Kayla and the Bench

Let me start by telling you a little bit about myself. My name is Chris and I’m a 16 year old junior in high school. I go to an all guys school, which has it’s ups and downs, but obviously the biggest down was not being around girls very often. We had a sister school that we would occasionally do things with, but since middle school when we were first meeting each other, I really didn’t talk to them very often and we actually hung out even less. Now I think I am pretty popular, at least amongst my own school. All the upperclassman loved me because they thought I was so cute. Sounds silly to say, I know, but that was just them being funny and crazy.

I was really small standing hardly at about 5’5″ yet I was pretty muscular with abs and all. I had kind of long blond-red hair, blue eyes, and rather pale, but not like a ghost. I used to have freckles on my face but lately they had faded to where they were barely visible, if at all. I know I wasn’t the guy that girls would see and go crazy for. A lot of times I was with my friends who were obviously better looking and girls would look at them. However, I have talked to people on the Internet via a webcam and most of them are very impressed and use a variety of words to describe my good looks. I figured it was just looking better on camera because my pale skin was much less obvious and other imperfections could not be detected. Either way, I couldn’t help but feel flattered and I knew even if it was because of the generous camera, it said something and gave me a little more confidence than I had before.

Like I said, I was in the “popular crowd” at my school and I loved my friends and I feel that they thought the same thing about me. I had always been one of the better athletes and I guess that contributed a bit to my social standing at school. I was one of the few sophomores to make the varsity soccer team the previous year. I was always treated like the little brother of the team, which made a lot of the older guys like me, but I didn’t like being thought of as the cute little guy. This was true with my friends too. All my friends had a girlfriend at one point or another except for me. I know I didn’t repulse all girls I was around, I have always just been too shy to even give it a try. I wasn’t nearly as social as I used to be either because unlike my friends, I didn’t go out and drink and go crazy, so while we were all great friends at school, I hardly got invited out because most people knew I wouldn’t do much anyway.

I know I am talking a lot about myself but I just want to get a detailed and accurate picture painted. Towards the end of the summer I knew that I really wanted to make an effort to be more social and hopefully even get a girlfriend. With the football season approaching, I knew that more social opportunities would be presented to me and I really wanted to take advantage of them.

At the very first game of the season I looked down and my eyes caught the cheerleader on the far side. (Our sister school provided the cheerleaders for the football team) Her name was Kayla and for some reason I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I sort of knew who she was because she dated a guy from our school last year. Only a sophomore, Kayla was short, probably barely 5 feet tall, light brown hair which reached her middle back, and a very cute face. I knew guys wouldn’t call her “hot” or “sexy” and honestly I wouldn’t either, but I couldn’t help but think she was so beautiful and something just struck me about her. That night I left with a few of my friends to head to our cars. We walked down the steps and to the sidewalk in front of the cheerleaders where we had to walk to get out. As I passed Kayla I looked at her desperate for her to see me noticing her. At the last second before I had to turn back to see where I was walking, she looked over at me and the first thing I did was look away as fast as I could so she wouldn’t realize what I was doing. I realized how creepy this must have seemed so I looked back and to my amazement she was still looking. I flashed her a quick smile to which she gave me an awkward smile. I was too nervous to even process that this girl that I suddenly found myself liking without ever talking to her was smiling at me. I went home and just lied in bed thinking about what I would give just to be with Kayla. I was a 16 year old guy so naturally I often thought about sex, but thinking about that with Kayla hadn’t even crossed my mind. Instead, I just wanted to hold her in my arms and kiss her for as long as possible.

“If she could just be lying here with me,” I thought, “I would be the happiest guy in the world.”

Similar things happened over the next couple of weeks and I only was able to see her at football games, but I never had the courage to talk to her. I still thought about her every single day just wishing she was mine. I knew I had to do something soon or I would go crazy. We had a game that week and I was determined to have a conversation with her at the least. Time passed incredibly slowly that week but eventually the game was over but I didn’t even see her to get a chance to talk to her. I hung around a little while later with a few of my friends and as I got ready to leave, I decided to drive to the main building to get something to drink from the vending machine. With virtually no one left on campus I parked and got out of my car and headed to the door. Along the way I looked over and sitting on a bench crying was Kayla. I couldn’t believe it. Of all the people, she was the one I wanted to see tonight and here she was. The weird thing is that I didn’t see this as my chance to talk to her. Instead, I saw this beautiful girl crying and needing someone to comfort her. Without hesitation or nervousness at all I walked over and she saw me coming and began wiping her eyes in a desperate attempt to stop crying.

“Hey” I awkwardly said. Remembering why I was there, I sat down and said, “Are you okay?” She looked at me and shot me a quick smirk which temporarily stopped her crying.

“It’s so stupid,” she said as if she were half way joking. “I just had a fight with my friend about something really stupid, I don’t even know why I am so upset.”

“Well do you want to talk about it?”

She giggled a little bit before saying, “We have never even met before, it’s really not that important.”

I understood exactly what she meant and as I continued to think about it, she was right. We had never talked before so I’m sure she could easily tell what I was after.

“I don’t like seeing a pretty girl upset, that’s all.” There it was, we had been there for less then thirty seconds and I was already telling her that I thought she was pretty. I am sure this was the stupidest thing she had ever heard before in her life. If it was, she didn’t make it obvious at all, but she now knew why I have been looking at her so often over the past few weeks.

“Well I don’t like seeing a cute guy wasting his time.”

I immediately felt a sense of relief when hearing this. No girl has ever told me I was cute in person. Relieved is actually quite an understatement but while selfishly thinking about what she thought of me, I remembered the latter part of what she said. “Trust me I’m not wasting my time at all, I am happy to talk.”

She once again flashed that pretty smile at me and it seemed that almost at once we realized that we had told each other what we think about the other before we have even introduced ourselves. I went first just as she was about to say something; I should have let her talk but oh well.

“I’m Chris by the way, I am a junior.”

“Yeah I know,” she quickly retorted with a giggle. Stealing my stupid line and somewhat making fun of me in the process she added “I’m Kayla by the way, I am a sophomore.”

Realizing what she was doing, I repeated in a joking voice “Yeah I know.”

“Are you making fun of me?” she said with an obviously sarcastic look of astonishing on her face and I weak punch on the arm. I didn’t need to respond as we both understood the joking manner in which she said it. It was then that I saw something that made me even more attracted to her. She was flirting with me and I saw that she was much more confident than I was and wasn’t really all that shy at all. If she was, she did a great job of hiding it. We sat there both looking down at our shoes for a minute and then simultaneously looked up into each other’s eyes. With a quick chuckle we looked back down trying our hardest to avoid the awkward tension growing between us. I was trying desperately to think of something to say but all I could think of was, “She thinks I’m cute. She thinks I’m cute. Nothing could ever be more perfect.”

“What are you doing her so late anyway?”

Luckily I didn’t tell her what I was thinking, because I’m my state of nervousness I couldn’t really control anything that I said. So I just kept thinking.

“Chris?”

I looked up to find her looking at me strangely and only then did I realize she was trying to say something to me. She laughed at my embarrassment and repeated: “I said what are you doing here so late?”

I saw her smiling at me once more and the look in her beautiful brown eyes made all anxiousness building up in me completely vanish and for the first time on that bench I felt at ease.

“Oh, I was just hanging out with my friends and I wanted to come get a coke before I went home.”

“Oh ok I see.” We both sat silent for a minute as if we were racing to see who could come up with something to say to the other first.

“What are you doing here so late?” I said repeating her earlier question.

“Well I got in an argument with my friend and I was supposed to go to her house tonight but now she doesn’t want me to.” I had managed to cheer her up to where she forgot about just about everything but when I asked her this I could see tears starting to build up in her eyes again and I felt bad for being the one reminding her why she was still here and not with her friend. “Ally just said she doesn’t want to be around me anymore.” With this, tears were falling freely from her face so I did the only thing I could think of. I put my arm around her just so she would know that I was there. To my surprise, she responded my looking up into my eyes an then seeing how sincere I was, she buried her face in my chest.

“I’m so sorry,” I said as I rubbed her far shoulder with my hand. Something about that moment felt so romantic. It was the most contact I had ever had with a girl and I felt guilty about enjoying that while seeing how upset she was. We sat there for a few more minutes silently with her crying leaving a wet spot right in the middle of my shirt. She apologized when she saw this but that was the last thing that could have upset me at the moment.

With that she sat up but still well within my reach. I couldn’t believe the way it was going after just talking to each other for only a little while. If someone saw us it would seem like we had been dating for a long time based just from the way we were sitting. We continued our talking for a long time covering every topic that two people who have never met before can talk about. She told me how her parents had gotten divorced a few years ago and she lived with just her mom and her 5 year old sister, Katie. Her mom was always busy so Kayla usually had to rely on other people when it came to late nights. That’s why she was going to go to Ally’s house tonight and when that didn’t work out she wasn’t able to go home. We kept talking until her phone vibrated and we both saw that it was already 12:30. It was her mom worrying about her since Kayla hadn’t told her what had happened with Ally. She immediately knew that she had to get home and we both knew that it was up to me to make sure it happened. Without having to say a word about it we stood up and with my arm still around her to comfort her we walked to my car which was still parked close to the bench.

The car ride was really the first time all night that there was an awkward moment between us, but sure enough we got to talking once again. I was continually amazed by her confidence, especially for a sophomore with an older guy. It was making me fall for her and it was happening fast. While I was definitely no expert on girls, I could tell that she was glad she was with me too.

We finally got to her house and I walked her up to the front door. I knew this was a great chance for me to get things rolling. We stood there thinking about how we would say goodbye for a minute before I got up the courage to ask,
“Hey do you wanna do something tomorrow night?”

“Like what?” she responded with a huge grin on her face letting me know she would be up for just about anything.

“I don’t know yet, maybe we can go to eat or a movie. Something like that maybe? If you want I can give you my number and we can figure it out.”

“That sounds great.” She pulled out her phone because mine was sitting in the car dead. As I watched her typing my number in her phone, the blue light came up on her face and I smiled just at the thought of being with this beautiful girl. “What’s so funny?” she asked after noticing me.

“Nothing is funny you are just really pretty.” This made her blush and she couldn’t even think of anything to say.

“Kayla! Let’s go, it’s late you need to be getting to bed.” Her mom was obviously in the room closest to the door and Kayla gave me a look that said she wasn’t ready to leave.

“I will text you and we will definitely do something tomorrow.”

“Sounds great.”

“Kayla, come on sweetie.”

“Oh wait just one second,” Kayla whispered to me. She ran inside and left me standing by myself out on the porch. I heard her light footsteps running back towards the porch. She finally appeared again and stuck her hand out and in it was a nice, cold coke.

“Here you go!” she said cheerily. I smiled trying to think of something better to say than just a simple thank you but she had to get in soon so she made the move. She stood up on her tip-toes and gave me a kiss on the cheek followed by a soft “goodnight.” She hurried inside while looking over her shoulder back at me and I tried to tell her goodnight but she was already inside with the door closed.

I couldn’t even begin to explain how I felt. I stood there for at least a few minutes before I realized I look like a creep. Just to think that over the past few weeks I really began to like this girl that I had never even talked to, and now after a simple night with her I found myself falling for her even more now that I knew more about her. There was just something about her that I had never felt before. Even though I had never even had a girlfriend, I knew this was special.

I left the porch and went home, replaying the night over and over again in my mind. It could not have been anymore perfect and that was the same thought I had when I got home and the same thought I had when I got into bed. That night I was dreaming about her over and over.

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I woke up at about eight o’clock. I was too excited to sleep. Right then I remembered that she was going to text me last night. I completely forgot to charge my phone last night and now she probably thought I was trying to ignore her. I plugged my phone in next to my bed and all of these terrible thoughts were coming to me. Could I have already ruined it? I kept reassuring myself that something as small as a text couldn’t be that big of a deal, but what did I know about girls? As soon as the phone turned on I was excited to hear it vibrate several times. I don’t even know how many but at least 5. I looked at it and saw a few from my mom but three from a number I didn’t recognize. I paid no attention to the ones from my mom and opened the three from the new number:

“Hey Chris it’s Kayla!”

“Btw I had fun talking with u tonight”

“U there? Is this Chris?”

I figured a simple text could fix this but I was afraid to wake her up seeing a it was a Saturday morning so I decided to try to sleep a little bit more before I texted her back. Somehow I managed to fall asleep and I woke up at about ten. Of course the first thing I did was reached for my phone to send her the message. I opened up to her most recent message and hit the reply button.

“Hey Kayla I’m really sorry I completely forgot to charge my phone last night but yeah I really enjoyed talking to you also”

I must have read over it half a dozen times before I figured it was ready to send. Finally I went ahead and sent it while trying to process every reply she could have sent back. Not even a minute later it vibrated again and I quickly looked at it:

“That’s ok! I was getting a little worried I had the wrong number lol”

I kept imagining her sitting in her bed just waiting for her phone to vibrate, but I’m sure a pretty girl like her had something good to do that day. We got to talking a whole lot that day and after a while I was about out of things to ask her, but remarkably, she seemed to sense that every time and managed to keep our conversation going. There was nothing I wanted more than to tall to her and I could only hope that she was feeling the same thing. We were talking all day until sometime in the late afternoon she asked me what we were going to do that night. I had completely forgotten we were going to hang out and I got even happier when I realized I would actually be able to see her again really soon. She claimed to be pretty tough so she suggested that we go see a new horror movie that came out last week. I think I’m pretty tough too so I accepted but asked if she wanted to go eat somewhere before. She was up for it too so I said:

“Sounds great. I can pick you up at 7. Does that work?”

“Yeah that’s perfect. See ya then!”

This was the last thing either of us said until we would see each other in person. I just watched some football while looking at the clock at least once every ten minutes. It seemed that time wasn’t moving so I had to do everything I could to make time move somehow. Finally the clock read 6:30 and I was ready to go. With the fall weather in California still nice, I put on some khaki shorts and a button down shirt trying to look nice but not too anxious. I really didn’t want to dress up too nice and have her anticipating just a casual dinner and movie as friends so I tried to make myself look relaxed. I got in my car and made my way to the same house that I left her at the night before. I pulled into the driveway, checked the mirror to make sure I was looking my best and when I determined I was, I got out and made my way to the front door.

I rang the bell waiting for my beautiful friend to come out but instead I was met by an older woman I figured to be Kayla’s mom. I don’t mind talking to parents at all because I can usually make a good impression with them. I’ve never had to impressed a mom of a girl I like so I felt a little uneasy about it but I managed to introduce myself and make quality small talk with her. She had a lot of questions for me, obviously wanting her daughter to be safe. She asked about my grades and sports and just about everything. I answered honestly and confidently which she definitely was impressed by. I began wondering what exactly Kayla told her mom about me that made her think I was trying to marry her daughter but I didn’t really mind.

Finally out of the corner of my eye I saw Kayla walking out of what I assumed was the kitchen. She was wearing a pink polo shirt (the tight fitting ones for girls) and a pair of short shorts, but not so short that it was slutty looking at all. Simply said, she looked amazing. She must have been able to read my mind based on my face because she started blushing very quickly. Maybe her mom embarrassed her, but either way we were ready to get going.

“Have her home by midnight and have a good time.”

“Yes ma’am.” With that we made our way to my car and I made sure I beat her there so I could open the door for her. We were on our way down to the restaurant and I couldn’t be more excited. Once more, Kayla was able to carry on a light conversation which put me at ease remembering how easy it was to talk to her and we were just friends hanging out, nothing more.

We got to the restaurant and were promptly seated and we enjoyed a nice meal. I saw her reaching for some money but I stopped her.

“You are kidding right? You aren’t paying for a thing.”

“If you say so,” she said as if she hadn’t planned on paying anyway. With that out of the way, we got up and left to head to the movie theater which was just about a minute’s walk from the restaurant. This was the first time I really got to look at all of her. I had either been in front of her mom or we had been sitting down but before we went into the theater I was able to get a good look. I could always tell she had a pretty face but I had never noticed her body before. She was short but had really nice legs, a flat stomach and rather large breasts for a girl her size. I definitely wasn’t a pervert or anything and I certainly wasn’t superficial like most of my friends, but the fact of the matter was that she looked amazing. We went in, got our tickets and headed into the theater where we stood in front trying to decide where to sit. She pointed to the back and I of course agreed and we went up there and took our seats.

The movie started slowly but we both knew it would only be a matter of time before the entire theater was jumping out of their seats. All of the sudden, someone popped out on the screen which made everyone jump up. Initially we were both confined to the space, but this moment made her lean towards me and her hand reached out and touched my arm. We both giggled about it and then turned our attention back to screen where the action wasn’t ready to end. Throughout the movie, when a scary part would come up she would inch her way closer to me with a little more contact each time. Finally, the movie ended and the lights came on slowly. I looked over to see Kayla, who was sitting to my right, with her head on my shoulder and her right hand reached over on my forearm. We both noticed the position we were in and then looked into each other’s eyes. In an obviously awkward moment, I smiled and said,

“You told me you were tough.”

“Oh please,” she said while smiling and sitting up straight, “you were the one nearly jumping out of your seat the entire time.”

“I’m not the one who was screaming.” This was met with a playful punch on the arm and we got up and left without saying anything else, just looking at each other and laughing at how the other one reacted to the movie.

“It’s only ten, what do you want to do?” she asked me hoping I didn’t want to end the night already.

“What about some ice cream? There’s that new place right down there by the river.”

“That sounds great, but on one condition.” I stayed silent letting her finish, “I am buying the ice cream, you already spent enough tonight.” I couldn’t argue with that pretty face so a simple nod was all I could manage. We got our ice cream and headed down to the river. We sat down on a bench where we both looked out and just stared. This was interrupted by Kayla letting out a big yawn and I grabbed her far shoulder and pulled her into me. With her head resting in my chest like it was last night, I still couldn’t believe that just 24 hours ago I had never even talked to her but now we were sharing such a romantic moment. We sat like this for at least five minutes straight before she leaned back and looked me in the eyes and broke the silence.

“I have something I have to admit to you.”

“What is it?”

“Well the truth is…” she paused as if she were trying to think of the best way to tell me whatever she wanted to tell me. “I have kinda had a crush on you long before last night, since the first time I saw you several years ago and you didn’t even see me.” I had no idea the exact time she was talking about and I felt bad that I didn’t. “But a few weeks ago when you looked at me at the game, I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind I couldn’t have even dreamed that you would be the one to see me last night.” She stopped and looked at me nervously not knowing how I would respond.

“Kayla, since I saw you that night I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you either. I was glad that it was you on that bench last night crying. Wait… that didn’t come out right.”

“It’s ok I know what you mean,” she replied with a giggle.

We sat there just looking into each other’s eyes and if she was ready or not, I was going to kiss her. I wanted it to be as perfect as possible so I thought for a minute about exactly what I would do. She knew what was coming because she was biting her lip in anticipation but still had no idea when it was coming. So I put my hand under her chin with my index finger on her chin and softly pulled her head up a bit. I leaned in slowly and closed my eyes and the next thing I knew my lips grabbed hers and we had our first kiss. It was my first ever kiss so I wasn’t exactly sure what I was doing so I just tried to do it like they did in the movies. I put her upper lip in between mine and began massaging it. I backed away pulling her lip back a bit in the process.

“I’m sorry. I just thought we had something. I…”

She was smiling and before I could continue she put her hand behind my neck and pulled me in, this time with her initiating the kiss. Our lips ended up in the same place as before but moving around a little more. This was more than just high school kids messing around trying to kiss. This was a passionate embrace and it said more than either of us could have with our words. Pure passion was really the I only way to describe it and it was simply amazing. I parted my lips a little and moved my tongue up to her lips. She opened hers as an invitation and I slowly slid my tongue in-between her soft and slick lips and it was soon met by her tongue. Our tongues danced around and explored every corner of the other’s mouth. Nothing at this moment could have kept us off of each other. She rolled over where she was on top of me more, basically straddling me with her hands behind my head and mine resting on her lower back. Our kiss must have lasted fifteen minutes with no breaks but to readjust our position. We kissed as if it were our last night together and we were making up for a lifetime without each other. But the truth was, we were still so young but we had the passion for each other of a life-long relationship.

I didn’t think I would ever want to part our kiss, but eventually we both just wanted to sit and enjoy the other’s company.

“Just hold me, Chris.” Kayla swung her left leg to the other side where her right was but she stayed in my lap and put her head under mine on my neck. I kept one hand around her waist keeping her supported and let my other gently stroke her hair. I really didn’t need anything else, all I needed was Kayla and I was wishing that I could just hold her close to me forever. I didn’t want the warmth of her body to ever leave me and neither of us had an intention of that moment ending so we sat there cuddling until it was after 11:30. We both knew we had to get going to respect her mom’s wishes so we stood up and embraced for another incredibly passionate kiss. This one only lasted about a minute but had the same fervor of the one earlier. We walked off and she locked her fingers in mine and leaned against me.

Neither of us had to say anything. Our actions certainly showed how we felt about each other and that we had something really special. We got to the car and I opened her door and let her in with a little kiss. As I got in and started the car Kayla leaned over towards me and I put my arm around her shoulder as she rested her left elbow on the center console. No matter what we were doing we couldn’t stand to not have physical contact with each other. The crazy part being that we had only talked for the first time the night before. All the emotions we had built up for each other had finally been able to be released and we both realized how amazing our future would be. We finally got home and I parked and got out to walk her to the door. On the porch, we stood looking looking deep into each other’s eyes as we had done so many times over the past two nights.

“Hey, uhm, Kayla?”

“Hey, uhm, Chris?” Her cute little sarcasm could never get on my nerves.

“Well you know how the homecoming dance is next Saturday?” She nodded and began to smile. “I was wondering if maybe you would want to go with me?” Her eyes lit up and her smile said the same thing.

“Of course!” She all but came off the ground as she wrapped her arms around me.

“Well that’s great to hear. I gotta get going but I had an amazing time with you tonight.”

“I know Chris, I couldn’t even have imagined a better night.”

“Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” she said and got up on her toes just as she had the night before but this time her lips met mine instead of my cheek. She opened the door and her mom was walking towards the door.

“I hope you two had fun tonight. What did you do?” Kayla already inside, the question was directed at me.

“It was a lot of fun Mrs. Miller. We ate dinner, went to a movie, got some ice cream, and hung out down by the river.”

“Well that sounds like a lot of fun, and thanks for having her home on time, I really like that.”

“Yes ma’am, of course. Well I need to be getting home but it was nice talking to you Mrs. Miller. Goodnight.” The last part was meant for Kayla who was standing behind her mom biting her lip hoping we would get along, bit that didn’t stop Mrs. Miller from replying anyway.

As the door was closing I began leaving and I heard her mom say,

“I like him a lot, Kayla. And he is cuuuuute.”

“Mom!!!”

Thanks for reading. Part 2 to come very soon. Remember, this story isn’t entirely true. The characters do exist, names have been changed, but up until the first bench scene, it is real, and quite recent. Thanks again!

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