Children of the Boss

Chapter 37: Kenneth

March 15th

Spring break came quickly, and the Saturday of break I sat on my bed after sleeping in until noon. We weren't doing anything fun this break because Dean had his own plans, Eve was on a different break schedule, and Gabriel wanted to hang out with his friends at home. Riley was going to Florida with her family, Madison was going with Alex to Atlanta, and anyone else I would want to hang out with was doing their own thing. Besides Carmen, but we hadn't really talked a lot.

As I was skimming through my phone, still not wanting to get out of bed yet, a knock came on my door. "Come in," I called, still looking at my phone.

In the corner of my eye I saw Carmen come in. "Hi," she said.

"Hey," I said, turning my phone off and sitting up. 

Then I looked at her, and it was then that I realized I hadn't looked at her in a long time. I mean really looked at her. The last time I looked at her was for her birthday, and she didn't look that good then. She looked skinny, pale, sick, sad. 

Here, before me, she looked so beautiful. She was full of color. Her skin was tanned because spring came early this year and she was outside a lot more. She was wearing denim shorts with a vibrant and nice yellow tank top, which only made her skin look more tan. She had a yellow flower in her hair, pinning some back. Her eyes were so bright, and she looked bigger. Not overweight, just healthy and curvier, womanly. I was stunned.

Meanwhile, I probably looked gross with my bed head, bad breath, and shorts that needed to be washed. I needed to shave too and my shoulders had gotten sunburned the other day so now they were peeling.

"What are your plans for today?" she asked.

"Um, nothing really. What about you?" I asked.

"Nothing either." She played with her fingers. I could tell she wanted to say something. "Kenneth," she said, and it was the first time I heard her say my name in a while. "I um...I just..." She looked at me, pausing. "I wanted to let you know that I'm going to school in Brazil."

I nodded my head once. Brazil was a few hour flight away. 

"Um, I was thinking of going for a year, just to get away."

"Get away from what?" I asked.

"Nothing. I mean, I don't want to get away from anything I just want to...I don't know. Experience something new. I'm not running away from anything, I'm just running to something."

I nodded again. "When are you going? Aren't they on a different schedule?"

"Yeah," she said, taking a step closer. "My classes would start early July."

"Oh, well...cool. I'm glad for you."

"Thanks..."

It seemed like she still wanted to tell me something. "Do you want to sit down?" I asked.

"No," she said, shaking her head and stepping closer. "Kenneth, I just wanted to say thank you."

I furrowed my brow. "What for?"

"For...for telling Pop," she said, looking at her hands. "I know I was mean to you and angry, but you did the right thing. Therapy has really helped me, so I just wanted to say thank you because it ended up really helping me. I wanted to apologize too, for being so mean to you when you did the right thing." She glanced back up at me, and then back down at her hands.

"Don't be sorry, Carmen, I-"

"No," she said firmly. "Don't try to act like I have nothing to apologize for. I'm sorry, because I know I really hurt you and for no good reason, whereas you were only doing the right thing. I'm allowed to make mistakes and apologize for them. You always give me these excuses and-"