Loving Kinnick (Rewritten 2023)

Chapter Eight

My mom only knew one way to thank people. It started with her tying a yellow apron across her waist and preheating the oven. She left traces of her most used ingredients across the kitchen island and when I came home from school; I had to use the evidence to decipher what was baking in the oven.

People told me how much I reminded them of my mother, but she lived and breathed kindness. I don't. Sometimes I question if I am alive or just existing. In moments like this one, I felt close to her, though. With the yellow apron I salvaged from the dumpster tied around my waist and the ingredients I remembered her using to bake blueberry muffins scattered around the counters, I felt determined.

I tossed a dash of sugar over the golden tops seeping with blueberries, perfecting them with an even coat before setting them gently inside the brown paper bags for safekeeping. After folding the top and keeping it sealed with a yellow sticker heart, I snatched it off the counter and made my way out of the backdoor.

The thick atmosphere made me close my eyes in contentment before my body treaded through the fog that laid over the small town like an invisibility cloak, making it difficult to see further than my backyard. The fall drizzle came down from the clouds, coating the blacktop roads and Evergreens with misty showers. Small droplets of rain repelled off my yellow raincoat as it slipped from the leaves. Suddenly, it felt like October.

 I walked through the grass, feeling it sink underneath my boot as the mud shifted from my weight. My fingers clutched the bag tighter to my chest as I stepped onto the campus. I wasn't oblivious to the people kicking up gravel and splashing their friends with dirty puddles of rainwater, but they weren't as important as finding the man I baked breakfast for.

 When I noticed Miles standing by a truck with the other group I met yesterday, I approached them with only one question playing through my head.

 "Well, good morning, Boston Bennett," Miles threw his cigarette to the ground before smashing it with the tip of his boot. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"

 "Wait, Boston Bennett?" I noticed the man with a buzz cut immediately and before I could say a word, he spoke first. "Why does that sound so familiar?"

 "You probably heard it from Kinnick," Trevor interrupted him.

  "Do you know where he is?"

 "You just missed him. He was actually looking for you."

 "Looking for me?"

 His finger covered in thick silver rings pointed toward the C-wing. "He just went inside, darling."

 I heard their whispering voices when I walked away. It didn't bother me, though. The distraction of finding Kinnick made me care less about their words. When I stepped through the doors, I saw the fighter walking down the hallway with a look of annoyance on his slightly tanned face.

 The sound of my boots caught his attention as I approached him. As I reached into the paper bag to grab one of two blueberry muffins, his eyes stared skeptically at the sweet treat in my hand. His gaze lifted to meet mine as if he was questioning what I was doing.

 "It is for you."

 "Why?"

 "Did you eat this morning?"

 His silence answered me in a way his words couldn't. My shoulders raised with triumph as he snatched the muffin from my hand. While I munched on the top of my muffin, we carried on, walking down the hallway, not speaking but enjoying our breakfast.

 "So, if you've been attending here this whole time," I chewed on my blueberry muffin. "Why haven't I seen you?"

 "You never looked, and you never asked."

"Well, what am I supposed to ask a stranger? Is there any chance we go to the same school?"

"Yes," he cocked his brows in amusement. "That's exactly what you ask."

"You make me nervous."

"Is that so?" He shoved the rest of his muffin into his mouth.

"You know you do," I double-take to make sure he finished it off. "How did you eat that so fast?"

"I make many people nervous, Bo."

"Do you enjoy scaring people?" I looked at him with curiosity.

"I don't particularly hate it."

"Doesn't it make you feel bad?"

 "No because everyone leaves me alone."

 "Do you want me to leave you alone?"

 His head rolled to the side to look at me. "Never. I'll see you after class, yeah?"

 A hum left my lips as he opened the door for me to walk inside. "Yeah."

 "Good," his teeth nibbled on his bottom lip.

 As if heat radiated from his gaze, I could feel him warming every inch of my skin as I walked past him. When I glanced over my shoulder, I caught him watching. Yet, it never stopped him. He just dropped a wink and pushed away from the door. I caught one last glance of his black jean jacket before the door blocked him from my sight.

 I questioned how he made me feel, but I tried not to dwell on the fantasy as I closed in on the seat beside Chrissy. The woman I would consider my best friend only stared at me with her lips pursed as if she was pondering the decision to speak her mind or not, so I rolled my head to look at her.

 "Whatever you have to say, let it out."

 "Why are you hanging around Kinnick Carson? He isn't good company, Bo."

 "Well, from the time we have spent together, I beg to differ."

 "Luke and I agreed he isn't good for you."

 "Oh," I choked on laughter. "So, when you are not monitoring my attendance, you are deciding who I can and cannot hang out with. This is great."

 "Bo, please," her face sunk. "I am not trying – "

 "Chrissy, quite honestly, I don't care to hear it anymore."

 "Luke said he isn't a good guy."

 "Right, but Luke is despite calling Kinnick trailer trash? We all know if Kinnick didn't belong here, your mom wouldn't allow him to be."

 "Just because she is the president, doesn't mean she has the authority to deny him."

 "This is exactly what that means."

 "Bo, we aren't your enemies."

 "And neither is Kinnick."

 "That boy only wants one thing, and he made that clear when he watched you walk through that door."