Kingston
“I’m sick of you never taking anything seriously.” I close my locker and lean against it with a heavy sigh because Kennedy is already on a tirade this morning.
As if Mondays aren’t bad enough.
She’s still pissed off about the party. She wanted to go somewhere private, and I wasn’t feeling it. I wanted to hang out with my friends and party.
Is that so bad?
Apparently so.
“I am taking things seriously,” I say a little louder than I mean to, but damn, I’m really tired of this. And where the hell is Camden? I wonder if Lucy gave him a hard time again today. It seems like Mondays and Fridays are the worst for her.
“What the hell are you thinking about now? Where is your head?”
Oh shit. She’s still pissed. Her scowl is firmly planted on her pretty face, and one hand is on her hip. I sigh again. “I said I’d go to the damn dance. I will. Drop it.”
God, if she could just drop one damn thing for once. You’d think I’d love school events, being a total jock and shit, but I don’t know. Dances always seem so lame. I’d much rather go to the after-party. “Yeah, but you don’t want to go.” Her finger is in my face now, and her voice is shrill.
“But I said I would. What the fuck do you want from me?”
“Hey, guys. What’s up?” We both turn to see Camden approach us, concern written all over his face.
“Just another day in paradise,” I say grimly, and Kennedy is fuming now.
“You’re such a jackass. Why don’t you just take Camden to the homecoming dance? He’s all you care about, anyway.” She’s furious, her voice not coming down a level at all. I notice Camden stiffen, his entire body growing tense.
“Don’t drag Camden into this shit. And he thinks dances are just as fucking stupid as I do.” He groans, shaking his head at me, like I’m the one being crazy here. But that’s all Kenn. “And I said we could go.”
She rolls her eyes at me again in annoyance but ignores me entirely, looking at Camden. “Talk some damn sense into him, will you? Like we talked about Friday.”
They were talking about me on Friday?
She pushes past me, still pissy as ever, and I face Camden with a crooked eyebrow. “You were talking about me?”
He rolls his eyes and heads to his locker. “She was talking. I was trying to drink in peace. And what the hell did you do now? Just go to the dance.”
“I didn’t do a damn thing.” I saw them chatting after I left to dance at the party, but I’m surprised to hear they were discussing me. Does he think I don’t take things seriously? He knows me better than anyone. Is he on her side? “What did you talk about?”
He grabs a book and shuts his locker, calm as ever.
“College. Dances. I don’t know. She talked, like I said.
I told her I wasn’t getting into the middle of it, and I’m not.
This is between you two.” He looks around the crowded hall and then back at me.
“Well, it’s kinda between you two and the whole school, since I could hear you arguing from the front doors. ”
I cringe, hating being part of high-school gossip.
But really, what else is there to talk about?
“Yeah.” I grab the back of my neck, embarrassed he heard it though.
“Do you also think I don’t take anything seriously?
” I hate the way my stomach clenches while I wait.
His answer means so much more to me than anyone else’s. His opinion always matters more to me.
“No.” He shoves me playfully with a smile. “I think you take what you need to seriously, and then you have fun. And I reminded Kennedy that she knows that about you. Why she expects you to change now, I have no idea.”
He starts walking, and I follow him. “Exactly! That’s what I’ve been saying. I haven’t changed. What the hell?”
He smiles. Well, it’s kind of a half-smile, but it still counts for Cam. “I think maybe we’re all freaking out a little about it being the last months of high school.”
I swallow thickly, dread overtaking me because I don’t like how that sounds. We still have several months left. Several. It’s not the end.
“Right,” I say dumbly, and he stops just before we reach our first class. “You guys will make up. It’ll be fine.”
I’m not so sure I want it to be fine. I like Kennedy a lot. I do. But I have to admit I thought she was a lot more fun before we started dating and I started to really get on her nerves. Before she started talking about the future all the damn time.
“Yeah,” I say because I honestly don’t know what else to say. He doesn’t want to hear about it. Kennedy and I put him in the middle of things way too much, I know.
He places a reassuring hand on my shoulder with a small grin. “Just take her to the dance. You know you’ll cave anyway. So just put us all out of our misery and tell her you’ll take her.”
I smirk. “Oh, I’m taking her. I already told her I would.” He frowns in confusion. “And you’re taking LeAnn.”
“No. I’m not.” He drops his hand, and this time, I pat his shoulder.
“Oh yes, you are. We’ve already set it up, and if you don’t want to hear Kennedy bitch even more, you’ll take LeAnn and I’ll take Kenn. We’ll just be miserable together.”
“Goddammit, Kingston.”
I chuckle as I leave him in the doorway to stew over that while I take my seat in the classroom.
He’ll forgive me. He always does.