Short Story #2: Kai & Jayleene in high school, part 3

"So what should the theme be?" Marceline asked, more to Tony than to everyone else.

He shrugged, but smiled at her. "Underwater theme?" Angel offered.

Kai scoffed. Water was like his enemy, he didn't know how to swim and besides for drinking and baths, it seemed useless to him. "Got a better idea?" Tony asked.

"Fire, bright colors, anything red or orange…" he shrugged. Everyone gave him a look. "Okay, bad idea, I get it."

"Lightning maybe? Or shades of blue?" Jayleene finally spoke up, but she was still looking down at her guitar as she played with its strings.

"How is that different from Angel's idea?" Marceline asked. Jayleene shrugged.

Lloyd sighed. "Alright, um…Hollywood theme? You know; red carpet?"

"That's the gayest-"

"That's actually kinda' cool." Tony cut Marceline off. The twin's eyes widened as her crush agreed with her brother. "Oh yeah, it's an awesome idea, everyone can dress up and there can be voting for the dance's king and queen." She babbled, smiling at Tony.

Jayleene shrugged. "I'm in,"

"Whatever." Angel rolled her eyes at her best friend's attempts to get with the Maxx teen.

"I don't care…" Kai folded his arms.

"So it's a go?" Lloyd asked, looking at everyone. They all nodded. "It's a go." Tony said.

"So colors…?" Jayleene asked. "How about red, silver, black, gold, dark blue, basically anything dressy,"

"Alright, I deal with snacks," Lloyd said.

"Uh, Tony can help me with decorations, if he wants…" Marceline looked at him. Tony shrugged and nodded.

"Good, now we need someone to play at the dance…" Jayleene sighed. "Any ideas?"

Everyone groaned, not seeing any ideas, but it hit them…They all looked at Jayleene who was playing a small song on her guitar. "I have an idea…" Angel said, staring at the girl.

Jayleene's eyes widened when she found everyone's eyes on her. "N-No! No way, hell no!" she immediately started objecting. "I'm not even that good! I suck in fact."

"Oh, yeah you really sucked when you played Smile yesterday." Kai said sarcastically.

"Well, I've never played in front of a crowd!"

"You played in front of us." Lloyd cut in.

Jayleene glared at him. "Okay, but there are only five of you so it's different…"

Angel stood up and walked over to Jayleene. "You're playing, if you don't, I'm kicking your ass until we graduate!"

"What songs should I play?"

"Need a ride again?" Kai asked as Jayleene tried to call home for the millionth time on her cellphone.

She sighed and slid the phone into her pocket. "Yeah, do you mind?"

"No not at all, c'mon,"

As they walked over to Kai's car, Jayleene looked down at her feet. Maybe Angel pounding on her until graduation wasn't such a bad thing…It was better than singing in front of the entire school! She sighed deeply which Kai immediately noticed. He turned around and she bumped into him. "What…-?"

"You okay?"

She looked deep into his eyes for a minute before starting to over analyze everything like Walkers did. "Honestly…? No, I'm only performing because Angel made me and if I perform and mess up in front of the entire school, the rest of my years in high school are completely fucked. And then I won't be able to take the bullying and then I'm gonna' beg my parents to let me change schools and when they say no I'm gonna' drop out, run away and-"

Kai grabbed her shoulders firmly, but she kept going on. "I'm gonna' be a total disappointment to my family!"

"No, you won't, you're not a disappointment."

"HOW ARE YOU SURE?!" He sighed and leaned down to press his lips up against hers.

Jayleene's eyes widened before slowly drifting to a close, his eyes closed too.

WHAT WERE THEY DOING?! Okay, this was Kai, her brother's best friend and someone she saw every day since kindergarten.

And this was Jayleene, his best friend's sister; she was always just the little girl that barely hung out with him. They pulled apart at the same time, blushing. "That never happened!" she yelled. "Kai, I'll walk home alright? Um…Uh, bye!" she ran.

Kai stood still…

Did he just kiss her?