derek went in the front, keeping his shoes on, and made his way to the door that connected to the garage. He could hear the music playing and a few voices laughing. He took a deep breath and opened the door.
Inside, the walls were decorated with multiple strings of Christmas lights. There was a large circle of folding camp chairs and a low coffee table in the middle housing multiple bowls of chips and peanuts.
All of Derek’s friends were currently in this one room. Nick was digging through the ice cubes in a cooler and retrieving a can of orange soda to hand to his very pregnant wife, Jillene. Adam was deep in conversation with a couple of other guys, trying to talk over the music. On the other end of the garage were Steph and Audrey on either side of Kylie. The three had their heads together chatting.
Somewhere deep inside, he’d been hoping his friends would confirm how stuck up she was too, so he would be justified in not wanting her around. Rationally, his friends weren’t betraying him by talking to her, but something about her just bugged him and it would’ve been nice if his friends saw it too. Nick saw Derek standing at the door and went over to greet him.
“What took you so long?” Nick extended a hand.
Shaking it, Derek said, “Charlie had a hard time getting to sleep tonight.” Sometimes having a kid to use as an excuse was handy.
“Yeah, I guess Jillene and I will be dealing with that soon.” Nick grinned. They were both so excited about the baby.
“You see Kylie Martin’s here?” He jutted his chin at the group of women sitting together.
“Yeah, it’s pretty wild.” Derek didn’t want Nick to ask him any questions about it. Nick was there when Kylie shut him down in high school. They stood there awkwardly as Nick watched Derek, waiting for him to say something.
“Okay friend.” Nick flashed his big toothy smile. “Then come on in!”
Derek gave Jillene a hug and asked her how she was feeling. She was due early summer. He knew they’d be amazing parents because they always doted on Charlie.
He found a seat by Adam. Derek positioned himself so he wasn’t facing Kylie, but he could still see her from the corner of his eye.
She was wearing those ridiculous black high heeled boots that went up to her knees. They would’ve been in place in a big city night club, but they couldn’t be comfortable in a garage. She was gorgeous of course, even if she was wearing more make up than his favourite Canadian drag star, Brooke Lynn Hytes.
Kylie’s face had thinned out a bit with age, and she was elegant he supposed. Her chestnut brown hair was falling over her shoulders, and her smile caught the shine of the Christmas lights.
He turned abruptly to his friends. The topic of conversation was the math teacher, Ms. Winston.
As it turned out, Adam was developing a bit of a crush on her, and the others were giving him a hard time.
“You should hear him in the staff room.” Trevor elbowed Derek in the side. “‘Did you hear what Tricia said at the staff meeting?’ ‘Did you see the great job Tricia did with the prom committee?’ ‘Tricia did the funniest thing’.” Eddie rolled his eyes as he punched Adam in the arm.
He blushed, but he was grinning like a goof ball. “What? At least I’m putting myself out there. Not like you losers.”
“Hey now!” Trevor protested. “I went on three dates last month.”
“Yeah,” Eddie said. “Three first dates.”
“What about Derek?” Trevor tried to deflect the attention. “He hasn’t been on a date in years.”
Eddie slugged Trevor in the shoulder.
“Sorry, man,” Adam said.
“Yeah, sorry.” Trevor rubbed his now sore shoulder.
“Have you talked to Kylie at all since she’s been back?” Eddie asked him.
Derek wasn’t about to admit to anyone outside of Cate and Adam that he’d let Kylie get under his skin. “Well, I did give her a speeding ticket.”
“You gave her a speeding ticket?” Eddie snorted. “That’s cold man.”
“In my defense, she was actually speeding at the time.”
“She got hot,” Trevor said, and Eddie slugged him in the shoulder again. “Ow! Would you stop that!”
Derek laughed at his friends fighting but snuck another glance at her. Ugh. Why did he feel like a self-conscious teenager again?
