Heather

After flopping back onto my bed and replaying the kiss with Kayne over in my mind for a half an hour, I dial Mac's number. She picks up the phone, but I don't wait for her greeting.

"Mac, what have you wanted since I moved up here?"

"For you to wheel your ass back to L.A."

"Well, yeah, but other than that."

"For Kayne to come to his senses and decide he wants you instead of that girl Ali."

"Well, today seems like our lucky day. Kayne kissed me." I say, wincing as Mac squeals in response.

"Result! When? Where? How was it? Tell me everything!"

I fill her in on the details and she squeals every time I repeat that he kissed me. Telling Mac is helping me to realize that it's true and not just a mirage that I had in my bedroom.

After replaying it so many times in my mind, it started to feel like it was just a dream. Thankfully, it isn't.

But, that definitely doesn't clear up anything on the boy front.

"I have a date with Fletcher on Friday," I say, feeling my good mood deflate.

"So what?"

"Clearly I want to go out with Kayne, not Fletcher."

"Well, Kayne isn't offering a relationship, right?" Mac asks.

"No," I reply, wondering where Mac is going with this.

"My advice to still give him a chance stands. Then keep hanging out with Fletcher. He may end up surprising you. Or you may realize that you don't want any more than friendship with him." The thought exhausts me. To keep giving my energy to Fletcher while I have feelings for Kayne just feels like a betrayal.

"Mac, I thought you were on Team Kayne?"

"I am on Team Heather. If Kayne is the right one for Heather, then I'll be Team Kayne, but until then I'm still Team Heather." Mac says. I can hear her smiling through the phone.

"I've got to go to bed," I say, chalking up my sudden exhaustion to the forthcoming interactions with Fletcher and Kayne.

"Alright. Keep me updated." She pauses. "Heather, there are two men vying for your attention. Enjoy it, girl." She finishes before hanging up.

I play Kayne's lips pressed against mine over and over again until I finally drift off.

~*~

At lunch the next day, I'm forced to listen to Ali retell her "hookup" with Kayne from Saturday night. Each time one of her girlfriends walked up to the table to say hello, she restarted the conversation in increasingly more exaggerative detail.

The more she tells the story, the angrier I get. I notice myself aggressively eating an apple before I realize I was being obvious. I swear, if she doesn't shut up soon, I'm going to have to make her.

Fletcher, George, and Patrick join us at our outdoor table. When Fletcher sits down, I push the thought of Kayne and Ali away. Instead, I'm reminded of a much more horrifying image of him in between my legs while Kayne watched on.

When it comes to kissing more than one person within 24 hours, I think Kayne and I take the cake. I feel like we might be the biggest sluts in school.

"Hey, how was your day?" Fletcher asks sweetly, planting a kiss on my cheek.

A smile forces its way through my frustration with Ali and makes an appearance on my lips. "It's been good. How's yours?"

"It's great," He says before grabbing my hand under the table. "I can't wait for our date on Friday night. I have a lot planned." I chuckle in response.

"Oh, really?" I flirt against my better judgment. He squeezes my hand before letting it go and sliding his arm around my shoulder.

"Kayne!" Ali's annoying voice calls. "Come sit with us! There's an open spot by me." I can just see Ali batting her eyelids in my mind. I pull my face back from Fletcher's.

Kayne, without objection, takes the open seat. Ali scoots in a little closer. I can see annoyance for a moment in Kayne's eyes but it soon disappears.

Now, he's clearly looking at me. I think for a moment that I must have forgotten to wear a shirt, otherwise, he wouldn't be looking at me so harshly.

Then, I realize he's frowning at Fletcher's arm around my shoulder. The thought makes me uncomfortable, so I shuck his arm off and revert to holding his hand under the table.

Fletcher turns to me at that moment with an expression that can only be described as slight infatuation. I've never seen such a look on his face before that it takes me off guard. I can feel Kayne's gaze boring on me and I know he's seeing Fletcher's face, too.

My throat tightens in panic, so I am thankful when Patrick breaks the silence.

"I need a headcount for Saturday night," Patrick says. "Who's coming to the party?"

"Me, definitely!" Ali says. "What about you, Kayne?" Ali points her question at Kayne, whose eyes glaze over in annoyance.

To my surprise, Patrick answers for him. "Oh, yeah. Kayne and I talked about it the other day. He'll totally be there."

I raise a brow at him, surprised that he'd been invited to a party I hadn't known about.

Turning to me, Patrick asks, "What about you, Heather?"

"What party?"

"Oh my gosh. Did no one tell Heather about the party?" Patrick asks, shooting a glance at Ali and Laurie who shrug at each other. "Well, it's a costume party. Michael Jordan themed, so wear the number 23, Air Jordans, or an outfit inspired by Space Jam."

"That sounds awesome. What's the occasion?" I ask.

"My cousin Faulkner is turning 23. Jordan's number is 23. Get it?" He replies.

"He's 23? I thought he was in high school?" I ask, completely ignoring Patrick's excitement on the "23" reference.

Patrick shakes his head. "No. He graduated a while back and stayed in town after that."

I nod my head in understanding, but internally I feel like I'm going to throw up. I've kissed this guy four years my senior, and not even by choice!

Kayne looks across the table with an eyebrow raised in suspicion. I raise my eyes at him too, as if we're on the same suspicious wavelength.

"It's going to be a great party though. It's just a small group, but we've got a fun night planned." Patrick assures me.

I pretend to think it over for a second, then say, "You know what? I'm there."

Fletcher looks at me worriedly.

"How about you, Fletcher?"

"Nah, man. Family thing," Fletcher says, although he hasn't mentioned anything about it to me.

My phone buzzes with a text from Mac.

Mac

How's it going?

Her message was punctuated with an eyes emoji that tells me she's being nosy. I send "TTYL" back to her with a shrugging woman emoji. As the message sends, I catch the time at the top of my screen.

I pack the leftover food into my lunch bag and get up, slinging my backpack over my shoulder. "Almost time for class."

"I'll walk you," Fletcher says, standing up as well.

As soon as we get out of earshot of the table, Fletcher says, "I can't walk you all the way to class, but I wanted to tell you something." Fletcher's body language exhibits nervousness.

"What's wrong?" I think, afraid that he knows about my kiss with Kayne.

"There's something I should tell you about this party," Fletcher starts. "Faulkner and I really don't get along. He has this tradition—" The bell rings, cutting him off.

"Can we talk about this later? I really can't be late for Honors Government."

"Yeah," Fletcher says with a worried look. I rush off, almost running into Kayne when I go through one of the hallway intersections.

"Woah, girl. No need to run me over."

"I'm sorry. Fletcher is just acting weird."

Kayne takes a deep breath. He whispers, "Do you think he knows?"

"There's no way he could know. I haven't told anyone." A little white lie. I told Mac immediately after it happened. Telling her made it feel so much more real.

Kayne asks, "Well, then what's he being weird about?"

"He said something about Faulkner's birthday party. He said he has some kind of tradition, but he didn't get to finish what he was saying for the bell."

"Oh, well. Looks like you two have been getting cozy, so I'm sure you don't keep many secrets from each other," Kayne says in an emotionless voice.

"Kayne, stop," I reply softly as we walk into our government class.

Instead of a slideshow about government as per usual, the board is lit up with a bunch of old images of miners and townsfolk. I'm a bit confused by the change of topic until Mr. Gottlieb explains.

"As you all know, the town will be celebrating 142 years since its founding next month. Every year around this time, I like to assign a project about local history.

"Now, I know that this is government class and not history, but learning about the people in this county's history is what will connect you to the legislation of today. The legislation that has hurt and helped people throughout the past 142 years.

"You will be choosing a topic relating to the town or one of the surrounding towns within the county limits. Many of you whose ancestors lived here know how rich our history is, so if you want to put a genealogy spin on your project, you have my go-ahead.

"Before you present your projects, we will be taking a field trip to the mineral belt to study the conditions that miners went through while trying to find the precious gemstones that Idaho is famous for.

"I'll pass around the assignment guidelines. Feel free to ask as many questions as you want after class."

I take a glance at the sheet being passed around the class. Then, Mr. Gottlieb gives a hearty overview of the county's history. I get a few ideas from the slideshow, but I need to do more research tonight to pinpoint my exact topic.

When the bell rings, I don't have any questions for Mr. Gottlieb, so Kayne and I head down the hall to his anatomy class. As we walk, he talks about some ideas he has for his project. When we reach his classroom he disappears inside, I turn on my heel and head to study hall to research the local history more.