Chapter 10:

Kay sighed deeply to herself as she recalled the events of last night. She had never gotten the chance to continue that conversation with John at Miguel and Charity's wedding reception party. Turns out, the call John had received had been important. So important that John had to leave the party altogether, to take care of other responsibilities, as he had put it.

Sulking, Kay flopped down on her bed. Her first semester had just ended a few days before Miguel and Charity's wedding. The newlyweds were off to their honeymoon in Hawaii.

Kay had chosen to take two summer classes but they weren't to start for another few days. Whitney, Theresa and Simone had gone to Castleton for a few weeks with Chad, Noah and Fox. Kay was pretty much alone with only Jessica, Paloma, who she wasn't that close to, Reese, Timmy and John around. It wasn't the group she figured she'd spend her summer with, but she would make do she supposed.

Bored and lonely, Kay decided to pay John a visit. She figured he must be alone in his dorm room just like her. So why not grace themselves with each other's company?

Taking her purse with her, Kay was just about to walk out the door before she remembered a conversation she had shared with John not too long ago. It caused her to go over to her desk, and retrieve an object from the clutter on the table before satisfiedly walking over to his dorm.

John, half-asleep from all the boredom, heard a knock coming from outside his door.

"John, are you there?" he could hear a female's voice ask from outside. It sounded a lot like Kay.

"Yeah, I am," he replied, just as he turned the knob to open the door. "Hi, Kay. Come on in." He smiled.

"Thanks," Kay replied as she slowly and unsurely walked in inside. She remembered the last time they had been in a dorm room alone together. How the mood seemed to be elevated, causing them both to lean in for a kiss before Whitney had interrupted them.

John stretched his arms and yawned as Kay sat down on Chad's desk.

"Were you sleeping?" Kay asked. "If you were, I can come back at a later time...." She was quick to point out, using the first chance she got to possibly leave. She was nervous.

"No, no, I'm ok. What's up?" He noticed the glossy notebook she was holding in her hand. "What's that you got there?"

"It's my poems notebook. The one I told you about once. The one -"

"I remember Kay," John interrupted, noticing her heightened nervousness.

"I think I'm finally ready to show someone else my writing," Kay declared.

"That's great," John responded. "Can I ask what brought this feeling though?"

"Well," Kay hesitated, as she shifted her weight around in her seat. "Yesterday's wedding brought me an added sense of maturity. A kind of closure on my life previous to it. I feel like -" Kay stopped talking. Her words were enough, her actions were ready to speak in its place. Standing up, she thrust the notebook out in John's direction.

John's eyes widened. She wants me to read it? He thought to himself. Before his mind could stop reeling from the situation, he felt his hand take the notebook away from her. He sat down on his bed, opening to the first page. He began to read Kay's first poem. It was titled "The Game."

We are born

Given life

To feel the pleasures

And tortures of the world

We grow up

To become

Wiser images of our younger selves

We get older

To feel the world

And the life

Being sucked away

From us

Slowly but significantly

And then it's over

You have completed the final stage

You have finished the game

The game of Life

What comes next?

Do you move onto another game?

Or do you play the same game

But as a different person?

Or do you go up to heaven

And watch the world?

Maybe you watch your world

The way it was when you were still alive

I guess we just have to see what happens

After the game is over.

Amused, he moved on to another poem. This one seemed to be more about love than life since it was ever so creatively titled "Love Poem":

The rain coming down from the sky

enveloping the world with her wet kisses

The stars twinkling in the light

each one with the hope and promise of a better morrow

Flowers in fields, further than visible

the wind carrying off the scent to deeper places

The moon casting her eerie glow

causing horror stories around the campfire

Journeys and trails that seem never-ending

with feet that are never tired

A love song that describes your feelings

touches the heart and doesn't leave the soul

A message in a bottle with the words of your heart's desire

written by the one you would call your lover

John loved the first poem, along with its endless new ideas. It had made him think of things that had never before crossed his mind. But the second poem had brought an ache to his heart. They were the best things in life. They were love. They were words that had inspired Kay to write that beautiful poem, but what hurt was the fact that he knew he wasn't the one who had brought out those emotions in Kay. Miguel was the reason behind that poem. Trying to push those thoughts away, John silently reminded himself that even though Kay had written those based on how she felt for Miguel, it was he who she was showing it to for the first time.

He looked up to meet Kay's intense gaze.

"That was great, Kay," he began. "But..."

"But what?" she asked quickly.

He stood up to face her.

"But... why me?" John was curious to find out why Kay had chosen to show him her poems, when she had known her other friends much longer than she had known him.

Kay stared back at him thoughtfully. "Because," she said. "You would understand. You understand me, especially lately. I..." She paused talking as she felt one of John's fingers on her lips.

"John, I umm," she began to say, before he interrupted her again.

"No, Kay," he protested. "You've shown me something about how you feel. It's my turn." With that he bent down to reach her height, and showed her his feelings. Picking up from where they had left off, he completed the first kiss they almost shared a while back in her dormitory.

{a/n: hope u liked! those two poems are mine. you can find them in fictionpress.net under the pen name 'the moon and the wind.' review those too if you liked them. thanks people. this story is almost over. going to wrap things up between the next 1-2 chapters.}