Chapter 21

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I woke up in a sweat. Apparently I mentally prepared too much and had a nightmare of how today would go. I looked at the clock beside my bed and groaned. It was only 4 am. I had 4 hours before school started and there was no way in hell that I was going back to sleep. I sat up abruptly and looked over at the window adjacent to mine and sighed. His light was off which meant he was asleep, but then again it was 4 in the morning, I don't know why I expected someone besides me to be awake. I lied down and closed my eyes, it was stupid to even think about fawning over him, but after what he did at the hospital, I couldn't help but to do so. This was so unlike me, to even remotely think about a boy the way I do when it comes to Kyle. I don't do this, I'm a potato, and potatoes don't fawn! Potatoes also don't have sex but I guess I dropped the potato act a while ago huh. Either way, I was acting out of character and have been since I met Kyle. Not that I blamed him.

I guess for a while, I wanted to impress him. At some point, my brain saw him fawning over the cheerleaders and I took it upon myself to make myself appealing to him. And after that, I just adapted to the personality change. I changed for a boy, and I broke the promise I made to myself not too long ago sating that I would never do just that. I exhaled and sat up again. This time, Kyle's light was on. I checked the clock and jumped out of bed. Even though it had only been an hour since I woke up and I was 110 percent sure I looked like shit, I still climbed out of the window and down that stupid tree. Kyle didn't have a tree, but he did have a makeshift ladder by his window so, for the first time, I climbed Kyle's ladder. I got to the closed window and raised my hand to knock but when I heard whispering voices, I look inside. I saw a girl climb out of Kyle's bed as he threw clothes in her direction. I felt my cheeks get hot and my vision began to blur. Kyle bent down to pick up another piece of clothing and looked over to the window and made eye contact with me.

I ducked down and climbed back down the ladder and ran to my side of the house. Not really liking the idea of climbing back up the tree with a blurred vision, I ran to the back of the house and tried my best to sneak in but with my luck this morning, I failed. My mom stood in the kitchen with a coffee cup and a newspaper. She looked up at me and immediately put her cup down. By this time, tears were streaming down my face and my mom look worried. "Anna, honey w--" I shook my head and then quickly ran up to my room, quietly shutting door and locking it. It was stupid of me to be upset. Kyle wasn't mine! He isn't!! But I even deep down, I knew that it would hurt. I didn't blame him for moving on, I just wish I would've made my decision quicker. Either way, I had no desire to go to school today, or any other day this week. Even though it was my first day back, my doctor told me to take it easy. He gave me a note that extended to the end of this week in case I wasn't feeling up to going back to school just yet. And up until now, I was going to go back.

There was a knock on my door and I sighed as I unlocked it. Mom sent dad to my room as usual because I was supposedly a daddy's girl. "You okay, Annie?" I nodded and I went and sat back down on my bed. "We can talk about it if you want." I aggressively shook my head no and he held his hands up defensively. "Don't break your neck kiddo, we don't have to talk. I'm guessing by the fact that you just nonchalantly tucked yourself back in to bed that you're not feeling school today?" I nodded and he came over and kissed my forehead. "Well, whatever's wrong, I know you'll get through it. But just know, you don't have to get through it alone. Talk to your mom will ya? She feels like you never want to open up to her anymore. Love ya sweetie. I'll see you when I'm off work." he walked out of the room and I closed my eyes.

I can't be upset over this. I have no right to be upset about this. He isn't mine to be upset over. I let a few stray tears drift down the side of my face and onto my pillow before attempting to doze off. For a while, I just sat there with my eyes closed hoping that exhaustion would take over and I'd be asleep. But the sound of my mom's car driving off let me know that sleep wasn't in the near future and I had to do something productive to get the picture of Kyle and that girl out of my mind. Who even was she? I had never seen her around school, or town. And it's a small town so I'm sure that at some point I would have seen her. I turned over and put a pillow on top of my face and screamed. Suddenly, I was making a big deal of nothing. My phone vibrated and there was a text from both Melody and Aiden. I told both of them that I wasn't feeling good and they both responded with a brief okay and feel better. I didn't want to stay in the house because every five seconds, I would catch myself staring at Kyle's window and the picture would pop up in my head again and I couldn't deal with it.

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