A Gift From Him to Her

Khiry's strange behavior continued to puzzle her. He never did finish what he had begun to say in the cafeteria. His sulking went on for weeks. It was unlike him to keep things from her. She felt that if he didn't say something soon, she would explode. Finally, one afternoon they were at his house alone. They were lying across his bed, studying, when he brought up the subject again.

"Angel, do you remember a few weeks ago when I told you I had something to tell you?" he asked.

"Yeah," she replied.

"Well I um," he paused.

He just couldn't get the words out. Angel became frustrated.

"Khiry, what is going on with you?" she shouted. "You keep saying you have something to tell me, but you never say anything."

He starred at her as she waited for his response. He moves in slowly and kisses her softly on the lips.

"What was that?" she asked, astonished.

"You're my girl, right?" he asked.

"What?" she asked confused.

"You're my lady, my girlfriend, remember," he tried to clarify.

"Did you hit your head or something?"

"Don't you remember back in elementary school? I asked you to be my girl. You said yes, and we sealed it with a kiss."

"God Khiry," she said as she sat up on the bed, "that was like six years ago."

"Yeah, but we never officially called it off," he said also sitting up.

"No."

"So, that means you're still my girl."

Angel thought for a moment. "Yeah, I guess it does in a way, but..."

He cuts her off with another kiss. This time she could feel his tongue swirling around in her mouth. This was her first kiss, and the feeling of her lips on hers made her heart race uncontrollably. He laid her on the bed, climbed on top of her, and began touching her in places that had never been touched before. When he began to unzip her jeans, she pushed him away. She jumps up off the bed and stood in the middle of the room with a confused look on her face. Although she was unsure of the reasons behind it, she was aware of what was​ about to happen. She didn't know how to react to it.

"What's wrong?" he asked her.

"I just don't know about this, Khiry.

He took a deep breath. "Angel, we've always shared everything. This is something that I wanna share with you before..."

Once again he could not make the words come out. He puts his head down.

"Before what?" Angel demanded to know.

Khiry looked her in the eyes. "I just need for you to trust me," he said. "I need to be as close to you as possible, right now. I just need you.

He reached his hand out to her. She considers his eyes. Although their family always assumed they would hook up, Angel never thought about Khiry that way. That kiss forced her to look at him with new eyes, now. She always knew she loved him. He was her best friend, but the love she felt now, was different. Her heart felt like it had grown twice its size and began doing back flips inside her chest, as she placed her trembling hands in his.

Khiry continued to behave strangely, and disconnected. Angel didn't know what to make of it anymore. She thought after the night they spent together he would feel better. He barely spoke to her after that night, and never spoke to any of his friends. He still walked her to class every day. They still got together to do their homework every afternoon, and they still hung out every weekend. They did all this in silence.

Soon the storm came. It was a Friday morning, three weeks since she and Khiry had been together. She woke up feeling nauseous. She went into the kitchen. Nancy had cooked a big pot of oatmeal for breakfast, but when Angel went to serve herself, both the site and smell made her nausea worse. Khiry wasn't at school that day, therefore, she was alone the entire day. She could barely concentrate in class because her stomach was doing flips. The entire day went by in a big blur. She completely avoided the cafeteria at lunch time. The site of food was not helping her condition. Because of her not eating all day, she got worse. She became dizzy during P.E. and passed out in the middle of class. The school nurse examined her, and Angel was highly upset with the results.

She needed to speak to Khiry immediately, therefore she headed straight to his house after school. When she got there, she spotted a moving van in the yard, and he was sitting on the front step. He wore the same frown, that lately, seemed permanently glued to his face. Angel finally understood what he had been trying to tell her. She walked up to him with a disappointed look on her face.

"What's going on?" she demanded.

"We're moving," Khiry replied, starring into space. "My dad's job transferred him to Corpse Christy, Texas," he continued, still refusing to look at her.

"And when were you planning on telling me?" she asked.

"I just didn't know how."

"So, you decided that sleeping with me was the best way to say goodbye," Angel said, in a cracking voice.

Hearing in her voice that she was on the brink of tears, Khiry finally looked her in the eyes.

"No, that's not what that was about," he said.

He stood up and grabbed her hand, but she pulled it away.

"Then what was it about, one last thrill, to leave your mark on the world?" she accused.

Tears began to fall from her eyes.

"I wanted to leave you with the greatest memory of me that I could think of. I don't know if we'll ever see each other again."

Angel wiped away her tears, and looked him straight in the eyes. "You have no idea what you're leaving me with," she said.

She then stormed off before he could say anything else.