We were playing spin the bottle, and I haven't had my first kiss. Someone had just spun the bottle and it landed on me. I look up at the person who had spun it...Nik.
"Damn! Ex friends are gonna kiss!" Sam shouts. This catches the attention of a few kids nearby who aren't playing. Soon a bunch of kids are craning their necks to see. Most people were there the day Alex forced Nik to choose between her and me.
"Sam shut up," Sofie says, "spin again."
"Yeah, Nik," Alex mutters, "spin again and land on me, I'm your girlfriend."
Nik stares at me. I look down at my shoes.
"No! They have to kiss! It's the rules." Sam cackles evily.
Alex, Nik, Sofie, and I roll our eyes.
"Kiss! Kiss!" someone who isn't playing starts chanting.
"Kiss? Excuse me! That is my boyfriend! It would be cheating if he kissed that shit!" Alex says.
More people join in on the chant, including Sam. Out of the corner of my eye I can see Kyler watching me. Waiting.
"Nessa," Nik says softly so no one can hear us.
I look into his blue-green eyes.
"We don't have to do this," Nik whispers.
I look around. Alex and Sofie are shouting at the crowd who are all chanting "kiss! kiss!" Most of the kids who are playing with us are chanting as well while watching Alex go psycho. Kyler is sitting there watching Nik and me.
"I don't want this," I mutter.
Suddenly I feel what seems to be a gallon of water splashing me. I start coughing and look up at the person who dumped it on me expecting it to be Alex. Instead, it's Kyler.
Everyone who was chanting for Nik and me to kiss all gasp seeing how my shirt is soaked.
"Oops, my bad. I'm a bit clumsy." Kyler shrugs, winking with his left eye, the one the crowd can't see.
"Oh my gosh!" Sofie shouts and in an instant she's kneeling next to me.
"It's okay..." I tell Kyler, I give him a small smile.
He shakes his head, "No, I'm so sorry! I feel terrible. I just tripped over someone's phone and I'm so sorry. Let me help you. Let me grab you a shirt." he suggests.
That was my cue. Sofie shakes her head, not picking up on what Kyler just did.
"How dare you! Leave her alone. I'll get her some clothes you creep." She exclaims.
"Sof," I nudge her shoulder.
"Ohh, yeah umm well now that I think of it...you have that nice sweatshirt Nessa can wear." Sofie says finally catching on.
"Yeah, you wanna go grab some clothes from the jeep?" Kyler asks.
"Sure!" I say a bit too happily.
"Slut," Alex coughs.
Kyler, Sofie, and I all visibly tense. Out of the corner of my eye I can see Nik tense as well. Someone in the crowd watching us gasps. I forgot they were there.
"Alex, let's get out of here," Nik says taking her hand. He nods at Kyler saying something in boy code. What did it mean though? Is he agreeing with Alex that I'm a slut? He knew I wasn't.
"You ready?" Kyler asks me. He extends his hand. I stare at it. After a few awkward seconds, Kyler shoves his hand in his pant pocket.
"Okay, where's your jeep?" I ask.
"Kyler," Sofie steps in front of the two of us, "take care of her. I swear if you just as think of touching her, I will cut your balls off in your sleep." she threatens.
"Umm, yes ma'am." Kyler nods.
"Great," Sofie smiles and then glances at me, "call me later."
I nod and follow Kyler to his jeep. It's parked on the side of the road, a few houses down from Sam's house. Smart. It was always good to park a few houses down from the house just in case the cops showed up. It was a faster get away.
"She's beautiful," I smile nodding at the jeep. I was telling the truth. It was a royal shiny blue, four door wrangler. The roof was off and I couldn't help by wonder what it would be like to just drive around at night with the top off watching the stars.
"She is," Kyler grins, he unlocks the jeep and digs around for some clothes.
"Hey, I just wanted to thank you for saving me back there." I say awkwardly.
"Saving you? You mean spilling a cup of water on you?" he asks slyly.
He was playing dumb.
I roll my eyes, "yeah, I know what you did. Thank you. It's just that Nik and I were old friends but-"
Kyler puts his hand up, "I get it. I'm new here so I don't know all of the drama in this school, but I can tell there was some unresolved problems between you and Nik. It's none of my business, you don't have to explain yourself. I was simply trying to be a nice guy."
Oh.
"Well thank you again."
He smiles and then turns back to digging through his jeep.
Silence.
Then,
"You know that I'm a nice guy is equivalent to I'm not like other girls. Both of which are lies." I tell him.
Kyler stops what he's doing and turns to me, "Really?"
Damn. Why can't I just shut my mouth. He was doing a nice thing for me and I managed to insult him.
"So you don't think guys can be nice?"
"Yes. No. Well I feel like they're putting on a show. Because no one is actually truly nice."
Kyler shakes his head, amused, "So you're not nice?"
"Well...look, I feel like guys always pretend they're not like their stereotype-"
"Horny bastards?" Kyler suggests.
"No, well yeah. But it's in their nature to do so. Guys don't really mean they're nice when they say it. They just want the girl to think it."
"Because our endgame is sex?"
"Yeah, or to play the girl."
Kyler laughs, "Well if that's what you think..." He tosses me a red sweatshirt.
"I'm sorry. That was dumb." I apologize.
"Are you always this cynical?" he asks handing me a pair of sweatpants.
"No...maybe?" I step onto the other side of the jeep and peel my soaked top off. It's clings to my body. Luckily, my bra wasn't too visible. I slip on the sweatshirt which goes reaches my mid-thigh. Thank goodness it covered my butt. I felt uncomfortable taking off my shorts in public. At least no one could see my thong when I took off my shorts. The sweatshirt smelled just like him, clean laundry and old spice. I loved it. I changed into his gray sweatpants which were way too long for me. I rolled the waist up as far as I could. It still didn't help. I sigh. At least I was in dry, warm clothes.
"Wow," Kyler laughs when I walk over to him, "those definitely fit."
"haha," I say sarcastically but I can't help but smile.
"Back to the party?" he asks.
I hesitate. I didn't really want to go back. My night was ruined after the spin the bottle incident. I check my phone, which luckily had been sitting on the table when Kyler "accidentally" spilt water on me, so it hadn't gotten wet. It was only 9:00 pm.
Noticing my hesitation, Kyler suggests we drive around for a bit. After some convincing I agree and we're in his jeep cruising down the street. The sound of The Lumineers' "Big Parade" plays softly in the background. He drives with ease, humming to the lyrics. Surprisingly, I was not uncomfortable. It was calming and felt almost normal. Cruising through the streets at night listening to The Lumineers with a boy who I had just met that morning. The same boy who saved me from a disaster without asking questions. It was nice.
I couldn't help but compare Kyler to Nik. Nik and I used to drive down the empty streets of our town blasting our childhood early 2000's pop music. Music that reminded us of our childhood together and the good time before we worried about life. Nik would play Top 40 occasionally yet we stuck to older music. He would play old country music as well, something I didn't particularly like.
We drove in silence for about an hour and then Kyler stopped at a Wendy's and we Frosty's and fries. We made small talk while we ate. He liked indie-folk music which explains The Lumineers. He liked The Head and The Heart, Of Monsters and Men, and The Avett Brothers. He liked Tom Petty and other classic rock as well. He listened to Lil Peep, Lil Uzi Vert, Juice WRLD, and Machine Gun Kelly. He made it very clear he was a MGK fan and not an Eminem fan. I couldn't help but compare him to Nik once again. Nik liked Eminem, not MGK.
I learned that Kyler was the oldest of four kids. The youngest child of the Reid family was Cam, he was in seventh grade. The second youngest was Kendall who was a freshman this year. Then there was the second oldest, Karissa, whom his parents had adopted from Africa. He showed me a picture of her, she was gorgeous with flawless dark brown skin and dark brown eyes. She was model-worthy. Then there was Kyler, the oldest. A senior.
I told him about how I have an older sister named Alia and an older half-brother named Chet. I share my taste in music when he hands over his phone for me to dj. Intimidated, since he has such good music taste I play Taylor Swift's older country songs. I don't like country, but I like Taylor Swift's country music. He hums to the tune and I get the feeling he secretly plays this in the car when he's alone. Then I play some Bazzi and finally, back to The Lumineers.
The night ends when I glance at my phone and realize it's 11:10 pm and we're about thirty minutes away from my house and I need to be back by midnight. Kyler drives me home and waves me good bye. I forget to ask him when I should give him his clothes back.
ns 15.158.61.44da2
