Honesty (4 page)

“Right, you made that pretty clear,” he
smirked. He reached up and brushed a strand of her dark hair back from her
face. He tucked it behind her ear and let his fingertips trail over the curve
of her cheek.

“You really are pretty, you know,” he said
quietly as he met her eyes. Alena smiled a little brighter.

“I can't believe this is happening,” she
blurted out as he leaned closer to her.

“It is,” he replied, the warmth of his
breath lingering along her lips. When his lips met hers, Alena waited for the
fireworks, for the music to start filling her ears, for her heart to leap out
of her chest. But all she really felt was the softness of his lips as they
pushed against hers. He started to deepen the kiss, but Alena pulled nervously
away. He frowned when she did and studied her intently.

“I thought we understood each other,” he
said with disappointment.

“What do you mean?” she asked. She was
distracted by the fact that it was Shawn she was thinking of after kissing
Justin.

“I mean, just because I'm with Kristina
doesn't mean we can't hook up,” Justin shrugged as if it was no big deal.

“Hook up?” Alena repeated, certain that she
could not have heard him correctly.

“Yeah, you know, have some fun when no
one's looking. It'll be our little secret,” he encouraged and leaned forward
again to kiss her.

“Uh, no,” Alena ducked out of the way, just
missing his lips. “Are you saying you did not break up with Kristina?”

“Of course not!” Justin rolled his eyes.
“She's like the hottest girl in school. But you know, I like you too, and I
thought we could just-”

“Wow,” Alena was shocked. In that moment
she realized that the entire summer she had spent thinking that she was getting
to know Justin had been a waste of her time. She didn't know anything about
him. She never would have believed he could be such a creep. “You're not who I
thought you were,” Alena said sadly as she started to stand up from the
bleacher.

“Hey!” Justin reached and grabbed her wrist
firmly. “Don't act all high and mighty; I was just giving you what you wanted.”

Alena shook her hand free of his grip,
determined to fight the tears that were beginning to gather in her eye. “This
is not what I wanted,” she said in a trembling voice. That starlight, was what
she wanted. The sweet soft kiss, was what she wanted. But a boy making her feel
like she wasn't worth more than the dirt on his shoes, was definitely not what
she considered to be romantic.

“Whatever Alena, it's your loss. I mean, I
really thought you were mature enough to handle this,” he shook his head
dismissively.

“Mature enough to let you treat me like
garbage?” she shot back and balled her hands into fists. “You know something
Justin, I spent so much time feeling like Kristina was so lucky to have you,
but now I know, I'm the lucky one.”

He glared at her as she turned on her heel
and walked away.

As she walked home Alena was more than
hurt, she was angry, but not at Justin. She was angry at herself. Shawn had
been right there, waiting patiently for her. He had made sure she knew just how
important she was to him, and how much he valued her. Yet she had risked all of
that by going to meet Justin.

“I figured you would go,” a voice said from
a bench she was passing. She paused and looked over to see Shawn sitting there.
He had his palms pressed against his knees as he stared hard at the ground
beneath his feet.

“Were you following me?” Alena asked with
surprise.

“No,” he shook his head, refusing to look
up at her. “I saw the text on your phone,” he admitted. “I know what kind of
guy Justin is, I just wanted to make sure that you were okay,” only then did he
look up at her, through the shadows that the tree branches above him created in
the moonlight. “I hoped maybe, you wouldn't go.”

Alena kicked the tip of her shoe against
the sidewalk she stood on as she wrapped her arms across her stomach. “I
shouldn't have,” she confessed, her voice wavering with the tears she still had
not let fall.

“You had to,” Shawn replied as he leaned
forward a little on the bench. “You need to be sure, I get that.

So what do you think of him now?”

Alena reached up and wiped at a tear that
slipped past her dark lashes. Shawn stood up from the bench and walked over to
her.

“It's okay,” he whispered as he reached out
to take her hand gently in his own. “It's easy to be blinded by what you want
to see, instead of what's really there,” he brushed her hair back gently from
her face as he studied the tears that were still in her eyes. In that moment
Alena realized that it wasn't just Justin she had been blind to, it was Shawn.
Just because he didn't look like the type of boy she thought she should want to
be with, she had never even noticed him. She had never even considered that
there might be such an amazing person behind those wisps of blonde hair that
escaped his ponytail. But he had looked. He had looked beyond the surface of
her superficial interests, and seen who she really was. He had been brave
enough to be honest about what he wanted.

“I'm sorry,” she whispered as he met her
eyes.

“For what?” he asked as he moved just a
little closer to her.

“I'm sorry I did not see you before,” Alena
murmured. “And now, it's too late, isn't it?” she asked. “Now you know that I'm
not worth it?”

Shawn winced at her words as he slid his
hand across her shoulder and around to the back of her neck. He drew her lips
close to his and they shared a sweet, soft kiss as the moonlight filtered down
over them. When he pulled slightly away, he sought out her eyes and held them
with his own honest gaze.

“Alena, you will always be worth it.”