…And Then…I Kissed Her
By: Jamie Sommers
Email: jamiesommers23@hotmail.com
Rated: P/G13 for language
Synopsis: Landon Carter needs help with his lines and
Jamie Sullivan has agreed to give him a hand on one condition…he has to promise
not to fall in love with her.
I sat there with my
headphones on not really listening to the music that I had playing in my CD
player. I kept watching her, she was
sitting with that girl she always sits with, ‘What’s her name? Janice? Jenny?
Janet?’ I had no clue, all I
knew is that it started with a “j” sound--at least I think it did. ‘God Landon. You’ve gone to school with
most of these people your whole life and you can’t even remember their names?’ Ever since last night I started taking a
really good hard look at myself, at my life and where I was going. ‘Right now I’m on a one way ticket to
nowhere.’ I started thinking twice
about the way I treated people, about the way I treated my friends, my family,
myself. I wasn’t too happy with what I
saw. The thing is, whenever I was with
Jamie I liked who I was. I was a good
person when I was around her--she just had that effect on me. ‘You need to talk to her Landon.’ I took a deep breath and walked to the front
portion of the bus where she was sitting with Gina. ‘That’s it! Gina!’ And sat across the aisle from her.
“Jamie…listen. About yesterday. I should’ve been straight with my friends, but…you know how it
is?”
She turned and looked at me
like I was the lowest form of scum on the earth and said, “No. I don’t.
Why don’t you tell me how it is?” She just stared at me with such
contempt and said, “You know what Landon?
I think you said it all yesterday and I know I have nothing to say to
you.” She turned towards the window and
ignored me.
I wanted to get up and go
to the back of the bus, to sit by myself, but I kept hearing my mom’s words in
my head. ‘Then you’re not trying
hard enough…is she worth fighting for?’
“Jamie? Can’t we talk about
this? Come on. Please.”
I tried flashing her that puppy dog grin again, but it only works when
the person is looking at you and right now, I didn’t exist to Jamie. I reached my hand out and laid it on her
arm, “Jamie please?” She glared at it,
then me. I took it off and rode the
rest of the trip in silence.
“Hey Luis. What’s up?”
I don’t even know why I
bothered coming back here every week.
This kid I was tutoring could care less about triangles and whether or
not they were similar or isosceles and come on…is this really something we’re
gonna use in life? But I had a job to
do and I was determined to do it even though I was bad at it. Besides, helping Luis was an important part
of the reformation of Landon project I was currently working on. I figured if I could teach this kid geometry
than I could do just about anything.
The only problem was that this was my last week of tutoring, so today
was my last shot.
I went through some
problems with him, trying to help him figure it out, “You know the
answer?” He just sat there with this
look on his face, spinning his basketball around on the desktop. “I know you don’t.” I began looking around when it hit me…
“Okay it’s you…me…and the
basket, we form the three corners of a triangle.” I waited until I thought he
absorbed this information then said, “Now take a step towards the basket.” I
stepped with him, “now I’m at the same angle to the basket as I was before?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you?”
“Yeah.”
“So what did we just make?”
“Uh…A similar triangle?”
“YESSS! Yes.”
I couldn’t believe it. He got it
right. “Okay, make me an
isosceles.” I watched him as he took a
step out towards his side making the two sides of our triangle the same and
basked in my glory! I had done it. I found a way to ‘back in.’
On the way home I
considered asking Jamie to sit with me on the bus, but I knew better, so I just
sat in the seat she normally sat in and hoped.
She walked onto the bus with Gina and stopped when she got to the seat
and looked at me.
“Why don’t we sit in the
back Jamie?” Asked Gina.
“Actually,” I spoke up, “I
was kinda hopin’ you’d sit with me Jamie.”
She took a few seconds to
think about it--that look of hatred she had bestowed upon me earlier was gone
and it was replaced with one of curiosity.
Gina took a seat towards the back of the bus while Jamie stood there
contemplating her decision.
“Please Jamie? Sit with me?”
She took a breath and said,
“I don’t think that would be a very good idea.”
There was something
different about her. I knew she was
still hurt, hey who could blame her?
But she didn’t seem to hate me anymore.
It was more like a really strong dislike.
##
Church that Sunday was
uneventful. Jamie was singing with the
choir, but she didn’t have a solo and of course her father based his sermon on
how evil Landon Carter was, and that I was Satan in disguise. Well, it wasn’t exactly that, but it was
close. It was about lies and
betrayal. He pretty much covered every
sin I had committed in the past week and made a sermon out of it. Afterwards I tried to talk to Jamie, but she
completely ignored me.
“Landon, why don’t you give
her some time?” My mom asked.
“Yeah, I suppose.” We walked to our car and I looked back at
Jamie standing outside of the church talking to the choir director. ‘Time.’ Funny thing that time--you spend eighteen years growing up in the
same town as someone, eighteen years thinking you knew everything about that
someone, then one day you realize you didn’t know that person at all. ‘Time…yeah…I’ll give her time.’ We’ve waited eighteen years so what’s a few
more days? ‘Right now it feels like
a lifetime, Landon. A lifetime.’
It was less than two weeks
until the play so Miss. Garber scheduled a play rehearsal for that
afternoon. We had one the day prior,
but she said that we still needed help with our blocking and some of us--mainly
me--still hadn’t mastered our lines.
The truth was, with the exception of yesterday at play practice I hadn’t
picked up my script since the incident with Jamie.
When I got to the
auditorium Sally walked up to me and said, “I knew it was a mistake for her to
help you. You know you didn’t have to
be such an ass Landon.” I just stood
there and started looking around the room.
Everybody was glaring at me. Apparently everybody had heard what
happened in the hallway on Friday. “I
knew you were a jerk the minute I saw you.”
For the first time in my
life I finally felt what it was like to walk in Jamie Sullivan’s shoes.
Jamie got there shortly
after me and we just kind of glanced at each other. There was no way I was gonna try and talk to her here, not after
what just happened with Sally. Miss.
Garber told everyone to take their places and rehearsal began. I spent the majority of my day listening to
people say that I was either going to ruin the play because I couldn’t learn my
lines or what a complete jerk I was for what I did to Jamie.
When Miss. Garber began
showing Sally some of her blocking for the scene in which she dumps me, the one
where Jamie shows up, I really felt abused.
Sally’s character Caroline had to push me and call me a big dope, but
Sally was just enjoying it a little too much, and I think Miss. Garber might
have enjoyed it a little too. By the
time I got to the scene with just Jamie and me, I was beat…literally. I had been practically physically and
verbally abused today by just about everyone and I just couldn’t take it
anymore.
Then Miss. Garber tried to
teach Jamie her blocking for that scene.
Telling her she had to float across the stage, “Glide. You need to be very sultry here Jamie.”
“You need to exude your
feminine appeal. Roll your shoulders
back and look over your shoulder like you can see right through this man. His games don’t fool you…”
‘Was she talking about
the play or about me?’ This was getting pretty frustrating.
She continued to show Jamie
her steps for her song as I sat there watching. Look, I know I said she had a sexy little mole on her cheek, and
it is, but not in a sultry way. More
along the lines of an innocent…virginal kinda way. Miss. Garber was barking up the wrong tree here with Jamie. And I don’t care how good of an actress she
was, ‘there was no way Jamie Sullivan was going to pull off being a sultry
nightclub singer that exuded feminine appeal.’
We just went back to our
normal lives when it came to school. We
got together after school to rehearse--I didn’t really hang out with the gang
too much anymore--not enough time.
Well, that’s what I told them anyway.
At night I would pace back and forth in my room making notes in the
script, memorizing my lines and trying to keep Jamie out of my head. It usually worked, except for when I went to
sleep. I began dreaming about her. Not really dreaming, more like re-living
moments with her in my sleep and no matter what moment we re-lived it always
ended with me saying, “in your dreams.”
‘Yeah…look at who’s dreaming about who now Carter.’
I would see her in history
class everyday sitting up front with that damn Eddie Zimmerhoff and, ‘God! I really, really hated that guy! You’re jealous Landon. What???
Of Eddie Zimmerhoff??? Yeah
right.’ But I was. I would’ve given
anything to be where he was at that very moment. I had no idea what was going on with me. I knew I wanted Jamie to forgive me for what
I had said, I even wanted to be her friend, but did I want something more? ‘Is it possible to even have something
more than just friendship with her Landon?
And do you think she would want that with you?’ There were a million questions racing
through my mind as the object of my thoughts was walking right towards me.
The hallway was
packed. Two months ago I would’ve never
even noticed her walking in a crowd, now it’s like I can feel her
presence. We barely looked at each
other when we passed one another, but I had to turn back, just for a second to
see if she was looking--she wasn’t. ‘Dammit
Landon. Why did you ever have to ask
her to help you with your lines? Why
did you ever have to hurt her?’
Coming soon…
The final chapter: Ch 8 - Opening Night