He Who Stole My First Kiss

{1}: Has the World Gone Mad?

"Here he comes Kyla." Haley said. I looked and for sure he was coming. I ducked my head and rushed by him. Who is it I'm avoiding? Daniel Colt. Mr. Popular.  But instead of calling him,"He who shall not be named" we call him,"He who stole my first kiss." Well, I do. My best friend, Haley, calls him Mr. Hot Stuff or Mr. Soon to be my boyfriend. I just roll my eyes at the thought.

It's been a month since that kiss. And oddly enough, Daniel hasn't bothered me. This was good news but at the same time, was I that bad of a kisser? I mean, give me a break. It was my first kiss. When we walked by each other in the hallway one of us would duck our heads and rush by. Most times its me. Ever since that kiss the whole school has been in turmoil over it. The social part of school anyway.

There's always the people who don't forget a thing. The kiss being one. People have been "shipping" us since that day. Daniel has been unusually quiet about it. I have been against it since that day. Meaning that I voice my objections while he simply smirks. People still don't understand that though. No matter how many times I'd tell them. It seems that I was the only one fighting the idea. It worries me that Daniel is quiet.

He's unusually quiet about the whole thing. In the hallways, he avoids eye, verbal, and physical contact. Am I that bad? I wonder. Only he can tell me. It's making me stress out a lot. As I reached the library I took a deep breath. It's the second to the last period of the day and all I have to do is sit there and read. Like I always do. It's kind of different. He's in the library at this time of the day also. I should know since all he ever did was annoy me.

I found a seat at the back and pulled out Paper Towns. John Green was simply an amazing author. I plugged in my earphones and started my zen library playlist. It included songs by artists like, Ed Sheeran, Hozier, Adele, and others. I sat back and looked around while the music played a bit. I always did this. I liked to build up into reading a book. So, I listened to music. It was kind of like a pumping up session or a pregame warm up. My style.

I picked up the book and continued where I left off. Someone sat down beside me. I kept reading, trying hard to focus. I really wanted to look and see who it was but the book was too good to quit. The bell finally rang and I looked quickly to see who it was. It was Haley. And I thought that person would be exciting or at least Daniel a small part of me hoped. Not that Haley isn't exciting, she's, well, I see her everyday. I bid goodbye to her and started towards my last class, Art. This wasn't a regular art class though.

It was for the high scoring students in art from last year. For seniors, to be exact. So when class started we had an assignment already. It was to draw and paint a flower in great detail with water colors. Our teacher just sat at the front and texted. The class was useless but had a use at the same time. Confusing but practical. I sat back and looked at the blank canvas on the easel.

Where to start, where to start. Not sure. I closed my eyes, picked up a pencil and place it on a random spot. I started out a small base with my eyes closed. It was in almost the top right corner. One of the most awkward things about this class is that most of those people who "ship" Daniel and I are here. It gets quite annoying. There's always a note at my desk with our ship name.

There's many varieties of it. We have Kaniel, Dyla, Daniky. Yeah the last one doesn't make sense. But hey, I didn't come up with them. As the last few minutes of class neared I made the finishing touches on my assignment. The bell rang and I left my work on the easel to be graded. I grabbed my keys and headed to the parking lot.

I'm not sure that I wanna go home yet. I catch up with Haley and we go to the football field. This was a central hangout for some people after school. I've always wondered why people would spend extra time after school when we've been there all day. After grabbing a seat Haley and I started our usual routine. We pulled out our books and started to read. After five minutes Haley put her book down.

"I thought about your situation." She says. I look to her confused. "There are many situations I have, elaborate for me." I said and put down my book also. "Daniel Colt." She said. I nodded, motioning for her to continue. "How is it that after one kiss a boy who annoyed you ever since junior year ignores you for a month? Was it you? Was it him?" She asked.

"I don't know, Haley. I don't know." I said. As she continued to blabber on about us I looked to the field. I spotted Daniel during a drill. He looked completely focused. If you look at Daniel Colt, you see popular and handsome written all over his face. Look at me and you see a well known girl who always has her nose in a good book. How in the world do people see us together?

I, Kyla Jones, do not see it. As football practice ended I got up and decided to go home. I bid goodbye to Haley and set towards my car. I was walking towards my car and tripped. My stuff flew everywhere. I quickly grabbed up my stuff. I looked and saw my binder on the ground a few feet away from me. I reached to grab it but someone beat me to it. I looked up and it was Daniel.

"Here you go." He said. I took the binder and stood up in front of him. "After a month, you decide to speak to me." I said to him. For once, Daniel Colt had no comeback. "Look, this month has probably been just as hard for you as it has for me." He said. I just nodded.

"I know that I've annoyed you for as long as I could remember, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I miss you." He said. I just stared at him confused. This arrogant idiotic boy missed me? Daniel Colt, out of all people, missed me. "Weird I know, but I want to start over." He said. I still said nothing.

"So you're not gonna say anything?" He asked.

"What do you mean, start over." I asked. He gave me a small smile. "Well, I was thinking that we could start as friends." He said.

Has the world gone mad?