Sorry I haven't been posting. I wouldn't be posting this if I hadn't decided that maybe I need to post something again. A month or so is too long with no postings so here goes nothing. It's the story from Timed Tuesdays 2 when I was doing that (I know... went pretty well...), just changed it to make it longer for an assignment for my English class.
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The ten year reunion party is one of the only chances one gets to see their old high school friends again, and Kim was more than looking forward to it. There really wasn’t a reason for her to though. She wasn’t anyone that people would have remembered, except for maybe two or three of the nerds, if they happened to show up.
Her high school life was a vastly glanced over thing, compared to the life of the sports players and cheerleaders. Bookworms weren’t anyone people really ever remember later on in life. Really the only reason she came back to this reunion is because of a boy who she had talked to occasionally, and even ten years later she hadn’t ever gotten over him.
They had never gotten together as a couple. After all, what would a football player want to do with probably the biggest bookworm in school? They had had some friendly chats now and then about the old great authors like Shakespeare. His love of literature like that was probably the reason she fell for him in the first place. She had heard though through the grapevine of high school girl gossip that he had a girl, and they were going to get married as soon as they graduated, and for the rest of her senior year she wished more than anything she could be that girl- captain of the cheer-leading squad as rumor had it. But school ended, and so did her dreams of ever being with him.
On the other side of the town, also getting ready for the same reunion was a man just almost thirty. He was waiting on his wife to finish with her hair. Even in high school it was a constant pain to wait on a woman who thought she had to be picture perfect because the had to set an example for her cheer leading squad, and help make the rest of the females in school jealous they weren’t them.
His wife was going so she could show off like she used to, and more than likely tote to all the women she had gone to school with that she had taken the football captain that every girl was to die for, even the book worms. He was going so he could meet up with his old football buddies, and talk about the glory days of high school when his team went undefeated for two years in a row. Also, and very very much a secret, he hoped to see a girl he had had small conversations with here and there whenever he happened to see her in the library reading Shakespeare.
He envied the way she could just melt away into a book, with the world inside the covers just swallowing her up, so she could forget the real world. In all his high school glory he had wished sometimes he could spare even ten minutes to sit and read a book, and melt away inside the words it contained instead of having to worry about his girlfriend going off with another guy, which was a constant issue. He had only asked her out in the first place because that was what was expected of him. All he wanted in the first place was a simple girl who wasn’t time consuming, and the girl in the library all those years ago in high school wouldn’t stop coming to his mind every now and then: her slender frame, with slight curves, the way her hair fell across her face whenever she sat and looked down at a book, and the cute way she would push up her glasses whenever he interrupted her. In the back of his mind, had he not been the captain of the football team, and playing the part, she would have been the girl for him. Kim. The girl who he wished he could have.
At her apartment Kim went to leave, and then stopped to sit. She convinced herself she needed a moment to collect herself before she went to see the one person she hadn't forgotten after so long, though deep down she new that if she sat for too long she wouldn't get the courage to get up and head to the reunion. 'Just one moment is all I need to get myself ready,' she told herself.
She looked at her senior yearbook on the coffee table in her living room, opened up to a picture of him in his letterman’s jacket, holding his football in front of the football team. In ten years, not one man had taken her mind off of him, not that there were many men who had tried. She wouldn’t let them. Even though she had never gotten to know him that well, he still left a large part of her heart wanting him. All the dances she had wished that somehow he would ask her to go with him. All of the dates she wish he would have asked her to. She wasn't sure if she could take it, 'But,' she thought to herself, 'I'll go anyway.'
She arrived at the reunion early, hoping to be one of the first people there, so she could watch everyone file in and so she could maybe recognize him before somehow he noticed her. After an hour he hadn't shown up, and she was starting to feel worried that she would never be able to see him at least this one more time.
'Finally we're here,' Thomas thought to himself as he and his wife walked into the school gym for the reunion, and instantly he saw that girl he had had a crush on so long ago in high school. The way she had been looking almost made it seem that she had been waiting for him. Especially with the smile and little wave she showed him before she disappeared into the crowd. Although he probably shouldn't have, he took this as a little game of hide and seek and spent the rest of the night secretly trying to find her, disguising this secret game with short conversations with old high school buddies that e used to hang out with ten years ago.
From her viewpoint just parely behind the risers in the gym Kim watched Thomas go from group to group, starting small conversations, but at the same time looking about everywhere, almost as if he was looking for someone. Her heart fluttered with the crazy idea that maybe she was the one he was looking for, but she quickly threw that thought out when his wife, that darned cheerleader from her high school days, grabbed him by the arm and led him to a group of women who had to be the gang of girls who used to make so much fun of her ten years ago.
After watching him for another few minutes, chatting with that group of women and his wife, she slowly found her way to the punch bowl, and went to grab the ladle for the punch when a hand stopped hers, and offered her a cup of punch. Looking up she gasped. Thomas stood there with two cups of punch in his hands, and he was offering one of them to her. Shakily she took it from him and took a small sip while he watched with a bemused gaze. “What's wrong? Didn't recognize me Kim?” he asked with a smile.
She put down her cup and readjusted her glasses. “Ummm... No... I did see you... I just didn't know if you remembered me...”
“How could I forget?! I think some of my favorite times in high school were the times I skipped class and we talked about Shakespeare! It was refreshing to know someone could understand how much of a brilliant author he was,” he said with a glazed expression on his face, as if he was reliving those short numbered days they had through high school.
“It was pretty fun, wasn't it,” she commented. Her heart was racing again. 'So maybe it was me he was looking for the whole time,' she thought to herself. 'And he remembered our conversations about all the old great playwrights!'
Looking at her again after all this time brought back so many memories that he wasn't sure how to react to them all. It seemed almost almost too good to be true that he was talking to her again. He wondered how she felt about this. From the way she was shaking a little bit it seemed that maybe she felt the same way about talking to him, and that made him feel a little bit better about his night.
“So did you ever get married to what's-her-face over there?” Kim asked. She immediately thought that maybe she was being a little bit rude, not remembering her name.
“Yeah. Just after we got out of college a couple years ago,” he replied, almost sad that he had to admit it.
“She seems like a great girl for you.” Kim almost choked on those words as they came out of her mouth. He didn't know how much she liked him still.
“Well it's okay. We do have our moments every now and again, but doesn't everyone?” he chuckled. “Well haven't you found anyone?”
“No,” she shamefully admitted. “I don't get out much, and I'm not that attractive of a person to be asked out or anything.”
Thomas wished he could tell her just how wrong she was. In any event they spent the rest of the night chatting with each other, and whne the reunion was coming to a close, he asked her if she needed a ride back to her place. She told him that she was fine, but he insisted that he was going to give her a ride anyways. He went and ofund his wife and told her that he was going to be giving an old friend of his a ride back home, and would be back soon to pick her up, and reluctantly she let him go.
The ride back to her place was as enjoyable as the night with Thomas had been. 'If only this could last forever,' she thought to herself. Thomas thought the same thing, though he never thought that she would admit it.
They got to her place not much later, and as she went to get out of his car, Thomas stopped her.
“Kim?” he asked her somewhat shyly.
“I don't suppose you would ever believe something if I told you.”
“And what would that be?”
“Ever since high school I don't think I've ever forgotten about you, and with all my heart I wish I had done this sooner.” He leaned towards her slowly and she stopped. Her heart started racing again, and slowly she leaned in to him, and they kissed. It wasn't a long kiss, but for Kim it was just the perfect length. And if she had said anything about it, Thomas would have agreed.
They left each other's company as quietly as they had said hi. Just a small goodbye, a smile, and he pulled away. He wished he could leave his wife and stay with Kim, but he knew he wouldn't have the heart to do it. She wished the same thing, but she didn't think that she was worth it. Thomas knew that, and it hurt him even more not to.
She walked back into her apartment in a sort of a dreamy state. Shock left from the kiss she had always wanted from the man she loved. She would remember this night just as well as she would remember any time they had spent together in high school. 'But only if it could be more than just a memory,' she thought to herself as she closed the door to her apartment.
Turning back away from the door, she crossed to the couch and sat down once more, looking at his face on the yearbook. At the boy who took her heart, and now he knows it. The boy who she could never call hers.
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