Chapter 3

“She’s been lying on that couch for three days, do you think she should move around,” Rachel asked Kira’s grandmother.

They sat at the dining room table, across from each other with cups of coffee in their hands. Rachel was a beautiful strawberry-blonde woman with faint wrinkles and little dark bags under her eyes, from working too late.

Kira’s grandmother was a chubby old woman. Her hair was turning from brown to gray and she had many wrinkles all over her body. She ignored Rachel and looked at her granddaughter.

Kira had a tan-colored cast and her body was wrapped around in cloth, which was showing through her white t-shirt. And a band-aid was placed on the left side of her forehead. Her broken wrist held little Ron, who was sleeping next to her.

Ron was blonde and had freckles on his nose and bright big blue eyes. He looked more like his mother than his own father. Grandmother got to her feet and waddled over to Kira. Grandmother gently placed her hand on Kira’s shoulder, shaking her and quietly said, “Kir, wake up honey.”

Kira started to move and so did Ron. She opened her eyes and stretched her arms over her head and yawned. She sat up and rubbed her eyes and the covers fell to the floor.

“Hey buddy, morning,” she said to Ron who sat up next to her.

Ron didn’t say anything; he stood up and went into his Grandmother’s outstretched arms. She picked him up and it looked like she was carrying an over-sized baby.

“Do you want to go to school today?” Grandmother asked.

Kira nodded slightly and looked at her hand and started playing with her lifeless fingers. Grandmother stood there for a few more seconds, thinking she should say something, but changed her mind and left the room carrying Ron upstairs.

Rachel sat at the table watching her dead boyfriend’s daughter play with her fingers. She couldn’t bare watch her anymore so she picked up her coffee and walked over to Kira and sat down next to her. Rachel placed her warm hand on Kira’s bare leg, sending a sensation through her body.

“You can’t shut out your Grandmother like that,” Rachel said quietly.

“No one understands, losing a parent,” Kira said after a moment.

“Really,” Rachel asked sounding not that surprise. Kira nodded slightly.

“Kir, they’re many kids who don’t have a family, even a sibling, and you don’t know how fortunate you are,” Rachel stated. “I went through it. Well I only lost one parent. My dad died from a heart attack and that left my family and I devastated. And then later my mom felt like she died along with him, so I pretty much had to take care of my sisters. I never had a grandmother like yours.”

Silence.

 “Well, why don’t you get ready for school, I’ll drive you. And we’ll stop by Starbucks to get a coffee. Sound like a plan,” Rachel asked. Kira nodded and she got off the couch and headed upstairs leaving her dad’s girlfriend sitting there.

 

Kira opened the doors to Wichita High School and it felt different. Not because she hasn’t been there in what felt like forever, but everyone grew quiet as they saw her. It felt like a deserted town, no one speaking, no one moving. But she didn’t bother; she just looked at the ground and walked down the hall.

 Whispers came from every end of the hallway, it did bother her a little but what her parents taught her from when she was little was never let anyone bother her. But this time it killed her inside. She looked to the right and saw the popular girl, Stephenie Connors, smile at her and whisper to her friends Jody Brynn, and Chloe Osborne, who laughed.

Glares continued down the hall, so Kira started walking quickly down the hall, passing everyone by and turned the corner. She stopped, stood there right in front of her, a few lockers away was Damon. His locked was open and he was standing there, writing something in his notebook.

Kira didn’t want him to see her like this, all bruised and broken, so she quickly and quietly tiptoed past him. As she turned another corner, she saw Brendan standing there. She had known him since 8^th grade, always talking and hanging out but since then, it has all been small talk between them.

Even though Kira had admired him from afar, even though his locker is right next to hers, she never actually had real feelings about him since she was more into Damon. She watched as Brendan’s shirt sleeve grazed against him muscle as he reached up to the top of his locker and brought down a book.

She walked towards him and opened the adjacent locked next his. They stood in silence, not knowing what to say to each other. Brendan closed his locker, leaned against it and crossed his arms and said “Hi”.

“Hey,” she muttered, placing her backpack in the locker holders.

“How’s life been going?”

“Like a living hell.”

“Um… I’m sorry for what happened.”

“Me too,” she stood on her tip toes trying to reach a book, but couldn’t get it.

“Here,” he said, reaching up, grabbing the book and handing it to her.                          

“Thanks.”

“No problem.”

Silence.

She looked at him more carefully now, afraid she would break into tears right in front of him.

“What is…,” she trailed off, touching a bruise on Brendan’s cheek. He winced. He grabbed her hand and pulled it away from his face, but not yet letting go.

“Sarah’s cat scratched me,” he lied.

“Oh I guess you had a bad day this week too.”

“Yeah, I guess. Um… do you…,” he started but was interrupted by Damon coming up to them.

“Hey Kir,” Damon greeted, as he leaned against her opened locker door.

“Hi,” she sounded happy for once in a long time. Even though she didn’t want to see him lately, she was happy to finally talk to him.

Even though Brendan was standing next to them, he felt invisible to them. Don’t rip his throat out or anything, he told himself. Brendan didn’t know what Kira saw in Damon, and he didn’t want her to get hurt and Damon doing the hurting.

“So I heard about your accident. How are you feeling?” Damon asked.

Before she could answer, Brendan said, “She’s doing great.”

“Oh hey Brendan, didn’t you see you there,” Damon said.

Brendan rolled his eyes and made a noise in the back of his throat.

“So Brendan, remember the favor I asked you to do?”

“What favor,” Kira asked, turning to Brendan.

“Oh I have to his math homework for a week so he could…” he trailed off and looked at the poster of the Halloween dance, hanging across the hall. “Ask someone to the dance for me.”

“’Cause, little Brendy is a chicken,” Damon teased.

“Don’t you have someone else to bother,” Brendan snapped, Kira gently hit him.

“I have to go anyway,” Damon told them. They watched Damon leave, but when he was out of earshot, Kira turned toward Brendan.

“You didn’t have to be so mean!”

“He’s a dick!”

“A dick that’s going to help you to get your dream girl, so don’t be so mean to him,” Kira reassured him.

Brendan watched her walk away as the bell rang and said to himself, “If you only knew.”

Reviews

[SwagMaster]

I really liked this story. It's full of excitement, even though it's still really early in the book. Only a few minor grammar/punctuation errors.
More, please!!