Along one wall were several cabinets with trophies, pictures of him getting the trophies, several newspaper articles, along with some of the football team as well. On the other wall, she saw pictures of him with Noah. Then one of him, Noah, Elsa, and her.
What surprised her was a picture beside his bed, and she took a seat, picking up the framed photograph. It was of her sitting on the grass outside of the school, her chemistry book splayed open. Her throat felt thick as she stared at her past self.
****
Ten years ago
It was really hot indoors, and rather than try to teach, Mrs. Donald had brought them outside to bask in the fresh air. Several of their classmates were sunbathing, holding a book up, and pretending to learn. Kim sat in the shade of the tree. She’d not brought a hat, and if she wasn’t careful, she’d burn and be in agony for days.
Kurt didn’t seem to mind. Rather than walk away, he stayed by her side, flicking through emails, and munching on the apple he’d found in her bag.
“Don’t you want to sunbathe?” she asked, opening up her book.
“Nope.”
Kim cursed in her head, looked down at her book, and started to work. She just couldn’t shake him. If she was mean, he was nice. If she was nice, he remained nice. If she ignored him, he kept on talking. Now he was eating her food, sitting way too close, and she was scared. What if he spat some apple at her?
Glancing over at him, she saw that he had finished the apple, and tossed the core in the trash.
He’s never thrown stuff at you before.
Just vile words.
“If I get some sun lotion, I can rub it on you,” he said, leaning on her shoulder.
Kim growled and shoved him off. “Stop being … you. Just work. There, can’t you do that? Just work, and leave me alone.”
“Wow, are you due on or something?” he asked.
“Due on?”
“You know, menstruating.”
Why did she allow herself to get dragged into these conversations? “You’re disgusting.”
“And I thought there was a reason for girls to be a bitch. Don’t you have a law or something that allows you to be a bitch three days a month? Come on, that’s pretty good going. You’ve got a reason to be a bitch, and us guys, we don’t.”
“That just comes naturally to you. We can’t help it. Ours is because we’re women.”
He stared down at her chest and winked. “I know.”
She shook her head, turning her back on him. Staring at the page, she tried to think of what it actually said. Kurt had fried her brain, and she noticed he did that a lot. Distracting her. She didn’t want to talk to Elsa about it, as her friend would be convinced she had feelings for him. She didn’t. He was a horrible, horrible person.
Kurt got up, stretched, and called her name.
She looked up, and he took a picture.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
“I’m making sure I have some kind of record. Kim spent time with me, oh yeah.” He looked at his camera, staring at her. “Come on, don’t be a bitch. Show me that beautiful smile.”
“Stop it.”
“Come on. I can make you laugh.”
She dropped her book. “Fine, make me laugh, and then you can take a picture.”
He pulled a face at her, and she smirked.
“Ha, the cold witch can melt.”
“That was being stupid.”
“I can do better,” he said.
“Go on.”
She gave him her full attention.
The facial expressions he started to make were hard for her not to laugh at. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m showing my lady my best ‘come to me’ smile. My charm. I’m going to light you up, and have you eating out of the palm of my hand.”
He started talking in a French accent, and she didn’t know why she found him so funny. Kurt took the picture and sat back beside her.
“Don’t share that on a horrible site.”
“I won’t. I’m going to treasure this forever.”
****
Kurt had treasured her picture forever. After he’d taken the snap, and gotten home, he’d hooked up to the computer and printed it off. He’d gone out to buy a frame for it. He took a seat on the bed beside her.
“We’ve come a long way,” she said.
“Yeah, and I bet it was all down to the faces I pulled.”
She threw her head back, laughing. “It wasn’t. You looked like a dork, and what made it worse, you knew you looked like one.”
“I made you laugh though.”
“That you did.”
She put the photo back and turned toward him. “I had completely forgotten about that until I saw it.”
“Yeah, I was a weird kid.” He kicked off his shoes, and moved back to lie against his pillow. Kim turned toward him, lifting her leg up. He stroked her knee, needing to touch her.