Life, Love, & Lemons

by Vernon, Magan

  “What do you want, Brynne?” I asked and adjusted the stupid Homecoming court sash that I was handed at the assembly. I strained my neck to try and find Kai in the mass of people exiting the school.

  Brynne and her sidekicks stepped forward, so close that I could smell the nicotine in their teeth. “You think that you’re the queen bee, but I’m on to you.”

  “Brynne, you honestly don’t scare me. I know you won’t do anything while we’re here at school.” It took every amount of courage that I had to muster those words.

  “Wanna bet?” She arched a pierced brow.

  “Man, I just love walking out to the parking lot to find my favorite Homecoming court nominee being harassed by the wicked bitch of the west.” Brody came barreling toward me with Kai and Grant following suit.

  “Very funny ,Brody,” Brynne coughed.

  “Don’t you and Roxy have something big and plastic you should be sharing right now?” Grant asked.

  “It’s probably better than whatever you’ve got packing,” Teegan snorted.

  “Come on girls. See you later, Bee, I’m looking forward to more of our little chats.” Brynne winked and the girls walked off to their cars.

  “Wow…that was…interesting.” Kai sauntered over to us and put his arm around my waist.

  “Man, if you would have told me that Malakai Stone would be dating the hottest girl in the school and was going to the Homecoming dance, I would have bet money that you were lying if I didn’t see it with my own eyes,” Brody said with a laugh before he and Grant turned toward their cars.

  “So does this mean that you’re willing to go to Homecoming with me now?” I asked when Kai took my hand in his, swinging them back and forth while we walked to his car.

  “Well, it’s not exactly my favorite way to spend a Saturday night,” Kai said and bobbed his head to the side, pushing his bangs out of his eyes.

  “So spending time with me on a Saturday night isn’t your favorite way to spend it?” I squinted up at him. Someone stole my sunglasses the other day, so I definitely didn’t like this whole sun being in my eyes thing.

  “Whoa, whoa, I didn’t mean it like that.” He leaned up against his car, as soon as we got to it.

  “If you don’t want to go, I’m really fine with not going,” I said, trying not to sound disappointed. I couldn’t look up at him. I didn’t really mean it, but I figured that maybe that whole reverse psychology thing actually works.

  “I guess I’ll go, but only on one condition.” He touched my chin with his fingers, forcing me to meet his eyes.

  “I already said that I would stop wearing the low cut shirts for the sake of your mom’s towels, which by the way is disgusting.” I wrinkled my nose.

  “That’s not what I was going to ask.” He looked down at his beat up Chuck Taylors.

  “Then what is it?” I kicked his foot with mine.

  “Teach me to dance.”

  Chapter 27

  High School Dancing Is Just Dry Humping

  “You know I’m pretty sure that all that’s involved in high school dancing is just dry humping and swaying back and forth,” I said as Kai helped me move my parent’s couch back.

  “Well, I don’t want to dry hump or just sway back and forth,” he said with a big grin on his face before setting the couch down.

  “We don’t have to do this right now either. It’s a Sunday morning and all.” I walked over to the front of the couch, not taking my eyes off of him.

  “Homecoming is Saturday, and the only dance I know is the Hokey Pokey.” He shrugged. “Besides Mom and my sisters are at small group and your parents can sleep through anything, so why not now?”

  “Okay.” I let out a deep breath and opened my computer. “But you really didn’t take any kind of dance classes? I had ballroom dancing freshman year in gym.”

  “Bentley, I’ve gone to public school all of my life. The only dance we ever learned was line dancing when I was in grade school up in Wisconsin, and I’m not doing that at Homecoming.” He laughed.

  I started up the song and set my laptop down and stepped in front of Kai, putting my right hand up toward him. “I definitely don’t think there will be line dancing at Homecoming,” I said, putting my hand in his.

  “And you make fun of my music?” Kai asked as the song crooned through the speakers on my laptop. I put Kai’s right hand on my hip, and then placed my left hand on his upper arm.

  “This is Sinatra, I really don’t think there is anything to be making fun of, and besides I don’t think we could really do ballroom dancing to punk rock.”

  “I’m sure we could try.” He smiled and kissed my forehead.

  I rolled my eyes. “Okay, now that we have the arm position it’s time to move our feet, and if you step on my bare feet I am going to punch you.”

  He playfully hovered his foot over mine, so I pinched his arm. “If you don’t behave then I’m switching the music to country.”

  He let out a big sarcastic sigh. “Fine.”

  “Okay, so left foot then right foot then together,” I said as we moved in unison.

  “Then right foot goes back and then the left foot meets it.”

  We moved together doing a few box steps. It felt kind of silly to be dancing in my pajamas in the living room.

  “You know, I really don’t think that anyone is going to be doing the waltz at Homecoming,” I muttered

  I looked up to see him mouthing ‘left, right, together’.

  “Well what do people usually do then?” He looked down at me and stopped mouthing the words.

  The Sinatra song ended and a slower punk rock song played, one that Kai had actually put on my computer.

  “Usually…” I put both my arms around his neck. “It’s kind of more of a close, swaying motion.”

  “Oh.” He wrapped his long arms around my waist and pulled me as close as I think two people can get when one was over six foot and the other was barely over five foot three.

  “Like this?” He swayed slowly back and forth.

  “Usually it’s not some sort of a giant dancing with a midget.” I laughed.

  “Fine then.” He bent at his knees and picked me up off of the ground, so that my legs were dangling in the air while he continued to sway back and forth. “Is that better, shorty?”

  I wrapped my bare legs around his waist. “Now it is.”

  I leaned in and ran my tongue along his bottom lip, tracing the lines of his lip ring.

  “I don’t think that’s part of the waltz.” He smiled and pressed his forehead to mine.

  “It is now.” I kissed him, pretty hard, since he fell back into the couch with me still in his arms.

  Maybe I should have taken him up on the night alone instead of Homecoming. It felt so good to just be in his arms, and the kissing wasn’t so bad either. I could forget about the world every time that Kai kissed me. It was like his lip piercing had some kind of magical powers that just made all my problems disappear as long as we were kissing.

  “Eek!” I heard Dad shriek like a little girl.

  I immediately jumped off of Kai and to the other side of the couch. I didn’t know if that actually did anything because obviously Dad saw something.

  “Uh, thanks for the dance lesson, Bentley, but I guess I should get going.” Kai stood up quickly and kept pulling his shirt down. I was starting to think that he should maybe stop wearing so tight of jeans if this was going to continue.

  “Bye, Mr. Evans.” Kai waved and darted toward the door, making sure that his back was toward Dad at all times as he left.

  “Um, well,” Dad said and rubbed his eyes, giving me the once over. Yep, I still had on the same over sized t-shirt and shorts, hair a little messed up, but at least he knew that we weren’t doing anything too inappropriate.

  “So, your mother should probably be having this conversation with you, but she had to leave early this morning.” Dad plopped down on the couch next to me. The exact same spot where I was just straddlin
g Kai.

  “Dad.” I couldn’t look at him. My face felt like it was on fire.

  “You’re getting older and boys are going to start expecting you to do certain things. Which you obviously shouldn’t do until you’re in love or in college, whichever comes first,” Dad mumbled the last part and stared at the coffee table.

  “DAD!” I shrieked, looking over at him.

  “Bent, I’m just trying to make sure that you’re safe.” He had the most nervous smile on his face. He looked like a little kid that had just gotten caught in the cookie jar.

  “Dad, we aren’t having sex.” I stood up and started toward the bathroom. “And don’t worry…” I looked over my shoulder toward him. “We definitely wouldn’t be doing it in the house if we were.”

  Chapter 28

  Sometimes Just Nothing

  “Do you think you’ll finally come back to my apartment someday?”

  It was Tuesday and since Kai refused to come over to my apartment, we were walking around Barnes and Noble looking at books and drinking coffee.

  “Your dad totally caught me with wood. I don’t think I can even talk to him again, let alone look at him.” Kai picked up a comic book and started browsing through the pages.

  “Yeah, well your mom did walk in on me with my bra off, no thanks to you.” I pinched his bicep after he didn’t respond. Which seemed like it had to have been at least a minute or two.

  “Hey, now that was unnecessary.” He put down the comic and rubbed his arm.

  “Well, you weren’t paying attention. What are you thinking about anyways?” I took his hand as we headed down the comic book aisle.

  He shrugged. “Nothing.”

  I rolled my eyes and faced him. “You can’t be thinking about nothing. Everybody always has something on their mind.”

  “Bentley, I’m a guy. Not only am I a walking, talking hormone but there are usually only three things that I am thinking about: girls, video games, or sometimes just nothing.”

  “How is that even possible?” I swung our arms back and forth. “I’m always constantly thinking about something unless I am sleeping.”

  “Guys don’t have to always be talking or thinking things. Sometimes I just like silence.” He rubbed my hand with his thumb.

  “Are you telling me to shut up?” I stopped and looked up at him, raising an eyebrow.

  He groaned. “Bentley.” Then looked around before quickly kissing my forehead. “You take things way too seriously.”

  “Speaking of taking things seriously…” I started as we headed down another row of books. “Have you thought about what you’re going to wear to the dance this weekend?”

  “Can’t I just wear this?” He ran his hand, up and down, in front of his torso. He had on his usual dark skinny jeans but instead of his neon-colored shirt, he was wearing a teal and gray plaid shirt.

  “Do you really think that is dress attire?” My eyes roamed over his outfit. Okay, so the guy could rock a plaid shirt, but definitely not for Homecoming.

  It’s not that I didn’t like his look. I was starting to get used to it, even the lip ring. But I wasn’t sure how I would feel walking arm in arm with a guy in skinny jeans.

  “You said that your dress was this color,” he said, pointing to his shirt.

  “That doesn’t mean that I want you to wear a plaid shirt and look like a farmer standing next to me.”

  “This is not farmer-like and since when do you care what I wear? As I recall, you were the one that is usually in the thug-life headbands.” He smiled and arched an eyebrow.

  “My head bands are cute. And if I ever hear you speak ill of my headbands again, I will punch you in the jaw.” I put on my best sarcastic pouty face.

  “You’re kind of cute when you’re mad.” He slid his arm around my waist.

  I leaned up on my tippy toes to try to dive in for a quick kiss when I heard a loud thud behind us. Kai let go of me, and we both ran over to the other aisle. There bending down over a big stack of books was Jake, my ex-boyfriend.

  Kai didn’t immediately recognize him but once Jake turned to us with those big deer-in-headlight blue eyes, Kai instinctively reached for my hand.

  “Wow, Jake, I didn’t know that you liked to spy on people at the bookstore.” I said, smacking my lips.

  “I wasn’t spying on you.” He stood up running a hand through his over-gelled hair. “I was just trying to find a book when all of these fell.”

  I looked at the books that he was putting back on the shelf. “So you’re now into erotic romances?” pointed to the book he was holding. The cover had a couple wearing nothing more than a bed sheet and embraced in a position that I wasn’t even sure I could get into.

  “Uh…” His face turned beet red.

  “What do you want, Jake?”

  “I really was just walking around the store, and I saw you and just thought I’d say hi.” He rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke.

  I groaned. “Jake, I think you’re the last person in the world, besides your girlfriend, that I would want to say hi to me.”

  “What? Just because you have your new Count Dracula-boyfriend you think that you’re too good to say hi to me?” He crossed his arms over his chest and gave that stupid smug smile with his Chiclet-like teeth.

  “Who are you calling Count Dracula?” Kai stood up as tall as he could while he stepped closer to Jake.

  As much as it was flattering that two boys were fighting over me, I wasn’t exactly sure who would win, and I didn’t want it to go down in the middle of a book store.

  “Jake, can you just leave us alone?” I turned toward Jake with a pleading look in my eyes.

  “Whatever.” He started to walk away when he turned slightly on his heel. “Don’t act so high and mighty, Princess I’m sure that Mr. Guy liner would just love to know the real reason why we broke up.”

  My eyes grew wide. “Jake, just stop it.”

  Then he started walking back toward us. “I’m sure he would love to hear all about it,” Jake said snidely, as he grinned.

  “Is there a problem here?” A man with a long, gray ponytail came striding over toward us.

  “No, we were just leaving.” I didn’t stop glaring at Jake until we got outside.

  Kai starred off into space. He definitely was thinking about more than nothing.

  “Look, Kai, about that, the reason that Jake and I broke up—”

  He cut me off by raising his hand. “Stop, Bentley, I really don’t need to hear it.”

  He put his hand down and intertwined our fingers. “All I need to know is that you’re with me now and that you’ll never be with that asshole again.”

  I let out a deep breath and leaned into him. I wondered what Kai would have done if Jake would have told him why we broke up. I wondered if he would still be walking to the car with me or if he would have left me at Barnes and Noble. Last year was not an experience that I would ever want to relive again and as long as Kai didn’t care to know about it, then I wasn’t too eager to share.

  “I promise,” I whispered.

  Chapter 29

  Dead Girl Walking

  I hated high school gym class. I think the only reason that it was created was so people, like me could feel even worse about themselves. Not only was I always picked last but with having Teegan in my class, I always had welts all over me from volleyballs or soccer balls or whatever stupid activity we did that day. I was all too happy to have lunch right after gym class and to see Kai waiting for me.

  It was the highlight of my day. He would always wait for me and then we would walk to lunch and chemistry together. After our night at the bookstore I was even happier to have him around and not some jerk like Jake. I honestly didn’t know why I dated him.

  My locker was upstairs, so it was quite a hike from the gym, and I literally felt like everyone was staring at me and whispering while I walked to my locker. Or I could have been paranoid. All the court members were supposed to dress up for Homecoming week
, so it could have been that the random gang members were checking me out in the blue shift dress that Gabby let me borrow.

  “Well, look who finally decided to show up,” Brynne yelled toward me.

  My mouth dropped wide open. Two of the school police officers were standing at my locker and one of them was holding a baggie of large white pills. I looked to the other side of my locker where Kai was slumped over, looking at the ground.

  “Are you Miss Evans?” the short, baby-faced officer asked as he approached me.

  “I am, but those totally are not mine.” I was shaking so badly as I pointed at the baggie; someone must have planted them.

  “We got a tip that we might find these in your locker.” The other officer, an older man with a gray handlebar mustache approached me and waved the bag in the air. Everyone was staring at me now, and I really wasn’t imagining it. Brynne had a stupid, smug grin on her face and I just knew that she was behind it.

  “Obviously someone planted those in my locker!” I shrieked.

  I looked over the police officer’s shoulder to try and spot Kai, but he couldn’t even look at me. He just stood there looking down and shaking his head.

  “Miss Evans, we’re going to have to ask you to come with us to Mrs. Grover’s office,” the younger cop said, nodding his head down the hallway.

  I gulped and couldn’t speak. My mouth was completely dry. The two cops flanked me on either side as we headed downstairs to the principal’s office.

  “Dead girl walking,” someone yelled when I walked by. There were a lot of other quips and whispers, but as I passed Kai he didn’t say anything. And he was the only one whom I really wanted to say something.

  I followed him with my eyes as far as I could, but he never looked up from the floor.

  ***

  Mrs. Grover’s office was completely decorated in orange and blue with random pictures of past presidents on the wall. I sat in one of the most uncomfortable fake leather chairs in the world but nothing was more uncomfortable than the way that Mrs. Grover stared me down.