Part Two: Chapter Four

She saw him from the hill a few streets down, long before she reached this point. She knew where to look, and she stood for a few minutes watching him wait for her. He was leaning casually along the wrought-iron banister at the top of the stairs wearing a professionally tie-dyed shirt and loose, baggy, khaki shorts; his feet were slid into a pair of old, brown sandals, he had a shell necklace resting along the base of his neck, and his sunglass (she was sure they were ray ban) were hanging from the collar of his shirt. He was smoking, and even though school was out for the summer she still had to stifle the worry that someone would see him being so rebellious on school property.

Kaylin ascended the concrete steps of Riversedge Public High School with a tightness in her chest that was all new to her. She was never one to be confident, but she didn’t need to: everyone in the town knew her and she was comfortable in her niche as being Francis McSandsen’s daughter who was quiet and dependable, just like her father. This was someone new, someone who didn’t expect anything from her, who didn’t know her past and her present sometimes better than she did. This was someone who looked at her as a person and not a statue always standing along the border of the Riversedge community.

“Hey,” Kaylin said, trying to sound casual and keep the anxiety out of her voice.

“Hey yourself,” Nick quipped back, “I was worrying you wouldn’t show,” he inhaled the last of his cigarette and flicked the butt out into the vast green of the high school lawn. “Where to?” he said, pushing off the banister and taking the three steps towards her standing at the top of the last step. “Are we breaking in?” he joked, a wide grin across his face.

“No, let’s not get you suspended before your first day,” she laughed and tugged at her dress. She was wearing a dark navy blue baby doll dress over a pair of jean shorts, an outfit mimicked from My So-Called Life. She had pulled her long, brown hair into two French-braids in an effort to keep the afternoon’s chlorine frizz tamed down. “Have you eaten?” she questioned.

“Nope. Whatta thinking?” he skipped down the stairs before she could answer.

“There’s a diner in town, it’s just a few blocks away. Nothing spectacular, but it’s something to do.”

“Is there a waitress named Flo?” he asked.

“Ah, what? Why?”

Nick chuckled, “It’s from the TV show, Alice, you’ve never heard of it?” Kaylin gave him a look and shook her head. “It’s this seventies sitcom about a waitress. It’s the only diner I’ve been exposed to,” he finished.

“You aren’t missing much,” Kaylin quipped and led the way to the Dynasty, the local diner built in to the façade of Riversedge’s main street.