Kris quickly began to see what Bradin Westerly would do to get what he wanted. For the following two weeks since she snapped and broke off all ties with him, he had suddenly become her stalker. He was always there! At her locker morning, noon, and after school. A few feet behind her in the hallways, behind her in the lunch line, sitting at the next table in the cafeteria, and always popping up near her classrooms. It didn't take long for her to get really annoyed, really fast. It only took one week for her to finally whip around and demand that he not talk to her anymore. Of course, Bradin took her demand to heart and only fixed her with a silent gaze now as he followed her like a puppy.
"Westerly. For the love of all that's human, you're worse than anyone else I've moved on from. We weren't dating, and I don't actually like you. And you can't honestly say you like me either. So stop following me. Even you must have more dignity than that." She said evenly on the second Thursday since he'd started stalking her two weeks ago.
"I do like you." He sidestepped in front of her. "Why else do you think I'd be doing this? As for the dignity thing, I don't normally give up. I don't mean easily, I mean at all. And seriously, I don't need to worry about people thinking I'm a loser- I'd welcome it, but it's like I'm untouchable. I don't care what the think anyways. If I have to prove to you that I'm sorry, I'll do what it takes."
"Firstly, you can't like someone you don't know." Kris told him bluntly. "Secondly, could you get any more conceited? And finally, I know you're sorry. I don't need the creepy following act to prove that. That isn't the part I care about. I stayed with you longer than I should have, and you're little thing with Eva or whatever just showed me what I already knew."
"Kris-" he started.
"Look. I don't like you like that and I never did. Can't you just accept that it was just sex?" Kris sighed wearily.
"You may believe I'm acting like a chick who's been dropped after a worthless physical-only relationship, but I actually do care about you-"
"You care about not getting to touch these for the rest of your living years." She interrupted, pointing at her chest.
"Could you stop saying that? It's not true." He protested.
"Fine. Why do you want to be with me so bad then? We never went out, all we ever did was make out and all that. We barely even talked." She raised her eyebrows. "If you care about me and that shit, tell me something that you know about me. Something real. Because I sure as hell can't say a thing about you. I didn't even know your name when we messed around, okay?" Kris glared.
"What if I want to get to know you? I don't know much now except that you completely hate commitment. And that you're the most interesting, most down-to-earth person I've ever known. You speak your mind, and I love that. Really, you're probably wittier and far more colourful than all the girls in the school combined." Bradin answered, staring her right back.
"All the girls in this crappy town are Barbie beach bubble heads. Excuse me if I don't take your words as groundbreaking." She muttered.
"All right. Let's start there. Why do you hate Playa Linda so much?" Bradin questioned, leaning against a locker.
"It's boring, too sunny, too bay-watch esque. People walk around in swim suits and it's all pretty much one lame soap opera." She said.
"Do you miss your home?" he pushed further.
"No." Kris answered shortly.
"Why?"
"I'm not like you. I'm not the Golden girl who's most popular, who's lived here forever and lives to be in the water. I can barely swim, and I can't stand you shallow guys at all. Which is probably why I get so physically involved with your types… so I can end it and show you what it's like." She said, with a very small dose of bitterness in her voice.
"Like me? You just said you don't know who I am. And yet you're here, assuming that I've had a perfect life. I just moved here last year-which I know I've already told you, but obviously you don't care enough to remember. I was a farm boy who played football, had never even touched a surf board, knew all of six people here, and pretty much hated everyone involved for dragging me from my home." Bradin was getting pissed. "Of course, I, unlike you, got over my self. I met new people, tried out surfing, and wow actually was half decent to people who tried to talk to me."
"In other words, you assimilated." She said crossly. "Gave up, stopped fighting it, and joined the majority to become the natural beach boy you are today."
"And you're just going to sulk until you leave Playa Linda?" Bradin snapped. "I had no choice. I had little left back home, and I wouldn't make things a hell for my family. Not for the ones I loved."
"I knew it. You're one of those guys who does chores every day, helping your little brother with his homework, lecturing your little sister about boys," Kris snorted.
"What's so laughable about that?" he spat out, anger building up in his eyes.
"Nothing." She said. "Look, just stay out of my life."
"I don't get you." He yelled.
"I don't want you to." Kris told him quietly.
"Why? Why are you so closed?"
"I'm a freak. A whore. A slut. A bitch. Choose the adjective of your choice. That's why." Kris said.
"No, you're fucking not. That's what I don't get. Don't call yourself those things!" he grabbed her shoulders.
"They're just words, Bradin. Nothing more." She shook her head. "I don't care."
"But I do. You keep saying those things and one day you might believe them. But you're just you, you're Kris. And people call you those things when you don't give them what they want. If you call yourself those things too, you're agreeing with them. You're amazing. Don't listen to them." There was almost a desperate edge to his voice.
"Blah, blah, blah. Just words. Amazing, beautiful, disgusting, horrible. They're just words. And they don't mean anything to me. If you don't give a shit about what people think of you, the words are powerless. Everyone's words are powerless. That's what you should understand, Westerly. That's what you need to understand. Someone insults me, no matter with what words, I won't let it get to me. If they do to you, you'd be thinking about it all day, wondering if they're right." She said.
"There's a line between being cool enough with yourself to not take insults to heart and having been told such things so many times that they no longer have affect. Accepting and ignoring what people say, moving on, that could be interpreted as strong, as brave. Or you could say you're just too tired. You're the one giving up."
"Give it up, Westerly. Find another girl." She exhaled and shook his hands off her, trying to stride away.
"Why don't you want to go out with me?" Bradin finally asked point-blank.
"I don't do the dating thing." Kris replied with a shrug.
"Why?"
"What, is it so impossible for a girl to want the noncommittal sex only thing that guys seem to have a grant for?" she said in frustration. "No one questions this much when a guy wants it, they see it for it is. Get over yourself, Bradin, I don't want to be with you. I don't want you."
"Was I that bad?" he cracked a smile.
"Not as bad as some, but I'd be lying if I said you did much for me." She said.
"You did-like it- didn't you?"
"Insecure?" Kris smirked. "Okay, you knew where everything was and the basics of what to do with it, but you didn't really utilize a lot of the things we could've done. It's clear to me that you're not the most experienced."
"Kris, maybe you haven't figured this out yet, but I've never been in a relationship like this before. I've never slept with a girl I didn't seriously like, and for the most part, love. And after I slept with them, I never once broke it off the next day. I'm not that kind of guy, whether or not you see this as being a pansy is up to you."
"Really? Well, maybe you didn't leave them the next day. Word around a few circles is that you broke a chick named Callie's heart. Pressured her to sleep with you, and then didn't want to do anything but. And when she backed away, wanting to do more than just sex, you got testy." Kris innocently pointed out.
"I have no idea how you got a hole of that information, but I didn't mean to pressure her, we both wanted it. And I didn't mean to make her feel like that was all I wanted, because I loved her, I just let my hormones take over for a time…" Bradin looked away. It looked like this was a soft spot.
"You don't have to explain yourself to me." She said.
"No, you don't care, right?" Bradin shook his head. He sounded almost resigned.
"Giving up now, Westerly?" Kris said lightly.
"I don't want to." He said softly. "I'll be honest, I've never had a girl say no. And no, and no, and fuck off you loser. I guess I did get conceited. Thought I could win over the one girl who sees through the dating bullshit. You're the one person who could challenge me, who could make me so pissed off yet at the same time still wanting you. You're real. And that's one thing I can't do, I can't convince you to go out with a fake like me. But this isn't me giving up, Kris. I don't want to smother you so much that you almost break my nose again, to hang around so much that you get annoyed enough to just go out with me so I'll shut up. I'll still be here if one day you decide to give me a chance, an actual one that you want as much as I do."
"Nice little speech." She said. But almost instantly after, she added, "Sorry. Couldn't help myself. Look, Bradin, don't think I'm so great; don't think I'm such a wonderful person. I'm not."
"Yeah, you are. You don't lie, you're always yourself and you don't care where that takes you. You're right not to be with me, I'm not good enough for you yet." Bradin breathed.
"Don't put people on pedestals, Bray." She murmured. "All it does is make it that much harder for everyone involved when they inevitably fall."
He looked so sad right then, she broke her ice for a minute and quietly, sweetly wrapped her fingers loosely around his and kissed his cheek very lightly. Then she let go, pulled back, and walked away, adding as she left, "If you're actually gonna wait for me to change my mind, don't hold your breath Surfer Boy."
Bradin watched her leave, uncertain as he always seemed to be.
A/n: My computer broke, sorry about the lengthy delay. Hope you liked this chapter. Thanks for the kind words, it was actually the reviews that guilted me into updating as soon as my new pc came.