The Loverboy (3 page)

her shoulder and she was covered by her blanket.
“Good morning sleepy head” her mom said.
“What? Didn‟t you just come home from work?” she asked.
“No, didn‟t get home until almost 10 last night and you
were sleeping on the couch. I didn‟t want to wake you so I
covered you up and went to sleep myself. I need to go though.
Have to get back to work” her mom said.
“Ok mom. Love you!” she said.
Her mom walked out the door and said “I love you too! Thank
you for helping so much with Ally. I really appreciated it.”
Kim got up and was still enjoying the remains of her dreams
last night before they could fade away and she couldn‟t remember
them anymore. Then she walked to her bedroom which she shared
with Ally and woke her up. They brushed their teeth and she made
them breakfast. Then she showered while Ally got dressed. While
showering she fantasized about sharing it with Jake. She had
only met him for thirty minutes and in that short time he had
made quite the impression on her. She wished she could have made
the same impression on him. Maybe she had. He did spend over two
hundred dollars on her in a matter of minutes after meeting her.
But then again, he surely could have any girl he wanted. What
would he want with plain old Kim?
Suddenly she noticed the hot water running out. How long
had she been in the shower? She quickly got out and got dressed.
Ally was already ready and she saw they had 3 more minutes
before they had to leave. She grabbed her coat and ran into her
bedroom. When she came out she was wearing her new outfit but
had secured her coat zipped up high over the top. Ally commented
on the jeans and Kim just said something like them being hand me
downs from Annie. Ally frowned but was not given any chance
voice her disbelief. We have to go or we will miss the bus.
The bus rolled up as they ran up to the bus stop. They got
in and took their seats. Ally tried to bring up the jeans again
but Kim ignored her and soon the bus was filling up. Before long
they got to the middle school and said goodbye. Kim told Ally to
go to Mrs. Simons house after school. She had something she
needed to take care of. She didn‟t but she was planning to go
back to the mall to see if Jake would be there again. After Ally
left the bus she finally could open her coat. She was getting
pretty hot despite the cold weather.
She would be cold again when she got out but there was no
way she was going to cover up at school when she was finally
looking good. When she got to school she was met by Annie.
Annie looked at her and said ”Wow, that‟s a different
look.”
“Do you like it?” Kim asked.
“Yeah, I guess I have to get used to it. A bit too much
like all the others but if you like it that‟s all that is
important” and she smiled.
This was actually the reaction she expected from Annie but
she didn‟t need to impress Annie. If she‟d wanted to do that she
would have plant trees or something. She wanted to impress the
popular crowd.
Annie wanted to know where she got the clothes and Kim told
her it was a long story. They would talk at lunch. They hurried
off to class. Throughout the morning Kim noticed people staring
at her and she got a complement or two from teachers. None of
the other kids said anything. They just pointed and whispered.
She didn‟t mind. She looked good and what could go wrong.
When lunch came around she met up with Annie and the
grabbed a table in the corner of the cafeteria.
As soon as they sat down Annie said “So what‟s up.”
She was about to start when she noticed the cheerleading
squad from the day before at the mall standing at her table.
Alexis asked “So who was your friend yesterday?”
She thought quickly. She so badly wanted to tell them he
was her boyfriend but then she might have to produce him at a
later date which could prove difficult. She decided to be vague
about it.
“Oh, him? He is a friend that I met a while ago” She said
as casually as she could.
“Is he your boyfriend?” asked Megan in an exaggerated high
pitch voice.
“No, just a friend” She responded trying to stay
nonchalant.
Natasha quickly piped in:”No way could she land someone
like him. He must have been a distant cousin being forced to do
his family duties. That‟s the only way someone like that would
ever pay attention to someone like Kim here.”
They turned and walked away. She couldn‟t win she thought.
She looked the part and they made her feel even worse about that
than when she dressed in her old boring clothes. Just as well
she thought. She wouldn‟t be able to keep it up anyway. It‟s not
like she could change her image with one outfit.
“Don‟t mind them” Annie said loud enough for the 4 girls
and half the cafeteria to hear, “they are just jealous.”
The girls turned and shot her a look. If looks could have
killed Annie would have been a little pile of ashes right now.
Annie didn‟t even notice the glares and turned to Kim.
“Ok, out with it. Now I am really curious about what
happened yesterday.”
Kim told her everything, the mall, the cheerleaders and
Jake. Annie hung on every word.
“No, way” she said when Kim was done.
“Are you going to call him?” she had asked.
“And say what?” she said “Hi this is Kim. The pathetic girl
that you rescued on Thursday and that you spend lots of money
on. Can you come and do that again?”
They both snickered at the statement.
“Well, maybe you will run into him again sometime” Annie
offered up happily.
“I sure hope so” Kim said “Do you want to come to the mall
with me after school?”
“Sure” Annie said.
Kim knew she hated the mall so she must be really intrigued
about Jake. After school was out they strolled to the mall. When
they got to the mall they looked everywhere. No Jake. Kim was
disappointed and Annie went to get a couple of chocolate shakes
to take her mind of it. They had been to the mall together
before but only rarely. They had always looked out of place but
never so much as today. One girl dressed to fit the mall
environment and the other rather alternatively. Normally they
looked like a matching set, but funnily enough with one looking
like she belonged in the mall and the other not it was weirder
then when they both look out of place.
At five they headed back home. They walked as the weather
wasn‟t too cold and it would give them privacy to talk rather
than a crowded bus. They chatted about the mysterious Jake and
laughed about the cheerleading squad. They split up and at a
little after five thirty she got home. She stopped at apartment
#2 to pickup Ally but Mrs. Simons informed her that her mom had
already picked her up.
She panicked. Mom was never home early on Fridays. Fridays
were the best nights at the dinner. How was she going to hide
her outfit? She had nothing to change into and her mom would
surely ask questions. She zipped up her coat really high and
hoped her mom would not notice. She would slip into her bedroom
really quick and get changed immediately.
Chapter 4:
She opened the door to the apartment. Her mom was in the
middle of the living room cutting Ally‟s hair. She immediately
noticed the clothes and inquired about it. Kim said that Annie
had given them to her as she was getting rid of them.
“But why?” her mom asked “They look brand new.”
“She had them for ages but never wore them so she asked if
they would fit me and they did” she lied again trying to be as
nonchalant as possible.
Her mom frowned with disbelieve but not enough to accuse
her eldest of being a liar. Kim still quickly dove into her
bedroom and got changed into some comfortable pajamas. Sure she
could have kept the new cloths on now that it was explained but
they felt heavy with guilt about the lie. Also if she kept them
on it might cause more conversations about it and she wanted to
avoid that at all cost.
After she left her room and joined her mom and Ally in the
living room her mom offered to cut her hair too.
She declined “I‟m letting it grow” she lied.
Another lie, they were coming too easy today. She never
lied to her mom but she just didn‟t want to cause any problems.
This lie was because she felt that at seventeen years of age she
should get her hair cut by her mom anymore. It wasn‟t that her
mom didn‟t do a good job but at seventeen her hair should only
be trusted to a licensed stylist and not to her mom. Also if she
showed up at school with a fresh haircut she would either have
to admit that her mom cut her hair or she had to make up a story
about going to a salon and that was risky since between all the
preppy girls in her class they would know pretty much all the
stylists in the area that would be worth going to and she
couldn‟t afford any of them. The girls would automatically ask
questions and the lie would not hold true very long.
After the last few days she could not afford any slip ups
at school. She had to be cautious. After Ally cleaned up the
mess from the hair cut they had dinner. Since mom was home it
was not micro-waved for a change but fresh vegetables from a
local stand run by one of the produce distributors. It was good
and the strawberries afterwards were really good, not quite ripe
but at this time of year she was not about to complain. In the
winter these items were usually too expensive at the grocery
store. So the little stand was the only way they could afford
them. After dinner they helped clean up and Kim accepted a
challenge from Ally for a game of Monopoly. Their mom smiled at
her girls hanging out together and lay down on the couch with
her book while the girls played.
With her two jobs she didn‟t get much time to read and she
had only read four chapters in the last 2 months. Every night
she would try to read a little but never made it past the first
page and the next night she would just start the same page over
as she couldn‟t remember at which part of the page in the book
she had fallen asleep. Ally was very determined to beat Kim
tonight. They used to play a lot more before she stopped staying
at Mrs. Simons house after school but nine out of ten times Kim
would win. Every loss made Ally more determined to beat her big
sister but Kim was in a different world though. She drifted
between picturing to be walking hand in hand with Jake and how
she was going to meet him again. She was barely able to pay
enough attention to get game to take her turns. Ally had to
nudge her almost every turn to inform her of that. Then she just
picked up the dice and rolled them. That was sometimes followed
by an ecstatic yell from Ally stating that she was on one of her
properties but Kim could care less about that so she didn‟t make
Ally pay. Then she went through the motions of the rest of her
turn only to slip back into her day dreams as fast as possible.
Ally would luckily take forever on her turns. Should she
buy the property that she landed on? Should she build houses on
the one monopoly she had or not? How much would that cost? How
much would she make on them? Or should she use the money from
passing “Go” to take properties off mortgage? This form
indecision would normally drive Kim up the wall “Analysis
Paralysis” she would call after she had overheard someone in a
group of geeks at school named it that claiming they heard the
term on a podcast called the D6 Generation. For some weird
reason it had stuck and she used it to hurry Ally along in their
games together.
Tonight Kim welcomed the long turns Ally took, the longer
she took the more time she got to spend dreaming about Jake.
The game apparently ended when Ally yelled “That will be
two hundred thousand dollars please” after Kim had rolled the
dice and moved her piece.
Kim startled a little but it was enough for her to take in
the board and there was no way she could pay that. She conceded
and Ally bounced through the room from joy. Kim smiled as Ally‟s
reaction was funny. Kim hadn‟t minded losing as she was never
invested in the first place. After the game her mom put Ally in
bed and sat down with Kim.
“How are things?“ she asked.
“Fine” Kim responded.
“I know I haven‟t had much time for you guys lately. I am
sorry. I just have had to work so much to keep afloat. I just
want you to know how much I appreciate all your help. I couldn‟t
do it without you” her mom said.
Kim smiled, “I know you are working hard. I‟m happy to
help” she said.
Her mom hugged her and said “I told Ally we would go feed
the ducks in the morning, do you want to come?” She shrugged.
“I can‟t” she said, “I promised Annie I would go to the
mall with her” she said.
“Ok, good night. Don‟t stay up too late” her mom responded
and she disappeared into her room.
She lay on the couch and zapped through all the channels
every now and then she stopped at a channel and watched for a
few minutes only to lose interest and zap through all the same
channels again. Back to the Future 3 had caught her interest
several times during the zapping but she had seen it too many
times. She had done this routine many times before always
cursing the fact that they didn‟t have cable. This time she
didn‟t mind. Her thoughts couldn‟t stay more than a minute or
two on the screen anyway, they kept drifting to Jake.
She started feeling her eyes get heavy and got up to go to
bed. She looked at the clock and it was two AM. She hadn‟t been
up that long? Had she? It didn‟t matter. She went to her room
and crawled in bed. Ally was in dreamland and Kim was quick to
join her.
It was noon when she woke up. Ally and her mom had already
returned from the park.
“Weren‟t you supposed to meet Annie?” she asked. “I told
her I would call when I left” Kim said.
She picked up the phone and pretended to call Annie.
“Hi Annie” she said “I Just have to shower and then I am
out of here. Meet you at the mall in an hour. Bye.”
She hung up the phone and felt guilty about lying again and
went into the bathroom to take a shower. When she got out she
went to her bedroom and looked for clothes to get dressed. The
new outfit was gone. She had left it on the floor next to her
bed. In a panic she called her mom.
“What‟s the matter?” her mom asked with a puzzled look on