Imperfections

* * * * *

“So...Alex, uh, I was wondering if you would like to go see a movie this weekend?” Tyler asked expectantly.

He cleared his throat loudly to make up for the awkward silence that had settled between us. I flinched as his throat made an awful grinding sound.

“Um...actually I’m already going ou-” I started.

“She’s going out with me.” Kade interrupted, suddenly appearing out of nowhere.

Kade squeezed into the small space between Tyler and I and put his arm around my waist, pulling me towards him, making it clear that we were a couple. My cheeks grew hot as Tyler stammered a “sorry” and left with his head down. Kade smirked to himself as Tyler walked off.  

“What was that all about?” I asked, infuriated. “I could have handled that myself! Now he must feel awful.” I glared at Kade and broke away from him, busily putting books into my bag.

He raised his eyebrows and grabbed my waist again. I broke away from him and slammed my locker door shut. He gave me a little half-grin and in return I scowled.

“What?” I asked through clenched teeth.

“Oh nothing.”

He turned to leave. But I wasn’t going to let this go.

“No, please tell me” I asked, grabbing his wrist.

He raised his eyebrows once more and interlocked his fingers in mine.

“You just look cute when you’re mad.” He said, suppressing a smile.

I tried to be mad but he had got me. As I turned away to hide a smile he started laughing at my reaction, but I was still determined to be mad. I hit his shoulder with one of my hopeless punches. Kade laughed even harder as I cringed because his shoulder had hurt my hand. A small smile worked its way up to my mouth and I let out a little laugh. Again, he locked his hands around my lower back and pulled me in for a hug, but this time I let him.  We stood there for a moment, just staying in each other's arms until my senses came back to me. I pulled myself back a little and looked him straight in the eyes.

“But really Kade, I could have handled it.” I said confidently.

He sighed and looked down for a moment before resting his eyes on mine.

“Please,” I pleaded. “be nice, it  already made me feel  awful to reject him.”

“Okay.” He sighed.

I gaped at how quick he had agreed but before I could respond he hugged me once more and fished his car keys out of his pocket.

“We still studying tonight?” he questioned.

“I guess so...” I said cautiously.

“Sounds good. See you later hun.” He winked and walked down the hallway towards the exit.

I rolled my eyes and grabbed my bag, heading out into the hot New Mexico air. Frustrated, I got into my red convertible and turned on the engine.

“I loath him and love him.” The simple sentence kept resounding in my head. My eyebrows creased as I voiced the question that had just come to mind. “Is that possible?”

* * * * *

I shoved my cell phone in my pocket and gathered my textbooks. Pushing

the library door open, I shivered as the cold night air rippled through me. Setting my textbooks down on a bench, I prepared for the two mile walk home by zipping up my coat. I had expected for Kade to take me home so I had just had my mom drop me off, but Kade hadn’t shown.