Authors: Megan McKenney
“Then answer this one question for me,” I finally spoke up.
“Shoot.” He held his index finger up. “As long as it doesn’t have anything to do with my dad,” he warned.
“It doesn’t. Last week you said that you just recently decided to keep your name the way that it is. Why? You wouldn’t tell me the specific reason why. Please, Keiffer, I’m trying to figure you out and you’re not letting me.”
“Not letting you?” He laughed out loud. “I’ve given you two CDs about myself that are private. I’ve asked you to hang out and you’ve shot me down.”
“I invited you to the party tonight and you shot
me
down,” I retaliated.
“That’s because your boyfriend hates me,” he said quietly. I smiled to myself. Brad didn’t hate him per say, he just wasn’t a huge fan of me having other friends besides him.
“He doesn’t hate you. Trust me. If he hated you then you would know it. So please tell me why.” I sat up so I could read his face better. “Why are you going to keep your name?”
“Honestly, do you really hate my name that much?” He asked, letting out a deep breath.
I had to think about it for a moment. Finally I shook my head. “No, I actually don’t. I did…but now I actually think it fits you in a very, very odd way,” I laughed. “Keiffer, Keiffer, Keiffer,” I repeated to see how it felt when I said it.
“Well, if we’re being honest – “
“We’re being completely honest,” I interrupted.
“Oh, excuse me. If we’re being
completely
honest, then I’ll tell you that I already had a name picked out to change it to.” He pushed his curls back. “I had picked out the name Oliver. I really liked that name. There was just something old fashioned about it. It was still different, but it was common in an odd way.”
“Oliver,” I repeated. “That’s a nice name. So why did you decide not to change it like what your mom did?”
He took a deep breath. “Well, on the first day of school, my teacher Mr. Thomas introduced me to the class as Keiffer. Right when I was about to correct him, you said my name under your breath. Do you remember that?” Now he was piercing me with his eyes. I nodded my head slowly. “The second you said my name, I knew that I was going to keep it. For the first time, my name sounded beautiful.”
“You…you…kept your name because of me?” I asked breathlessly. He stared at me with no expression. Instead of answering, he laid on his back and focused on the stars above our heads. I couldn’t believe that I, someone he barely knew, made him decide something life-changing because of what I said.
“Jenna?” Lacey called from the ground. She was glaring up at me from the front lawn. Her hand was over her eyes to block out the moon’s glare. Her mouth was hanging wide open when she saw Keiffer sit up from the roof. “What are you doing up there?”
“Lacey,” I responded quickly. I jumped to my feet and booked it down the ladder, not even worrying about ice. I even surprised myself at how fast I made it back down to the ground. “I didn’t know you were coming over tonight.”
“Well, I wasn’t going to but Brad called me – what the hell are you doing on someone else’s roof?” She asked while still looking up at Keiffer. I finally got her attention back and she focused on me rather than him.
“That’s Keiffer. He’s my neighbor…”
“Neighbor? I thought he was your partner in Literature class!”
“No, I mean he is. But he’s also my neighbor.” I rolled my eyes at how messed up this might look. “I got tired at the party and noticed that he was star gazing –“
“So you climbed on top of a roof with him to look at the stars?” Her voice trailed off.
“I know how it might sound,” I started. By that time Keiffer had already climbed off the roof and approached us. He held out his hand at her. She slipped off her mitten to shake his hand.
“Hey, Lacey. I’m Jenna’s neighbor, Keiffer. I just really wanted to show her how clear the sky looks from up there. Do you want to see too?” He asked. I knew he was just trying to be kind, but I still felt a little jealous. We had just had a very serious moment together and now he was willing to take another girl on the roof. I crossed my arms in jealousy.
“No, I believe you,” she responded. She eyed me suspiciously. “Actually, Jenna and I have a sleepover to attend to. Um…see you around, Keiffer.”
“You too. Oh, and don’t forget to close your blinds this time, Jenna. Goodnight.” He flashed me a teasing smile before walking through his front door. Lacey grabbed my hands and led me up to the house.
“What the hell, Jenna?” Lacey said as soon as we got into my bedroom. “Why the hell were you on the roof with that Keiffer guy while your boyfriend is one house over?”
“It was no big deal. Keiffer and I are just friends…
if
we’re even friends. I saw him by himself so I joined him. I love Brad…I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize that.” I quickly grabbed the blue CD case from my desk and hid it behind my back before Lacey noticed it.
“No big deal, huh? Jenna…you sometimes make me nervous. Just last week you hated his guts, and now you’re up on the roof with him at two in the morning.”
“So,” I said coyly. “He’s nice…”
“Nice? How do mean that?”
I knew how Lacey was seeing this. I felt myself grow annoyed, but I wasn’t sure if I was more angry at myself, or the fact that I had put myself in this situation. “I don’t know, Lacey. He’s a nice guy. Nothing went on. And as my best friend, I would hope that you would be on my side.”
“I’m always on your side. You know this. But you’ve got so much going for yourself. You don’t need someone to bring you down.”
“Keiffer won’t bring me down. I don’t even know why we’re even having this conversation. Let’s drop it,” I said rudely.
That night she didn’t bring it up again. We ended up watching some movies in my room until we heard the music downstairs die away. Brad came into the room to give me a kiss goodbye and to tell me that my parents had come back. Before falling asleep, I checked my window one last time. Keiffer was sitting at his bedroom desk, practicing the guitar. I smiled to myself as I shut the blinds. He was a good guy…he really was.
Chapter Five
At school Keiffer and I never really talked. We kept to ourselves mostly, only talking during Literature class if we had to. Ever since the night of the party we hadn’t had a deep conversation. He stopped giving me CDs and I stopped trying to go out of my way to speak to him. In all honesty, I didn’t even have the time to think about him. I was constantly either studying, or being so involved with my extracurricular activities that I didn’t even get the chance. By the time April came rolling by, I was still swamped with previous duties, but they came to a halt a few days before my birthday.
“So my parents want to take us to Mackinaw Island for my birthday. It’ll be their twenty-first anniversary as well so they are planning on renting a room for us at the Grand Hotel,” I told Brad as we were sitting in the cafeteria. I pushed his hair back, feeling the smoothness between my fingers. Just looking into his eyes could make my whole heart melt.
“Well, I suppose,” he teased. “Of course I’ll go. This weekend?”
I nodded my head. “I already asked Tom to see if he would let us take the weekend off. He said it would be fine. So there’s nothing for you to worry about.”
“Did I ever tell you that you were the best girlfriend ever?” He asked before kissing me passionately. He had that effect on me. He was so handsome that I never got tired of kissing him…especially in front of the whole school.
Still on a high from lunch, I was practically on cloud 9 at the end of the day. I slammed my locker door shut, only to be face-to-face with Keiffer. He leaned against the locker next to mine, his eyes adverted from me. I swung my backpack over my shoulder, waiting for him to say something. When I knew he wasn’t going to, I started to walk away.
“Hang out with me,” he finally said. I stopped dead in my tracks, slowly turning around to look at him.
Shaking my head, I responded with my arms crossed. “I can’t. It’s my birthday this weekend and Brad and I are going to Mackinaw Island.”
“Tonight,” he finally said. He looked up at me, obviously feeling a bit nervous to be asking me. I shook my head again. “I just want to hang out. We need to get to know each other.”
“Then make me a CD,” I responded before I started walking down the hallway again. I could hear his feet shuffling behind me. I knew that he was desperate to talk to me, especially because he was willing to follow me down the hallway, where everyone could see. Now I was the one playing rude. It’s funny how tables can turn so quickly.
“I don’t
want
to make you a CD,” he said harshly. “I want to get to know you.”
“We’ve already established that. And I don’t want to get to know you. I have a boyfriend, Keiffer. And in case you haven’t noticed, he’s not too fond of you. Listen, graduation is just around the corner. In two months you’ll never see me again. Don’t waste your time.”
He stopped walking by my side. I quickly looked over my shoulder, watching him stand in the middle of the hallway, a serious expression over his face. “What if I wanted to get to know you? What if, God forbid, someone actually wanted to get to know you. To know you more than just Jenna Horowitz - Class President. What if someone wanted to know Jenna Horowitz – Ice Cream Scooper.” I started walking back towards him in hopes that he wouldn’t cause such a scene.
“Keiffer…” I took a deep breath. “You don’t know the first thing about me.”
“Then tell me…tell me just one thing.”
“One thing? One thing is that I love Brad.” I smiled at him weakly. “I think you want something else to come from this. Something that just won’t happen.”
“I don’t want anything,” he admitted. “Please, please hang out with me. Sunday afternoon, after you get back from Mackinaw.”
I shook my head. “No.” Taking a moment to reflect on my thoughts, I finally decided to let him on a quick secret. “You want to know something about me? Here it is. This weekend, I’ll be losing my virginity to my boyfriend of four years. There you go, Keiffer. Put that in your paper.” Walking away from him made me a bit sick to my stomach. I kind of wanted him to run and kiss me – the way that you see it in movies. I wanted him to twirl me in the air in front of the whole school and kiss me hard, like he truly loved me. But as I thought about that, I hated myself even more for wanting that.
That night I could hardly get to sleep. Tomorrow Brad and I would be going to Mackinaw Island for my eighteenth birthday. I didn’t quite understand how I could be so nervous. I loved Brad…I really did. He knew more about me than anyone else. I loved kissing Brad, so why wouldn’t I enjoy making love to him too? I did love him, didn’t I? Not only that though, Brad and I had been together for four years, wasn’t it to finally get to the next level of our relationship?
I heard a small tap come from my window. I waited a couple seconds and the sound came again. Thinking it was just the tree branch hitting my window, I stood up to investigate. I had told my dad time and time again that that stupid tree needed to be cut down. I was scared that it would go right through my window if we had a big storm.
Much to my surprise, it wasn’t the tree at all. Once I got to the window another pebble hit against it. I opened it up, half expecting Brad to be outside my window. I knew that he was probably just as excited as I was for the weekend trip. But instead it was Keiffer. He stood on the ground below my window, staring up at me with his real genuine smile, not the creepy fake one.
“What do you want, Keiffer?” I called down to him. I had to keep my voice low so that my parents wouldn’t hear me. I already knew how it probably looked to have someone, besides my boyfriend, under my window at twelve o’clock at night. “Don’t you know that it’s midnight?”
“Of course I do,” he called back. “Why else do you think I’m here?” He stuck up his index finger towards me, telling me to wait just a second. He turned his back towards me so I couldn’t see what he was doing. A few seconds later, when he turned back around, all I saw was a bright light in his hand. It looked like his hands were glowing.
“What the heck?” I said louder this time.
“Happy birthday, Jenna,” he said proudly.
I slammed my window shut, threw on my robe and padded down the stairs in hopes that my parents wouldn’t hear me. What the heck did he think he was doing? Who stands under someone’s window with a ball of flames? Getting outside was the worst part. I had to turn off the security alarm, which made a loud beeping noise so the whole house would hear it. Once I was confident to finally open the door, I stepped out on the porch. He was already standing there, waiting for me.
“Keiffer,” I breathed out, the cold wind nipping my nose. “What are you doing?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Happy birthday,” he repeated.
“It’s not my…” I stopped talking. He had come over at twelve, exactly on my birthday. The ball of flames turned out to be a birthday cake which he had made himself. Eighteen candles lined the top of the cake, which is why it made it look so bright.