Ugh.
To make things even worse, we had a substitute teacher today. You’re probably wondering what’s so bad about that, but obviously you don’t have a ridiculously spelled name like “Kieyra”, so don’t judge, because you don’t know what it’s like to have someone try to pronounce your name. First she pronounced it “k-eye-rah”, and then “K-ee-rah”, so I had to tell her “Mrs. Teacher person, it’s actually “keey-ehr-ah”.” It was incredibly awkward.
On a happier note, I’m no longer failing French class! I got a C on my last test, which basically is a pass! Yay!
When I got into my room after school, the window was open. I figured I must’ve left it open when I left for school this morning, but then I saw a note with my name written on it. I picked it up and sat on my bed.
Dear Kieyra,
I know I haven’t talked to you for weeks, but this is sort of important. Not like, life-or-death important, but it’s important to me. I think there’s something you should know. Well, actually, a few things. First of all, I DO NOT THINK YOU’RE KATHERINE. I kinda had to write that a little more boldly because you probably wouldn’t believe me otherwise, not that you even believe me now. What happened with Katherine was a total mistake. She’s a heartless dirty cheater with no regard for anyone’s feeling but her own and, quite frankly, she’s annoying. But since I’m pretty sure bashing Katherine in the rest of this letter isn’t going to amount to anything, so I’ll stop while I’m ahead. Anyway, this is about how I was wrong. I put that in bold too just for prove that, yes, us guys can say we’re wrong sometimes. And there’s something I’ve really wanted to tell you since about the beginning of October. It’s kind of awkward, and you might be creeped out and never want to see me again. The chances of you feeling this way towards me is about 1 in a million, but I’m just going to say it anyways. I love you. I would have said it to your face, but I figured this would be less awkward for the both of us. If I see you again, I might say it to your face. But right now I’m thinking of leaving forever, because It’ll be easier on you. But if you want to see me before then, leave a note here telling me so. Well, that’s all I guess.
~Alec~
I wasn’t exactly sure what to do, so I called Jade.
“Whoa. That’s, like, deep. Like, really deep.” Jade put down the letter. It was kind of hard to explain over the phone, so I told her to come over and let her read the letter.
“Yup.” I replied.
“Are you okay?”
“I can’t feel my hands. Or my arms. Or my legs. Help me. I think I’m going into shock.”
“I would, but there’s no cure.” My mom came in.
“What’s going on in here?” My semi-trance broke and I stuffed the letter in my pillowcase.
“Nothing, mom. We’re just talking.” My mom just stood there, staring at us. “You can go now, mom.”
“Right. Nice to see you again, Jade.”
“Nice to see you too, Ms. G.” Jade smiled awkwardly and my mom left. I shut (and locked) my door.
“So, what are you going to do?” Jade asked.
“I don’t know.” I whined. I fell back on my bed and pulled my pillow over my face.
“How do you feel about this?”
“How do I feel about what?”
“About the letter. About Alec.”
“Okay, Dr. Phil.” I said. Jade laughed.
“ Seriously, though. How do you feel?”
“I don’t know!”
“How can you not know?”
“I just don’t.” Jade hit her head against the wall.
“This is hopeless. You are hopeless.” She sighed, falling back on my bed beside me.
“Well, you should at least talk to him. Maybe then you’ll realize how you truly feel.”
“I doubt it. I’ve seen him enough times, and I never figured out that I liked him until you told me. Now, love, that’s another story.” Jade pulled the pillow off of my face.
“Can you at least try to explain how you feel?” I tried to think, but all my thoughts were gibberish.
“il me rend heureux.” I said, but I wasn’t exactly sure what I said. Jade’s eyes widened.
“What?” I asked.
“You were just speaking French.” She said.
“Was I? what did I say?”
“You said ‘he makes me happy’.”
“Did I?”
“Yes. Continuer s’il vous plait.”
“what?”
“Please continue. Maybe saying it in French would help, if you can’t find the word to say in English.”
“But I won’t know what I’m saying!”
“Exactly! You’ll say how you feel, and then I’ll tell you what you said.”
“Um…okay? Je veux être avec il toujours, et je pense que je l’aime, c’est juste que je ne said pas comment dire ça.” Jade smiled.
“What?” I asked. She shook her head, chuckling to herself.
“What did I say?” Jade hugged me.
“Exact words or abridged version?” she asked.
“Exact words, please.”
“Okay, you said ‘I want to be with him forever, and I think that I love him, it’s just that I don’t know how to say it.’” Jade giggled.
“Okay, so we’ve cleared that up. Now what do I do?”
“Talk to him!!!!”
“How am I supposed to do that knowing what I know?”
“Just try.” After that, Jade and I tried to write back to Alec. Some of our rough drafts looked a little like this:
After all that, Jade and I finally decided on this:
Alec,
We need to talk.
~Kieyra~
Ps. Jade helped write this.
Pps. Jade says hi.
Ppps. I’m not sure if adding more ‘p’ s to Ps. Is actually proper, so forgive me if it’s not.
After we left the letter folded upon top of his and wrote ‘Alec’ in big letters on it, we went out for smoothies downtown. On my way home, I got a text.
From: 0123456789
You wanted to talk?
~Alec
Jade peered over my shoulder at the text and grinned.
“Text him back.”
“Do I have to?”
“Yes, yes you do.” I rolled my eyes and texted back:
Yeah.
~K
From:0123456789
Meet me at the park near your house?
~A
Before I could object, Jade took my phone and replied ‘yes’.
“Now, go.” She pointed her finger in the direction of the park.
“But what if I can’t say it?”
“Good luck with that, Cherie.” She waved and turned onto our street. I headed to the park. What if I didn’t make it back alive? Should I have left a note? Oh yeah, that would have been the right thing. Dear mom, I’m out professing my love to some 326 year old vampire. Love, Kieyra. That wouldn’t freak her out at all.
Alec was waiting at the park, looking a little on-edge.
“Hey.” I said.
“Hi.” he replied. I tried to block my thoughts by thinking random words like “elephant” and “poop deck”.
“What was it you wanted to say?” he asked. I was too focused on protecting my thoughts to say anything. Elephant. Poop deck. Land ho. Argh! I’m a pirate! Cheese. If a priest goes to the bathroom, it really is holy crap.
“Please don’t go away forever.” I finally said, looking at my feet.
“Why shouldn’t I?”
“Because I want you to stay.”
“Not good enough.” He started to walk away.
“Because I need you here.”
“Still not good enough.”
“Because I…I…” I couldn’t say it.
“Because you what?”
“Forget it.”
“No, what was it?”
“I…I mean…” my brain was freezing up. Then I remembered what had happened earlier, when I didn’t know what to say, and I started talking in French. I let my “international-subconscious” take over.
“Ich lieb dich.” That didn’t even sound human.
“Were you just talking in German? Can you say whatever it was in English, please?”
“Szeretlek.” I think that was Hungarian, though I could never be sure.
“What?”
“Eu te amo.” Portuguese.
“What????”
“Ti amo.” Italian.
“Can you please say something in human words???”
“Te amo.” Spanish.
“Okay, what are you trying to tell me?”
“Je t’aime.” French.
“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SAYING????” It was then that I realized I had run out of languages. Crap. Stupid damn crazy L word. Why couldn’t I just say it? I had nothing to lose? Why was I so afraid? I swallowed my pride and prepared my self for every possible outcome to what I was about to say.
“I said, I love you.”
Yikes, this is getting seriously, well, uh, serious!
ReplyDeleteSo, I think developing this relationship is good for the character and good for the plot. When you finally get to the end and Alec has to put his life in the balance in order to save Kieyra, it will have much more impact because of this "L" stuff!
The lapses into french were fun. Why does she do that? Is that part of Katherine's background? It might be helpful to explain where
that comes from, or, at least, have Kieyra try to understand why she is doing that.
All this teenage love angst stuff is just making me blush. So, I guess that must be a good thing!
A really good chapter!
Just a couple of French notes:
You wrote "I hate that I miss you (Je désteste que tu (you) me (me) manques)" it should be Je deteste que je (I) te (you) manques. The way you wrote it, it means "I hate that you miss me."
When you want to use the object "him", the word is "lui" (him) not "il" (he). Also, I think toujours would come before "avec lui". So, it may be more accurate to write "Je veux être toujours avec lui."
Enough pedantics.
Great work on this chapter. I can't wait for Chapter 20!!
Once again a great ending. I agree with your dad like the way she is speaking in "Tongues". It gives more mystery to the Katherine/Kierya personality.
ReplyDeleteI hope there is more to read today.