AllFreeNovel
Share Us
You up for a party?
I’m on my way to the game. Want me to pick you up?
Please.
See you in fifteen.
I toss my phone onto the bed and move to my closet in search of something casual to wear that also makes a statement. What that statement is, I’m not sure. With limited time and options, I sweep my hair into a ponytail and grab a pair of flare legged jeans. I don’t have school shirts, but there’s someone else who does.
Kyson isn’t home to ask permission. No one else is home to ask either. I haven’t entered his room since we were younger. I doubt he’d really mind. It’s not like I’m going to rifle through his things. I’m borrowing a shirt. It’s not that serious. So why does it feel so deep as I set foot in his space? As soon as I open his door, the scent of him assaults my senses, wrapping around me like my favorite sweater. Feeling more like home than I’ve felt since my father died.
The first thing I notice is the poster hanging on the wall by his bed that shows a map of the town of Hawkins. I wouldn’t have pegged him as a Stranger Things fan. Though when it comes to him, anything is possible. I don’t know him anymore. Not in the way I used to, that is.
Five years ago, I could tell you that he hated all gummy candy but loved anything with caramel inside it. That he slept with a night light and collected Five Night’s at Freddy’s action figures. While he’d tell you I wanted to grow up to be a Disney Princess. He’s clearly no longer that boy and I no longer believe in happy endings. No one is coming to save me. This beauty will have to be her own beast.
Only not today.
Tonight, I’m simply a girl going to a football game like many other high school students on a Friday night. I spot a white tee with our school’s pirate emblem on the front. Quickly, I snatch the shirt off the hanger and return to my room, resisting the urge to snoop. Mainly because I don’t have the time and the fact I wouldn’t appreciate it if he did the same to me.
Lauren shows up right as I’m getting my shoes on. By the time we arrive at the game it’s nearly half time, so we are only charged half price for our tickets.
“Sweet of you to support Kyson tonight,” Lauren tells me as we navigate our way to the pep section of the bleachers, directly behind the band.
“What do you mean?”
“Your shirt. His name and number are on the back.”
“Crap. I had no idea.”
Lauren gloats. “Britney will lose her shit. Her and her friends had those made to wear to the homecoming pep rally last year.”
Great. “I should change,” I grumble, heat flaming across the apples of my cheeks. Britney already hates me.
“By the time we went back and forth, the game would be over. She probably won’t notice.”
Somehow, I doubt that, but I’m not going to argue. If I didn’t have a target on my back, I do now in the form of a number twenty-five and the letters A L L E N in bold. Standing in the sea of students wearing Kyson’s shirt, I feel like an outsider. At my old school, everyone knew everyone. My classmates had been with me since sixth grade. Here I’m hardly acquainted with a handful of people and I’m lost. Unsure of what the future holds for me and Matt.
How will I survive the next ten months?
How will I survive Kyson Allen?
The crowd goes wild as he scores a touchdown. Someone taps me on the shoulder, mistaking me for his girlfriend. “Your man is a fucking legend.” He holds a palm up, expecting a high five.
I give him one as Lauren laughs. I try to pay attention to the game, but all I’m thinking about is Matt out at some bar with some girl who isn’t me. Is he buying her drinks or holding her hand? When he looks at her, does he think about me?
I wonder because when Kyson kisses me, I turn into a fool with only eyes for him. My thoughts clouded and led by lust. A need so great and deep I could drown under his attention.
I watch him play and have to admit he’s better than good. He’s great. I get why people are so charmed and enamored by him. He’s one of those people that have a magnetic pulse that draws you and everyone around them in.
I don’t know if I’m strong enough to fight the pull.
I glance at my phone and see Matt has been tagged in more pictures with that girl. Jealousy seeps through my pores as a clammy sweat breaks out on the back of my neck.
Did he lie to me about how well he knows her?
I shove my phone in my back pocket and vow I’m not looking at it anymore tonight or I’ll drive myself crazier than I am already going.
By the fourth quarter I can tell word of my shirt has reached Britney. I have knowledge of this because of the pinched expression on her face as she marches up the bleachers toward me with a posse of cheerleaders at her back.
