Part Two: Chapter Two

On a humid day in late July, a fifteen year old Kaylin went swimming at her friend Alicia's house while the local priest came by to give confession to Francis. Alicia's brother, Stephen, had invited the new kid from their street over as well, a tall boy named Nick. At seventeen, Nicholas Ainsworth was built like an athlete with a slim waist and broad shoulders; he had moved to Ohio from California, so his tan was deep and natural. His flaxen hair was long, below his ears, and his eyes were the kind of blue that Kaylin thought the Pacific Ocean must have looked like. She was shy around him and found her arms constantly covering her stomach that, although flat, she believed to be too large. Nick was a natural joker, with a quick wit, and was taken with Kaylin immediately.

It was like she had known him her whole life: like she had been waiting her entire life for him to show up. They ended up talking the entire day, and into the early part of night. Except it didn't seem like talking, it was more like catching up, like they were best friends. As the sun grew more and more faint on the horizon, Kaylin became aware of the time and jolted.

"I need to get home, it's a lot later than I thought," she yanked on a pair of shorts over her black tank suit while Alicia lazily pulled herself out of the pool to help her gather her things. She was used to Kaylin having to go home early, and was surprised that she lasted this long. Nick, however, was startled, but recognized her worry and helped Alicia get everything put away.

"Let me walk you home," he offered, folding her towel. She was younger than him, but he knew he was smitten with her: her smile that revealed dimples set precariously on her cheeks, her face splashed with summer freckles, her long, brown hair unbleached or styled. Nick had grown up around the artificial beauty that was his mother's California, but Kaylin had a natural beauty that radiated through her eyes and in her laughter. She joked with him from the get go, and had a natural spit-fire personality. Now she was too hurried gathering her things into a plastic grocery bag to comment on his offer, but she didn't protest when he slipped on his sandals and shirt to follow her around the house and down the drive.

"Here, let me hold that," Nick said reaching for the bag while Kaylin worked her feet into her sneakers while trying to walk. She stopped a gave him a look, but let him take the bag.

"Am I supposed to swoon now?" she quipped, resuming her quick gait, and smirking to herself. She didn't know what he was expecting from Ohio girls, coming from California, but she wasn't impressed with being seen as weak.

"Um," he stumbled over how to answer that, "sure...?" he chuckled, and she turned her head to him and was forced to laugh too.

Kaylin didn't live far, only two blocks away, but Kaylin felt the world move in those few minutes of walking alone with him, not talking but enjoying each other's presence. As she skipped up the few steps to the concrete landing outside her front door, she turned to get the bag from him.

"Well this is it," she started, but Nick snatched the bag away from her reach and interrupted her.

"What are you doing later tonight? Maybe we can get together," he gave her a slow smile and ducked his head down to catch her eyes.

"Oh," Kaylin was surprised; she had never been asked out before. She grew up in a small town and every boy she knew was the son of a friend of her father's and, with the exception of being friends, never gave her a second thought. "Well, um," she looked towards the house, sighed with the thought of having to go back in to the sound of Seanathair laboring to breathe and trying his best to be good company to her. She hesitated in her answer, a new feeling of want crept into her; she wanted independence, she wanted to be the teenager she was, she wanted to keep having this California boy looking at her the way he was right now.

"Sure," she finally blurted out, "but I'll meet you someplace, OK?" she knew her father would never be home before her, but she didn't want to lie to Seanathair, even if he wouldn't know it. Someone knocking on the door would make him ask questions and she didn't know how he felt about boys, the situation had never presented itself before.

"OK. Worried I don't make a good impression, eh? All right," Nick joked, seeing the tension in her eyes. "But where? I just moved here, I barely know what street I live on."

"Oh," she had forgotten that. He was cute, and his teeth were such a sparkling white, he had a preppy look to him, much different than the grunge-and-flannel-wearing boys of school, she liked that. "How about I meet you in front of the school, and we can decide where to go from there?" the school building was large and in the center of town, unmistakable: you had to pass it to get to the highway or just about anywhere in town.

"Ah, the school. I know where that is! Ha, OK, I'll meet you at the school around eight?" he said, checking the time on his pager. One corner of his mouth curled up into a lopsided grin that gave her a warm, fuzzy feeling all over.

"See you then," Kaylin answered and before she could turn around, Nick leaned down and kissed her, feathery soft, on her jaw-line."

"See you," he whispered in her ear and then turned and headed off, back to Alicia's house.