His Death Awakened Me (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 2: Realizing Something

As we sat down for dinner, which was chicken souvlaki, one of my favorites, I glanced across the table at Kim. She sat quietly, her dark brown hair was curled. I couldn't help but think how beautiful she looked sitting there. Collin was seated next to me, our parents on either end of the table, and Kim's parents to her right. I was directly across from her. Dang it. I thought. I didn't want dinner to be awkward, and it was already feeling like it before we even started eating.

"So, Kim. How's school?" My mom asked.

"Oh it's pretty good," she replied, her dark eyes briefly looking over at me before looking down. "Well that's good to hear,' said my mom.

"She's doing good, although I think she is getting a litle tired of it. Huh Kim?" Her dad said.

"Well, it's just long that's all," Kim said.

"Oh, tell me about it Tom," said my dad, "Jake feels the same way." Oh no. They were bringing me into the conversation. I didn't want to say something stupid.

"Well, uh..it get's old," I smiled. Everyone laughed lightly at me. I looked down, red coloring my face, slightly embarrassed. I glanced up over at Kim. She was looking at me smiling. I decided to address her directly, for better or worse.

"I understand completely. Don't worry 'bout it," I said. Unfortunately, this was going exactly how I didn't want it to go.

I steeled myself for the rest of the dinner, sitting quietly and eating. I noticed Kim doing the same. Collin was unusually quiet as well. I figured this was because of his break-up with Sydney, and I understood why it wasn't exactly something to bring up at dinner, especially with guests over. When I finished, I stood up. "Thanks for dinner, it was delicious," I said to my mom.

"Yea it was really good," said Collin. Everyone else prettty much said something to that affect over each other.

"You're welcome. I'm glad everyone liked it," she said.

"I'm going out back, you wanna come?" I asked Kim carefully. As much as I didn't know what the hell we were going to talk about, I knew I couldn't just leave her here with the parents. That would be rude. I braced myself.

"Sure," she replied tentatively. She followed me to the back of the house and out the sliding glass door. Our little shi-tzu Oscar came running up onto the patio from the lawn.

"Hey Oscar," I said, scooping him up and setting him on my lap as we sat down.

"He's so cute," Kim said, reaching out to pet him.

"Yea, haha. He can be naughty though. Huh Oscar?" I said. "So how've you been?" I couldn't help myself. Sometimes I was stupid.

"Pretty good. Just going to school and work, which is so exciting," she said sarcastically. I laughed.

"Oh yea it's just a blast! Although....I have to admit, because Collin and I are still here at home, it makes it easier." She looked at me. I felt like her eyes were piercing right through me, and judging from her expression, I felt as if she was reading my thoughts. But she wasn't.

"You two are really close aren't you?" She said softly.

"Yea we are. I guess because it's always been just us, and we aren't that far apart in age or something. We just..." I shrugged, "get along really well. At least...sometimes." She laughed.

"That's definitely true. I don't think we ever get along with our siblings all the time." I briefly thought about her older sister Emma, who was Collin's age, and younger brother Briggs, who was 12.

"What have yours been up to anyway?" I asked.

"They're doing good. Emma is off at college, living on campus, so we only see her for holidays and stuff. That's right. I remembered. Emma was attending Portland State. We all lived in Salem, and it was about an hour drive to Portland, so that made sense.