-KC-
It was my junior and I had spent most of my life in high school keeping my head in the game. Whether the game was basketball, football, being a friend, school work, work, or being a dad, I tried to throw myself into it with all my heart. Tried, as in I made a lot of mistakes.
I just wanted to make things right in at least one of those fields of error. It wasn't my idea to give away my son, and I still wanted to be in his life. To be able to do this, I felt like I had to spend my free time studying and learning all things children. I was starting to spend mornings in the computer lab and lunches in the library.
I had checked a book out of the public library earlier in the day, and I was now reading it at The Dot and drinking a coffee.
"Do you mind if I sit here, KC Guthrie?" A female voice cut through what I had created as a 'silence' in my mind, the way the sound of a crying child would cut through even the noisiest restaurants.
I looked up from my book, with a shameless expression of annoyance plastered on my face, "There are other seats, why don't you take one of those?"
"Well, I just figured that since we both seemed to be singles, we'd leave the seats couples could use open instead of taking two separate tables all for ourselves. I won't bother you, I'll just sit," She said and sat before I had the chance to answer.
I shook my head slightly and looked back down at my book. I didn't even know who she was, but I realized, she knew who I was. Her high-pitched voice was melodic as the memory of it rang back through my mind KC Guthrie, she had used my full name.
I looked up from my book and cocked an eyebrow, "Do I know you?" The question sound a bit harsh in the silence that was between us, but it was really only curiously placed from my thoughts.
"Probably not," she shrugged and pulled out a notebook, clearly making an effort not to disturb me as she had previously claimed.
I rolled my eyes at her effort, although I—to a degree—appreciated it. I looked back down ay my book, trying to mirror that effort. It was a failed attempt. I found myself unable to focus on the statistics of child growth and stability. I could only focus on the extremely quiet, extremely delicate strokes of this girl sitting in front of me's pencil. She was just minding her own business.
I shifted uneasily and tried really hard to concentrate on myself, and not to peek up at her to see the way her brown hair was pulled up into two tight buns on each side of her head, and how some little pieces fell down into her face. I tried not to notice her set facial expression as she concentrated on her drawing.
I sighed and closed the book. She looked up from her drawing for an instant, smirked slightly to herself, then looked back down to continue the pace of the strokes of her pencil, delicately and flawlessly, no erasing, no pausing, just letting the lead flow from her pencil onto the page with ease.
"Imogen Moreno," She said, not looking back up or stopping her pace, "Pleased to meet you."
"Uh, yeah. Nice meeting you, I'm—"
"KC Guthrie," she said, perfectly repeating it in the melodic way she had spoken it when she arrived, "Jenna Middleton's former boyfriend and baby daddy." She looked up from her drawing, "I know."
"So how do you know so much about me when I didn't even know your name?" I sat back in my chair and eyed her curiously.
"KC, you have kept yourself in a prime spotlight for gossip since you and Jenna started dating. I might keep myself out of it, but gossip still spreads to us lower levels of the popularity pyramid," She rolled her eyes, pretty much signaling that she was bored of my ignorance and was wishing for a topic change.
I shrugged and looked over at her notebook, "What are you drawing?"
"Just something," she shut her notebook and put it on her lap. "And, no, you can't see it, no one should see art until it's finished."
"Alright, alright," I put my hands up in surrender and smiled.
She smiled back, "And what about you? What are you reading over there?" I slid my book over to her, she raised her eyebrows as she read the title, "Child Growth Statistics," her eyes widened and she looked p from the book at me. "KC! You're not expecting again, are you?"
"No, no, no, no, no, noooo. But I want to be able to someday be a part of my sons life," I said, watching her flip the pages of the book from front to back, back to front.
"Wow, KC, that's really sweet," she smiled and slid the book back over to me. "But, don't you think you're getting a little obsessed with it?"
"What do you mean?"
"Spending all your free time learning pointless things like child growth statistics," she said, motioning to the book in my hands, "Your son is going to need someone to answer his questions, who her can wrestle and throw a football with."
I nodded, letting understanding slowly pulse through my head. I sighed and slowly stood up, "You're right, I should go."
She bounced up from her seat and walked so she was standing in front of me. She reached out and lightly rested her hand on my shoulder, "Calm, KC Guthrie. He'll like you, you're a sweet, likeable guy."
She smiled, turned around and skipped out of The Dot, I watched her go and mentally collected myself.
-Imogen-
Predicting his next move was simple, KC wasn't a very hard person to read, so I skipped to the library. I would sit there until he arrived.
I sat down inconspicuously at a table where I could keep an eye on the door and continue drawing at the same time. My drawing was of a beautiful, majestic, and courageous baby eagle. The eagle had a broken wing and it was immobile in a field of predators. It was hidden just well enough to stay alive until a hero would come by and help nurse it back to health.
It was a universal concept of feeling alone, a simple concept to grasp. I wanted someone to be able to look at the drawing and be able to feel the bravery, fear, and pain of the baby eagle.
I was working on the detail of the venomous teeth of a stealthy snake when KC Guthrie finally entered the library.
I pretended I didn't notice and kept working on the drawing as well as I could. But, just like I had done to him at The Dot, he was making himself impossible to ignore, except, he was unaware that he was doing this to me. His presence was impossible to ignore, it was intoxicating and confident.
He returned the book and turned around to leave. With his pivot of his turn, he spotted me across the room.
I still pretended not to notice that he was anywhere near the vicinity as he made his way over to the table I was sitting at.
"That looks so life-like," He said and I quickly flipped my notebook closed.
"Are you stalking me, KC Guthrie?" I looked p at him in time to see the smile that played across his face when I said his name, causing me to smile back.
"No, I just saw you over here and," I raised my eyebrows as he searched for the words, "and I wanted to thank you for helping me earlier. You're really insightful."
Insightful, I thought, that's a new one. "I'm sure you would have caught on eventually. You're smart." I said smiling and slightly fluttering my eyelashes.
He chuckled, "No really, thank you. It would have taken me years to figure out that one. You saved me from a lot of trouble," He smiled thankfully then sat across from me.
"I thought you just wanted to thank me," I looked at him curiously, because I hadn't predicted this move.
"I was wondering why you were all alone, and maybe if you wanted to do something… not alone?" He smiled nervously and met my eyes with his.
My heart soared with curiosity.
Curiosity killed the cat.
I made a mental note to self: don't wear your cat ears around KC Guthrie.
"Define not alone, because I don't really tend to get along well at those 'popular' parties," I air quoted 'poplar' and flashed back for a moment to the beginning of the school year when I tried to fit in at one of those parties, and how it so didn't work out for me.
"I was actually just thinking of a two person get-together. Just you and I?" His tone was confident and hopeful, his words sent my mind buzzing, and his eye contact had my heart beating faster than necessary.
"Like a date?" He nodded slightly and went to speak but then I continued on jokingly, "After only knowing me a few hours. Someone's brave."
"Is bravery such a bad quality?" He asked, cocking his eyebrow.
"Not at all, unless, you know, if I was a mass murderer," I smiled deviously, egging him on.
"You hardly look the type," he smirked back.
"Looks can be deceiving!" I practically sang the words, casing the librarian to throw an aggravated "shh" in or direction.
I giggled quietly and stood up, "Let's get out of here, I'm not good at being quiet."
"Oh, I don't believe that for a second," KC said, jokingly sarcastic, as we made our way ot of the library.
"Wow, you're keeping up," I said, impressed.
His wit wasn't the only think impressing me, KC Guthrie was a jock, but he had yet to criticize me on how weird or freaky I was. He wasn't even afraid to be seen with me in public.
He was different.
-KC-
Imogen and I seemed to walk and talk aimlessly for hours. She could talk, her melodic voiced bubbled out everything that came to her mind. She was unique, different than the girl I dealt with in the past.
I found myself being able to talk to her about anything. Topics that were awkward or uncomfortable with other people were relieving and easily passed through with her.
She knew a lot of things; she was insightful. She didn't care what people thought; she was happy with who she was.
Who she was, was beautiful inside and out.
When the sun began to set, I told her I'd walk her home. While we were walking she talked to me about how beautiful she thought the sunset was:
"The colors of the day are all leaving with the sun, all the blues and reds and yellows, squishing down to beyond our point of view with the sun. It creates all these beautiful purples and pinks that will start a new day somewhere else as it ends a day here. We'll live in the dark for a few hours, just so we are able to appreciate the colors newly the next day."
She told me and this smiled as the last ray of sunshine disappeared behind the last hill in the distance.
"But the dark isn't bad," I said looking up into the sky, searching for the first signs of stars in the now night sky. "It gives us the chance to see all the stars in the sky."
She smiled and looked up as we turned onto the pathway that led to her front door, "Very true, KC Guthrie, but the stars are hard to see in the city."
We stopped at her front door and looked down from the sky and at each other, "But that doesn't mean they aren't there."
"Insightful," she smirked, "very insightful KC."
I smiled back and reached out to lightly brush a piece of her hair out of her face, "let's say this was date one, you up for date two tomorrow?" I asked, lightly resting my hand on the back of her neck.
She nodded weakly and smiled, leaning slightly closer to me. I smiled and leaned in, lightly letting our lips brush before leaning back and smiling at her.
"Goodnight KC Guthrie," she said, smiling back.
"Sweet dreams, Imogen Moreno," I smiled and turned around to walk home.