The Freshman pt. 2

As Kyle sauntered out of the bathroom and towards the table Conner notices that he seemed a bit less chipper than he usually does.
“Something wrong buddy?” Conner asked.
Kyle took some time, arranged his shirt, for comfort not for fashion and thought about the best way to say whatever he had to say. “I don’t like seeing you like this. Conner, I swear its like every time you get built up something knocks you down. It’s unfortunate because I know that you’re one of the greatest guys out there and don’t deserve anything you’ve been handed.”
“Kyle are you being sarcastic again? I mean isn’t that a little grand? It’s not like I’ve been falsely imprisoned, or brutally beaten or stricken by a deadly virus or anything like that. I’ve just got girl troubles up to here.”
“Yeah, but still you treat them like those other things, and I’m not saying its bad, though you can make it that way. But it’s who you are, Conner. It’s difficult to watch a friend who’s like you.”
“So what am I to do then?” Conner knew Kyle probably wouldn’t have an answer for him, and if he did it would be something that Conner didn’t want to hear. It was always like that, it was the nature of their relationship, Conner would ask Kyle for help and Kyle would offer any if he could but it was always the truth and never placated to Conner. That reason alone was the reason that Conner asked him.
Kyle thought for a bit, reached in his coat and pulled out his box of cigarettes. As he pulled one from the box he said “You see this cig right here?”
“Yeah.”
“This is you.”
“I’m a carcinogen?”
“Only to yourself,” Kyle lit the cigarette, “This is you because you burn, you are a passionate person, Conner. When you love or even feel attraction it’s never small,”
“I’ve never been ashamed of that nor have I ever felt it was a bad thing, Kyle.”
“It’s not,” quickly Kyle smashed the cigarette into the ash tray, “but this is also you, when the passion is gone, you’re crushed.” Conner, looked at him with intensity for a moment, bowed his head and slowly started to crack a smile. “What you need to do, my good friend, is to watch how often you burn.”
“So, oh wise one, how does one fire proof the flammable.”
Kyle bit his lower lip, he wanted to give Conner an answer, he wanted to tell him something that will make him feel better. “That I can’t tell you.”
“I didn’t think you could. Passion isn’t a crime, Kyle. Wanting to love and be loved is a basic human thing, man.”
“I didn’t say it was. The crime is a suicide of sorts, not arson.”
Conner smiled. “I love your metaphors dude.”
Kyle was quiet for a moment. “So, let’s hear it…” he said getting comfy in the booth.
“Hear what?”
“What ever story it is to tell.”
Conner breathed in deep and took a swig of his water. “You know about the whole thing with Vanessa in junior year? Right? I don’t have to tell you about that?”
“I recall most of it.”
“Well it was kind of like that. Only completely different.”
Kyle snickered and cracked a smile. “Go on Yogi.”
“Anyway, the first time I saw her she was as disheveled as anyone could be. Her hair was pulling away from her pony tail and some strands broke free of the small red rubber band to roam carelessly along her shoulders. Her face was red as the brisk weather created adverse conditions for walking from tennis practice to a warm meeting and still looking good. Then again, I was still attracted to her right away and I knew she would have some sort of power over me.”
“You wrote a poem about this, at some point, didn’t you, Jenkins?”
Conner said nothing but smiled and winked at his friend.
“Who was she? Did she have a name?”
“I was getting there, man. She was my newspaper editor. Dana Jessen originally from Detroit, moved to Cali in high school and for no good reason ended up in the middle of PA for college.”
“Nordic?” Kyle was always big on origins. Being somewhat of a bastard himself he had a certain predilection with people’s beginnings. Although the parents that he knew died when he was very young, Kyle never felt alone in life. From foster family to foster family Kyle never acted out as a troubled youth and would always volunteer to be removed to make room for a child who needed more than he did. He was the kind of person that could talk to anyone at any place at any time and he did pretty much just that A very approachable demeanor and a combination of earthy tones and a well managed goatee made Kyle stick out in the minds of anyone who had ever met him. The fact that he stood at over 6’3” didn’t hurt either. A gentle giant to say the least, but Kyle hated to be called that.
“I don’t know. She was big on Greenland though, said it was lovely.”
“So she was out of your league?”
“Now, from what I’ve just said you’ve already concluded that I wasn’t good enough for her?”
“Conner, you know it’s not that. I’m just saying she’s seen the world, probably very well versed on America as well. You’ve never been out of the country or very far from Lancaster.”
“Hey! I’ve been to Canada… yeah; she was out of my league. But she never acted like it. She was so sweet and helpful. She talked to me before class about anything. She liked hockey and I came to find out later that she actually PLAYED hockey too.”
Kyle smiled knowing how much little things like that excite Conner, especially when about hockey or music. Conner was one of those people that believed ‘what you like’ is almost as important as ‘what you are like.’