“If it was sexual, we would. But it wasn’t. And who, except for the people who were here, would understand that?”
He was right. No one would get it. She wasn’t even sure she did.
She reached for the door handle. “It will never, ever happen again.”
“I know.”
“We will not even get close to this happening again.”
He’d stayed by the counter. “Not even close.”
It hurt to look at him.
“Okay, then. Good night, Mark.”
She opened the door and ran.
“HEY, KENNY.”
“Hey.”
“Here’s your bag.” Standing on the far side of the bushes that surrounded Lincoln Elementary, Kelsey unzipped the side pocket of her backpack. “Sorry it’s so crumpled,” she said. “I had to fit parts of my volcano project in here, too.”
Kenny grinned and that made Kelsey feel good. She’d told Josie how cute he was, but she hadn’t told her
friend that Kenny’s smile made her feel weird stuff in her stomach. She was really starting to like the way his hair was so long that he looked like he needed it cut all the time.
“No problem,” he said. “It’s really lame that you even have to do this.”
“I don’t have to,” she told him, wishing she was in junior high, too. “I mean, last week, before I knew you, I kinda felt like I had to. But not this time. I told Don on Friday that I’m happy to help.”
“Why would you be?” he asked, completely serious as he took the bag and stuffed it under his arm inside his jacket. “You could get in lots of trouble.”
“No more than I’m already in,” she told him with a groan.
Someone passed and he pushed them farther into the bushes, standing in front so whoever was there wouldn’t see her. Kelsey wanted to die, thinking that an older boy as cute as Kenny would do something nice for her like that. She wished Josie could’ve seen it.
“Why?” he asked when the coast was clear. “What’d you do?”
“Screamed at my dad in front of his friends. Didn’t apologize when he told me to.”
“He’s a creep, huh?”
“No…” Would he like her less, if her dad was cool? “He’s just… He’s got this woman I think he might marry and he wants her to be like my mom and all, and I can’t let her.”
Kenny put a hand on a thick stake that was tied to the bushes, leaning a little closer to her. He smelled kind of different. But good. Kelsey liked it.
“No shit,” he said. “That’s tough. I remember when my old lady first started dating again. I hated it. But then I realized that because she brought other guys home it didn’t mean I couldn’t still have my dad be my dad. And besides, I didn’t want my folks together, anyway.”
He didn’t? He was so grown up. “Why not?”
“Because when they were together it was like them against me a lot of the time. When they aren’t, it’s just me and them.”
Yeah. Kelsey considered her time alone with each of her parents. He was right. “I never thought of that.”
“I don’t like it so much, now that I live just with my mom and can’t see my dad,” he said. “But that’ll change.”
“My mom has a lawyer to fix it all for us.” She told him something she’d only ever have told Josie before she knew Kenny.