Nicki set her sketch book down on top of Blake’s desk. “I’ll be back in a second,” she told him. “I want to check up on my little brother.”
Blake nodded, but he didn’t say anything.
As Nicki walked away, she wondered why he was being so distant all of a sudden, but didn’t think about it for too long; making sure that Kyle was okay seemed more imminent. She pulled her cell from her pocket and speed dialed Kyle’s cell.
“Hello?” her brother’s voice said after two rings.
“Hey, little brother, it’s me. I just wanted to see how you were doing.”
“I’m okay.”
“Really? School’s going well?”
“School is boring,” Kyle replied, and Nicki’s heart dropped. She knew that Kyle probably wouldn’t be enjoying school, but she wanted him to succeed so badly. She leaned against a white wall in one of the hallways.
“Only three years left,” she promised.
“You make it sound so simple,” Kyle murmured. “Three years is a long time, Nicki.”
“When they’re over, you won’t think that. It will go by so quickly, and when you get out, you and Justin will be arguing over who’s smarter.” She smiled at the thought.
“I’ll never be as smart as Justin,” Kyle told her.
Nicki’s smile didn’t waver. Kyle had thought that Justin had known everything since he was a little boy. He still hadn’t realized that Justin was his age once, and the only thing Justin had that Kyle didn’t was confidence. “You already are, Kyle,” she assured him softly. “Stand up for yourself once in awhile.”
“I gotta go, Nicki. My next class starts in a few minutes.”
“Okay, Kyle. Talk to you later.”
The two of them said goodbye, and Nicki turned her phone off. While it seemed that her little brother was on the right path, but she still couldn’t stop herself from worrying.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and jumped, but it was only Blake. “Is everything okay?” she wanted to know.
“No,” he said in a quiet voice. “We need to talk.”
She froze. The look on his face was so serious that her stomach turned over. Was he going to break up with her?
“I’m concerned about something.”
“What?” she said, trying not to sound as terrified as she felt.
He looked into her eyes for what seemed like forever. The worried expression on his face made her want to shake an answer out of him.
“I’m worried that you won’t want to go to the wedding with me,” he said finally, and whit a slight smile upon his lips. “You don’t have some other boyfriend that you’re taking, do you?”
Nicki let out the breath she’d been holding, and gave him a shove in the chest. “Why are you so dramatic?” she asked, and then leaned up to kiss him softly on the lips. “Of course I’m going with you. My brothers are going to love you the second they meet you. I just know it.”
Kyle sat at his desk, leaning on his elbow. If he wasn’t careful, his survey English class was going to put him to sleep. He shook himself awake and forced himself to listen to what the professor was saying.
“Don’t jump out of your seats just yet,” he was saying. Immediately, students began stacking up their notebooks and stuffing them into their bags. “But I thought I’d end class a few minutes early to hand back your papers. Please, when you see your grade, don’t think you’re doomed. More weight will be on your later papers.” He took a stack of papers from a large folder. “Though some of you did quite well.”
Kyle was unzipping his backpack and thinking about what his mother would say when he failed out of English… a subject his brother had excelled in, when the professor slid his paper onto his desk.
“Kyle,” he said, and when Kyle looked up the professor was smiling. “Nice work.”
Kyle stared at him as he went on to hand the rest of the papers out, and then looked down at his own. Nice work? Was that some sort of sarcastic remark? Just to be sure, he flipped to the last page and held it open.
‘Thoughtful ideas, carried out eloquently,’ it read. 'A.'
Kyle’s eyes widened as he stared at the page. An A? He had gotten an A? Was this a joke? Maybe the teacher graded easily… maybe—”
“Can you believe it?” Mike, on his left leaned over and said to him the second the professor had left the room. Kyle quickly stuffed his paper into his backpack and zipped it up.
“What?”
“This professor is on crack,” Mike went on, shoving his paper onto Kyle’s desk. “Look, man, I got a D and so did Aaron. This better be some sort of psychological thing. Maybe he wants us to work harder for the good grades or something. Doesn’t he understand that I’ve got a scholarship to keep?”
“A scholarship?” Kyle echoed with a gulp. All he had were grants and loans.
“Yeah… Hey, what’d you get?”
Ashamed that he was embarrassed by his grade, Kyle grabbed his backpack and stood up. “Sorry,” he mumbled, avoiding eye contact at all costs. “Gotta run.”
On his way back to his dorm, a strange feeling swept through him. Even though he didn’t want to tell anyone about his paper, he felt accomplished. As much as he hated to admit it, maybe Justin and Nicki were right… maybe he wasn’t as stupid as he thought he was.
That evening, with Adelyn’s new ring in his pocket, Justin stopped by Kyle’s dorm to get his brother’s opinion. Before he could even raise his fist to knock on the door, it swung open and the two brothers stood face to face.
“Wow,” Justin said. “You’re good. I hadn’t even knocked.”
“I’m psychic,” Kyle smiled. “No, actually, I was taking out the trash. Come inside, and I’ll be back in a minute.”
Justin sat down at Kyle’s desk and looked around. Kyle’s computer screen was displaying some sort of game. “Snood?” he said, reading the name off the screen and then turning to Kyle’s roommate Andrew. “What the hell is Snood?”
Andrew only shrugged, keeping his eyes locked onto his computer screen.
“Hmm,” Justin mumbled as his eyes fell down to the backpack propped up against the desk. Sticking out of the top were slightly crumpled papers. Curious, he pulled them out and was about to flip them to the last page when the door opened and Kyle stepped back inside.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he demanded.
Justin stood up and held the paper from his brother’s grasp. “If you don’t want people to see things,” he said, “then you shouldn’t leave them sitting out!”
Kyle grabbed Justin’s arm and tried to reach for the paper. “It was in my backpack, Justin! Give it back!”
“I’m your brother,” Justin went on, “and I have a right to know how you’re doing in school.” He shoved Kyle away with one hand and tried to maneuver the papers open with the other.
“You’re full of shit. Give it back!” He finally reached over far enough to grab the paper, but only got his fingers on the front two sheets, ripping them from the third page. Justin’s eyes fell on the big, red A at the bottom of the page and his face lit up as he grinned through his amazement.
“Holy shit!” he exclaimed. “My little brother’s a genius!”
Kyle, frowning furiously, snatched the last sheet from Justin’s grasp and stuffed the pages back into his backpack. “You are so damn nosy,” he complained. “I never get two seconds of privacy. Is it so much to ask for two damn seconds!?”
Justin ruffled his brother’s already messy hair. “I’m proud of you,” he said before Kyle grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand away from his curls. “I knew you could do it if you tried.”
Across the room, Andrew looked over in their direction. “Remind me to thank my parents for not having another child.”
Justin grabbed his little brother and thanked God that he had one. Kyle didn’t pull away.
“Remind ME to thank them, TOO,” Kyle said to his roommate.
“Look,” Justin said, grabbing Kyle’s arm and forcing his eyes to his own. “I came here for a reason.” He glanced over at Andrew and then pulled his brother out into the hallway. “Your roommate gives me the creeps. You’ve been here a week, and he already has trash all over the floor? How can you stand that?”
“Let me get this straight…” Kyle said as he leaned against the door. “You came here to encourage my roommate to pick up his mess?”
“No, no…” Justin reached into his pocket for the ring case and pulled it out. “I got distracted. I wanted to show you the ring I bought for Adelyn. “I figure my best man should be in on all of my surprises, so here you go.”
Kyle took the box from Justin and propped the lid open. “Wow,” he said as he gazed inside. “How far are you into debt now?”
Justin frowned. The last thing he wanted to talk about was his finances. “I saved up for it,” he told Kyle. “Just tell me… do you think she’ll like it?”
Kyle peered over at him from above the box. “And since when does my opinion matter?” he wanted to know.
“Oh, God,” Justin rolled his eyes. “Not this again. Come on, Kyle... I came here to show you the ring because I’m happy, and I want to share it with you.”
“Hmm,” Kyle looked back down at the ring. “It’s nice,” he said. “But admit it, Justin… even if I thought the ring was incredibly ugly, you already bought it so it would be too late, anyway”
“Don’t make this into a huge deal,” Justin pleaded. “You know I would have brought you with, but you had class. I wasn’t going to make you leave your class, so I just—”
“You brought Phil,” Kyle finished for him.
Justin opened his mouth to say something, but Kyle shoved the ring back at him.
“I understand,” Kyle went on. “You brought Phil to help you pick out the perfect ring for Adelyn, then you came here to torture me by going through my things.”
“So that’s what you’re mad about,” Justin said, a knowing smile spreading over his face. “You’re upset that I found your grade. This has nothing to do with the ring.”
“The ring is nice,” Kyle repeated. “But I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Now, unless you’d like to dig through the rest of my things, please leave.”
Justin watched as Kyle opened his door back up. He grabbed his brother’s arm. “Kyle,” he said, “you shouldn’t be ashamed of getting a good grade!”
Kyle closed the door again. “What are you waiting for?” he wanted to know. “Just go on and say it.”
“Say what?”
“That you told me so!” Kyle exclaimed. “You’ve all just been waiting for me to do well, so you can stick your nose in and tell me that you were right all along. So just say it!”
Justin’s eyes widened as he stared across the hall at his brother. “And you think that doing well is a bad thing? Kyle… getting good grades is not bad. Trust me.”
Kyle looked away, and Justin sighed.
“When was the last time I was wrong?” Justin asked with a grin. “I know you’re smart, Kyle. Everyone does. Everyone but you.”
“I don’t want to talk about how right you are all the time,” Kyle told him.
“Instead,” Justin said, moving in front of him and grabbing his shoulders. “Let’s celebrate your A! Come on, I’m taking you out for pie. An intelligent guy like you already finished your homework, right?”
Kyle was looking at him as though he were insane. “Um…”
“Good!” Justin exclaimed as he dragged him down the hall. “Let’s go.”
Chapter 20
Keeping the Peace
Family: Timberlake
Non-Nsync Fiction
I'll Never Stop {Fiction}
Email Me (irishgirl982@yahoo.com)