A Short Skirt And A Long Jacket (Kailin)

[Deleted]

Anthony sat on the arm of one of the sofas, scanning the room for the familiar face he was looking for. He once again checked to make sure he smelled okay. Then he checked his hair in the reflection of one of the pictures on the wall behind him. He finally checked his breath. He hoped this shirt didn't look too dirty, he wore it last time he came to this little underground club and hadn't washed it since. He'd simply left it on the floor of his bedroom until this afternoon when he received an unlikely text from an even more unlikely person.

It been several months since he last saw Kailin. Nearly half a year, in fact. And last he saw her, she was running out of his dorm room with tears in her eyes after someone blabbed that he'd been with another girl. Not exactly "been with", but it was close enough, and with enough picture proof to have her declaring an end to their relationship and to never speak to her again...

Anthony thought that was it. He'd hoped that she just needed some time to calm down, until she was ready for them to talk seriously about it....but as the days turned into weeks...and the weeks turned into months....Anthony had pretty much given up. He'd thought to call, but given her last request, he thought he'd ruin it even more by not doing as she said. So, three months after the breakup, Anthony finally deleted Kailin's number and tried to move on.

Truth be told, letting go helped a lot. And pretty soon he was back in the swing of things and living up the college life. He'd even gained an experience or several in "entertaining" girls, back in the privacy of his room. However, when he got that text message....Anthony had long since memorized the number. He'd done it when they first met, sophomore year. So of course, he agreed to it right away.

That how he ended up here, at the Atmosphere, waiting anxiously for Kailin to arrive. It was still early, though, somewhere around 6 o'clock, and the club had yet to start the entertainment for the evening.

[Kailin Bishop]

For Kailin, Anthony's infidelity was a slap to the face, a literal wake up call for the girl who thought nothing bad would ever come to her. She was a selfish, self-centered girl who wanted the world and only got it because she batted her pretty eyelashes and acted like the sweetest thing in the world.

She said it didn't bother her much anymore, but she still felt the betrayal as a dull ache in her bones after each stepping stone in life, but nearing the end of November, she was feeling relatively back to normal. And then... something just clicked.

Kailin had gotten a bunch of hair dye and requested a shopping spree with the Queen Bee herself, and well, that's how the hair and wardrobe change occurred. Kailin told herself she had been wanting a change for a while, but really, she never had wanted it to this extreme.

And then she texted Anthony.

Anthony.

She asked to meet him and they both agreed Atmosphere was probably the best place. (Normal Kailin would have asked for the park, but from her current mindset, she thought the club was more fitting).

So there she was, standing in the middle of the room, coat hanging off of her arm and a pair of sunglasses being placed in between her lips as she scanned the room for an individual whom she felt she'd never see again.

And there he was, sitting there as casual as ever.

With a slight upward quirk of her lips, she approached the boy - no, man- that sat against the arm of the practically empty sofa. Instead of directly speaking to him and getting awkward, she sat herself near him (though still a full cushion away), falling into the seat with a rehearsed grin and leaned her head back before crossing her legs, "Seriously dead; you'd expect for the place to at least be somewhat live." Her gaze fell on Anthony, and part of her was sick, but part of her wanted to still be closer, which made her feel even worse.

It didn't show, though.

"Dontcha Think?"

[Deleted]

Anthony searched the room again then looked down to his watch…again. She wasn’t going to be late, was she? Wouldn’t that be typical? Not for Kailin, but for other girls who spent far more time than necessary putting on make-up just so they could show up fashionably late. Not that Anthony didn’t like them when they finally showed, but that wasn’t a habit that he associated with the sweet, good-girl Kailin.

A girl was approaching, but Anthony paid her no mind. She wasn’t the girl he was looking for. Granted he only caught a glimpse of her from his peripheral, but she was brunette and wore a very coordinated, chic outfit. Actually, he saw the outfit more than he saw her face and took a moment to admire the accentuated shape of her hips, given by those slimming black pants.

No! Anthony forced himself to look away and return to searching for the blonde of his dreams. He was there to make up with Kailin, not pick up slutty women. Not that this one was slutty(she was actually quite classy, in fact) but that wasn’t the point.

She sat next to him, and Anthony focused his eyes on the room instead of the legs she was crossing, or the things she was saying…in a very familiar voice. Albeit the tone was uncharacteristic for the girl known as…

“Kailin…!” he said with surprise in his voice. And shouldn’t there be? This was….Anthony looked the girl up and down like he’d never seen her before in his life…this was not the Kailin he expected. “Y-you look….nice.” Really nice. Even with her hair dyed from the shining color it normally was, the brown hair and the outfit somehow made her seem a lot more…womanly? Anthony smiled and leaned his hand against the back of the couch. “How you been?”

[Kailin Bishop]

Lie

If she would have truly answered his last question, it would have been "Miserable and I miss and hate you all at the same time and I hate it." No breathing required with that single statement. However, she wasn't here for self pity or to scream at him. Honestly, she hadn't a clue what she was there for, but in the end she decided not to dwell. "Thanks, You too."

"I'm great, actually. Life can get to a bit boring, but changing things up has really worked for me. Anyway, how about you?" There she sat up and offered him a smirk, a slight tilt of her lips and even her head, still indicating that it still was Kailin speaking, just in a much different form. No more frill sundresses and skirts. No more 'bright, bubbly, and blonde'.

It was terrifying and enthralling all at the same time.

Is this good enough for you? The thought was reoccurring, relentless in its endeavors to torture the now brunette. Kales truly did feel an intense urge to say it, but instead of giving in, she waited patiently for the answer that was sure to come. Would his eyes wander? She hoped so.

[Deleted]

What did he want her to say? That she’d been spending all this time feeling guilty for running out like she did and realized finally that she needed to give him another chance? Maybe. Hearing that she was doing fine and had been bored in such a casual manner stung a little bit. But at the same time, he was kind of glad that she was doing well. No, he was definitely glad that she hadn’t been spending all her time crying her eyes out over him. Because he hated being the guy to make her feel that way.

Still, his smile dropped slightly, seeing how casual she was being. “I’ve been okay, mostly,” Anthony said with a shrug. He brought a hand up to hang from the back of his neck. “Being in college is an experience. It keeps you busy, that’s for sure.” He chuckled slightly.

Anthony looked down on her. Yes, his eyes wandered, despite his attempts to keep them focused on her face instead of her everywhere else, but…well, what could he say? She looked really good. At least he could control what his mouth said. “I’m really glad you called me out, Kailin,” he said, with his usual dopey smile and affectionate roll of the head. “I missed you.”

[Kailin Bishop]

She cried, yes, for several days on end after the initial incident. But did it last very long? No. It took her forever to do her math summer packet, and that was indicator enough that she needed to actually get herself together. It didn't help much with Salem's breakdown, either, and how he changed, but she pulled herself through, if only to maintain her 4.0 GPA.

Because she had priorities, too.

"I'm hoping to experience a bit of that myself. To be honest, I don't know if I'm staying in Pilot Ridge or not," Honestly, she hadn't admitted this to anyway. Kailin was considering leaving the state, getting away from the bad memories and the titles. The Illusion manip wanted be known simply as 'Kailin' and not 'One of the Bishop kids', or 'the smart bitch who got cheated on'(Yes, that had been thrown her way). She wanted to make a new name for herself, because the name she made back in Pilot Ridge was everything but what she wanted to be.

But even despite that, she felt her throat close and her heart fall into her stomach. There. There he was. Tony. The Tony she fell in love with. There was the smile, the roll of his head even though he had clearly checked her out moments before.

Kailin bit the inside of her cheek and her expression went from slight egotistical to much softer and careful. "It's been a while, I agree." Because she didn't want to admit she missed him. She didn't want to admit she loved him. Then why was she here?

Because she really did.

[Deleted]

Anthony sat up at what she said next. “You’re thinking of leaving?” He hadn’t expected that. He expected that….well, he wasn’t sure what he expected. Because it was silly to expect her to stay in this small town her whole life. Yes, her family was here, but…

He managed a smile. “That’s good, Kales. I mean….not that I want you to leave, but you’re so smart and have so much….potential.” His face dropped slightly and he looked out into the dingy teen night club, full of a whole crowd of other small town folk. “It’d be a shame to keep all that locked away in a small town like this. Especially when there’s so much more out there.” Anthony had plans for that kind of direction himself. Join the army, spend a few years in the service, come back and finish out college somewhere on the G.I. bill…it was a good plan. The only reason he’d been putting it off was…

Well, he’d be lying if he said Kailin wasn’t one of them. His little brother was another, who had manifested finally earlier this semester. That was a load of stress of his shoulders, to be honest. Getting his brother out of the toxic environment of home, shuttling needlessly between parents who used him as some sort of token of victory over the other. “I might be leaving too soon,” he admitted. “Once the semester’s over.” Anthony shifted in his seat to face her better, gently, though with some hesitance, brushing his fingers against her forearm. A sign that the affection he had for the blonde Bishop was still there and strong. “So…I’m…yeah, I’m really glad we have this chance to talk before…” He smirked and shrugged up a shoulder. “Well, before we don’t have it anymore.”