Free Honesty by Angie Foster Page A

kissed
Kristina. That's my kiss, she thought as she continued to stare.

Jealousy
     
     
    From that last night of summer on Alena had
dreaded going to school. Now every day she was faced with their constant
displays of public affection. It was enough to make a sane person crazy. Still,
Alena, like every other high school girl, had no choice but to go to school. So
she did her best to ignore the couple, even though it seemed as if they went
out of the way to rub it in her face.
     
    That morning when she arrived at school,
Justin and Kristina were cozy on one of the benches in front of the school,
with their arms wrapped around one another. Sheila caught Alena glaring
fiercely at the pair.
     
    “Why don't you just tell him how you feel?”
Sheila suggested, as if it were that simple.
     
    “Oh he knows how I feel,” Alena insisted
with a frown.
     
    “Are you sure?” Sheila asked. “You were the
one that said you didn't even kiss. You're way prettier than Kristina could
ever hope to be. I bet if you just told him you were interested, he would dump
her in a second.”
     
    Alena smiled at her friend for trying to
cheer her up, but Alena knew better. Kristina was one of the prettiest girls in
school and she had set her sights on Justin, probably just because Alena was
interested in him. Alena was determined to not let it get to her though. No
matter how hard she tried she always found herself staring at him. English
class was the hardest, because he sat only three desks away and one to the left
in front of her. It was the perfect view of his perfect jawline. She sighed as
she stared at him endlessly. She was so focused on Justin that she barely
noticed anyone else around her, including the boy who sat right behind her.
Shawn Travis was not someone that she easily overlooked. He dressed to blend
in, with no specific style, and his shoulder length blonde hair was always
pulled back in a short ponytail in a very dated hairstyle. The only thing
remotely attention grabbing about him was his striking green eyes. Those most
people did notice, because they were a bit large for his face, and deeper in
color than most of a similar shade. However, the color did nothing to ease the
annoyed expression he almost always wore. He was one of those teenagers that
saw the high school world around him intolerable. He had a few friends, but he
mostly kept to himself.
     
    He leaned forward and whispered just beside
Alena's ear. “Stare any harder; you're going to leave a mark.”
     
    Alena was surprised by how close he was,
and turned quickly in her desk to face him.
     
    “Excuse me?” she said as she swept her
light blue eyes over him.
     
    Shawn looked down shyly at the words he had
been scribbling across his paper. He was not so brave when she was looking
right at him. “Did you have something to say?” she asked in a more arrogant
tone than she had intended. His cheeks burned with heat as he stole a glance up
at her. He slid his notebook carefully off the desk so that she would not see
the words he was writing.
     
    “It's a little pathetic,” he said
defensively. “To stare that hard.”
     
    Alena gasped at his words as she was
offended by them. “How dare you?” she hissed and flipped her dark hair back
over her shoulder. “You have no idea what you're talking about.”
     
    He leaned forward again, now that she was
facing the front of the class once more, and whispered beside her ear again.
     
    “He doesn't deserve you,” he promised, his
voice full of honesty. Alena ignored him and pretended to be paying attention
to the teacher, but his words soothed the hurt his previous statement had
caused. Maybe he was right. Maybe it was pathetic the way she stared at Justin.
But he's so cute, she thought to herself. Her mind returned to that last night
of summer when Kristina had stolen the kiss that belonged to her. She sighed as
the jealousy and hurt surged up through her again. When class was over, she
turned around to see