Love Triangle

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Chapter Thirty-Nine

It was the second week of November and I was finally making breakthrough progress with my script. I almost hit the half way mark and my dialogue felt clear-cut, to the point, and raw. I could now see the script playing in my head like a movie. Following the classical outline of a Beat Sheet. Beat by beat. Scene by scene. I swapped a few scenes to Mark and his feedback was mainly positive and encouraging and trust me when I say that Mark is a harsh critic, merciless to the core.

Ms. McConnell brought me out of my script reveries when she announced that there will be one oral presentation before the end of the semester and that its to be done and presented in pairs. Cook's head snapped instantly backward. We made silent eye contact and I already knew what he was asking. It's one thing to help each other, its another to count on him for a graded project.

After school, I hopped into Kent's car. This was slowly becoming a normal occurrence. We were official. I couldn't wrap my mind around it. My heart was always beating you'd think it jump out of my chest already. I rubbed my eyes often and not due to sleep deprivation and from looking at my laptop screen often but because I was making sure that all this wasn't just a surreal extended dream. Safe to say I was suspicious. Of him. Of me. Of the turn of events. Which is never the best way to start any relationship, but that was just my inner paranoia talking. I trust Kent.

We were making out in his car. Music playing softly in the background and the heater blasting as snow had already come to us in little bursts this week. I was picturing this somewhat exact scene for my script.

Kent sighed. "For someone who has never kissed before, you're pretty damn good."

"I've learned from the best," I pointed out. It was weird because getting together actually made me more comfortable with Kent as if all those years of friendship were finally resurfacing. Kent was safe and known to me. It didn't matter the short fall out we had. This was us. This was right.

Kent was laughing. "That's true."

I gave him a light shove and he took my hand and held it. Tonight, we were going on our first official date.

Before pulling out of the parking lot, some of his teammates were hitting on the hood of his car and hooting as they caught us mid-kiss. The thing with being with Kent was the fear of constant exposure. Some girls and guys that had never spoken to me before were adding me on Instagram and Facebook. It all came in waves. It was one thing to be the private and the quiet best friend of the school's model. It was completely another to be the girlfriend of the school's most famous soccer player not to mention captain.

***

After leaving the bowling alley we went to, Kent asked if he could come over. So far I've said no each time he asked. Because a) I was nervous b) Cook might show up and come over, on purpose or not. But today more than ever I was refusing. Cook and I had decided to meet up at mine to discuss what we'll do for our English oral. We usually met up on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays when Kent had practice and couldn't hang out with me anyway.

"Sometimes I feel like you don't want to be with me."