Chapter 3: Wearing His Jacket

Shane’s POV

I looked across the cafeteria, towards Kaelyn’s usual spot; she always sat with her three friends on the far left side of the cafeteria. But, today, I saw that she was looking in my direction. She’s never looked over this way- at least never at the same time that I’ve been looking. I didn’t know what to do, so instinctively I winked at her. Her eyes widened and she quickly turned back to her friends.

Crap. I probably just scared her again.

“So, how was your first period today?” Gage laughed. I rolled my eyes and couldn’t help but smile. First period was perfect, even though I might’ve crept Kaelyn out, but I still got to talk to her. Well, she did most of the talking, rambling on about her personal bubble. I smiled at the thought. Kaelyn was definitely different from the other girls.

“Heard you got to touch that fine ass that belongs to Kaelyn Green,” Vincent winked. I glared at him. He knows what I’ve done to boys who talk about her like that. Vincent got a scared look in his eyes and backed down. I wouldn’t beat up my best friend… but if he talks about Kaelyn like that again, I might. I do it to just about every other boy. It really is a wonder how she hasn’t realized that’s one of the biggest reasons I get into fights.

Oh yeah, don’t forget Shane, she’s barely even taken an interest in talking to you yet. She doesn’t even know what guys say about her.

“Have you seen the picture of you two on Facebook? Apparently Coleman isn’t too happy with you right now,” My smile quickly disappeared from my face. Ryder Coleman… the one who took my first love away… the one who got together with Kaelyn just to make me jealous.

“Excuse me?” I said. I saw Kyle flinched at my tone. I would’ve thought he would be used to my attitude by now, but I guess he's not. Even though he’s the newest addition to our group, he’s seen my bad side plenty of times before.

“Go look at Coleman’s Facebook page, his most recent photo,” Vincent told me. I took my black iPhone out of my pocket and quickly logged into Facebook. I searched for ‘Ryder Coleman’ and his profile showed up instantly. I clicked on the link, and immediately I saw a picture of Kaelyn and I. My hands were gripping her waist and it looked like I was kissing her ear.

It was a damn nice picture, but the caption underneath it made my blood boil. ‘Oh look at Kaelyn and her new boyfriend. I won’t be surprised when he hurts her, just like he does to all the other girls. Then she'll come crawling back to me’.

I angrily shoved my phone back into my pocket and stood up from the table.

“Where are you going?” Gage asked me.

“Away,” I mumbled. I walked towards the doors that lead out to the front lawn. I was oblivious to everything, and everyone as I walked down to my car. I unlocked it and sat in the front seat, debating if I should leave school or not.

Ryder made me so pissed off. I can’t believe that we were actually friends at one point. He took my beautiful Ali away from me, the first person I ever felt like I loved. He was my best friend, and he let my, now ex girlfriend, cheat on me… with himself! What kind of a friend does that? Then… the worst of the worst happened, he figured out my secret; the secret that I had true feelings for a girl again. I don’t know how he figured it out but, he did and he did everything in his power to keep Kaelyn away from me. He dated her for six months… six months, when that could’ve been me. He cheated on her… I would’ve never done that. Not after that vow I made to myself when I was twelve.

Now it’s at least two months after their break-up and I want to make a move but, I know she would never fall for me. Her head’s probably still filled with all the nonsense Ryder told her about me.

I looked around my car, trying to find something to focus my mind on, even if it was homework or something. I just needed to get all of these thoughts out of my head. My eyes wandered through the glove compartment, until I saw something that caught my eye.

10/3/13.Shane Collins. After School Detention. Report immediately to Mr. Wilson’s room after classes are over.

I wasn’t actually going to go to it, I rarely go to my detentions, but I was willing to go just because Kaelyn will be there too. I’ve been in Mr. Wilson’s detention room enough times to know that Ms. Goody Goody Kaelyn would never survive alone in a room full of delinquents. Mr. Wilson always leaves to go to the staff room while he’s supposed to be watching over us during detention. I’ve seen what the unsupervised boys have done to the newbie girls in detention and it’s not pretty. None of the other girls that I've seen them gang up on have ever been as oblivious as Kaelyn, so that just adds to everything. If anything remotely bad is about to happen, I want to at least be there so I can put a stop to it. Maybe I could earn Kaelyn’s trust then…

I honestly don’t know why I feel so protective of her… she’s capable of taking care of herself, but some part of me just wants to make sure she’s safe.

As I was getting out of my car, I saw that familiar brown hair and pale skin that belonged to Kaelyn. She was walking around the front lawn with her head down and her hands in her pockets. She finally sat down on a bench and she looked like she was freezing.

Maybe I should start earning her trust now…

I silently walked up behind the bench she was sitting on, taking a deep, but quiet breath. I then walked around the wooden bench so that I was facing her. She didn’t look up for a few moments; she stared at my shoes for a few seconds. When she did look up, her hazel eyes widened.

“Can I sit here?” I asked, I tried to make my tone nice and gentle.

“Um… umm…” She was getting nervous. “Well, can you? I mean surely you can but, the proper term is ‘May I sit here?’ not ‘Can I sit here’. Shit. Sorry… um… why do you want to sit here, it’s cold and old, hey that rhymed. Wow, can you make yourself look like anymore of an idiot Kaelyn? Crap. That was supposed to be said in my head,” She slapped her forehead.

“Um…” I was trying not to laugh at her nervous breakdown. “Back to my question, may I sit here?” I put emphasis on the word may. Kaelyn blushed.

“Why?” She looked at me.

“Because... I thought you looked lonely,” Kaelyn eyed me suspiciously and looked back down at her maroon vans. She rubbed up and down her arms, trying to regain body heat. It was November and the wind was going fast enough to make the trees sway really far back and forth. “Are you cold?” I asked her.

“Yeah…” She said. I saw that she was biting her lip, probably to keep herself from rambling. I started to take off my leather jacket, readying myself to let someone other than me wear it. “What are you doing?” She asked me.

“Here, you can wear this… you won’t be as cold.” I tried to give her my jacket but, she wouldn’t take it.

“I can’t… I barely know you. And… I um…” She was at a loss for words. That’s a first.

“I insist,” I handed her the jacket, leaving me in my plain white v-neck tee-shirt. Kaelyn blushed and took the jacket from me. She put it on and stopped shaking and shivering. I had never given anyone else my jacket. My jacket was like my baby. I never go anywhere without it.

“Your jacket’s really warm,” Kaelyn said. I’m almost positive that she said it by accident because of the way she reacted afterwards. “I um…I didn’t mean to say that, it just kinda came out. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to sound creepy or anything-“ I started laughing quietly but, Kaelyn noticed and stopped talking. “Is something wrong? Is there something in my hair? Or in my teeth?” Man, she was really straight forward.

“No, no, you’re just really cute when you ramble.” Kaelyn blushed a deep red and I bit my lip. I shouldn’t have said that. But, she isn’t making it a big deal that I said she was cute; which is good.

“Have you seen the Facebook picture,” She asked me. I got that feeling again. That feeling of hatred towards Ryder.

“Yeah actually I have,” I slightly blushed when I remembered that I saved it into my camera roll. I’ve never really blushed before, even when I was together with Ali.

“Oh,” She looked away. Before I could say anything the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Kaelyn stood up before me and she was about to give me my jacket back but I stopped her.

“No, keep it… for now,” I slightly laughed.

“But, don’t you want it back?” She asked me.

“Of course but, I’m going to see you again later, maybe after detention you can give it to me,” Kaelyn gulped. I guess that was a touchy topic with her.

“You’ll be there too?” Kaelyn started to put my jacket back on over her arms.

“When am I not?” I flashed a grin and I swear that I heard her laugh quietly.

“Thank you, for letting me wear it. I might’ve frozen to death if you hadn’t shown up,” Kaelyn froze. She had that look in her eye, like she had said something wrong again. “I uh… I have to go, bye.” She quickly ran up to the school doors and sprinted through them. Only two more periods until I get to see her again… and my jacket.