Free Waiting for Perfect by Kelli Kretzschmar

    NICK

 
    I’ve spent the last
two days worrying about this moment – the moment I’ll see Kendra and Lexi
in Calculus.   I’ve played it out in
my head a hundred times.   Do I say
anything to them?   Do I bring up
the party?   I want to ask Kendra if
she’s okay.   I want to tell her
that I plan to bash in Ryan Morgan’s skull the next time I see him.   I want to ask her if she’s going to
press charges.   But all my
questions will have to wait, because when class begins, neither Kendra nor Lexi
is there.   My teacher’s words are a
blur.   I can’t concentrate at
all.   When the bell rings, there’s
not one note in my notebook.   The
rest of the morning passes the same way.  
    At lunch, I look
for her at her usual table, but I only see Candace and Megan.   They have to know something.   I’m about to walk to their table to get
some answers when Sebastian appears at my side.
    “Do you really
think that’s a good idea?” he asks.
    “What do you
mean?   What’s a good idea?”
    He has a
sympathetic tone in his voice. “I know you want to check if she’s okay, but
what if Megan still doesn’t know what happened to her.   Maybe you should wait until Candace is
alone.”
    He has a
point.   I don’t want to be the one
to spill this to Megan.   I was
worried about coming to school today.   I received a few dirty looks from some of the football team this
morning.   Other than that, it seems
like nobody knows what happened.   And that’s the way it should be.   I’ll have to talk to Candace later.
    As I’m looking at
her across the lunch tables, Candace glances up from her conversation with
Megan and catches me staring at her.   Her eyes get big, and she shakes her head barely enough for me to
notice, but enough for me to understand its meaning.   She’s warning me not to approach her.
    “I guess you’re
right,” I say to Sebastian.
    The rest of the day
is the same – me, hoping to see Kendra, but knowing I won’t, the football
players shooting me dirty looks, Candace avoiding me, and Sebastian telling me
to calm down.
    I haven’t seen
Ryan.   I’m not sure if he’s too
injured to come to school or if he’s just got the wise sense not to show his
face today.   I don’t know if I’d be
able to hold myself back from giving him a fresh round of broken bones if I saw
him.
    At home that night,
I try to concentrate on homework, but it’s impossible.   I give up my textbook for my sketchbook
and listen to music to try to distract myself from my thoughts.
    When my mom opens
the door, I pull my earphones from my ears.   She looks pissed as hell, and she’s gripping something in
her hands.
    “Nicolás Manuel
Veneto!”   Using my full name, she
means business.   She brings her
hands up, holding up one of my shirts – my Dexter shirt.
    “What
happened?   Why is this shirt in the
trash?   Is this juice?   And please tell me this is not blood!”   Before I can respond, she
continues.   “Oh no, mijo!   Tell me what happened.   Are you in some kind of trouble?”
    I hear Sebastian
running up the stairs, and then he’s standing in the doorway.   My mom holds the shirt out to him.   “Sebastian, what is this?   What happened to my Nicolás?”   She starts crying now.   My emotional Costa Rican mother is
always so dramatic.
    “Mom…” I
begin.   I’m not really sure what
I’ll tell her, but I’ve got to do something.
    Sebastian grabs the
shirt from her and blurts out, “It’s my fault, Aunt Maria.”
    I stay planted on
my bed and look at him curiously.   Behind my mother’s back I mouth the words, “What the hell?” to Sebastian.
    He continues.   “I borrowed Nick’s shirt last
week.   When I was at the gym on
Saturday, I got a bloody nose.   I
had the shirt in my gym bag, so I grabbed it to stop the bleeding.   I know I should have used a towel, but
this was the closest thing to me, so I grabbed it.   Then I think some of my Gatorade spilled