Waiting

WAITING

BY:
KIAHANA

Copyright 2012 Kiahana

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Dedicated to my Denay Day-Piper-Johnson

Love you and hope you enjoy!

ONE

My very first real crush was when I was a senior in high school. Don't get me wrong, I'd thou
ght other boys were cute before.  B
ut after meeting and hearing Parker Smith talk for the first time, I knew I was a goner. He'd transferred from some out of state schoo
l and was a mystery to everyone. A
nd a constant thought in my head.

It was
in
the auditorium rehearsing for our next school play, Wizard of Oz, with fellow classmates
when he walk
ed in.  T
he whole room stilled as if waiting for him to exhale.
 
His dark spiky hair and black
hopeful
eyes were enough to get your attention, but the
effortless
way he moved and
thoughtfully
talked were just as noticeable.
 
 
At least to me.
 
He always looked like he tried to dress younger than he really was, piquing my interest even more. An image of him in slacks and a nice button up shirt always fluttered through my mind. It’s what I pictured him being most comfortable in.

Instead of trying out for one of the lead roles he ended up being
the technical director in charge of
lights and curtains, though he had the looks to star in every one of my dreams.
 
My role wa
s one of the flying monkeys.  A
s ridiculous as
it seemed, the weight of his gaze fell heavy on me wherever I went. Whenever I’d glance in his direction though, he was looking the other way.

 
My girlfriends all thought I was crazy to swoon o
ver someone so out of my league.  B
ut wasn't that the point of having a crush?
 
To admire from afar?

Parker ended up having four classes with me in our last semester, making my crush grow inf
initely. If I wasn't so in love
I might've had the courage to have a conversation with him outside the confines of our class assignments
, sooner
.
 
We got paired toge
ther for almost all
of
our class assignments
, much in thanks to my last name being Smith as well, since teachers liked to go in alphabetical order. We also had the same initials.

T
here was no way we were related
since I'd been adopted after my only known relatives, my parents, died in a car accident when I was only a few months old. My adopt
ive parents were my God parents
and had been close friends of my parents, which was a plus in my head because I still got to grow up hearing stories about
them
and who they'd been.
 
They enabled me to grow up having a normal life, friends, the proper schooling. I loved them and to me, they
are
my real parents.

Earlier in the week Parker asked me if I was going to the end of year party that Saturday, making my heart thunder, but I managed to answer him almost nonchalantly. We'd made small talk, not about school, and he even sat with me and some friends on our outside bench at lunch, giving me the opportunity to ogle him more.
Shyness wasn’t one of my qualities per say, but whenever Parker was near it was hard to stay coherent enough to form complete sentences. He’d wait patiently for my mind to start working again and smile politely when my mouth stuttered over words.

By
the
Wednesday
before the party
his mood shifted severely.
 
After a few awkward attempts to make small talk with him, I gave up and went back to our routine of only talking to each other about homework. His cold shoulder treatment after the progress I'd made this week was enoug
h to put me in my grave. The
party was going to be my last chance to see him before everyone went their separate ways after graduation
and I planned on taking full advantage of it
.

The night of our last senior keg party at Brian Collins house was a night I will
never
forget.
 

After getting dressed up with my friends for hours we finally made our way to be fashionably late at ten thirty.
 
 
Our hair was straigh
tened to a dangerous level of singe
ing off and we each
applied
glossy lipstick, trying to plump our lips to look more like Angelina Jolie's.

I made sure
to be tipsy before we showed up
so I'd have more confidence
in my plan
.

Since Ashley, one of the more popular girls in our class, lived only a few houses down, a group of eight of us got ready at her house then made the short walk across the street. She w
asn't one of my favorite people
but we got along for the most part.

Brian Collins had asked me to the Homecoming dance and I’d said yes, even went out and bought a brand new dress, excited to be going with one of the most popular, not to mention cute, boys in school.  A week before the dance he told me he had to cancel because Ashley had said yes. He apologized but told me that she’d said no, then changed her plans and was now able to go with him. I smiled weakly and told him it was no problem. He didn’t think twice about leaving me now dateless.

Ashley, having been fully aware that I’d bought my dress and bragged about going with him, never said a word. I knew she didn’t like him and only said yes after finding out Lance Herman wasn’t planning on asking her.
Julie, Leslie and I ended up having a slumber party and enjoying the attentions of some o
ther
boys that were friends of Leslie’s older brother. They were in college and effectively knew how to keep our minds off our miniscule high school problems. It turned out to be a much better night than we’d been expecting. My second make-out session, and the bes
t in comparison
to my first sloppy kiss in sixth grade
or the lame attempt of having sex for the first time five months ago
, lasted well over
ten minutes before Leslie’s mom called down the stairs to the boys that they ‘needed to leave us poor girls alone’, which resulted in them leaving for a night out only a few minutes later.

It was only two months
later that Parker joined us and my world changed forever.

The only thing on my mind tonight was finding Parker and finally kissing him.

Sigh. That would make my life complete.

After making our grand
entrance
then splitting off from the group,
doing a few rounds saying hi to everyone then doing a keg stand with the help of a few of the football team members, I decided to sit in the kitchen while waiting anxiously for Parker to show up
, hoping like
crazy he hadn’t shown up earlier and left
.

One of my girlfriends was in the middle of a story when he walked in, making me instantly veer toward him for a warm greeting. He entered through the front door, flowing through the mass of people before our e
yes finally made contact.  I
t seemed he'd been trying to look anywhere but at me at first. His dark eyes
held a tint of
purple
flecks, or maybe that was just a trick of the light
. He wore jeans and a short sleeved red shirt, coincidently matching my
short
jean skirt and off the shoulder red t-shirt. The smile that spread across my face was impossible to stop, making his lips twitch, before turning stone cold again.

"Hey, Parker. I'm glad you came."

I stopped just in front of him in the hallway by the bathroom. He looked down at
me,
eyes swirled with intensity, making me take a step back, but my smile remained.

"Hey, Piper."

He always said my name like a caress, exciting me more.

I was the perfect amount of buzzed and happy to enjoy just having him in my sights before I realized he continued to look around as if searching for someone else. Was I bothering him?

"Do you want something to drink? I just did a keg stand..." I unashamedly let him know I'd been drinking and was open to ideas of keeping us busy.

The look he gave me was indescribable, as if he were actually contemplating takin
g me up on my silent invitation
before the light changed and the purple completely disappeared from his eyes as he gave a sharp shake of his head. Apparently he still wasn't in a chatty mood.

The music continued to blare around us, people pushing their way past and my itch to kiss him kept getting stronger.

I reached out to wrap my fingers around his bicep and whisper in his ear when he jerked and stepped back out of my reach. The hurt was nothing compared to the stab wounds I felt when I saw his gaze wander back to Ashley. Again. Her chestnut colored hair laid down to the middle of her back. Her tan skin made me look like a ghost, her flawless skin the envy of everyone in the vicinity and the money her family had helped make her the most beautiful, popular girl in school. The fact that she was a
n overall
nice person didn't hurt either.

My five feet five inches and one hundred ten pounds made me feel like a dwarf compared to her five feet ten.
 
Golden hair laid softy on my shoulders, a few freckles spotting my nose and cheeks, though they were barely noticeable.
 

Even in my heels Parker was still a good five inches taller than me. His thick arms and neck reflected the body of an athlete, though he didn't play on any team here. He moved with the grace of a ballerina but looked as lethal as two Terminator's, though I'd never seen him lift a harmful finger.

The hurt coiling inside had me feeling incredibly spiteful. Of course he'd want to be with Ashley. Had he only been nice to me to get close to her? Most likely. It wouldn't be the first time,
yet
this is the only time I felt like he'd
personally ripped the
heart from my chest and stomped on it while laughing.

Keeping a straight face, I forcefully grabbed onto his arm and drug him to the group of people surrounding Ashley. His muscles tensed under my touch, but damn him, I wasn't made of poison!

A few people scattered, no doubt scared of the scowl on my face, or at Parker, who hadn't made a whole lot of friends since showing up here.

"Ashley, you remember Parker. Parker, this is Ashley."

My voice was pleasant and I managed to keep a grin on my face while he was in view, but I was dying inside. Parker's eyes looked almost sad before I turned and left them alone, Ashley no doubt wondering what was going on but she started up a friendly conversation the moment I turned away.

I went straight for the keg where the football team generously helped me do two more keg stands then kept up a steady conversation
, or string of flirtatious sentences,
before the ability to form
coherent
sentences became too hard.

My friends were lounging in the living room, scattered all over the couches and floor space, winding down for the night, or
morning since it was after one
by the time I mustered up the strength to reenter the house.
 

After going to the kitchen and filling up a glass of water, I aimlessly made my way to the bathroom for a checkup and potty break. There was no line but I still knocked to make sure no one was getting freaky in there with the lights off. No noise sounded so I pushed open the door and switched on the light just as the connecting door was thrust open on the other side.

Parker.

His eyes
lit up
before turning sullen again. My face didn't have the strength to smile so I settled for turning and heading back out the way I'd entered.

"Piper..."

His voice. That lovely, heartwarming voice. I turned back to face him with an uplifted brow as if he was now wasting my time. Damn, I'm a good actress.