The Recital of Terrance Reed

Chapter One

It was November. A couple of months since I started crushing on him.

I was sitting in English class, waiting for the class to begin. I was looking outside the window, looking for Kyle. He was always late, and I always was looking out, so I could see him running across the school lawn. I always told the teacher Kyle was coming, so he wouldn't be marked absent. Despite us never talking or interacting, or even him knowing I was the one telling the teacher about his presence at school. I still felt obliged, mainly to accompany my feelings for him.

Today, he was walking, not running. Though, I didn't feel nervous about him being late. It meant I had more time to check him out and stare at his beauty. The way he walked, he looked proud and confident. And it was a turn-on. He wore his favourite tight black sweater with an unknown metal hand logo on the front. He always wore it; if not, it was probably a band t-shirt of another unknown band. Though he did not seem the type to be into metal, I suppose he was.

"Excuse me, Terrance?" The teacher's voice caught me off guard.

I shook my head and stared at Ms. Hawthorne with a dumbfounded face. "Yes?"

"Is Kingfield coming?" Ms. Hawthorne asked.

"Yes. He's coming," I replied with a slow and steady tone. I was unsure by the way he strolled to class today. But I am sure it was because he was trying to play it cool.

"All right, class, we will begin,"

I took out the book; The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls that the class was reading for a book study. I quickly peered out the window again to see if Kyle had made it in already. But no. He was walking away from the school. His strides looked like he was going somewhere with haste.

I groaned. Today was going to be without Kyle. It was more frequent that he needed to show up to class. I always wondered what he was doing and how he managed to keep up with his grades. I guess that's what happens when you have to be the "bad boy" of the grade.

With that, I kept my focus on class, kept quiet, and listened to the teacher.

Kyle returned as the class ended, and my stomach fluttered as he entered the room just five minutes before the bell rang. Ms. Hawthorne was displeased and quickly escorted him out. Although I felt terrible for not standing up for him, I didn't know why he had skipped class, which was irresponsible. Despite this, I still wanted to help him, although I kept my head down and waited on my phone until the bell rang.

Kyle and Ms. Hawthorne walked in, and she had a face that flushed red. Her eyes pulsated with rage, and her lips tightened as if she had eaten sour candy. Kyle smirked while he was out of the teacher's face. I could tell that Kyle didn't care.

As Kyle walked past to sit at his desk in the back. The girls beside me looked and each other and began whispering amongst themselves. But I started to eavesdrop on the girls beside me as they mentioned Kyle's name.

"Kyle has been hooking up with many older women," one girl said. "Imagine how low you must be hooking up with older women."

The second girl laughed and gawked. "Yeah, talk about toxic masculinity."

I looked back at Kyle without making it obvious and pretended to stare at the clock above him. I moved my eyes down and started checking him out again. I gulped my innocence down my throat and felt weird that I was stalking him across the room. But of course, I was curious if Kyle did the things the girls talked about. I never listen to rumours, but he was late to class and disappearing throughout the day. I felt like that rumour was true.

Like last week, he walked in with a giant hickey on his neck. He tried to hide it with his scarf, but it fell off in front of many people and me. I didn't think much of it, but to other people, it was like eye candy to them. I felt terrible that I was one of those people who couldn't stop staring.