Waiting for Perfect (2 page)

A sexy smile crawls
over Megan’s face.
 
“Ladies, I will
have that man in my bed by Halloween.”

Candace pokes
around at her salad.
 
“I’m telling
you, the guy is gay.
 
Look at how
he’s dressed.
 
Straight guys don’t
ever match like that.
 
Blue shoes
to match his blue shirt?
 
Hello?
 
Gay.”

I know I’m staring,
but I can’t help it.
 
His facial
structure is striking.
 
His thick brows
shadow eyes that are so dark and deeply set that I can’t even see the white in
them.
 
He looks like an athlete,
built strong and muscular.
 
And
that smile.
 
My God, it’s
magnetic.
 
The kind of smile that
makes you smile just by looking at it.

He stands tall as
he walks, unusually confident for his first day at a new school.
 
Then I see why.
 
He glides over to a table of girls in
the corner of the quad.
 
They all
giggle and toss their hair as he approaches them.
 
I hate girls that act like idiots in front of cute guys.

Lexi is gawking at
him, leaning her chin on her hands and practically drooling.
 
I throw a crumpled napkin at her, which
makes her flinch and come back to reality.

“Hey!” she squeals.

I smile.
 
“One more period after lunch.
 
Maybe he’ll be in your class.”

She sighs dramatically.
 
“One can dream.”

Megan stands from
the table.
 
“Well, bitches.
 
I’ll see you all later.”
 
She slings her purse over her shoulder
and nods at the new guy.
 
“Don’t
forget, I’ve claimed him.
 
I saw
him first.”
 
She smiles like she’s
joking, but the rest of us know she’s not.

Candace rises from
the table with her salad.
 
“I need
to go too.
 
I have Anatomy with Mr.
Watson, and he’s a tardy Nazi.
 
See
ya.”
 
She deposits her half-eaten
salad in the trash and strolls off, leaving Lexi and me at the table.

Lexi looks at me
with big eyes.
 
“Well?
 
Who do you think he is?”

I shake my
head.
 
“I have no idea.”
 
I gather my things and stand.

Lexi follows
suit.
 
“What class do you have
right now?”

“Physics.
 
You?”

“English.”

I slip my arms
through my backpack.
 
“Last year of
high school, Lex.
 
Can you believe
it?”
 
I start getting nostalgic,
thinking of all the lasts this year will bring.

Lexi sweeps her long
bangs from her eyes.
 
“Thank
God.
 
I’m so sick of this
place.”
 
She links arms with me, as
we stroll toward the 900 Building.
 
“College is going to be epic, Kendra.
 
Let’s get through our senior year, and then we can move on
to bigger and better things.
 
And
you, my dear, can finally get a break from your mom.”

Lexi’s right. A
much needed break from my mother.
 
My
mom probably can’t wait until I move out.

We reach my Physics
class, and Lexi releases my arm.
 
“I’ll
see you later.
 
Pray that Mr.
Hottie has English this period.”
 
She crosses her fingers and flits down the hallway.

Entering my classroom,
I see Nicolás Veneto.
 
He’s sitting
in the back row staring at his iPhone and has white wires coming out of his
ears.
 
His dark hair is still falling
over one eye, and he’s missing the reading glasses he was wearing earlier.
 
His Converse shoe taps to the beat
coming through his earphones.

A couple of friends
say hello to me as I walk toward Nicolás.
 
I sit at the desk next to him, wondering if he’ll remember me from this
morning.
 
He looks really into his
music, so I sit there silently waiting for him to look up.

It’s not until Mr.
Reynolds is at the whiteboard introducing himself that Nicolás pulls the
earbuds from his ears.
 
He glances
over to me.
 
I grin and silently
mouth, “Hi”.
 

He faces the front
again, ignoring me.
 
I don’t know
why I feel the need to meet this kid so badly.
 
He looks interesting – definitely not like my usual
crowd.
 
Maybe I can talk with him
again after class.

By the end of the
period, I can tell this Physics class will be difficult.
 
When the bell rings, I talk with my teacher
about tutoring.
 
Mr. Reynolds says
he has a couple of student tutors he will be working with this year and that
he’ll give me their contact information next week.

I notice Nicolás
hasn’t left the room yet, so I make my way toward his desk.
 
He looks up as I approach and appears
to be annoyed to have to interact with me again.
 
Normally that would offend me, but because I’m really
curious about this guy, I let it slide.

“Hi, Nicolás.
 
I’m Kendra.
 
We had first period together.”
 
I smile, trying to make him feel comfortable.

As I speak to him,
he pulls out his iPhone and inserts the earbuds into his ears, offering me a closed-lip
smirk but saying nothing. I remain beside him as we walk toward the door.
 
He smells like cinnamon.
 

“So…how’d your
first day go?” I ask.

He shrugs.
 
“Fine.
 
Yours?”
 

His long hair is shielding
half his face, and I don’t know why it bothers me so badly, but I feel like
he’s trying to hide under there.
 
The red hoodie he’s now layered over his Chili Peppers shirt is totally
unnecessary because it’s the end of summer and over ninety degrees outside.

My eyes scan his
attire and come back to meet his.
 
He’s looking at me inquisitively, and I realize he’s waiting for an
answer to his question.
 
“Oh, my
day?
 
It was great.
 
Thanks.”

We walk a little
ways more without saying anything.
 
He glances over at me a couple of times.
 
When we reach the junior class locker area, he stops and
turns to spin the combination lock on one of them.

“You’re a junior?”
I ask him.
 
The guy is in two of my
senior level classes.
 
“You didn’t
tell me that.”

He pulls the locker
door open and begins to transfer books from his backpack to the metal
cubbyhole.
 
“You never asked,” he
says.

He finishes with
the locker and slams it shut.
 
I
can tell he wants to say something, but he hesitates.
 
He’s probably going to thank me for walking with him.
 
Finally, he shakes his head and
smiles.
 
It’s the first time I’ve
seen him smile all day, and he should really do it more, because it makes him
look way more attractive.
 
I’m
feeling pretty good about myself, thinking I’m finally breaking his hard shell.

Then, he says
smugly, “Why do you keep talking to me?
 
Do you, like, get extra Brownie points for meeting a stranger today?”

I am quietly
stunned.
 
I’m sure my cheeks redden
at his rude remark.
 
I stand taller
and cross my arms over my chest.

“Look, I haven’t
seen you around before.
 
I was just
trying to be nice to you.”
 
The annoyed
tone of my voice makes me sound like an arrogant bitch, and I instantly regret
it because I’m probably feeding right into some preconceived notion he already
has of me.

Nicolás smirks, shoves
his hands into his pockets, and stares at me.
 
The smile on his face that I was just admiring now pisses me
off.
 
Instead of giving him a piece
of my mind like I’m tempted to do, I storm off.
 
That will teach me to be nice to strangers.

Lexi and I meet up
in the parking lot, and I tell her about my run-in with the Chili Peppers
guy.
 
She says I’m the one to blame
because I was acting like a stalker, following him to his locker.
 
I guess I can understand her point, but
the whole thing still makes me mad.
 
I’m not used to being treated like I’m nothing.
 
Well, not at school anyway.

NICK

I hate the second
day of school, maybe even more than the first day.
 
At least on the first day of school, everything is new.
 
On the second day, realization settles
in that you’re stuck with these people for the next nine months.
 
I’m a little less than eager to climb
out of bed, so I lay here contemplating life.

Sebastian’s already
up.
 
The guy is so perky in the
morning; it drives me crazy.
 
I
hear the shower running.
 
He’s
probably already gone for a jog and had breakfast too.
 
Jerk.
 
I throw off the covers and place my feet on the ground,
sitting on the edge of my bed, yawning.

It’s pathetic that
two teenage boys have to share a bedroom.
 
My mom keeps the third bedroom, Tatiana’s room, preserved just the way
she left it, in hopes that she’ll return one day.
 
Yeah right.
 
It’s been two years.
 
I
don’t think she’s coming back.
 
Meanwhile,
Sebastian and I are stuck together.
 
I sigh, resigning to my fate.

Slowly, I make my
way over to the closet and grab the same jeans I wore yesterday.
 
Yeah, they probably haven’t been washed
in a couple weeks, but I don’t give a shit.
 
They’re my favorite pair.

Sebastian emerges
from the bathroom.
 
He stands in
the doorway with a towel wrapped around his waist, water dripping off his short
spikes onto his broad shoulders.
 
He looks like a freaking Abercrombie & Fitch model.
 
Once again, I feel like a skinny
slob.
 
I briefly consider at least
changing into some clean pants if I have to walk into school with my cousin at
my side.
 
But then I look down at
them and shrug.
 
Nope, not really
caring today.

“G’morning, cuz,”
he says happily.

I give him a lazy
nod and pull a raggedy t-shirt over my head.
 
Sebastian is at the dresser, sliding into his boxer
briefs.
 
He knows I’m not a morning
person, so he usually leaves me alone until I’ve woken up a bit.
 
I slip into my Converse, which have
truly seen better days, but are so broken in and comfortable that I cannot
justify getting rid of them.

After a quick trip
to the bathroom to brush my teeth, I grab a sweatshirt and my backpack and head
downstairs.
 
Mom’s already gone to
her shift at the hospital, but she’s left pancakes on the counter for Sebastian
and me.
 
God, I love that woman.
 
I grab one and start eating it plain
while pouring myself some orange juice.

 
Sebastian appears minutes later,
carrying a white binder and a single key for his car.
 
He’s the epitome of simplicity.
 
I guess it’s because he didn’t grow up with much.

I put my juice
glass in the dishwasher and pull my pancake stack from the microwave.
 
It’s lathered with butter, drowning in
syrup, and tastes like heaven.
 
Between bites, I ask Sebastian, “Are you going to that party tonight?”

He’s sitting on the
bar stool at the counter, leaning it so far back that I expect him to fall any
moment.
 
He looks up from his
phone.
 
“I haven’t decided
yet.
 
That girl I told you about
yesterday, Emma, invited me.
 
She’s
hot, in that psycho, fatal attraction sort of way.
 
Not sure if showing up to a party with her is a good idea.
 
People might get the wrong idea, you
know?”

I shrug.
 
Of course I don’t know.
 
Being on the arm of the wrong girl has
never been a concern of mine, considering I’m not quite the type to attract the
females
en masse
.
 
I’ve lived here my whole life and never
had a girl ask me to a party.
 
Sebastian shows up out of nowhere and is asked to a party on his first
day of school.
 
That would bother
me if I cared about high school parties – which I don’t.

I glance at the
clock.
 
“Dude, we gotta go.”
 
I drop my plate and fork in the
dishwasher and grab my backpack.
 
Sebastian already has his binder and is headed out the door.
 

When we pull into
the senior lot, heads turn to look at Sebastian’s cherry red, 1967
Mustang.
 
Figures.
 
You ride in an eighty thousand dollar
BMW, and nobody looks twice.
 
Show
up in a car older than our parents, and everybody drools over it.
 
This town is so messed up.

The car is pretty
awesome though.
 
He and his dad
restored it when he lived in San Antonio.
 
When he landed on our doorstep four months ago, all he had with him was
a backpack and this car.
 
Like I
said, the epitome of simplicity.

I feel awkward with
everyone staring at us, but Sebastian doesn’t even seem to notice.
 
I don’t have my driver’s license yet,
and riding in the Mustang totally beats riding the bus, but the attention is
uncomfortable.

When I’m at my
locker retrieving my Calculus book, I remember that I’ll have to see Kendra
Voss again.
 
I have no idea why she
decided she was going to be my new best friend this year.
 
I had the biggest crush on her when I
was in seventh grade.
 
The only
time she ever even looked at me was when I was tripped during the school
jog-a-thon and fell flat on my face.
 
She laughed at me like everyone else did.

Yesterday, she
seemed to think I was a new student.
 
Obviously, one of the moments that had scarred me permanently had been
entirely forgettable for her.
 
Whatever.
 
I had forgotten
about Kendra Voss a long time ago – right about the time I reached high
school and she was prancing around with Bobby Coheed.
 
He was the one who had tripped me at the jog-a-thon.
 
I guess they were perfect for each
other.

When I get to
Calculus, Kendra is already sitting in the back next to Lexi Wagner.
 
Turning my head quickly before she notices
me, I take my seat and pull out my book.
 
I refuse to look at her.
 
I
guess I shouldn’t have been such a dick to her yesterday.
 
It just pisses me off that she doesn’t
even know we’ve been going to school together for the last six years.
 
At one time, she had been my
world.
 
I wonder what it feels like
to be somebody’s world.