Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
THE FIRST TIME KIM WENT BACK TO SCHOOL, SHE WAS A FLY ON THE WALL. It was not new for Kim to be the gossip of Capeside high. First about her sexuality and then her eating disorder and now her breakup was shared amongst students. She was used to the stares and the whispers and moved through them with her headphones on, blasting Alanis Morrissette like a walking stereotype.
To survive, Kim had to avoid her friends for days. Not because they had done anything wrong but where they were, Pacey followed. And she couldn't see him. She still couldn't think about him without tearing up. Instead, she found friendship in the girl she neglected long ago; Alisha Brooker. Kim never meant to leave Alisha in the dust. She was just so distracted with her family and her mental health and Pacey. Now only one of those things was still relevant and Kim realised that she had no other friends to turn to.
She felt bad for saying it but at this moment no one understood how she felt. Not even Dawson as much as he'd like to pretend that he was the connoisseur on teenage drama. Dawson tried to relate to his sister but it became more a tangent about Joey than it was about empathy. Joey the cynic would never understand what it's like to have her heart obliterated and Jen was too infatuated with Dawson to realise how much Kim needed help. Kim felt bad. She didn't think her friends were cruel they were just distracted. As a teenager, everyone thinks that their problems are the most important. Kim didn't blame them for no seeing it.
Alisha was the only person she could turn to and even she didn't fully understand heartbreak. She had spoken about her ex's before. About the girl that cheated and the girl who was afraid but Alisha admitted she was never in love with them to begin with. But Kim loved Pacey. She mourned him. The only person who would possibly understand was her father but Kim still wasn't ready to speak to him.
"So you haven't spoken to any of them?" Alisha asked as the two of them said on the grass having their own private picnic. Truthfully, the had a table saved but Kim body swerved as soon as she saw Abby Morgan at the adjacent table.
Kim swallowed a grape. "How can I? I can't stand the idea of seeing Pacey and Andie canoodling one another. It would just make things awkward for everyone."
Alisha's nose scrunched at the word canoodle. "Yeah, but they're your friends. Dawson's your brother. You have to talk to them eventually."
"And I will." Kim exclaimed with a mouth full of grapes. "Why are you so desperate to get rid of me anyways?"
Alisha quirked a smile. "I'm not trying to get rid of you. You're the only friend I have and as your friend, I'm worried about you."
Kim shook her head with the best smile she could muster. One that Alisha couldn't see through. "I'm fine."
Alisha knew she was lying but she didn't nearly know the extent of it. She lowered her head down to her salad and took a bite. The school bell rang and Kim lifted herself from the grass. Her next class was English which she was dreading. Her homework assignment was due today which took all her strength to complete. Kim channelled all her pain into this poem so if Mr Peterson decided to fail her she would take this as a personal attack.
