Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2006 2:39 pm
CHAPTER 10
~Kyle~
I turn myself around, so that I can lean against the railing at the foot of her bed. I situated myself, then relaxed.
I heard the creak, and if I’d been a bit faster in reacting, I would have sat up.
But, my father was right, and the twinkie’s and ho ho’s are apparently weighing me down. Because I couldn’t move fast enough, and now, I’m laying with my back on the floor, and my feet sticking straight up into the air.
When I leaned back, the railing on the bed broke, and I fell backwards. I landed with a loud thump on her bedroom floor, and I’m sure I can hear the offending noise echoing through the empty house. I think my right arm is being eaten by piranhas, and my head has a hole in it.
The light comes on suddenly, and I hear Isabel’s muffled scream. I hear her rustling around on the bed, and then I see her head peep over the matress. Her eyes are wide, with concern, and I groan at being caught in such a horrible position.
“Are. You. Okay?” She asks.
I look up at her weird tone of voice, and I notice that she’s struggling to contain her laughter. Her hand is over her mouth, and I can tell that she’s smiling because her eyes are all scrunched up. When I said that things were going to change, I didn’t exactly mean our seating positions. “I think I broke my head.”
At my painful omission, Isabel let loose. She collapsed down, one hand over the edge of the mattress, one hand still covering her mouth. She was laughing so hard, that there were tears at the corners of her eyes.
I voice my embarrassment, which only serves to make her laugh even harder.
If my pride hadn’t been so wounded, I probably would have laughed with her.
Just what I needed, though, to land flat on my butt, with my feet in the air while I’m trying to brace myself for a potentially life defining moment.
“ I don’t suppose that you’d keep this little…fall between us?” I ask hopefully.
Isabel shook her head, still laughing. “Everyone” giggle, “in school…” giggle, “is going to hear!”
Her sentence is broken into parts because she has to stop in between words to laugh some more.
Groaning, I twist sideways so that my feet fall off the bed. I rub the back of my head as I raise up and scoot backwards so I can lean against the wall of her bedroom.
I give Isabel a few minutes, and soon we’re both staring at the floor like idiots. We have a comfortable silence between us, and you’d think that the rug on her floor was doing somersaults, the way it's got us both mesmerized.
“I’m really sorry, Iz,” I whisper.
I hear her catch her breath, and she looks up at me, her eyes wide and brimming with unshed tears.
“You know what, Kyle? You’re the one I run to. The one I go to when I need a friend, a shoulder, advice. The one I run to when I have a problem. But you know what? I didn’t have anyone to run to with this problem, because this time, the problem was you.”
“I didn’t mean to make you mad. I don’t know what came over me, I just…All of a sudden, you were mad, and I was mad, and-”
“The problem wasn’t just tonight, Kyle.”
I am confused. “Huh?” I made her mad before?
“The problem has been every night of my life since I was sixteen. Two years, Kyle! Two years of watching you with other girls, two years of pining after you, two years of falling all over myself over you! That’s why I had a problem I couldn’t run to you with. That’s why this was so hard!”
She quit talking and buried her head in hands. I could tell she was crying, but she made no sounds. After a minute or two, she wiped her eyes, and stared straight ahead.
We sit in complete silence, both of us just wondering what we do next. I think that what Isabel has just confessed has hit us both.
I shook my head, and I stood up and crossed over to the bed. This time, I sit near the headboard, after pushing the evil footboard under the bead. I don’t want to have nightmares, so I want it out of my sight. Isabel rolled over, then crawled up the bed to plop down next to me.
“I don’t want to go out with Serena.”
It comes out as a whisper, and I’m not sure she heard me, until she speaks. Her voice is hurt…confused…resigned.
“Kyle, it wasn’t you going out with Serena that was the problem. It was you going out with anyone period.”
My heart started beating faster, and for the first time since I’d known her, I was nervous around Isabel Evans. I couldn’t respond to that, so I just shook my head.
There was another brief silence, and it occurs to me that I’ve never been this quiet so much in my entire life.
“You’re my best friend, Isabel,” I said, finally.
I heard her let out a resigned deep breath, and she was quiet. She sighed, but I didn’t give her a chance to respond.
“But tonight, when I saw you run out, and you were upset, I wasn’t thinking very best friend of you.”
There’s a hushed silence, and I hear her sharp intake of breath. “What were you thinking of me, Kyle?”
She turns to me then, and I wonder, amazed at the fact that I’ve never noticed how beautiful she is. I mean, I always knew she was pretty, and I’ve always known other guys know. What I never noticed before is they way her eyes sparkle with the smallest amount of light. Or how her hair looks so soft and touchable. Or how her cheeks are slightly pink, and her skin is flawless and perfect. The girl in front of me is absolutely gorgeous, and I wonder briefly how she could have ever spent so much of her time with a moron like me who never knew how lucky he had it.
“What do you think of me, Kyle?”
She asked me again, and I reach up to brush a tear from her cheek.
“I think that you’re beautiful. And I think you’re amazing, and I think that every single guy in Roswell is a complete idiot for never noticing it before.”
She smiled, slightly, and she looked down at her hands.
I reached across, and took her hand with one hand, and with the other, I tipped her up to look at me.
“You’re so much more to me than a best friend, Isabel, and I’m sorry I never noticed it.”
~Isabel~
All I can think about, is wow, Kyle has never sounded so…sincere before.
I watch his face, though and know that he’s not telling the truth. I can’t believe this is happening. What do I say? What do I do?
“I’m in love with you.”
Dang it!!! See, it’s the mouth again. Working when I don’t want it to. Kyle just told me he likes me, and I told him I love him.
Excuse me while I go bury myself underneath that huge rock in the corner of mom’s garden out front.
Could you come and dig me out in about 3 years?
“Sorry,” I mumble my apologies, and move to get up off the bed. I’m sure I’ve just scared poor Kyle to death with my admission. I’m afraid to look at him, because he’ll probably have those big bug eyes that cartoon characters get when they see something shocking. But that’s not possible, so if he does have those big bug eyes, then something will be seriously wrong, and I’ll have to take him the Emergency Room, and oh, my poor Kyle will be all bug eyed!
“Isabel, where are you going?”
My retreat is stopped because suddenly Kyle is right in front of me, and he’s got my arm.
“Uh, to crawl underneath the rock in the front yard. I can’t believe I just said that. So, bye.”
He grinned at me then. I can’t believe. Kyle Valenti is mocking me.
“I wish you’d said it a long time ago. Maybe it would have knocked some sense into me.”
“Right, I’ll just go. I’m sorry, and I…what?”
Did he just say what I think he just said?
I think he’s reading my mind. Because he rolled his eyes, and his face lit up with his trademark Kyle Valenti smirk. I used to want to smack that smirk right off of his adorable little face.
“I did just say what you think I said.”
“Oh, okay, then.”
We both stand there, his hand around my wrist, standing a few inches apart for a few minutes.
“Okay, then, good night.”
I pull away, and start to open the bedroom door, but again, he stops me. “Wait! Where are you going?”
“Home,” I answer.
He raises his eyebrow at me. “But you are home.”
I look around. Sure looks like my room. Yep, and there’s my bed that Kyle busted his butt off of 5 minutes ago. “Right,” I say. What is wrong with me? Kyle says he likes me, and I’m like a little girl who can’t remember anything.
“Isabel, look at me sweetheart,” he says, turning my face towards him. “Something’s happening here. I don’t want to be your best friend anymore. I want more.”
“More what? Money? Candy?”
Kyle threw his head back then and laughed. I couldn’t help but giggle with him. I realize that I’m acting like a star struck child. Everything I’ve wanted for the past few years is coming true, and I’m standing in front of Kyle with my jaw on the ground, and my tongue hanging out.
He shook his head, and brought his hand up to cup my cheek. “More you, silly girl. A lot has happened here tonight. I think it’s been a long night, and I think we’re both tired. But we’ve got time, okay?”
I can only nod. If it wasn’t for Kyle, then being called silly at such an important moment would have been…well…silly. But this is Kyle. It’s endearing.
“So, I’m going to go home, and call Serena, and I’ll explain everything to her. If they still want to meet us, then they can. But I want her to know that I’ll be there with you. Not her.”
Again, I nod.
“Get some sleep, Isabel,” he said, his eyes twinkling. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
You guessed it. Another nod. Oooh! I bet I look like an Isabel Evans bobblehead!
He smiled at me, and smoothed the hair back from my face. Then he kissed my forehead, and he was gone.
~Kyle~
When my alarm clock buzzed to wake me up, for the first time I can ever remember, I jumped up and turned it off. I dropped to the floor to do my morning sit-ups, and in record time, I’m sure, I was through. I stood up, to stretch and warm my muscles, and I felt like I hadn’t done any situps at all. Fifteen minutes later, I was showered, dressed, and at the breakfast table without even breaking a sweat or breathing hard.
It was only then I realize that I didn’t even press the snooze button.
I smile to myself.
I’m meeting Isabel this morning.
I mean, I meet her practically every morning, but this time, I’m meeting her.
I smile again, and remember what happened last night, then think about what happened when I got home. I called Serena, to explain. I didn’t exactly know what to tell her.
“Hey, we can still meet up, but it’s a bring your own date kind of thing!”
Yeah, that one would go over like a lead balloon.
So, I opted for the truth. I told her that something had happened between Isabel and I, and that I didn’t want to lead her on by making her think that we had something. She said that it was okay, but asked if she and Scott could still come along. They were new, and really did need friends. I told her of course, and then I was apologizing profusely about the mix up when she had the nerve to laugh at me.
That’s right. She just started giggling and laughing her head off.
I asked her what she was laughing at, and she was telling me that she knew there was something between Isabel and I the moment she saw us together. “It’s in the air around you,” she said.
What the…?
Exactly what is in the air around me? I asked her. This time, she made me giggle.
She said it was love.
~Isabel~
I woke up early this morning, just in time to turn my alarm off before it beeped to wake me up. I couldn’t get out of bed right away, I just stayed there for a few minutes, staring up at my ceiling for a few minutes.
Max came in to see if I had to use the shower first, and I told him to go ahead. He must have seen me staring at my ceiling, cause he walked into the room and looked up at it, searching for whatever it was keeping my attention. He obviously couldn’t see the image of Kyle that I was staring at in my head, so he just gave me a weird look and went to take his shower. Twenty minutes later, I got out of bed, got my robe and my towel and headed to the bathroom. As the door was opening, and Max was coming out, he handed me a bottle of Lysol.
“Here,” he said with a smirk and a grimace at the same time. “You’re going to need this.”
Oh, if I weren’t in such a good mood, I’d probably throw the can at his head, and make him air the bathroom out himself. But just for good measure, I spray about half the can in the door and wait ten minutes before going in.
“Where are you going?” Max asks me at the breakfast table.
“Out,” I said with a smile. I sighed before I took another mouthful of my Honey Bunches of Oats.
“You’re up early for it to be a Saturday,” he said.
“Yeah. Isn’t it great?” I can’t help but smile goofily.
I raise an eyebrow when Max leans over to stare into my cereal bowl. He shakes the bowl around and eyes it closely. “You sure that’s just cereal in there?” he asks, looking up at me. “You’re acting a little…loopy.”
I rolled my eyes, and looked around. I know it’s silly, but I want to make sure no one else hears. I don’t know what Kyle wants tell people, but this is Max. He’s family so it’s okay to tell him, by default, right?
“I’m meeting Kyle this morning,” I whispered.
Max raised an eyebrow at me. “Oookay.” His response is long and drawn out. “So tell me something I don’t know.”
I roll my eyes at him, as if he should know the difference. I look around again to make sure Mom and Dad aren't around. I scoot my chair over and motion him closer. He looks worried, but leans over anyways. “No,” I said. “I’m meeting Kyle.” I look at him and wink, then nod my head, so he zeroes in on my meaning.
Max sits back in his chair and stares at me, then his eyes get wide.
“That’s freaking great!! Michael and Alex owe me twenty five dollars. They said it would take another month for you two to get together. Woohoo!”
Max yelps and jumps up out of his chair, then runs up the stairs. I can only assume it’s to call Michael and Alex.
Wait a minute!! They were taking bets on me and Kyle?!?!
~Kyle~
I turn myself around, so that I can lean against the railing at the foot of her bed. I situated myself, then relaxed.
I heard the creak, and if I’d been a bit faster in reacting, I would have sat up.
But, my father was right, and the twinkie’s and ho ho’s are apparently weighing me down. Because I couldn’t move fast enough, and now, I’m laying with my back on the floor, and my feet sticking straight up into the air.
When I leaned back, the railing on the bed broke, and I fell backwards. I landed with a loud thump on her bedroom floor, and I’m sure I can hear the offending noise echoing through the empty house. I think my right arm is being eaten by piranhas, and my head has a hole in it.
The light comes on suddenly, and I hear Isabel’s muffled scream. I hear her rustling around on the bed, and then I see her head peep over the matress. Her eyes are wide, with concern, and I groan at being caught in such a horrible position.
“Are. You. Okay?” She asks.
I look up at her weird tone of voice, and I notice that she’s struggling to contain her laughter. Her hand is over her mouth, and I can tell that she’s smiling because her eyes are all scrunched up. When I said that things were going to change, I didn’t exactly mean our seating positions. “I think I broke my head.”
At my painful omission, Isabel let loose. She collapsed down, one hand over the edge of the mattress, one hand still covering her mouth. She was laughing so hard, that there were tears at the corners of her eyes.
I voice my embarrassment, which only serves to make her laugh even harder.
If my pride hadn’t been so wounded, I probably would have laughed with her.
Just what I needed, though, to land flat on my butt, with my feet in the air while I’m trying to brace myself for a potentially life defining moment.
“ I don’t suppose that you’d keep this little…fall between us?” I ask hopefully.
Isabel shook her head, still laughing. “Everyone” giggle, “in school…” giggle, “is going to hear!”
Her sentence is broken into parts because she has to stop in between words to laugh some more.
Groaning, I twist sideways so that my feet fall off the bed. I rub the back of my head as I raise up and scoot backwards so I can lean against the wall of her bedroom.
I give Isabel a few minutes, and soon we’re both staring at the floor like idiots. We have a comfortable silence between us, and you’d think that the rug on her floor was doing somersaults, the way it's got us both mesmerized.
“I’m really sorry, Iz,” I whisper.
I hear her catch her breath, and she looks up at me, her eyes wide and brimming with unshed tears.
“You know what, Kyle? You’re the one I run to. The one I go to when I need a friend, a shoulder, advice. The one I run to when I have a problem. But you know what? I didn’t have anyone to run to with this problem, because this time, the problem was you.”
“I didn’t mean to make you mad. I don’t know what came over me, I just…All of a sudden, you were mad, and I was mad, and-”
“The problem wasn’t just tonight, Kyle.”
I am confused. “Huh?” I made her mad before?
“The problem has been every night of my life since I was sixteen. Two years, Kyle! Two years of watching you with other girls, two years of pining after you, two years of falling all over myself over you! That’s why I had a problem I couldn’t run to you with. That’s why this was so hard!”
She quit talking and buried her head in hands. I could tell she was crying, but she made no sounds. After a minute or two, she wiped her eyes, and stared straight ahead.
We sit in complete silence, both of us just wondering what we do next. I think that what Isabel has just confessed has hit us both.
I shook my head, and I stood up and crossed over to the bed. This time, I sit near the headboard, after pushing the evil footboard under the bead. I don’t want to have nightmares, so I want it out of my sight. Isabel rolled over, then crawled up the bed to plop down next to me.
“I don’t want to go out with Serena.”
It comes out as a whisper, and I’m not sure she heard me, until she speaks. Her voice is hurt…confused…resigned.
“Kyle, it wasn’t you going out with Serena that was the problem. It was you going out with anyone period.”
My heart started beating faster, and for the first time since I’d known her, I was nervous around Isabel Evans. I couldn’t respond to that, so I just shook my head.
There was another brief silence, and it occurs to me that I’ve never been this quiet so much in my entire life.
“You’re my best friend, Isabel,” I said, finally.
I heard her let out a resigned deep breath, and she was quiet. She sighed, but I didn’t give her a chance to respond.
“But tonight, when I saw you run out, and you were upset, I wasn’t thinking very best friend of you.”
There’s a hushed silence, and I hear her sharp intake of breath. “What were you thinking of me, Kyle?”
She turns to me then, and I wonder, amazed at the fact that I’ve never noticed how beautiful she is. I mean, I always knew she was pretty, and I’ve always known other guys know. What I never noticed before is they way her eyes sparkle with the smallest amount of light. Or how her hair looks so soft and touchable. Or how her cheeks are slightly pink, and her skin is flawless and perfect. The girl in front of me is absolutely gorgeous, and I wonder briefly how she could have ever spent so much of her time with a moron like me who never knew how lucky he had it.
“What do you think of me, Kyle?”
She asked me again, and I reach up to brush a tear from her cheek.
“I think that you’re beautiful. And I think you’re amazing, and I think that every single guy in Roswell is a complete idiot for never noticing it before.”
She smiled, slightly, and she looked down at her hands.
I reached across, and took her hand with one hand, and with the other, I tipped her up to look at me.
“You’re so much more to me than a best friend, Isabel, and I’m sorry I never noticed it.”
~Isabel~
All I can think about, is wow, Kyle has never sounded so…sincere before.
I watch his face, though and know that he’s not telling the truth. I can’t believe this is happening. What do I say? What do I do?
“I’m in love with you.”
Dang it!!! See, it’s the mouth again. Working when I don’t want it to. Kyle just told me he likes me, and I told him I love him.
Excuse me while I go bury myself underneath that huge rock in the corner of mom’s garden out front.
Could you come and dig me out in about 3 years?
“Sorry,” I mumble my apologies, and move to get up off the bed. I’m sure I’ve just scared poor Kyle to death with my admission. I’m afraid to look at him, because he’ll probably have those big bug eyes that cartoon characters get when they see something shocking. But that’s not possible, so if he does have those big bug eyes, then something will be seriously wrong, and I’ll have to take him the Emergency Room, and oh, my poor Kyle will be all bug eyed!
“Isabel, where are you going?”
My retreat is stopped because suddenly Kyle is right in front of me, and he’s got my arm.
“Uh, to crawl underneath the rock in the front yard. I can’t believe I just said that. So, bye.”
He grinned at me then. I can’t believe. Kyle Valenti is mocking me.
“I wish you’d said it a long time ago. Maybe it would have knocked some sense into me.”
“Right, I’ll just go. I’m sorry, and I…what?”
Did he just say what I think he just said?
I think he’s reading my mind. Because he rolled his eyes, and his face lit up with his trademark Kyle Valenti smirk. I used to want to smack that smirk right off of his adorable little face.
“I did just say what you think I said.”
“Oh, okay, then.”
We both stand there, his hand around my wrist, standing a few inches apart for a few minutes.
“Okay, then, good night.”
I pull away, and start to open the bedroom door, but again, he stops me. “Wait! Where are you going?”
“Home,” I answer.
He raises his eyebrow at me. “But you are home.”
I look around. Sure looks like my room. Yep, and there’s my bed that Kyle busted his butt off of 5 minutes ago. “Right,” I say. What is wrong with me? Kyle says he likes me, and I’m like a little girl who can’t remember anything.
“Isabel, look at me sweetheart,” he says, turning my face towards him. “Something’s happening here. I don’t want to be your best friend anymore. I want more.”
“More what? Money? Candy?”
Kyle threw his head back then and laughed. I couldn’t help but giggle with him. I realize that I’m acting like a star struck child. Everything I’ve wanted for the past few years is coming true, and I’m standing in front of Kyle with my jaw on the ground, and my tongue hanging out.
He shook his head, and brought his hand up to cup my cheek. “More you, silly girl. A lot has happened here tonight. I think it’s been a long night, and I think we’re both tired. But we’ve got time, okay?”
I can only nod. If it wasn’t for Kyle, then being called silly at such an important moment would have been…well…silly. But this is Kyle. It’s endearing.
“So, I’m going to go home, and call Serena, and I’ll explain everything to her. If they still want to meet us, then they can. But I want her to know that I’ll be there with you. Not her.”
Again, I nod.
“Get some sleep, Isabel,” he said, his eyes twinkling. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
You guessed it. Another nod. Oooh! I bet I look like an Isabel Evans bobblehead!
He smiled at me, and smoothed the hair back from my face. Then he kissed my forehead, and he was gone.
~Kyle~
When my alarm clock buzzed to wake me up, for the first time I can ever remember, I jumped up and turned it off. I dropped to the floor to do my morning sit-ups, and in record time, I’m sure, I was through. I stood up, to stretch and warm my muscles, and I felt like I hadn’t done any situps at all. Fifteen minutes later, I was showered, dressed, and at the breakfast table without even breaking a sweat or breathing hard.
It was only then I realize that I didn’t even press the snooze button.
I smile to myself.
I’m meeting Isabel this morning.
I mean, I meet her practically every morning, but this time, I’m meeting her.
I smile again, and remember what happened last night, then think about what happened when I got home. I called Serena, to explain. I didn’t exactly know what to tell her.
“Hey, we can still meet up, but it’s a bring your own date kind of thing!”
Yeah, that one would go over like a lead balloon.
So, I opted for the truth. I told her that something had happened between Isabel and I, and that I didn’t want to lead her on by making her think that we had something. She said that it was okay, but asked if she and Scott could still come along. They were new, and really did need friends. I told her of course, and then I was apologizing profusely about the mix up when she had the nerve to laugh at me.
That’s right. She just started giggling and laughing her head off.
I asked her what she was laughing at, and she was telling me that she knew there was something between Isabel and I the moment she saw us together. “It’s in the air around you,” she said.
What the…?
Exactly what is in the air around me? I asked her. This time, she made me giggle.
She said it was love.
~Isabel~
I woke up early this morning, just in time to turn my alarm off before it beeped to wake me up. I couldn’t get out of bed right away, I just stayed there for a few minutes, staring up at my ceiling for a few minutes.
Max came in to see if I had to use the shower first, and I told him to go ahead. He must have seen me staring at my ceiling, cause he walked into the room and looked up at it, searching for whatever it was keeping my attention. He obviously couldn’t see the image of Kyle that I was staring at in my head, so he just gave me a weird look and went to take his shower. Twenty minutes later, I got out of bed, got my robe and my towel and headed to the bathroom. As the door was opening, and Max was coming out, he handed me a bottle of Lysol.
“Here,” he said with a smirk and a grimace at the same time. “You’re going to need this.”
Oh, if I weren’t in such a good mood, I’d probably throw the can at his head, and make him air the bathroom out himself. But just for good measure, I spray about half the can in the door and wait ten minutes before going in.
“Where are you going?” Max asks me at the breakfast table.
“Out,” I said with a smile. I sighed before I took another mouthful of my Honey Bunches of Oats.
“You’re up early for it to be a Saturday,” he said.
“Yeah. Isn’t it great?” I can’t help but smile goofily.
I raise an eyebrow when Max leans over to stare into my cereal bowl. He shakes the bowl around and eyes it closely. “You sure that’s just cereal in there?” he asks, looking up at me. “You’re acting a little…loopy.”
I rolled my eyes, and looked around. I know it’s silly, but I want to make sure no one else hears. I don’t know what Kyle wants tell people, but this is Max. He’s family so it’s okay to tell him, by default, right?
“I’m meeting Kyle this morning,” I whispered.
Max raised an eyebrow at me. “Oookay.” His response is long and drawn out. “So tell me something I don’t know.”
I roll my eyes at him, as if he should know the difference. I look around again to make sure Mom and Dad aren't around. I scoot my chair over and motion him closer. He looks worried, but leans over anyways. “No,” I said. “I’m meeting Kyle.” I look at him and wink, then nod my head, so he zeroes in on my meaning.
Max sits back in his chair and stares at me, then his eyes get wide.
“That’s freaking great!! Michael and Alex owe me twenty five dollars. They said it would take another month for you two to get together. Woohoo!”
Max yelps and jumps up out of his chair, then runs up the stairs. I can only assume it’s to call Michael and Alex.
Wait a minute!! They were taking bets on me and Kyle?!?!