The next few days were a blur of avoiding gazes and ignoring whispers. It wasn't like my little episode with Perry was the talk of the school, but every now and then someone would whisper, "That's the kid," and someone would respond, "Who's he? I've never seen him before," or possibly just, "Wow, he's cute."

Finally, the final bell rang on the last day of school before Christmas break, and all I had to do was work a shift at Walmart and I was good to go, at least for the weekend. Trisha's party was on Tuesday, and every time I thought about it, I felt a knot in my stomach.

Ricky noticed my negative demeanor. He was walking past me in one of the isles. First he just nodded his head at me, but then he said, "Hey, don't look so glum. You need to look happy for the customers."

Since Ricky was basically every teenage boy's aspiration, I decided I ought to take any advice I could get from him. I mean, all of the customers loved him, especially the old ladies. They mostly looked at me like they were sorry I wasn't enjoying my job.

"Sorry," I told him. "I have a lot on my mind."

"What?" he asked in a light, joking manner. "It's Christmas break, isn't it?"

"Yeah, but..."

"What's going on?"

I sighed.

"Come on," he pressed. "You can talk to me, buddy."

I internally cringed at his use of the word 'buddy,' but decided to talk to him anyway. It would probably be good to get it off my chest.

"Well," I said, gathering my thoughts. "This kid was being a jerk the other day, so I kind of yelled at him, and I've been feeling negative ever since. I know, I know—negatively never solves anything. I learned that long ago. I regret doing it. Plus my friend is having a party in a few days that I'm not looking forward to. Also, I'm just really stressed because I have no phone charger and Stacey probably thinks I'm a lying jerk who saw her as a summer fling." I hadn't meant to say the last part, but that's actually what had been bothering me the most.

"Whoa," Ricky said. "Back up. You just said negativity never helps anyone. Have you tried getting excited for the party?"

"Um, no."

"There's your problem," he said with his blinding smile. "Just be positive. You definitely won't have a good time if you're dreading it so much."

I nodded. "You're right."

"And about that guy who made you mad... I'm not sure what to do about that. He probably deserved a good talking to, so don't beat yourself up over it."

I nodded yet again.

"Anyway...who's Stacey?" he asked. I actually kind of hoped he missed that part.

I exhaled and paraphrased my history with Stacey. I mentioned that I kissed her over the summer (she actually kissed me first, but he didn't need to know all those details) and how we'd promised to stay in touch and I'd failed like a miserable loser.

This time it was Ricky who nodded. "That sounds rough. On the bright side, payday is Monday, and employees get a discount."

I managed a smile. "Cool."

Ricky opened his mouth, probably to say he'll see me around and all, but I spoke before he could.

"Do you think I can get her to forgive me?" I asked, a lump forming in my throat.

"Well, I don't know her, so I can't say. I can tell you, though, that when you get back in touch with her, you need explain your situation in a way she'll understand. But don't leave it at that. She needs to know you're sorry and you need to tell her how you feel." He smiled a little. "Girls like that."

I felt my face flush. "As long as they're good feelings, I'm guessing."

Ricky chuckled. "Right."

He placed a few items on the shelf in front of us before excusing himself to help a customer. "Later, man. Good luck."

"See ya," I said, getting back to work.

»»»»»«««««

When I got home, I was surprised to find Oliver and Trisha lounging on my couch, eating pizza rolls my mom always cooked when the little kids had friends over.

"What in the world are you guys doing?" I asked.

"We figured you need some cheering up," Oliver said.

Ever since my incident with Perry, they'd constantly been badgering me, asking if I was usually so hostile, because they honestly couldn't tell. After two or three days, they seemed to realize that I wasn't proud of it and switched to trying to cheer me up instead.

I smelled something that made me nauseous and looked down to see a cup of coffee on the coffee table. I guessed it was Trisha's. I looked at the plain red cup for a few seconds, not sure what the big deal was.

"Are you gonna show us your room?" Oliver asked.

"Uh, my room's a mess," I lied. Actually, I just couldn't imagine the smell of that coffee in a more confound area. "We can go for a walk, though. Yeah?"

Trisha shrugged. "Why not?"

They stood up and Trisha set the plate of leftover pizza rolls on the coffee table and picked up her coffee.

"We're going out!" she yelled.

"Alright!" I heard my mom's voice from somewhere nearby.

I narrowed my eyes at her. "How long have you guys been here?"

"Oh, maybe just under an hour," Oliver said, pushing his glasses up.

"What?" I said, my eyes widening. "I guess that's why you're so comfy with my mother."

Oliver laughed. "You never told us you had a job!"

"I guess I didn't find it important."

"Whatever," Trisha said. "Let's go."

We stepped outside. There was no snow today, but the air was brisk and a thin layer of ice coated the ground. We walked slowly down the street so we wouldn't slip.

"Well, Logan," Trisha said, clearing her throat. "Our first plan was to listen while you talked about your problems, but we decided it might be best to distract you a little." Oliver did some kind of wizard-like jazz hands thing when she said 'distract.'

"Okay. How are you going to do that?"

"I thought we'd share stories."

"Okay then. What kind of stories?"

Trisha ginned evilly. "First kiss stories."

I felt my face go totally red. Oliver cracked up.

"You're not real friends if you don't share the awkward kissing stories," he told me.

"I'll go first," Trisha offered. "Alright, so I was fifteen—"

"Why so young?" I interrupted.

"Huh?" Trisha looked confused. Oliver did too.

"Never mind," I said. "Keep going."

"Okay," she continued, "well, I was on a date with this guy. He was two years older than me and super tall. We went to the movies and the whole time he kept getting closer and closer to me. Naturally, I was pretty excited. When the movie was over, we walked outside, and I looked around but my mother hadn't arrived to pick me up yet."

"That's why you date when you can at least drive," I mentioned.

"Oh, shush. So there we were, outside the theater, and he leaned down and kissed me. He had to lean down really far, actually... Seriously, I'm like 5'3. He was at least a foot taller than me. Anyway, everything was going perfect, and then my freaking mom comes and pulls up right in front of us, yelling, 'Woo woo!' We quickly pulled apart, and I never heard from him again." Trisha buried her face in her hands.

Oliver laughed. "Jeez."

"Your turn," she told him, her voice humorous.

"Ah. Well, my first kiss was kind of horrifying. I was at the eighth grade graduation dance, which I probably shouldn't have even gone to. This girl who'd been my partner in science came up and told me she was moving to Canada, so she'd never see anyone here again. I just kinda shrugged it off; I didn't care too much, honestly. But then she just leaned forward and kissed me! Like what the heck!"

Trisha snickered. "Oh my gosh!"

I pondered for a second on these two. They were both so young when they got their first kiss. I sincerely hoped they wouldn't ask for mine, as it would be just another thing to make me stick out from everyone else. Although, I supposed what I had was better than admitting I'd never kissed anyone at all.

"What about you, Logan?" Oliver asked, confirming my fears.

"Well, gosh, this is embarrassing," I said. "I got my first kiss just this last summer, almost six months ago."

"That recent?" Trisha exclaimed, and Oliver looked wondrous.

"Was it Stacey?" Oliver asked excitedly.

I blushed. "Yeah, it was."

"Well," Trisha said, "maybe your story will be sweeter than either of ours."

I couldn't help but smile as I remembered that day.

"It was literally our second to last day together, and my brother had been trying to get me to kiss her for days. I kept putting it off, being the chicken that I am. I had a perfect opportunity the night before, but I let it slip. Anyway, we were on the swing set, totally flirting with each other when she told me she bet she could swing higher than me." I couldn't stop smiling, thinking about it. "Then we got called in for dinner, and told me we'd have to jump off on the count of three. She told me if I didn't jump she was gonna do something really big."

"Did you jump?" Oliver questioned, in suspense.

"I did, actually. But she still did something really big. She actually landed on me after we jumped."

"Who swung higher?" Trisha asked, sounding slightly disturbed. I couldn't imagine why.

"I did. She'd have a different answer, but it was totally me."

"Keep going!" Oliver pressed.

"Okay, so she got off of me and then we just looked at each other. I remember comparing her face to a black hole...in my head, of course. Then she just...kissed me. I called her an idiot afterwards, but she didn't really mind all that much."

Trisha looked at me funny. "You called her an idiot?"

I chuckled. "Yeah.... But I called myself an idiot too. Does that make it okay?"

"That's the cutest story ever," Oliver said.

Trisha sighed. "You only smile when you're talking about Stacey."

I took a second to think about it. I really hadn't been smiling a lot lately, but when I was talking about Stacey, I was almost as happy as could be. The only thing that would make me happier would be to see her.

"Sorry," I said. "She just makes me so happy."

Trisha and Oliver smiled.

"Well," Oliver said, "I guess it was worth waiting for your first kiss to be able to have a story as cute as that!"

"With all the girls at this school, I'm surprised no one got to you first," Trisha said smartly. I just shrugged.

"Well, I'm totally jealous of your relationship status," Oliver told me. "You guys are goals."

I cringed. "You're forgetting that she lives seven hours away and I haven't talked to her in months and she probably hates me."

"Psh." Oliver waved his hand. "It'll work out."

It was weird having friends. They were so supportive.

We ended up walking to the store and buying ice cream, despite the cold. We ate it on side of the road, talking about several topics. Turns out Trisha was into giraffes but Oliver preferred tigers. When they asked me my favorite animal, I said I liked llamas. Then i realized why.

Stacey liked llamas.

__________________________

Why have Alex from Target when you can have Ricky from Walmart? XD

Alright guys (aka the two readers I have left), something big is gonna happen soon! Like, really big.

:O

Well, you can look forward to that, and in the meantime, don't forget to vote!

*salutes*

~Me, the Pallid One. ┗(＾0＾)┓