…And Then…He Kissed Me

By: Jamie Sommers

Rated: PG 13 (for language)

Synopsis: Jamie Sullivan has been hurt in her efforts to help Landon with the school play and refuses to give him the time of day. Landon Carter has been doing everything in his power to change her mind. Will he?

Chapter 2: Harsh Reality

He really didn’t acknowledge me in science or history class today. He pretty much just kept with his crowd but that didn’t surprise me too much, what surprised me came later in the day.

“Hey Carter.” Normally I wouldn’t stop to say hi to him, but after last night I figured it would be all right. “So I’ll see you after school today?”

“In your dreams.” Those words were like a knife slicing through my heart. ‘I thought we were past this Landon. I thought last night…’

I nodded at him to let him know I understood his meaning. ‘It’s cool if I spend time with you out of school, but not during school, and we definitely can’t let your friends know, right Landon? Fine. If that’s the way you want it.’

I walked down the hallway and proceeded to go to Drama, but decided to make a stop at the ladies room on the way. I took off my backpack and leaned up against the cool tile wall. ‘In your dreams.’ I kept hearing his cold, harsh words going through my head. ‘Don’t cry Jamie. He’s not worth it. There was nothing there anyway. Last night he was just being nice because no one else was around.’ It hurt to admit that. To know that the only reason he stayed with me at the cemetery last night was because nobody knew he was with ME. Tears started to well up in my eyes and I shook it off. ‘No Jamie! He is not worth crying over! You don’t care what those people think about you. No, but you did care what Landon thought about you.’

I shook off my tears and went to drama, by the end of class my hurt had developed into pain and anger. I was no longer feeling upset that he humiliated me in front of his friends—I honestly couldn’t care one way or the other what they thought of me—but I was so angry with him for saying those words and even more angry with myself for being wrong about him.

“Hi daddy!” I hadn’t expected my father to be home today, he usually works in the afternoons, but ever since Landon had been coming over to run lines, he had been spending more and more time at home. “What’re you doing here?”

“Oh, there wasn’t anything pressing to do at the church so I thought I’d come home early.”

“Well this is a nice surprise,” I brought my backpack upstairs, promising myself that I would do my homework later, right now I just wanted to spend some time with my father so I pushed Landon Carter to the back of my mind.

Daddy was reading his paper as I plunked out a few chords on the piano when the doorbell rang. ‘I wonder who that is?’ I really had no idea. Sometimes when daddy spent the afternoon at home instead of at the church Mrs. Otis would stop by with a plate of cookies or a cake and sit and visit for a while. ‘Maybe it’s her?’

I opened the door expecting to see a friendly face but instead I saw Landon Carter standing there with his foot in his mouth. I closed the door on him. ‘What in the world has come over you Jamie? You’ve never been this rude to anyone in your entire life. Stop pounding on the door, Landon! Oh…you do NOT want me to answer! Trust me. FINE! FINE! You wanna talk…lets talk!’

I opened the door and came out onto the porch, my hands were balled up into little fists inside of my pockets, but I knew he could sense how angry I was.

“Oh,” he backed up. “You’re not in a good mood.”

‘Gee…what gave it away?’ “You don’t miss a thing.” ‘Just keep your cool Jamie.’

“Listen Jamie, I was hoping we could run lines together.”

‘Was he kidding?’ “Mmmmm. Okay but just not so anybody knows, right?” ‘That’s it isn’t it Landon? Just say it.’

“Well, I just figured we could surprise everyone with how good I get.”

‘I can’t believe he’s saying this. Can’t you just apologize Carter?’ “Like we could be secret friends.”

“Exactly. Exactly. It’s like you’re reading my mind.”

‘He really thinks I’m gonna go for this?’ “Good. Umm…maybe you could read mine?” ‘You hurt me Landon. You insulted me, embarrassed me and humiliated me just so you wouldn’t have to admit that we were becoming friends and I’m sorry…but you can’t just trample on my feelings and expect me to take it.’

“Jamie. Jamie…I can’t just be your friend…” ‘No…of course you can’t.’

I couldn’t look at him anymore. I was angry and put off and hurt, so hurt. My disappointment in him was overwhelming. “Landon look. I thought I saw something in you. Something good. I was very wrong.”

That time when I closed the door on him, my father was standing just inside and I knew he had heard every word. From outside we could hear Landon scream out in frustration, my father immediately went outside to defend me. I don’t know what happened or what was said. I went to my room, closed the door and fought off the tears. I did a fine job of it too until he called.

“Hey Jamie. It’s Lando…” I didn’t even let him finish. I just hung up and the tears that I had fought so hard to keep at bay, burst through the dam and I sobbed into my pillow. ‘I thought I found something in you Landon. I thought you felt this too. How could I have been so wrong?’

Coming Soon…

Chapter 3

For Landon’s POV read his story entitled, “…And Then…I Kissed Her.”