[katofmystery]

Synopsis: Story of relationships that teens go through during high school.

“Shut up and leave me alone Derek!” yelled Krissa, pushing her auburn hair out of her face. “Why can’t you understand how I feel?! You cheated on me remember?”

Derek and Krissa were standing in front of a children’s park; both were very upset. Several mothers in the park had abandoned gossiping with each other to watch the two quarrel, but none of the children playing even realized they were there.

“Kris! Let me explain! She came on to me!” Derek protested. “Krissa, I love you! Nothing happened! I swear!”

“¡Siempre lo mismo!” Krissa spat out, turning away from him. She sat on the bench a few feet away and tried not to look at him. She didn’t want to admit it, but it had hurt her deeply when she saw Derek and the cheerleader lip-locked under the bleachers after school. ‘Slut!’ Krissa screamed in her head. It made her feel a little better.

“Krissa! I don’t understand you when you speak Spanish!” He sat next to her on the bench. He had been honest with her from day one. He had never cheated on her or even thought about it. When he had been pulled under the bleachers by Jenny, a newly recruited cheerleader, he hadn’t had time to react before she started to kiss him.

“Why won’t you believe me Kris? All of a sudden she pulled me under the bleachers then out of nowhere you started to yell at us!”

“Us?” Krissa screamed, jumping off the bench. “What is that supposed to mean? You two are going out? I knew it!”

“No! Kris, stop jumping to conclusions!” Derek cast around for some ideas that would get her to shut up and listen to him. “You’re overreacting!”

If Krissa had been angry before, she was livid now. She was furious; she was scary! “Over-reacting?” She asked, purposefully drawing it out into two words, her almond brown eyes glaring at him. Derek cringed involuntarily. Now he had done it!

“T-that’s not what I meant! What I meant was. . .”

“Oh! I’ll tell you what you meant!” she said bobbing her head in rhythm with her words. “It’s OVER!” She turned and walked away from Derek as fast as she could.

Derek sat on the bench, stunned. He wasn’t sure, but he thought he saw tears rolling down her cheeks, ruining her perfect make-up. After a while, he realized the only solution to his problem to get Krissa to believe him - have Jenny talk to her.

* * * *

Everyone around Derek was shouting. He tried to walk as fast as he could to where the cheerleaders were standing around waiting for the football game between the Hornets and the Tigers, but the mob of Hornet supporters were pushing him the other way.

Eventually, he reached his destination. He walked straight up to Jenny, crossed his arms over his chest and stared at her.

“Oh! Hey there, Derek!” Jenny said bouncing over towards him. She drank in his bristled, blonde hair and his nicely toned body. “Back for some more?” she asked, toying with him.

“No,” he said flatly, stopping her from coming any closer with a glare he borrowed from Krissa.

“Well, then, what do you want?” Jenny asked, running a hand over her perfectly curled hair to make sure that everything was just right. Then she waved her hand in front of her face to show that she was hot and proceeded to strip off her jacket.

“I want you to tell Kris that I had nothing to do with your display of affection,” Derek was immune to her little show. He didn’t like people like her, who used their looks to get what they wanted. Anyways, he didn’t like girls who were overly skinny like the toothpick standing in front of him now.

Jenny’s eyes got big. “Why would I do that? You came onto me remember? Why do you want me to lie to Krissa?” Jenny asked, confused, cocking her head to one side.

“What?!” Derek screamed, outraged. Now he was the one who was confused. “Why would I do that? I love Krissa! Not you!”

Jenny glanced around her and noticed that a couple dozen people were watching them. Instead of being properly ashamed, she glowed, basking in sea of people watching her. “Don’t you remember telling me to meet you under the bleachers right after school?”

Derek walked up to her and grabbed her arm, pulling her towards the less crowded parking lot.

“Owwww! Derek that hurts! Stop it!” Jenny moaned. She thought she was going to get lucky and thought he was playing with her. She was giddy and was pulling back trying to play along with him.

“Shut up,” Derek snapped, and he released her arm and spun around to face her. “Listen. I’m not playing games with you. I don’t know who has twisted your brains around to make you think that guys enjoy being kissed when they already have girlfriends.” Derek closed his eyes and massaged his temples with his hands.

Jenny looked down at her white tennis shoes and fidgeted with her uniform. She just realized that he was right. Her boyfriend had cheated on her, so she wanted to cause other couples as much pain as she had gone through.

“Derek,” she sighed, touching his arm gently. He flinched at the touch and sat down on the bumper of an old, rusty pick-up truck. He put is head in his hands and gave into his depression. It was Krissa’s and his senior year in high school and he had planned to ask her to marry him on her birthday next week.

Jenny froze. She had never seen anyone just fold like that before, much less a senior like Derek, who was well known for keeping his cool. She started to realize the pain she had caused him, and probably Krissa, too.

“I’m sorry,” Jenny whispered into the cool night air.

“Why?” Derek moaned. “Why would you do something like that to me? To Krissa? Now she’ll probably never talk to me again and think of me as some ass who cheated on her.”

“No, she won’t,” Jenny said standing up tall. “I’m gonna go talk to her.”

“What, now?” Derek asked, standing up, suddenly rejuvenated at the thought of Krissa in his arms again. “What about the game?” He asked, testing to see how serious she was.

“Screw the game. I don’t like most of those girls anyway.” Without saying anything else she walked off.

Derek started off towards his house with a hopeful smile on his face.

* * * *

As soon as he walked into his room, his phone started to ring.

“Hello?” He asked. Only one person called him this late at night, and sure enough, Krissa’s voice was on the other end.

“Derek?” her timid voice asked.

“Yeah, what’s up?” He asked, trying to find a tone that wasn’t flat, but not too giddy either.

“I talked to Jenny.”

“And?”

“Well, she told me what really happened.” Her voice came across as apologetic.

“So. . . are we good?”

“Yeah. I’m so sorry Derek. I should have trusted you.”

“It’s okay. I want to take you out for your birthday. Let’s go to Casa Ramos. I know you like Mexican food.”

“Really? Okay!”

* * * *

Derek waited for Krissa to come back from the bathroom. He asked the waiter to wait for Krissa to come back before he ordered. The waiter placed a bowl of chips and salsa on the table for him to eat while he waited.

When Krissa finally came back she ordered for Derek and herself in Spanish. He was very proud of her when she spoke Spanish because she made the language beautiful to his ears.

As the waiter walked away, Derek tried to work up his nerve before asking her the “big question”. He asked her father a month ago if it was all right to propose to Krissa on her birthday, and he hadn’t been this nervous. As far as he knew, Krissa had no idea what was really going on tonight.

Derek tried to clear his throat quietly and knelt before Krissa. She looked surprised and was a lovely shade of crimson when she realized what was going on.

“Krissa, you are the most beautiful woman I have ever met. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Te amo.” He pulled a ring out of his pocket and held it between his fingers.

Krissa teared up as Derek proposed to her. She was overjoyed that he had spoken in Spanish to say “I love you.” She waited for him to ask the question so she could put her hand out and see his ring on her finger.

“Kris,” Derek said, tears welling in his eyes as well. “Will you marry me?”

“Yes! Of course!” She put her hand out and let him slide the ring on her finger. When the ring was in place she jumped up and threw her arms around his neck. He picked her up and twirled her like they did in the movies. On the second spin around, he knocked off a glass of water and the bowl of chips from their table and he set her down and started they started laughing.

Krissa and Derek finished their meal quickly so they could go home and show her parents the ring (which Derek had already shown them). The best thing that came out of this ordeal was that Krissa knew she could trust Derek, and Derek knew that women sometimes did stupid things one minute, but could fix their mistakes the next. They both finished their high school year without any more drama, and then waded into the great unknown, hand in hand.

[Vorcla]

This is charming, Kat. Brings back memories of teenaged angst for me - glad I have those days behind me! Kind of a snapshot of everday life foe a pair of teens. Nice work.

[thelma&louise]

Aww, that was cute. That's pretty much what happens in puppy-love, but I doubt if those people in reality would feel sorry after doing that to a couple, as I've learnt the hard way. But your story gives us hope all the same. =) Kudos.

[Ferris]

Hey there,

It may be because Im not from the U.S, but this seems rather cliche, and a little innocent. Saying that, it can be quite refreshing to read something so simple and straight forward as teen-angst (if there is such a thing?!).

Anyway, you have a clear voice to your writing and I enjoyed this piece

Ferris

[Bluejay]

Me thinks D and K have some issues to work out before the big nuptials - like communication.

I found this to be well written with good flow - the story moved effortlessly along. And I think your dialogue seemed realistic more or less.

One point confused me: it said Jenny thought he had come onto her (she was declared "confused" and not "acting confused", so given the omniscient point of view, I assumed it was accurate). That was never explained. Then we moved on, story-wise, to finding she had set out to cause other couples pain. So then it seemed intentional. Just a minor contradiction for me.

There were two things I had doubts about:

1) Jenny trying to cause other couples hurt because she'd been hurt. Maybe she is a real witch, but I would think people going through pain would be more sympathetic to others, not trying to inflict pain on them, especially innocent strangers (that is, someone not directly involved in her pain). That was the only part where I went "Uh, what?" But I'm neither a girl nor a teen, so perhaps I don't have the right perspective.

2) As the father of a teen daughter, I can tell you, short of some overriding concern, there ain't no way she's getting married at eighteen, especially to another youngling, before she's had time to discover her post-high-school self, go to college, see life a bit and maybe then decide to settle down with someone who has a job, etc. (Ok, ok, this is romance, but you did call it "The Real Story", right? )

Overall, a very nice, well played story.

[Venomous Vixen]

This put a smile on my face. It was cute, a bit cliche but sometimes we need corny. The scene where the couple faught was very well done, I could feel the emotions and no matter how long you have been writing that can be very hard to do. The message was sweet and I am a sucker for a happily ever after even if it rarely happens in the real world, hey that's what fiction is for!

[Gurdit]

This is candy, mysterykat. Really sweet.
I kinda thought there would be more drama in the middle where Derek accosted the cheerleader, but it seemed to end kinda tamely after all.

Still, I think it's really pretty sweet. It's too short to comment on the characterization and stuff, but I think you got the dialogues spot on and your writing style is good as well.

[katofmystery]

Thanks guys!

[Mickey]

Aww. sooo cute! :3 This is really good.