A Broken Promise (3 page)

          “Wonderful,” Lacey sighed. "I'll probably be stuck with someone worse than the new kid."

"No, trust me, Lace, no one is worse than Mr. Keiffer Lawrence," I cringed.

"Seriously? His name is Keiffer?" She laughed, though it ended in a coughing fit. "How…different!"

"I know. Strange, right? He's boring. Just a boring, dull, individual. I can't wait until I can humiliate him in front of the entire class." I bit my bottom lip in thought. "I didn't realize just how pleasant this stupid project might be..."

"Oh, Jenna. You're always up to no good," Lacey smiled as she opened the door for me. I stepped outside onto her own private walkway.

"No, I just know how to give others what they deserve," I headed towards the driveway. "Get better, girl!"

"Thanks for the notes," she called back.

By the time I got home it was completely dark out. I unlocked the front door and dropped my backpack on the floor by the shoe mat. Tying my hair up in a ponytail, I slipped into the kitchen to fill up a glass of water. Dad was sitting at the table reading another automotive magazine.

"What are you still doing awake?" I asked, taking a sip of my water.

"The new neighbors are here. Mom's showing them around the house. I got bored so I came down here." He flipped the page of his magazine. "They've got a son, about your age."

"Oh no," I whined. Dad looked up at me, surprised. "Does he have curly, blonde hair?"

Dad nodded his head. "You know him?"

"Unfortunately. What are the odds that he moved into the house next to ours? That house has been vacant for almost two years!" I poured the water down the sink. "Don't tell mom I'm home. I'll just sneak up to my room so he doesn’t see me." I kissed him quickly on the cheek before grabbing my backpack from the floor and running up the stairs to my room.

I tiptoed across the wooden floor until I finally reached my bedroom door. Silently opening the door, I slipped into the room. The light was already on, which meant my mom showed them my room. I flopped down at my computer, pulling my trigonometry textbook out of my backpack. This was my nightly routine. Sleep could never come before my school work.

"Nice room you got here," Keiffer said from my bed. I jumped to my feet, holding my textbook as a bat. He smiled at me before picking up the picture frame of Brad that I kept next to my bed. "So this is Brad?"

"What are you doing in my room?" I squealed, snatching the picture from his hands.

"I heard you come home so I came in to wait for you." He looked around my room.

"Well, you can leave now," I announced. I opened the door for him, waiting for him to finally get up and take his exit.

"You aren't a very good host," he admitted, finally standing up from my bed.

"And you aren't a very good guest."

He chuckled in amusement. "You're kind of a jumpy individual, aren't you?" He stepped outside of my bedroom door.

"I'm not jumpy, I just don't know you."

"Well, get to know me."

"I don't want to," I admitted. He stuck his foot in the door so I couldn't shut it
.
"Please move your foot," I said through clenched teeth.

"Let's go out tonight," he suggested.

"What? No!" I almost yelled.

"Come'on. I know the perfect place -"

"No!
Keiffer
, go away!"

"-to get a burger," he finished.

I started to count to ten in my head. After I let out a deep breath, I looked up at him through slitted eyes. “I have no interest in getting to know you. All I want to do is my homework.” I paused for a second.  “And what kind of a name is Keiffer anyway?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “I didn’t name myself. Blame my mom.”

“You mean your parents? Not just your mom,” I retaliated.

“No, my mom.” He pushed his hair back from off his forehead. “My dad wasn’t exactly around when I was born.”

“Oh,” I felt my cheeks start to blush. I had been so wrapped around trying to be rude to him that I forgot that he was a person also. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” he responded. The stupid smile had been drained from his face. Oddly, I felt bad that I hurt him. I scolded myself quietly for being so mean to him. “He left before I was born. One could say he was a dead-beat dad.”

“Oh, Keiffer! Looks like you met my daughter,” Mom placed her hand on his arm. “This is my daughter, Jenna.” She brushed my hair off my shoulders. “She’ll be going to Yale next year, you know?”

“Mom!” I snapped. I felt like she told my business to everyone. “It’s not even for sure yet.”

“Of course it’s for sure,” Keiffer interrupted. “She’s the smartest in the class, perhaps even the whole school”

“Thanks,” I bit my lip. I really did like the compliment that he gave me. Being smart was the best compliment anyone could ever give me.

“But I already met her. We’re in the same Literature class,” Keiffer smiled. We locked eyes for a split second before I broke the gaze.

“Oh, well that’s wonderful. At least you’ll have one friend this year, Keiffer. She can introduce you to Brad. Oh, that would be wonderful. Brad is so nice. You’ll have so much in common with him,” Mom said excitedly. “Oh, and her friend Lacey. She’s beautiful…a bit on the chunky side, but she’s very sweet.”

“Okay, mom, enough. Please. Lacey is dating someone, and besides…I don’t think Keiffer and I would be much of a match.”

“Oh, well of course you would be. Listen, why don’t you come over this Saturday. Your mom can come over too. We’ll invite all of Jenna’s friends and you can meet everyone,” Mom continued. She was talking like I wasn’t directly in front of her. I tapped my foot impatiently.

“That sounds great, Mrs. Horowitz. I’ll be sure to tell my mom.”

“No, no need. I’ll tell Indigo right now.” And with that, my Mom bustled down the stairs to tell his mom about the newest plans for the weekend.

“Indigo?” I repeated. “Let me get this straight. Your name is Keiffer, and your mom’s name is Indigo? You’ve got to be kidding me,” I laughed sarcastically. “What kind of people are you?”

“My mom’s a hippie. Well, she hadn’t always been. Her name had been Amy for more than half her life. She changed her name almost twenty years ago to something that she thought fit her better.”

“So, do you mean to tell me that you used to have a different name too? A normal one?” My tone was getting worse and worse, but it was only because I wanted him to leave. It had been such a long day and I still had a good three hours of homework on top of it.

He shook his head. “No, my name’s Keiffer. It’s always been Keiffer.”

“But you’ll change it to something normal, right?”

He let out one of his infamous chuckles. “Nah, I don’t think so. I was going to, but I don’t think so anymore. I think my name fits me just fine.”

“And why is that?”

                “I’ve got my reasons.” He took in a deep breath. “Well,
neighbor
, I’ve got to get going. It’s night time and there’s a whole galaxy of stars waiting for me.” He started to walk down the hallway towards the stairs. “Oh, and Jenna?”

                “What?” I asked right before I shut my bedroom door.

                “Don’t in any circumstances listen to the CD that I left on your night stand.” He winked at me before disappearing down the stairs.

                Shutting my door quickly, I sat back down at my computer. My room suddenly felt quite empty and the silence was almost deafening. Trying to ignore it, I opened my trigonometry textbook and logged onto the class webpage. I had fifty-two questions on the screen that were staring me straight in the face. Taking a deep breath, I started to work on the problems one-by-one.

                Slowly, very slowly, my eyes shifted towards my night stand. There, where Brad’s frame used to be, was a blue CD case. I ignored the urge to take a closer look and continued with my homework. Within a fifteen minute period, I found myself taking a look at the CD every few minutes. My mind began to wonder why he would make me a CD. It didn’t make sense. He didn’t even know me.

                After grabbing a snack from the kitchen cabinet, I made my way back into my room. I only had about ten more problems to do with trigonometry so I grabbed the CD out of pure curiosity. Popping it into the CD player on my laptop, I leaned back in my chair to get more comfortable. What I heard come from the CD wasn’t music at all. I was expecting some kind of hard metal music, or maybe something slow…instead, I heard Keiffer’s voice come through the speakers of my computer. I set my glass on the desk and listened closely to what he said.

                “Hey, Jenna. It’s, um, Keiffer Lawrence. Well, my full name is Keiffer Lee Lawrence. But middle names are so pointless, don’t you think? Like, who really cares what my middle name is? It could be anything and no one would even flinch because someone’s middle name is so pointless that maybe only five percent of people you’ll ever come in contact will know it.” He paused for just a moment. “Which must make you apart of the five percent of people to know mine.

                “Well, this is my final goodbye. No, not for like ever. But if there came a time that I passed away, I need you to give these CDs to my mom. Every once in a while I’ll give you a new one. They’re personal…please don’t share them with anyone else. I just…I just have a hard time speaking to people about who I am. Do you think you can handle me? I will give you just one fact about me on each CD.

                “So basically, my dad committed suicide. There you go. Got it off of my chest. Now you’ll know and you won’t have to ask me anything about my family. That’s all you really need to know. Hell, maybe later on I’ll tell you more about him, but I won’t now. Just know that I’m nothing like him. I don’t have a single thing in common with him. Promise me that you’ll never compare me to him. Promise me.” His voice cut off for about ten seconds before he started speaking again.

                “Well, I guess that’s about it for this one. Stay tuned for more.” And with that, the CD went completely blank. I sat in the silence of my room. I kept my eyes straight on the computer screen. It had gone black, waiting for me to wake it back up again.

                I nearly jumped out of my skin the second that my mom knocked on my door. I threw the blue case into my drawer just as soon as my Mom came in. “That Keiffer boy sure is nice, isn’t he?”

                I shrugged my shoulders. “I guess so.”

                “Why don’t you introduce him to Brad tomorrow. He seems shy, like he could really use a friend. Besides, he came in halfway through his senior year, I bet he’s nervous.”

                I shook my head slightly. “Yeah, sure.”

                “Yeah, sure, as whatever, mom? Or yeah, sure, I’ll do it?”

                I shrugged my shoulders again. “I’ll introduce him.”

                “Good, that’s what I like to hear.” She kissed me lightly on my forehead before slipping back out into the hallway. I opened the desk drawer again and pulled out the blue case. Snapping the CD back into it, I placed it high up on my book shelf so no one could see it. This was going to be an interesting semester, I could already tell.

Chapter Three

   By the time Friday came along I was in no mood for a party. My mom had made invitations to pass out to
all my little friends
. I had been mortified handing them out, but I did it anyway. I had only spoken one or two words to Keiffer within the past few days. He seemed to have been ignoring me through class and even when I smiled at him in the hallway he would keep walking, not a single expression on his face. The most we talked was when I handed him his invitation.

                I found him that afternoon during lunch. He was sitting at his usual lunch table – the one all the way in the corner. He sat by himself, though he never seemed to mind. I had watched him for the past few days while eating lunch. No one even tried to come up to him to talk, whereas I had practically the whole cafeteria’s attention. However, never once did he even look up from the book he was reading.

                After passing out all of the invitations, besides one, I excused myself from my lunch table and walked over to his. I could feel the stares from my fellow peers as I stood across from him. I cleared my throat nervously, waiting for him to finally acknowledge my presence – in which he never did.

                “Are you going to let me sit down, or make me stand all day?” I asked, embarrassed over the cold-shoulder he was giving me.

                “You need an invitation, neighbor?” He said without looking up at me. I slowly bent down, sitting across from him as he continued reading. Placing my bag on the table, I ruffled through it and took out his invitation.

                “Funny you should say that. I’m having a party at my house tomorrow night. Nothing exciting. There’s only going to be a few of us, but you’re more than welcome to come if you’d like to.” I slid the paper across the table to him. He finally looked up from his book, his eyes meeting mine.

                “Brad gonna be there?”