“Mine were so boring,” Jess flung her tiny body back against the chair and sighed, “If they stay this way all year I don’t know how I’m going to make it. For serious, when the first teacher was speaking, all I head was wha wha wha—you know—just like that teacher in the Charlie Brown cartoon! No joke, I can’t handle a year of that and it’s only the first day!”
Jessi had never been the studious one in our duo. Not saying Jessi wasn’t smart, she was brilliant and she always made good grades. She just lacked the drive to apply herself fully when it came to school work. At that moment I would just chalk her attitude up to first day blues and the fact that she had been up late texting Landon. I knew she would regret not getting enough sleep, but honestly, Jessi could sleep half the day away and it still wouldn’t be enough sleep for her.
“I’m just glad we are at least in the next class together. Maybe you can keep me awake in this one.” She winked. I was really excited to have a class with her. In high school I had taken all the AP courses I could, while Jessi had taken only the classes she was required to in order to graduate.
“Oh, by the way who is your friend here, Kels?” Caught up in the distraction of class talk, I’d totally forgotten to introduce Kane.
“Um”—I cleared my throat—“This is Kane. Kane, this is my best friend, Jessi.” I waved my hand in the air back and forth between them.
“Nice to meet you.” Kane extended his hand toward Jessi, and I watched her check out his tattoo sleeve as she shook his hand.
“Nice tats. Kels and I were supposed to go get one together but haven’t made it there yet. Maybe you can recommend a place for us,” Jessi throws out there. We had never fully agreed on this matter. Sure we discussed getting them, but never actually said the words, ‘yeah let’s do this.’
“His brother does all mine.” Kane nodded toward Landon.
“I can set you all up with a consult if ya want.” Landon shrugs.
Before I could even open my mouth to tell him no thanks, we were not fully committed to even getting the tattoos—Jessi squealed and threw her arms around his neck. As soon as she began thanking him, I knew anything I said to her right now would fall on deaf ears.
Someone bumped my shoulder, and I turned to see Kane watching me. “What’s wrong with you? You look like someone just ran over your dog.” I’m not sure he’s even noticed how his body has gravitated toward mine. But right now, I’m so focused on him and the warmth of his body pressed against me, I can hardly think about anything else.
“We just hadn’t really agreed on getting them yet is all.”
Jessi and I had always thought it would be the ‘cool best friend’ thing to do, and get our first tattoos together. I wanted one but knew I had to get something I would never regret. I had bounced around tattoo ideas often, but there was one I always went back to.
“So how is this weekend for y’all?” Landon’s question caught me by surprise and my eyes bulged.
“This ... this weekend?” I managed to squeak out.
“It’s perfect!” Jess exclaimed, slapping her hand down on the table and causing me to jump. “Gives chicken shit over there less time to change her mind.” She looked at me and gave me a quick wink.
Yeah, she knew I was going to kill her for that later.
“All right then, I’ll text him after my next class to set it all up.” Landon beamed at Jessi. That boy was completely smitten with her and I really hoped she felt the same. It wasn’t hard to see that if she didn’t, it would crush him.
I finally glanced down at my watch and saw that I had ten minutes before my next class began. It wasn’t far from the cafeteria, but being the first day, I wanted to get there early and get a good seat. I wiped my hands on a napkin and scooted my chair back as I grabbed for my tray, but it was swiped away at the last second by Kane who was standing beside me with a big goofy grin on his face.
“I got it for ya,” he stated and started walking off in the direction of the trashcans—not even waiting for my response.
I grabbed my bag and looked over to see Jessi trying to hold back a laugh. “See you in a few. Save me a seat!” she called out to me.
Shaking my head, I started making my way through the tables and people, following the ginormous tattooed man who insisted on carrying my tray for me. In the last hour, Kane had shown a side of him—that just from his outwardly appearance—I would have never known existed. Who could have guessed that someone with Kane’s appearance, would have such good manners? I guess the saying ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ was one hundred percent true. Kane was a walking, talking example of that.
After dumping our trays, he turned around to face me. “So where is your next class?”
“Wickham Hall,” I said as I adjusted the strap of my bag on my shoulder. Reaching over, Kane slipped the strap down my arm, taking my bag and placing the strap over his shoulder instead.
“I can do stuff on my own you know?” I glared at him and placed one hand on my hip. This doing stuff for me before asking me was going to get real old, real fast.
“I know that. I just want to do this for you okay?” He shrugged and pushed open the door, signaling for me to head out in front of him.
We silently made our way to class, but it wasn’t an awkward silence that you would usually you get walking side by side with a person you barely knew. Kane had this way about him that made me feel completely at ease when he was near. Jessi had been my best friend all my life, and I didn’t get the calm and comforting feelings with her like I got while I was around Kane. Which made this whole situation even crazier. I’d known this man all of five minutes. Didn’t you have to get to know someone before you were even the least bit comfortable around them?
Finally deciding to break the silence, I asked, “So what are you majoring in?” Smooth Kelsey … real smooth. Way to pick the most obvious and boring topic ever!
Pulling his trusty aviators from the collar of his white V-neck shirt, he slid them on before answering me, “Business. I want to open my own bar someday.”
Wow. I was a little taken back at first. “Really? I would have never pegged you as a business major … actually now that I’m thinking about it—I don’t know what I really pegged you as.” I finished with a laugh and prayed I didn’t offend him in some way. I mean, just from his outwardly appearance, you wouldn’t even really expect him to go to college—let alone already know what he is majoring in and what he plans to do with that major. I know it was just my first day of actual classes, but the fact that I wasn’t sure what I wanted to major in was driving me crazy. All my life my one goal was just to make it to college. There wasn’t much thought beyond that point. I just knew I needed to get here and now that I was here I wasn’t sure what was next.