The Bluest of Eyes

Chapter six

“… and he actually got to meet Ellen?” Kenzie asked a second time for confirmation, sighing with envy when Drew nodded. “I can’t believe your little brother ended up meeting Ellen DeGeneres just because he did her dance dare wearing a Superman costume.”

Her and Drew had been talking for what must have been hours in a secluded place away from the ongoing party. They had snuck some refreshments with them, alternating stories about everything but the kitchen sink with shots of alcohol. They were sat on a pair of logs, and despite the unfortunate seating arrangement (bark wasn’t exactly a cushion), Kenzie was enjoying herself. From what she could tell, Drew also seemed to be having a good time, evident by the laughter they had shared over the dance dare story he had just shared.

“I imagine you do the Harlem shake wearing a Batman outfit to upstage him?” Kenzie pondered out loud and chuckled.

He shook his head. “I’m not the type of guy who upstages people. I guess that’s why people don’t take notice of me.”

“Oh come on, yo-,” Kenzie began protesting before he cut her off.

“You didn’t even know my name,” he retorted to prove a point.

“Because you practically underwent an extreme makeover since I last saw you,” she defended herself and raised an eyebrow.

“Okay, fair enough,” he admitted. “But it’s not like you took much notice of me when we had Biology together either.”

“You sat next to John Wilkinson and he peeked at your paper during every single test. Sasha Peters would ask you to partner up with her for projects because she thought you would do all the work, and you were too nice to say no,” Kenzie recited from memory in one breath. “And whenever Mr. Rhodes would be writing things on the whiteboard, you’d draw stuff on your desk and erase it before he saw it.”

Her answer came out of left field and left him flustered. Had she actually remembered all of that? He had never been the popular guy, and his wallflower tendencies had made it easier for people to forget his face, name or even notice his existence at all. Drew hadn’t had problems with it; he never had a need for attention, unlike most teens he had encountered at high school.

Still, being told by Kenzie Harper – the beautiful, popular girl with the blonde hair and the bluest of eyes – that his existence hadn’t been completely neglected made him feel a weird sense of humbleness. What prompted her to remember a guy like him, when she had a cluster of guys around her?

“What, no reaction?” she asked teasingly and poked his arm.

“Well…” he didn’t really know what to say. It felt like he had just gained her approval, somehow, and his mind played mind tricks on him, making him think that anything he’d say next would ruin everything, as if she was an exceptional butterfly and he was afraid of scaring her away.

You see, Kenzie Harper had been the object of his desires since their sophomore year. She was unreachable, sitting on her throne as the reigning queen of Tarrytown, and he was a mere peasant, always observing from the sideline. It wasn’t the creepy kind of affection, nor did he show stalker tendencies, and he had never been obsessed with her. A harmless crush on a girl he knew he could never have, yet he sat here with her by his side, and she was saying all the right things.

He had played it cool, putting his newfound confidence on display, but the moment she had acknowledged him in his first version – where he was shorter, fatter and a loner of sorts – it was like he went back in time. He felt 16 again.

“It’s just that…” he began, under the influence of the alcohol which he had drunk throughout the course of the night, ready to share yet another story with the blonde. The story of how he had always had a crush on her.

“Just what?” she inquired, curious to hear what he was going to say.

“It’s going to sound really silly, but I’ve alw-“ he stammered before he was interrupted by a blurt of music.

Her cell phone.

She stood up and grabbed her phone from the back pocket of her jeans shorts, holding it up as she gave him an apologetic look. “Sorry, it’s my mom,” she sighed and answered the call, taking a few steps to the side to get some privacy. She returned some minutes later, a worried expression on her face, and the smile she had worn all night had faded.

“What’s wrong?” Drew asked and got up, her uneasiness making him worried as well.

“Uhm,” she didn’t know if telling him was the right thing to do, but she didn’t want to leave him without explaining herself. “My brother was caught smoking marijuana, and they just got back from the police station,” she shared, realizing how surreal it sounded. People got caught for shit like this in movies, but Kenzie had never expected it to happen for real - especially not to her brother. “So, yeah, I have to go.”

“I’ll call a cab for you,” he offered and picked up his phone.  

“No, it’s fine, I’ll walk,” she insisted. She wasn’t drunk enough to get lost in the woods, and it would only take her about fifteen minutes. Okay, more like twenty five minutes, if she wanted to avoid the sketchy areas of the neighborhood.

“Kenzie,” he said, sounding nearly identical to her father. “You’re not walking home alone. It’s late.” No matter how good the neighborhood was, you would be silly for setting out on a longer walk in the middle of the night. As a good looking – but small – girl, you’d be setting yourself up for even more trouble.

She didn’t bother to protest, and he called the cab for her. Ten minutes later it was there to pick her up, and he made sure she got in safely, watching as the vehicle drove away.

There she went, again.

**

It had been a chaotic hour for the entire family. When Kenzie arrived home, she walked in on her brother receiving the scolding of a lifetime by her father, and her mother on the verge of tears. It took a while before her mother had calmed down enough to send Nathan to his room, and her father still hadn’t stopped shaking from anger as he headed up the stairs and dashed to the room belonging to her brother.

“What the hell was that?” She asked, entering the room without knocking.

No reply.

“What were you thinking? Are you stupid or just clueless? Marijuana, Nate? Seriously?” she blurted out, the alcohol in her system and the sheer frustration of her brother’s stupidity making it difficult to form a clear sentence.

Still no reply.

“You’re just going to stay silent for the rest of your life?” Kenzie’s heart was pounding fast and she was almost shaking from anger. Or worry. She didn’t know where one feeling ended and another took over; they overlapped and caused her mind into frenzy. “Okay. You know what? Be quiet. I gave you that movie ticket to be nice, so you could do something else than roaming the streets with your buddies. I honestly don’t know what’s happening with you. First you get suspended and now you’re in possession of drugs,” she fumed. “You need to stop doing whatever the fuck you think you’re doing,” she demanded and walked back to the door she had stormed in through minutes earlier. “If not for yourself, then at least do it for mom and dad. They don’t deserve this.”

She left the room and slammed the door shut behind her. When he got suspended from school last year they had all been convinced that it was a one-time thing and that history wouldn’t repeat itself. It had come out of nowhere, and none of them wanted to believe that the son of an influential family, with no prior uncanny behavior, was going down the wrong path.

Unfortunately, that seemed to be the case, and Kenzie didn’t know if she was more worried about him or her parents.