“I’m sorry, Heather, but I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not with anyone.”
She looked up at me dumb founded. “Oh, everyone assumed you were dating Jayson. You guys seem to spend a lot of time together.”
“No, we’re not dating. We’re just friends.” There was a long pause where neither of us knew what to say. She just kept looking at me, her mouth gaping open, her eyes wide. She finally closed her eyes and shook her head, but didn’t turn around. After a while, it seemed like the conversation was over, I looked around and saw that this bathroom line wasn’t going anywhere. Frustrated, I focused back on the wobbly girl in front of me. “Heather, isn’t there another bathroom in this huge house we can use? The line doesn’t seem to be moving.”
“Yeah, this house has a lot, but the rest are upstairs and Kamdyn doesn’t allow anyone up there at his parties.”
“Well, I’ll take my chances.” I said to her and walked away leaving her to fend for herself against gravity.
It only took me a couple minutes to maneuver through the crowd to the stairway. I made my way up them, seemingly unnoticed. The upstairs was just as large as the bottom floor, so I just started wondering down the hall till I found the closest bathroom.
I was only up there for maybe two minutes. I washed my hands, fixed my hair and took a few deep breaths before making my way out of the room, just like no one was ever there. I started down the hallway toward the stairs when someone grabbed my arm and pulled me into one of the bedrooms, closing the door behind us. I turned around to reach for the door, but he was standing in front of it, blocking my exit.
“Kamdyn?” I looked at him confused. “What are you doing?”
“I just needed a break.” He gave me a quick smile. “What are you doing up here? I’m sure someone told you I don’t allow people up here during parties… unless I invite you.”
“I meant why did you pull me in here and then block my exit?”
“I heard you come up. I just wanted to talk to you, so…
So… what?”
“Why are you breaking the most cardinal rule of my party?”
“Oh,” I looked away and felt my face heat. “There was a really long line for the bathroom downstairs. I got tired of waiting. It wasn’t like I was going to do anything wrong up here.”
“That’s not really the point. If anyone saw you come up here, what’s to stop them from following you?”
I thought for a instant. “Well, maybe, just this once, if they ask you can tell them you gave me a pass. I won’t tell anyone. I promise.” He looked a little irritated as he regarded me with a arched brow. He obviously wasn’t thrilled I broke his rules. I gave him my most convincing, sweet smirk I had. You don’t exactly want to piss off the host.
“Fine, but if people start to talk? Everyone knows I don’t invite just anyone up here.” He stepped away from the door, getting a little too close.
What was he getting at? “What could they possibly say?” I was trying to think of anything to say to keep the conversation going so I could get out of here. I shouldn’t be here.
“Oh well, in this town, they could think of anything. There isn’t much to do here, gossip is all we have. Boredom. You should hear some of the stories that come out of my parties.”
“Well, I don’t really care what people say. I know what happened and that’s all that matters.” He was so close to me now that I could feel the heat rolling off his body.
“Are you still cold?” he asked looking down at me. The look on his face told me, he knew I wasn’t cold before. Great.
“No, I’m fine now.” Before I could finish my sentence, his hand was on my cheek again. We stood there is silence for a moment. I was lost in the sensation of his fingers on my face, but I still couldn’t look up at him.
“I’m curious,” he finally spoke, pulling my chin up to look at his face again. “Do you feel that?”
I tried not the have any reaction to his words, but I knew exactly what he was talking about. Blank, think blank. Could he possibly be feeling that same pulse of electricity every time he touched me? He just stood there, searching my face for a moment. He didn’t react like he felt the same thing I did. As far as I know, my face revealed nothing, like stone. “Feel what?” I finally said.
“Hmm…” He stood there for a little longer before he dropped his hand from my face and back away.
I finally let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. I never had such a hard time controlling myself. It’s not like I had never been around a good looking guy before. I am from a town full of good looking guys, half naked and wondering the streets, but I never felt the need to restrain myself before. I had never felt such a strong pull toward any single person in my life. At that moment, I didn’t know if this feeling was such a good thing anymore. I finally looked back up at him, he still hadn’t said anything. I needed to change the subject, say anything to gain my freedom.
“Kamdyn? Why are you hiding up here?”
He raised his eyebrow at my question. I got the sense that he knew exactly what I was doing. Thankfully, he didn’t feel the need to say it. “I told you, I needed a break. I’m not much of a party person, really. But people expect it from me, I guess. So when my parents go out of town I try to have one or two. That’s the reason no one is allowed upstairs. It’s my space where no one will find me.”
“Ok… I’ll just pretend that that made sense to me.” I started to walk around him, making my way for the door. “I’ll just leave you alone then, so you can hide in peace. See you la….”
His hand shot out in front of me before I could pass him, blocking my exit. “Where are you going? Won’t you stay and keep me company?”
I looked up at him bemused, “Isn’t that the opposite of your whole point? Don’t you come up here to be alone?”
“Yes, but I don’t mind your company, if you could tolerate mine for a little longer.”
I thought about it for a second, the expression on his face when I didn’t answer right away was heartbreaking. I sighed. “Well, all right.” I said. “I’ll stay for a little longer. As long as you don’t make me feel like a hostage.” As I said it, I put both hands on his raised arm and slowly lowered it down to his side. I found that I was getting used to the slight ping I felt when our skin touched and that I was enjoying it more and more each time it happened. Not really a good sign.
“Yes, you’re right. I’m sorry. I just wasn’t ready for you to run away like that. It’s just… I don’t get to talk to you much or at all really. That’s why I was hoping you would come tonight. I just wanted to know something about you, anything. You’re kind of mysterious. No one really knows much about you at all and I don’t think I would have gotten more than two words in downstairs between the loud music and someone carrying you away.”
“I didn’t know you were interested in knowing me at all. All you had to do was ask.”
He gestured for me to take a seat on his bed. As he went across the room and pulling over the chair from his desk and he spun it sitting on it backwards. I watched him as he sat down and thought about what he just said. How am I mysterious? I’m not just going to go around telling people about myself. No one would really care. I barely care. Besides, I’m more a listener than a talker, but I guess this time there’s no way around it. I rolled my neck and snapped my knuckles. “Okay, ask away.”
He barked out a laugh and ran a hand threw his hair. “Okay.” He paused, obviously thinking about what he was going to ask first. “How do you like it here?
“In Southbury?” I watched as he shrugged and nodded. “It’s all right. Is that really the first thing you wanted to know about me, if I was making a good transition?”
He frowned. “No, not really. I just thought I would start with a less personal question.” He stared down at his hands for a moment and I just waited for him to continue. “How about you just tell me about yourself, everything a… a friend should know.”
“I really am
kind of a personal person Kamdyn. I…”
“Yeah, I get it. I’m the same way, I guess.”
It was good to know we actually had something in common. Not that it really mattered how much we had in common. I was debating if it was even a good idea to be friends with him. The more time I spent with him, the stronger that pull seemed to be. But what could being friends really hurt? I knew he wasn’t available. Being friends didn’t seem to bother him. He’s allowed to have friends, right?
“Okay, if you want to know something, how about you tell me something about yourself you don’t mind me knowing and then I’ll tell you the same thing. Does that work?”
He hesitated again, looking up at me this time. I was just starting to get uncomfortable with his eyes focused to intently on me when he finally spoke. “Yes, that will work. How about your favorite color? Mine’s green.”
Easy enough. “Mine’s purple.”
His questions seemed to go on forever. He told me about his hobbies, likes and dislikes, and I told him about mine. I tried to give one word answers if possible. I didn’t need him know everything about me. Finally, I looked at his clock and noticed it was late, really late. I only had a half hour until I needed to be home. I needed to leave now if I ever wanted Kimber and Justin to trust me again. I turned back toward Kamdyn, interrupting his next question, “Kamdyn, I’m sorry. But I really need to go. Curfew.” I got up and headed toward the door. But Kamdyn jumped up and blocked my way. Again.
“Trystie, wait.”
“Kamdyn, part of our deal was that I didn’t feel like a prisoner. I need to leave, I have to get home and I’m sure Jayson has been looking everywhere for me.”
I didn’t understand what he mumbled under his breath, something about Jayson, but I didn’t feel compelled to ask. “You’re right,” he said as he stepped away from the door. “When can we finish our conversation?”
“How could you possibly need to know more? You already probably know more about me then most of my friends back in Florida.”
“That’s a shame,” was all he said as he went to open the door for me. As I walked by him, he grabbed my hand. “Wait.” I turned to face his, but he didn’t say anything. He just looked at me, his eyes captivating me sending a shiver over my body.
I had to speak, I had to go! “Goodbye, Kamdyn.” I said almost in a whisper, gently pulled my hand free and walked down the stairs.
Jayson didn’t talk to me much on the way home, besides asking where I had disappeared to. All I could say was, “There was a long wait for the bathroom”. I didn’t know exactly how long I was gone, but I knew he would be upset if I told him where I really was. He would get the wrong idea. It just wasn’t worth upsetting him, especially when he wouldn’t by the explanation.
When we pulled into my driveway, I asked him if he wanted to come in for a while. I knew it was late, but I wasn’t really tired and I didn’t want to be alone. At last the scowl that he had been on his face the whole ride was gone, replaced by that smile I was really getting to love. But just as quickly as it appeared, it was gone again.
“I can’t tonight. I have to get home. I have a curfew, too. Same as yours. So, I’ll talk to you later.” He said he would call me as I closed the passenger door of the truck and I just stood there and watched as his white truck got swallowed by the dark forest surrounding me.
Chapter Five
The weekend seemed to drag on forever. I got a call from Jayson, early Saturday explaining that his parents’ strict curfew was broken by two minutes -by their clock- and he wasn’t allowed to do anything this weekend including use the phone. He apologized quickly, saying he would see me Monday morning, and hung up before I could respond. So without Jayson to keep my mind busy, I was stuck in my room. Not stuck really, I guess I more or less chose to stay there. Justin and Kimber tried to get me to do things, but I wasn’t really interested. They even told me I could borrow their car, but, really, where would I even go? I knew nothing about this town or the surrounding ones, there was no one I could go visit, so I just waited the weekend out in my room doing ever possible piece of homework/make-up work I could find. Needless to say I was caught up with all the work I had missed by the end of the weekend.
The next couple of weeks went pretty smooth, nothing out of the norm for a girl in high school. It wasn’t until the third week after the party, when things started getting a little weird. That Tuesday seemed to start out pretty normal; Jayson came to pick me up before school, all my morning classes were the same, nothing different there. It was the people around me. I started to notice a drastic increase of gawkers. I thought it was bad before, but after the party, things seemed to settle some. Now it was back full force. They were literally stopping things they were in the middle of doing, to watch me pass. It was completely unnerving.
My day hit rock bottom during lunch. I reached our usually table with Jayson at my side. “Crap, I forgot my Art project in my locker.” I said throwing my things on the table. “I’ll be right back.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” Jayson asked almost jumping to his feet.
I waved my hand like I was wiping away his question. “Don’t be ridiculous, eat. I’ll only be gone a minute.” With that, I hurried out of the lunchroom and headed down the long empty corridors to my locker.
I opened my locker and shuffled around my things to find my rolled up work. I had spent a ridiculous amount of time of the piece of work. A copy of a picture I once found with my mother. A beautiful man holding a woman, both had enormous, beautifully colored butterfly wings stretching from their backs. My mother had loved it so much, she had bought one small enough to use has a bookmark. The same bookmark that still sat inside her copy of Midsummer Nights Dream. The picture we chose was to be enlarged and then filled in with colored chunks paper we found in magazines, creating a beautiful mosaic. I had put my heart into it and was determined to hand it in today. No exceptions.
I retracted my hand just in time, as someone slammed my locker shut.
“You stupid bitch! Who the hell do you think you are?” a screaming voice said from directly behind my right ear.
I spun around to see Samantha standing behind me, her hands raised in the air, waving frantically. Pure loathing gleamed in her brown eyes. All I could do was stare at her stupified. What the hell is she talking about?
“Um… Samantha? What’s going on?” I asked calmly.
Her face reddened and her jaw clenched. “You know damn well what’s going on! I knew from the moment you came here you were going to do this.” Her voice was so shrill and carried easily down the halls. I was just waiting for a crowd of spectators to gather around us.
“I’m sorry, Samantha, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I replied beginning to work around her.
She mirrored my movement, keeping her directly in my path. “Don’t play stupid with me. You made him do it!”
“Made who do what?”
“Kamdyn!” she screamed louder. “Everyone told me about the party.” Completely caught off guard, I said nothing. Definitely not expecting that. “You can’t even deny it,” she screamed in my face when I didn’t speak.
I took another step, she countered. “Samantha, honestly, I don’t know what happened between you and Kamdyn,” I eased, putting my hands out to ward her off, telling her I wasn’t going to fight. “But whatever it is, it has nothing to do with me.” Before I even finished my last word, she took a step closer, her nose nearly touching mine.
She paused, only a second. “Watch your back, bitch!” she ground out, then stormed off down the hallway, out of sight. I shook my head and took off in the opposite direction.
When I got back down stairs, to the caf, everyone at my table was huddled together, whispering. When they saw me headed toward them, they all adjusted themselves and sat down. All conversation ceased. You know when you know people are talking about you, when you walk into a room, they see you, than suddenly they’re all quiet. That was exactly what wa
s going on here. I narrowed my eyes and walked over to my seat and sat down, looking at everyone. “What’s up, guys?” I finally asked looking around the table for someone, anyone, to explain.
“Samantha was down here looking for you.” Lauren said not really looking at me.
“Yeah, I know. She found me.” I replied, seeming unfazed. I knew if Samantha was here, she must have told them why she was looking for me. So I could only assume everyone here was jumping to the same conclusion she was. I looked over at Jayson and he refused to meet my eyes. I rolled my eyes, but said nothing.
“She found you? Already? What happened?” Becky asked, ready to jump out of her seat in anticipation.
“Nothing really,” I popped a fry in my mouth. “She found me at my locker and started screaming at me for, I don’t even know what. Something about her and Kamdyn, saying that it was “all my fault”. I told her I didn’t know what she was talking about, but she didn’t believe me.”
“Wow! I’m kind of pissed I missed it.” Becky said disappointed. “Next time, have her come find me first.” she added with a smile.
“Ok, Becky. I’ll make sure I do that.” I said in mock seriousness “So,” I was aiming my next question at everyone. “Does anyone want to explain to me why I am being blamed for… for whatever her problem is?”
“Kamdyn dumped her.” Alex said.
“Yeah, I heard it was really bad. And public.” Lauren added.
“Damn! I miss all the fun.” I heard Becky say to no one in particular.
I sat there for a minute, while Lauren was giving the up-to-date gossip with Kamdyn’s and Samantha’s very public, very embarrassing break up. But I wasn’t really listening.
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