It Had to Be You Read online

“What are friends for?”

  I rejoined Kyle at the front of the dunking booth.

  “Are you still cold?” he asked.

  Before I could answer, Kyle took off his baseball jacket and wrapped it around my shoulders. I slipped my arms into the sleeves. Even though the jacket was big, it was toasty warm!

  “So what kind of girl are you when it comes to rides?” Kyle asked as we walked through the crowd.

  “What kind of rides do you like?”

  Kyle wagged a finger in my face. “No fair. I asked you first.”

  “I’m more of a merry-go-round type of girl. I don’t like rides that flip you upside down or toss you from side to side.”

  A look of disappointment washed over Kyle’s face. “You don’t?”

  Oh no! Suddenly I had realized my mistake. Why had I told him the truth? I should have told him I liked all kinds of rides and then waited to see what he said. Dumb, dumb, dumb!

  “What kind of rides do you like?” I asked again, hoping to do some damage control.

  He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”

  “Tell me! Come on, you have to tell me. I told you!”

  “I like crazy rides and I love roller coasters.”

  Gulp! I absolutely hated roller coasters.

  Kyle looked at me, waiting for me to say something. Was he waiting for me to suggest we take a ride on the roller coaster? Sorry. Uhuh. No way. Not going to happen. I know there are girls who’ll pretend to be into things that the guys they like are into. But that’s not me. Well…it’s not me when it comes to roller coasters!

  When Kyle realized I wasn’t going to suggest we take a ride on the roller coaster, he looked even more glum.

  We were passing by a concession stand that was making fresh lemonade. “I’m thirsty,” Kyle said. “I’m going to get some lemonade.”

  I waited for Kyle to ask me if I wanted some too. But he didn’t. Instead, he bought his lemonade and started drinking it through a straw. I waited for him to offer me a sip but he didn’t.

  “Mmm. This is good.”

  Really? I wanted to say. How would I know unless you offered me a taste?

  I waited for Kyle to offer me his straw so I could take a sip, but he didn’t. He just kept sipping and sipping as I watched the lemonade in his clear plastic cup disappear. Finally, realizing he wasn’t going to offer me some, I reached into my pocket and put my money down on the counter. Actually, I slammed my coins down on the counter, I was so mad. Was he too cheap to buy me a lemonade?!

  “One lemonade, please.”

  After getting my lemonade, I joined Kyle, who was sitting on a bench and crunching the ice cubes in his cup.

  “What are the girls like at your school?” he asked.

  I choked on the lemonade I was sipping and started coughing. What kind of a question was that?!

  Kyle began pounding me on the back. “Hey! Are you okay?”

  “Fine,” I croaked out between coughs. “Just fine.”

  “You sure?”

  I nodded. “What was that question again?”

  “The girls at your school. What are they like? Are they friendly? Snooty?”

  I wanted to scream, “Why are you asking about other girls when you’re here with me?!” Instead, I asked, “What were the girls at your old school like?”

  “They were okay but I knew most of them from when we started in kindergarten. There was nothing to figure out.”

  “Figure out?”

  “I knew everything there was to know about them. Is it that way with the girls you go to school with?”

  “Most, but not all. Some of them are hard to get to know.”

  “You mean they’re mysterious?”

  I shrugged. “I guess you could say that. Why?”

  “I like it when a girl is mysterious.”

  “You do?” I said, trying not to sound bummed. I am so not mysterious. I was just Kyle’s wacky next-door neighbor who always looked a mess.

  Kyle nodded. “Yeah. A mystery keeps you guessing and it’s almost like trying to put together a puzzle. You’ve got all the pieces but you don’t know how they all fit together.”

  “Have you met a lot of mysterious girls?”

  Kyle gave me a coy smile. “I have.”

  It was on the tip of my tongue to say, “Like Ravishing Red?”

  But I didn’t. Of course he meant Ravishing Red! She had probably intrigued him with her mysteriousness! Whatever that was! How mysterious could you be when you were a freshman in high school? I was just me. Emma Miller. What you see is what you get. And if that wasn’t good enough for Kyle, well, then I guess I didn’t stand a chance with him. He wasn’t acting like we were on a date. He was just hanging out with me.

  But then Kyle surprised me, jumping off the bench we were sitting on and taking my hand in his. Holding it. What was going on?!

  “Want to go on the Ferris wheel?” he asked.

  The Ferris wheel was a ride I could handle. It was calm. Soothing. All we had to do was sit.

  And Ferris wheels could be romantic!

  “Yes!” I immediately answered.

  As we walked over to the Ferris wheel—still holding hands!—Kyle bought a hot dog and slathered it with ketchup and mustard, eating it with both hands, much to my disappointment. No more hand-holding. Wah!

  When we took our seats on the Ferris wheel, I noticed that Kyle had a smidge of ketchup on the corner of his mouth.

  “You’ve got ketchup on your face,” I said, pointing with a finger.

  He wiped his mouth with a napkin. “Gone?”

  I shook my head. “Still there.”

  He wiped again. “Gone now?”

  “Here, let me,” I said, reaching over to take the napkin out of his hand. As I did, the Ferris wheel started to move and I fell into Kyle’s lap.

  “Emma! I didn’t know you liked me that much!”

  I blushed as I scooted back over to my side of the seat.

  Did Kyle know that I really liked him or was he just joking around?

  “You don’t have to sit so far away from me,” Kyle said, pretending to pout.

  I closed the distance between us and wiped at the ketchup on his mouth. “Better?”

  He gave me a smile. “Much.”

  I smiled back, wondering, Was Kyle flirting with me? It sure seemed like he was. Did that mean he liked me, despite my lack of mysteriousness? Before I could explore that thought, though, I noticed something. The Ferris wheel had stopped moving.

  I took a look around.

  And saw we were almost at the very top!

  “Why isn’t the Ferris wheel moving?” I asked, trying to sound calm. “Why did it stop?”

  I scooted closer to Kyle, who wrapped a reassuring arm around me.

  “Don’t be scared,” he said.

  “I’m not scared. Who says I’m scared?”

  “We’re only going to be at the top for a couple of minutes,” he said. “Look, there’s a shooting star. Quick, make a wish.”

  I followed Kyle’s pointing finger, but I couldn’t find the shooting star. Had there really been one or was Kyle trying to distract me?

  Or…

  Was it something else?

  Was Kyle trying to be romantic? Did he maybe want to kiss me?

  I had to admit, it was nice being so close to him. I felt safe with his arm around me. And he smelled just as good as I remembered.

  I turned to face Kyle. We were nose to nose, our mouths only inches away from each other’s.

  Kiss me! I silently urged him. Kiss me!

  Something must have been wrong with my transmission, because Kyle didn’t kiss me. He just kept looking at me.

  Was he waiting for me to make the first move? To give him some sort of sign to let him know that I wanted him to kiss me?

  But it was up to the guy to make the first move! Wasn’t it?

  “I must need glasses,” I finally joked, turning my face away from his and looking up in the sky, “because I
can’t find it. I guess that means I don’t get a wish.”

  But if I had gotten a wish, I would have wished for you to kiss me!

  Just then the Ferris wheel started up again and we made our descent back to the ground.

  My opportunity for a kiss was gone.

  After we got off the Ferris wheel, I felt more confident with Kyle. He had to like me. With the exception of the Tunnel of Love, which our fair didn’t have, the Ferris wheel was one of the most romantic rides around. And Kyle did ask me to sit close to him, he did put his arm around me, and he did pretend that there was a shooting star. He was sending me signals!

  I decided I was going to take action.

  We were walking through the fair again when I decided to slip my hand into his.

  I expected him to take my hand and hold it.

  Maybe swing it back and forth with his as we walked.

  But he didn’t.

  Instead, he dropped it like a hot potato.

  What was going on?!

  I took a look around. Were Aaron and Michael headed our way? Was that why he’d let go? Why didn’t he want to hold my hand? Before we’d gone on the Ferris wheel, he’d taken my hand in his. He’d held it while we walked until he’d bought his hot dog.

  But now he didn’t want to hold it?

  “I’m going to buy a snow cone,” Kyle said. “Be right back.”

  Hmmm. Was that why he had let go of my hand? Because he was going to buy a snow cone?

  Of course he didn’t ask me if I wanted one. Just like when he bought his lemonade and his hot dog. When you’re on a date, the guy usually pays for the girl. But were we on a date? I didn’t know! There were times when Kyle was acting like we were on a date (he did pay for my ticket for the Ferris wheel) and then there were times when he was acting like we weren’t.

  Could it be that Kyle was just clueless when it came to dating?

  Or was he just cheap?!

  “I liked meeting your friend the other day,” he said when he rejoined me. I walked next to him, not having the confidence to take his hand back in mine. And he wasn’t initiating any hand-holding either.

  I gave him a puzzled look. “Caitlyn?” Why was he asking about Caitlyn?

  “Yeah. She seemed nice.”

  “She’s very nice. We’ve been best friends for years.”

  “She reminds me of someone I’m close to.”

  I’ll just bet, I thought, instantly connecting the dots. Caitlyn was a redhead, and Ravishing Red was a redhead, too. Did Kyle have a thing for redheads? If he did, was I going to have to dye my hair red to get any sort of attention from him?

  And if he did have a thing for redheads, did that mean I had to also be worrying about Caitlyn as well as Red?!

  It was all too much to figure out. My head was hurting.

  “What do you want to do next?” Kyle asked.

  I sighed and gave him an honest answer. “I just want to go home.”

  Kissing Kyle was the last thing on my mind.

  But another opportunity presented itself when we got home.

  We’d gotten a ride home from the fair with Caitlyn and her older sister, Tess. I think Caitlyn was afraid to be alone with Tess and that’s why she asked us if we wanted a ride. As I’d suspected, Caitlyn had borrowed Tess’s high heels without asking. Not only that, but she’d broken one of the heels. Caitlyn was in major hot water. To make matters worse, she hadn’t had any luck finding Aaron at the fair even though I had kept running into him.

  “If I’m still alive tomorrow, I’ll come by in the afternoon,” Caitlyn whispered to me as Tess dropped us off. “You can tell me all about your day with Kyle. And maybe even your good-night kiss!”

  “Shhh!” I hissed, hoping Kyle hadn’t heard her. He was far away enough from the curb that I didn’t think so.

  After Tess and Caitlyn drove off, I walked with Kyle to my front lawn.

  “I had a really nice time today,” I told him.

  Well, it hadn’t been a really nice time but there had been some nice moments.

  “Me too,” Kyle said.

  And then there was an awkward silence.

  I smiled at Kyle and he smiled back but neither one of us said anything.

  Okay, this is it! Your cue to show me that you really did have a nice time today. You have to kiss me. Kiss me!

  This time it did seem like Kyle was able to read my mind. He moved closer to me and put a hand on my shoulder. All the doubts that had been running through my mind at the fair were gone. He did like me and he was going to show me with a kiss!

  But then my long-awaited kiss didn’t happen.

  Just as I moved closer to Kyle, hoping against hope that I was finally going to get my first kiss, the front door to my house opened up and Aaron screamed, “HEY, EM! WHAT’S TAKING YOU SO LONG TO COME INSIDE? MOM AND DAD WANT TO LOCK UP THE HOUSE AND GO TO SLEEP!”

  At the sound of Aaron’s voice, Kyle took a step back from me.

  The moment was gone.

  Had he been planning to kiss me? If he had, I’d never know.

  “I should be getting home,” Kyle said, pointing a thumb over his shoulder. “I’ve got a curfew.”

  I nodded. “Okay.”

  “Talk to you later?”

  “You know where to find me,” I said, trying not to feel (or sound!) disappointed that once again I hadn’t been kissed.

  Kyle nodded back. “Good night.”

  “Night,” I said, walking to my front door and waving good-bye.

  After I got up to my bedroom, I realized I was still wearing Kyle’s baseball jacket. Even though a part of me wished I could keep it, I knew I’d have to return it to him tomorrow.

  But for tonight I could pretend that Kyle was my boyfriend and that he had given me his baseball jacket to wear because he wanted everyone to know I was his girl.

  I slipped my hands into the jacket’s pockets and whirled around in front of my bedroom mirror.

  As my hands slipped into the pockets, a folded piece of paper fell out, along with some ticket stubs, grocery store receipts, and chewing gum wrappers. Picking up the folded piece of paper, I saw it was a printout from a website.

  As I took a closer look at the page, my mouth dropped open.

  It was an email from Dear Daisy to Romeo.

  What would Kyle be doing with an email from Daisy?

  And why would he have an email that Romeo had sent?

  Unless…

  No.

  It couldn’t be.

  It just couldn’t be!

  I sat down on my bed in shock. I wanted to deny it, but I couldn’t. Not when I was holding the proof in my hands.

  Kyle was Romeo?!

  Chapter Twelve

  Kyle was Romeo.

  Like a big neon sign, the words kept flashing in my mind: KYLE IS ROMEO. KYLE IS ROMEO. KYLE IS ROMEO.

  I didn’t want to believe it, but it was true.

  Absolutely, positively.

  There was no denying it.

  The proof was in my hands.

  And that proof was the email that I had sent Romeo last night.

  The email where I told him to go after the girl he liked.

  Words I had written hours ago jumped out at me: you’re still into this girl…go after her…give her another chance.

  I groaned and crumpled the email into a ball, throwing it across my bedroom as I finally realized what had happened. Kyle had been writing to Daisy for advice about a girl he liked. It certainly hadn’t been me he’d been writing about because I sounded nothing like the girl he’d described in his emails. And tonight he had told me what kind of girl he liked. A girl who was mysterious. Again, not me.

  Ravishing Red was the girl who had Kyle’s heart. I’d seen it for myself this morning with my own eyes. The two of them had looked very cozy together and I had told Kyle to go after her. To give her another chance.

  Which he’d done.

  The guy I liked had been writing to me about a girl he liked and
I told him what he needed to do to get her.

  Oh, I was such an idiot!

  Even though there was no way I could have known that Kyle was Romeo, why hadn’t I been up front with him from the beginning and just told him how I felt? Why didn’t I follow my own advice? I was always telling my girlfriends that if they liked a guy, they should just tell him. But I hadn’t done that with Kyle.

  Maybe if I had I would have had a chance.

  Maybe he would have lost interest in Ravishing Red and started thinking of me as girlfriend material.

  Now it was all over.

  I had lost whatever chance I had with him.

  I couldn’t share my feelings with him. Couldn’t tell him that I liked him. Not when I knew he liked someone else. That would be too humiliating. I could just see the look in his eyes. He’d squirm and be uncomfortable and then he’d tell me, “That’s nice, Emma. But I don’t like you the way you like me. I like someone else.”

  I threw myself down on my bed and buried my face in a pillow. I could feel tears at the corners of my eyes but I was not going to cry. This wasn’t the end of the world. I could have had something with Kyle and I blew it.

  I didn’t have anyone to blame but myself.

  I barely slept a wink that night. When I wasn’t tossing and turning in my bed, I was having nightmares. In one dream Kyle and Ravishing Red were getting married in a church and I was one of the bridesmaids. When the minister asked if anyone objected to the two of them getting married, I wanted to scream and tell Kyle not to marry her, but I had no voice. In another dream Kyle and Red were filthy rich and eating in a restaurant where I was the waitress who had to serve them. Red was wearing furs and jewels and looking like a cover model while I was dressed in a potato sack and my hair was a mess of split ends.

  In the middle of each dream I would always wake up, my heart pounding furiously. Eventually I would realize that I was home in my bed and that it had all been a dream. With a sigh of relief, I would then close my eyes and another horrible dream would unfold.

  When morning finally arrived, I decided the first thing I was going to do was return Kyle’s baseball jacket. Before finding Kyle’s Romeo email, I had been thinking of keeping the jacket and making up some sort of excuse as to why I couldn’t find it. Now I just wanted it gone. It was too much of a painful reminder of what could have been. Maybe not having the jacket around would help me get over Kyle.