out in the open

Geo worked the coffee machines at Borders, but he didn't want to meet them there. Instead they sat at a booth at one of the nearby bakeries that was a restaurant too.

Ellie and Kyle sat there like two lumps in dire need of sleep. "What do you mean you didn't sleep OK?" mumbled Kyle.

"Shhh..." Ellie looked at Geo who looked to be a scruffy college boy with a strawberry blonde pony-tail. He looked harmless enough. He wasn't anything like Lisa's high school boyfriend, Zach who lived sports. Ellie had to remember he was Lisa's ex, now.

"Is this your little brother?"Geo wanted to know.

"No." Kyle grimaced. "I'm Ellie's boyfriend."

Ellie thought she might choke on her soda, but she didn't. She cleared her throat instead and didn't say anything.

"I see." Geo looked at Lisa then and pushed his wire rim glasses up his nose. They started chatting and Ellie wondered if it would be OK if they didn't stick around for all this possibly more than friends stuff.

"We'll meet you back in Borders in a while." Ellie finally decided to make an exit. She didn't think her sister would be endangered of being abducted by a bookstore employee who still had his name tag on.

Lisa just nodded. The less they said to each other the easier this became. But when Kyle took Ellie's hand, they both looked at each other.

Finally, Lisa went back to her conversation with Geo about some band coming to a local concert hall.

"You really don't have to hold my hand," Ellie told Kyle once they left the eatery.

"That's all right. You need practice if you want it to look real," he said.

"Oh, really." She let go of his hand then even if she was rather comfortable holding hands with him. Really, it was an odd feeling. Almost pleasing. "But I'm not your girlfriend."

"Duh." He shrugged, but took her hand again. "We know that, but Geo doesn't know that." He pulled her along then toward the water fountains at the shopping center.

"Why are we here?" There were empty benches. A young mother and her baby were the only ones nearby enjoying the sunny spring weather.

"You really aren't very good at this, are you?" He dragged her along to a bench.

"Guess not, whatever it is we are doing." This felt more like an acting class than perhaps an experiment.

"Just work with me." He sighed setting down on the bench. He waited for her to park herself next to him. They stared at the fountain.

"I went to a free concert here last summer. Man, it was packed then," he said.

"You saw Drake Bell?" That was the only free concert she remembered.

"Yeah, his CD sucks big time, but Kelsy wanted to go." He nodded. "And it was free."

"Thank God, it was free." Ellie smirked.

"Its just different now. Lot of things have changed." He looked away. She hadn't meant to make him feel bad.

"Sorry." She closed her eyes then feeling the sun warm her face in the breeze.

Kyle was playing with her fingers. This had to be the longest time she'd ever held anyones hand since first grade. All of this was making her feel very sleepy.

And thats when he kissed her.