"Keryn, I'm awake"
The door was flung open.
"Well then, do you know where my nail polish bag is... I cant find it?"
Kayla once again scanned the floor, tossed some mags aside before reaching down and recovering Keryn's bag.
"Geez Kayla, anything else of mine on this floor?"
"Probably... anyways what’s with the rush?"
"I leave tomorrow night."
"Tomorrow?"
"Yeah... I have my last exam today and tomorrow morning, you are going to drive me to the airport."
Kayla flopped back on the bed.
"Kezzzzzz I don’t have a roommate I don’t have ANY time and I think you are going a tad fast."
"Sydney accepted me. I can get there and settle in."
"But..."
"No buts... I want to do this."
"Fine... then give me a sec and let me drive you to the hall..." Kayla climbed out of bed, "wanna see a movie tonight? I heard American Pie is hysterical."
"Yeah... your call."
Keryn went back into her room to continued packing as Kayla tried to wake herself up.
"Give it up Taylor... you have been trying to get threw for how many hours now?... 12.. they are not putting the phone back on the hook."
"Zac I really don’t think I need ANY advice from you... ANY!"
"Okay... point taken."
Taylor continued pressing redial and then listening to the engaged signal. Hanging up and trying again.
"Tay... honestly they’re not going to put it back on anytime soon." Ike gingerly said.
"Well Ike at least I am trying. I cant lose her over such a stupid thing. I cant."
"Yes, Kayla its under control."
"Just checking."
Kayla leant over and gave her friend a hug.
"I'll pick you up in 2 hours... stay calm, it’s the last one."
"Yeah... thanks Kayla... seeya later."
The car door slammed and Kayla, with her new license began to pull away and back
into the traffic. Shimmer came onto the radio and it wasn’t long before Kayla
was singing. She had nothing to do for 2 hours... she decided that maybe a
coffee would be nice. She was in Starbucks before she could change her mind.
The place was packed, she scanned the booths and could hardly find one seat free.
Balancing her coffee and her bag she began to hunt out a seat.
"Need a hand?"
Kayla turned to see a guy get up from his seat and offer it to her.
"Oh, no sorry... I'm fine.. I don’t want you to... actually do you mind?"
He smiled, "No, not at all."
Dumping her stuff down Kayla sighed, she was relieved.
Another seat in the booth became vacant and the guy sat down.
"Hard Day huh?"
"More like a hard day to come."
"Oh... I know those."
"Well, I don’t think you know quite what sorta day I'm looking forward to, or not looking forward to." Kayla observed the light cackle that came from his mouth and smiled. The sun drifting through the window reflected the brown flecks in his eyes.
“I’m Charlie,” he stretched out his hand and gave it to her.
“Kayla. It’s nice to meet you.” Kayla noticed his face light up and show his white teeth.
“Tell me about your day, Kayla.”
“Well, I’m not sure you’ll want to here. Saying it’s a long story is certainly an understatement.”
“I have pretty much all day.”
“Do you realise what you’re getting yourself into?” Kayla grinned and began to tell the story. “It all started last week . . .”
Keryn chipped at the baby blue nail polish that was set on her finger nails. The room was filled with the sound of rushing pencils and the tick of the large, old clock in the corner of the room.
The exam was set to finish in ten minutes and she had just finished proofreading the document. Her fingers began to subconsciously tap on the desk, to the rhythm of the clock. I’m never going to last another ten minutes. She glanced at the clock again and looked toward the front of the room. The supervisor at the desk gave her a glare, which instantly stopped the movement in her fingers. Don’t these exam supervisors realise the monumental amounts of stress you have to go through?
Keryn gathered her stationery supplies and sent a scrape through the hall as she pulled her chair out.
“I’m feeling a little sick. May I be excused?”
The examiner forced a smile and looked at the paper in her hand. “I’ll take that.”
Keryn let the paper be snatched away and turned to hurry out of the hall. It was her last exam. As far as she was concerned, everything had run smoothly and she assumed she would gain the results she wanted in the end. That was the exam anyway. Despite the personal crisis, it hadn’t truly had an effect on her work. Well, apart from the stage when she scrawled down Taylor instead of Van Gogh. Thank Bic for the quality of erasers on the tip of their Pacers.
Keryn made her way to the front of the school where Kayla was due in twenty minutes. The atmosphere felt warm, and the feeling of Spring was long out of the air.
Ever since she’d discovered Taylor had lied to her, she felt like an emotional disaster. She could recall the night before, the way she’d just lay there, all night until she drifted off to sleep at about five and then Kayla having to wake her one hour later. She wasn’t thinking about Taylor for the eight hours she stared at the wall. She was thinking of nothing. What to wear in her exam. Whether she had enough pens in her pencil case. There was no need to think about Taylor. And, there was no real need to talk to him either.
A dog startled her as it came hurdling into her feet. “Sorry,” the owner called. “C’mon Eckle.” She called her dog back and they made there way down the street. Oh how easy it is for a dog, Keryn thought.
Keryn sighed and started to fumble through her bag for something to do while she waited. She smiled lightly as her fingers came across the last letter Taylor had sent to her. She pulled it out and scanned the careful handwriting. They had been writing letters to each other ever since he and Isaac left the month before. Keryn creased the envelope closed and placed it back into her bag. There was no use stewing over that anymore. The way she felt about Taylor could never fit in with anything anymore. Even if she was going to college in Tulsa, there would be no time for him. They would grow apart. They would lose what they had, they’d lose everything.
Keryn took a breath and pulled out the plane ticket. This folder full of paper would get her somewhere far away from here. A completely different way of life. A place where it never snowed in winter. The place with the scorching summers. A place where she’d have to adjust, as if she were changing high schools. Making new friends. That would be the thing she’d forever avoided. Being an outsider.
“Keryn?” She looked up to hear the familiar voice.
“Talia?” Keryn watched her tie her hair into a pony-tail. “How did you go?”
“Oh, blissed right through it. You?” Talia smiled and sat down next to Keryn.
“Yeah, me too. Well, I hope so anyway.”
“You hanging around?”
“Kayla’s coming to get me.”
“Thought any more about next semester?” Keryn sighed and took a breath again. Her chest had built up a tight feeling, as if it were impossible to breathe.
“Um, well. . . Sydney.” Keryn got it out as quickly as possible.
“In Australia?!” A shocked look appeared on her face.
“Well, yeah,” Keryn replied uncomfortably. “Why?”
“Why are you leaving the country? What do they offer there that they don’t offer here?” Keryn glared at the concrete. They didn’t offer Taylor. “Doesn’t Oral Roberts offer what you want to do?”
“Well, my family are there, Tal, and I imagined myself to be back there someday.”
Talia smiled. The light summer wind blew the leaves from the tree above them.
“Well, if it’s what you really want. Go for it.”
Keryn glared at the concrete again and reached into her bag. As if some kind of realisation dawned on her, she pulled out her cell phone and dialed in some numbers. “Can I have a cab to the High School?”
“She shouldn’t be running away from her problems that fast,” Charlie offered. “I mean, it’s really none of my business--but, what if she’s just jumping to conclusions?”
“That’s one she’s going to really have to figure out. Believe me, I’ve tried,” Kayla sighed. “I’ve tried hard. But nothings budging her.”
“What time did you say you had to pick her up?” Charlie cut in.
“Holy argh,” Kayla started organising things on the table. “I should’ve left about twenty minutes ago.”
“Sorry about that,” Charlie stated. “I shouldn’t have got you to tell me everything.”
“Oh, no.” Kayla stood up and threw her bag over her shoulder. “I’m sorry for keeping you so long. I needed someone to talk to anyway.”
“Need a ride anywhere?” Kayla asked sophisticatedly. She’d always wanted to ask someone that.
“Do you mind getting me to the beach, actually?”
Kayla nodded and pushed in her chair. “No, that’s fine.”
“Thank you. My shift starts in twenty five minutes and I can’t be bothered walking right now.”
Kayla smiled as they paid their money and left the cafe. “Shift?”
“Oh, I didn’t tell you?” Charlie was bouncing along the pavement to the car. He had a vibrantly vivacious walk, that reflected a lot of his personality. He ran his hand through his sandy, dark brown hair and looked at Kayla. “I’m a lifeguard. It’s like my calling. I love people, and I love the beach.”
“Wow, that must be excellent. I’d love to have some kind of calling.” Kayla unlocked the doors and they climbed into the car.
“Everyone has a calling. Just wait a while, you’ll discover it soon enough.”
The radio burst to life and Kayla reversed the car from the parked position. “If I drive fast, then I’ll be on time.”
“Save me,” Charlie started to laugh.
“I’m not that bad, really.” Kayla got onto the freeway. “I usually get there about ten minutes early when I’m picking her up. I think she should be coming out right about now.”
“Well, she’ll wait around. Won’t she?”
“I’m sure she will. We’re almost there anyway.”
Keryn scanned the crowd and walked toward the gates. “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she whispered to herself as she handed her ticket to the attendant.
“Have a nice flight.” The default cheer of the man standing there, taking tickets was almost believable.
“Thank you,” Keryn mumbled as she walked down the pathway and toward the plane. Keryn had just made a completely expensive spur of the moment decision. It would mean stress for her, it could mean stress for Kayla as well. Who knows what it would mean for Taylor. A stroke of pain still swiped through her heart as she heard his name echo through her head.
“Talia!” Kayla hollered down the street. “Where’s Keryn?”
Kayla saw Talia stop talking and turn around, squinting her eyes. “She’s gone! She caught a cab somewhere!”
“Why?” Kayla looked over at Charlie, who was still sitting in the front seat of the car, bobbing his head to the music.
“I don’t know, maybe she went home?”
“Okay, thanks!” Kayla ran around and back into the drivers seat.
“She’s gone.” She tugged her seatbelt on and looked over at Charlie. “I have no idea why she would do such a thing. I swear, that girl needs to be booked into an institution sometimes.”
“Haha,” Charlie turned the radio down as Kayla started to pull away. “I’d like to meet this girl some day.”
“Well, that’s if we can find her first!”
Kayla concentrated on the road and drove down toward the beach, to drop her new friend off for his shift.
As the sliding doors discovered her presence, Keryn entered the world she thought she’d never set foot in again. At least, after last night.
The warm Tulsa air blew her hair out of her face as she stepped out into the atmosphere. She took a deep breath and walked over to the bus stop.
“Tulsa, here I come.” She muttered to herself as she took a seat on the bench. The realisation and confidence she’d walked on the plane with had since dissolved and all she could do was think of reasons why she shouldn’t be here. There was the fact she’d have to face Taylor, Margo, Ike, Zac, Diana--the list goes on.
The last time she was in Tulsa was the time she fell in love, for real. What if that were to happen again? She’d convinced herself last night that Taylor may have been her first love, but he wouldn’t last. That theory would be tested and analysed the minute she walks right back into his life. The number one fear that has been wandering through her head for the duration of the flight had to be faced. Did she really love him? Did she really want to put herself through the pain of watching this sixteen year old bring up a child with someone she envied from the minute she first saw her. I’m only seventeen, she told herself. There was no way she could observe the only person she seen herself experiencing everything with, the one she knew from ten years of age she would grow old with -- deleting her from his life.
Keryn sighed and watched the bus pull into the curb. She fumbled for her purse and sighed. “I do love him.”