By the end of the dance, Pipers mood had lifted 1000%. She had forgotten how much fun it was to be with Kelton, since she had spent so much of her time missing him. So when the music ended, she didn't move away; she stayed right in front of him, and her usually dull eyes gleamed from the streams of afternoon light coming through the window.
Kelton also stayed right in front of Piper, staring at her eyes. How have I never noticed how pretty her eyes are? He thought, letting the light shine on his face and make his eyes look even more blue. On the other hand, Kelton's eyes seemed a bit dull and tired, but not too dull.
Their stares were broken by the applause of Cassie and Jenna.
“That was awesome!” Cassie squealed.
Kelton quickly looked away, his face turning a bit pink in embarrassment. He looked at Cassie and smiled at her. "Thanks."
Piper went back to her resting face (which was naturally an uninterested look) and said a small thank you to the two girls.
Kelton glanced at Piper and also smiled at her before looking around to see what time it was. He wasn't sure why he had become easily flustered recently, what was going on with him?
"Yeah, I think I need to get going, I'm hanging out with some of the orchestra members later today," Piper broke the awkward silence. She went over and packed her bag, then came back to her friends. "Bye you guys," she waved at Cassie and Jenna. Then she turned to Kelton. "Hey, are you leaving now too?"
Kelton glanced at at Piper when she was looking at him and nodded. "Yep, why did you ask?"
"Maybe we could walk together?"
"Oh-um-sure," Kelton answered, smiling at Piper.
She waved another goodbye at the two girls, then made her way out the door. Her and Kelton's conversation was slow at first, with only bland topics bouncing between them. Eventually though, Piper couldn't procrastinate anymore. She asked him a question she had been thinking about for some time.
"Do you ever miss your mom?"
Kelton looked a bit surprised at the question but shook his head ever so slightly. "Not really," He admitted, glancing at Piper. "Why did you ask?"
“I don’t know, I just-” she paused and fiddled with the strings of her oversized hoodie. “I just wondered is all.”
"Do you miss your mom?" Kelton asked, glancing at Piper again.
“No.” She said firmly. She didn’t expand on that statement, even though the silence following it was incredibly awkward.
Kelton nodded awkwardly before looking at the ground as he walked. Welp, this is awkward.
“Why’d you ask?” Piper finally broke it. She was starting to wonder if there were things that Kelton wasn’t telling her.
Kelton shrugged. "Just curious," He answered. "Is it wrong to be curious?"
“No,” she tugged on her hoodie strings some more, “is it wrong to be secretive?”
"Not at all," Kelton quickly answered, looking around awkwardly.
"Well why do people feel guilty for it?" she said in a much softer voice. Then she shook her head a bit. "I think you miss your mother more than you'll admit."
"Why would I miss her? She was horrible," Kelton mumbled the last part a bit quieter.
“Really? What’d she do?” Piper asked. She was trying really hard not to pry, but Kelton seemed upset.
Kelton sighed. "She has Histrionic Personality Disorder, it wasn't that bad at first, she just used to give herself small cuts or something. Then when she realized she wasn't getting enough attention from dad and she just…" He mumbled, not able to finish the sentence.
Piper didn’t say anything after that, she just put her hand on his arm. Then she hugged him. She understood from experience how hard it could be to deal with dysfunctional family.