Page 11 of The Lucky One
A small smile spread over my face. “Gladly.”
I caught Coach’s eye and gestured toward the exit. He nodded in acknowledgment. I was finished for the day. Maybe a coffee with Kiki was exactly what I needed.
After a cooling shower and a change into fresh clothes, I hurried outside. Kiki was waiting on a bench by the school entrance, dressed in a white blouse and engrossed in a book. Her silky hair fell to her chest. It looked impeccably dry, as if she hadn’t just done flips in the rain.
“You didn’t shower?” I asked as I approached her.
“I never shower at school,” she replied, closing her book and standing up. “Why? Do I smell?”
I wrinkled my nose, took a step closer and pretended to sniff her. She laughed, bringing her hand up to her mouth. I expected to catch the sweaty aftermath of cheerleading practice, but to my surprise she smelled like flowers, not at all repulsive. “Actually... you smell good.”
Kiki blushed slightly, hugging her book closer to her chest.
“He didn’t do that.” I crossed my arms and eyed Kiki in disbelief.
“I’m telling you, he did. My parents can’t stand him for ruining their favorite orchid.”
“Sounds just like Jon,” I said, “climbing through the wrong window into your parents’ bedroom and wrecking the flowers.”
Kiki laughed and savored a bite of the apple pie we had decided to share, a dessert Emily adored.
We were sitting at a booth at the Fresh Biscuit, the diner close to my place. I was on my second cup of coffee, and despite the caffeine kicking in, I felt way calmer than I had on the field. Our conversation had started with the Fam and school, but naturally gravitated toward the topic we had the most in common.
“You know,” Kiki said more somberly, “I always wondered what was going on in his head. Why he could switch from the most caring guy to the biggest jerk in the blink of an eye.”
I took a bite of pie with my fork as I mulled over my thoughts. I knew exactly what she meant. There were days when he was fully on your team, ready to confront anyone who had wronged you. But then there were days when he was closed off or lied, leaving you thinking you had done something wrong.
“I don’t think he ever stops caring... He’s... uh, I don’t know.” I dropped my fork.
Kiki studied my face intently. “I thought you knew what’s up with him, but if you don’t either... that’s kind of a relief.”
I nodded in agreement. Emily always seemed to understand Jon in a way that I couldn’t. It gave me a small sense of reassurance to know I wasn’t the only one who didn’t get him.
“You know what I just realized?” Kiki leaned in, resting her elbows on the table. Her amber eyes were set on me like she didn’t want to miss a thing.
I raised an eyebrow. “No, but I have a feeling you’re about to tell me.”
She smiled, her nose wrinkling in the process. “You and me, we’ve never hung out alone before.”
She was right. In all those years of being part of the same friend group, Kiki and I rarely found ourselves alone in a room. She had always been with him.
I threw her a little smile myself. “About time we got to know each other then, hmm?”
Okay, that was... more intimate than anticipated. Kiki’s gaze briefly darted away. She nodded. “Yeah, definitely. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”
“So, um...” I scrambled for something to defuse the tension. “What else do you like? Apart from cheerleading and hanging out with us.”
She wrinkled her nose again, but in a frowny way. “I like to go to the library on campus,” she said finally.
“The library?” I said. “Really?”
“Yeah, it’s a great place to study. Really quiet, and they have great books.” She sipped the rest of her coffee, and I nodded up and down like a freak. “What about you?”
“Oh, you know it all. Football, running... the usual.” I waved it off. On paper we knew everything about another already, but the deeper stuff felt like a line I wasn’t ready to cross.
“I see.” She cleared her throat.
When a gum-chewing waitress waltzed out of the kitchen, I signaled her over. “Can we pay, please?”