It was another ordinary day at the Sherwood market in Minnesota for Kendall Knight. He had arrived for his shift promptly at 6pm after he had gotten home from school. He hated working only five hour shifts especially after being so worn out from practice but he was too passionate about hockey to skip and needed money too badly to quit his job. Kendall moved his hair from his face and adjusted the blue beanie on his head. The cold Minnesota air left him shivering after just a few minutes outside especially when there was even the slightest breeze. He made his way around the parking lot fetching any abandoned carts that customers were too lazy to return themselves.
Once he had returned his last cart he scanned the half full parking lot for any stray ones. When he was certain that he had gotten them all he began to look around for trash; part of his job was to keep the outside of the store looking nice. He eyed a piece of candy wrapper in a pile of snow but as soon as he reached down to pick it up it was blown away by the wind. Kendall sighed in frustration as he forced himself to chase after it. Each time he was close to it, the wind picked up again leaving Kendall about ready to give up when he heard laughter behind him.
"That looks rough." The voice said with a small laugh. Kendall turned his head and blushed when he saw a very cute girl standing behind him. He stood up and straightened his red apron and beanie that had fallen over his eyes from chasing the trash around the parking lot.
"You know…just chasing a candy wrapper…" Kendall laughed nervously. He felt so embarrassed because he realized how ridiculous he must've looked.
"No worries! That was probably the cutest thing I've ever seen." She laughed, picked up the candy wrapper and tossed it in the trash can.
"Oh, really? Thanks." He said taking his beanie off and running his fingers through his messy blonde hair before putting it back on his head. He suddenly felt very self conscious and he could feel himself sweating despite the fact that it was snowing. She noticed that his face had become a shade darker than it had before and couldn't help but smile.
"So, Kendall?" She said glancing at his name tag. He smiled when his name left her lips. He hadn't gotten the time to take a look at her before; he was shorter than him, he guessed around 5'4 or 5'3, had beautiful, short, dark hair with hints of caramel colored highlights, chocolate brown eyes framed with thick black glasses, and beautiful light, tan skin. She rested all of her weight on one leg, the other slightly bent with her arms crossed over her stomach. After a minute Kendall realized that he recognized her, he knew her.
"Emily...? James Diamond's ex-girlfriend?" Kendall raised his eyebrow. He was sure it was her; he remembered seeing her at their hockey games cheering James on two years ago and when she and James decided to have a make out session in his living room.
"Yes… Oh, Kendall! Kendall Knight? James Diamond's best friend?" Suddenly memories came flooding back to her of hockey games, high school parties, school dances and briefly hanging out with James and his best friends Carlos, Logan, and Kendall.
"Yeah, that's me." Kendall said sheepishly leaning against the cart return station.
"How are you?! How have you been? Wow, I forgot you worked here, damn I'm stupid. How did I not recognize you? You look the same…well except you're so much hotter now." At this point the words were just spilling out of her mouth and she couldn't seem to stop them. Her heart sped up when a smile crept across Kendall's face after hearing the last thing she said.
"I'm pretty good, thanks…" She found herself staring into his beautiful, emerald green eyes not even realizing that he had said something. He noticed her staring and waved his hand in front of her face. "Emily?"
"What? Oh, sorry….awkward…" She blushed looking down so that her hair cascaded around her already red face. Kendall chuckled softly and tilted her head up to look at him with his index finger.
"I was staring at you earlier, so we're even." He smiled (which made her heart jump out of her chest) and tucked her hair behind her ear. "To answer your question, I've been great, just a little busy with senior year and hockey and with working here unfortunately. But to be fair I didn't recognize you at first and I'd have to agree that you're more beautiful now. So what are you doing back in Minnesota?"
Did he just call me beautiful? She hadn't realized he was standing so close to her until he had finished talking. She could smell his cologne and deodorant (and it was heavenly). He towered about six feet over her with the cutest smile on his face and his beautiful green eyes looking intently at her. She could see small pieces of his blonde hair peeking out from under his beanie. He wore a long sleeved blue flannel shirt underneath of his red apron and a pair of black skinny jeans with his signature vans.
"We just moved back for good because my grandmother is sick and my parents wanted me to graduate with my friends." She nervously chewed on her thumb nail as she looked up at him.
"Well I'm certainly glad you're back because we didn't really get the chance to know each other before, but now we can. I'm sorry about your grandmother though, if you ever need anything you know where to find me." He smiled his dorky smile (she always thought it was cute) and began tending to the mess of carts that had appeared next to him so he wouldn't get in trouble. She grabbed one of the carts and pushed it back with the other ones deciding that she'd help him so he would finish faster.
"I know, I recall that I spent all of my time with James, sorry about that. Hey, it's okay things happen, but thank you." She smiled to herself and took another cart.
"You don't have to help me," he insisted, "this is my job, not yours."
"But if I help you, you'll get done faster then we can talk more." He liked talking to her (and looking at her) so he didn't argue. In a few minutes they had all of the carts back in place.
"I actually have to go back to my register now…but I get off at 10 if that's not too unreasonably late for you to hang out." His expression looked hopeful. He knew it was a school night and 10 was a little late and he also had a lot of homework that needed to be done but he really wanted to hang out with her.
"Pick me up when you're done." She took out a piece of paper, wrote down her address and handed it to him. "We can do homework, that way it's at least a little productive." She laughed a little and he nodded. The rest of the night was an absolute drag for Kendall. Once it hit 9 o'clock things started to slow down…a lot. When there weren't any more customers for Kendall to ring up, his boss sent him to restock the shelves.
As he walked through the aisles placing things on the shelves he couldn't stop thinking about her. Wow, way to go Kendall. He shook his thoughts away and finished restocking the shelves. As soon as it hit 10 o'clock he picked up his drawer almost running to his boss' office. He quickly scribbled down his earnings for the night on the sheet of paper lying on the desk and tossed it back down. He almost tripped when he got into the break room to retrieve his things from his locker. What is wrong with me, we're just doing homework it's not like a date. Calm down Kendall.
He pulled into her driveway at exactly 10:30pm with his backpack in the passenger seat (He ditched his apron and beanie at home). He waited a couple of minutes and then proceeded to the front door where he knocked two times then stood back with his hands in his pockets. A couple of seconds later the door opened and his face lit up when he saw who had opened it.
"Hey there stranger," she smiled and stepped back. "It's cold outside, come inside." She led him into the living room where her books were already spread out all over the coffee table. He set his backpack down on the floor next to hers and took a seat on the couch.
"So what are we tackling first? Math?" He asked picking up her Algebra book.
"I have to warn you, I'm terrible at it." She laughed and opened her notebook.
"It's alright, I can help you." They spent about an hour on their math assignment before they gave up. Emily was surprised that Kendall was good at math, he had figured out problems that would've taken her hours but it was getting late and they'd had all they could take. She closed her book and threw it on the floor to join her others.
"No more." She laughed yawning.
"It's getting pretty late, I should go." She didn't want him to leave; she wanted him to stay and make her laugh some more then maybe fall asleep on the couch with her. This is your ex-boyfriend's best friend, what the hell are you doing? Why hadn't she hung out with Kendall before? Spending this much time with him made her realize how much time she really had spent with James and not the other guys. She had never even gotten to know them really. But she was also kind of excited to see James at school yet she was having such a great time with Kendall.
"I'll see you tomorrow?" she asked hopefully.
"Of course." He smiled and stood up. She followed him to the door, and then things got a little awkward. He had slung his backpack over his shoulder and stood with the front door wide open. She stood behind him fidgeting with her sweatshirt unsure of what she should do. She wanted to hug him, really badly but she didn't know if it was appropriate.
"Bye…" She said quietly.
"See ya…" he stared at her wanting the same thing she did but unsure if he should or not. After standing in silence for a few minutes he decided he couldn't deal with it anymore. He dropped his bag and threw his arms around her pulling her tightly against his chest. Her body felt so soft against his and he never wanted to let her go. He reluctantly pulled away after a few minutes, picked up his bag and went out to his car leaving her watching him with a huge smile on her face.