Kith never thought that her senior year of high school would be spent in a frat house, especially the frat house of her ex-best friend's, douchey, irresponsible older brother, Cameron. She'd fantasized about going to college since middle school, but...
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Kith hustled to finish getting dressed for school. Even though Cameron was on Spring Break, public school was still in session. In fact, her Spring Break wasn't for another month, the beginning of April. That meant she'd just be lounging around the frat house for seven straight days.
"Hold on," Cameron motioned for her to slow down. "I gotta make sure your shoes match."
Kith feigned annoyance and stopped moving. Secretly, she was thankful. Since her stomach blocked all southern visibility, she valued his actions. "Good?"
"Shouldn't you be wearing shoes that slip on?" he questioned, kneeling down to retie her left one.
"Maybe," she answered defiantly.
"Lucky for you, they do match," he commented, standing back up. "And I'm here, so you should always be thankful for that." Grabbing his keys from his desk, he flipped out the light and waved for her to follow him.
At school, Kith slowly made her way through the bodies, backpacks, and noise. Her lower back burned, and all she wanted to do was sit down. "A little less than three more months," she mumbled, breathing through her nose. After graduation, she'd never have to deal with another crowded hallway. All of it would've been a little more bearable had she been a little less pregnant. "A little less than two months..." Saying it aloud was actually quite frightening, but she pushed the fear aside and focused on her locker combination instead.
Glancing down the hallway, she unintentionally locked eyes with Sam. Spinning a soccer ball around, he gave her that head-nod. Kith smiled back and ducked back into the relative safety of her locker. Exhaling, she momentarily considered what could have been, if she'd gone out with Sam. If she'd gotten pregnant after dating him for a while, would he have stuck around? Kith narrowed her eyes and thought harder. She never would've taken that into consideration before. From the conversations and laughs they'd shared, Sam seemed like a nice guy. His backing off after hearing she was pregnant was understandable, but it still hurt. Oh well. Kith shook it off. That was way past over. She had a semi-responsible guy in her life; a guy who made sure her shoes matched every single morning. That was enough.
"Kith."
Jumping, she nearly dropped the government book in her hands. Turning to her left, she locked eyes with him, and almost jumped again. For a split second, she'd thought it was Sam.
"What?" her voice barely came above a whisper. Tucking nervous strands of hair behind her ear, she breathed quickly to calm her heart. Austin just looked at her, backpack hanging casually over one shoulder. He looked sort of like Cameron, except Cameron would never style his hair into a faux-hawk. She wanted to tell him how stupid his hair looked, but the barb died in her throat. Shoving the book into the top compartment, she ran her hands over her purple cardigan. Why was he bothering her? "I don't... I don't want to talk to you, Austin."
