“Kaire, wake up!!!” I squinted and turned over in my full-sized bed to find my older sister, Kacia, standing in my bedroom doorway. She was in her neon blue Joe Boxer robe, and her thick black hair was wet, so she probably just took a shower. I yawned, sat up, and suddenly remembered I had slept in nothing but my boxers., since it was super hot last night. I quickly grabbed my blanket to cover myself.

“Kacia, please stop waking me up like that. You do that all the time.” I looked at my clock on my nightstand, which read 11:37 A.M. I turned back to her and said, “It's too early to be waking up.”

Kacia gave me a crazy look and shook her head. “Are you serious? It's almost noon, and you say it's early. You're so lazy.” She walked towards my huge bedroom window and opened the shades, blinding me with bright Saturday morning sunlight. “But seriously, you gotta get up. The party at West End Point is today, remember?”

“Oh! I forgot!” I jumped up, grabbed my robe off of my bedpost and put it on. I've been waiting forever for this day. Today is the Ladies Lookin' Lovely, Fellas Lookin' Fly party. I turned around and asked her quickly, “Did you take a shower yet?”

“Yeah. I'm gonna go downstairs and do my hair in the bathroom so you can get ready. Don't take all day.” She walked out of my room and into the master bathroom to grab her hair dryer, her brush, and her Moroccan hair oil. As she went down the spiral stairs, she said, “You know where your invitation is, right? You need it so you can hand it to the guard to get in.”

I looked into my nightstand drawer, where I kept almost everything that fit in there. I had to pull out my chains, my phone, my watches, my cologne, and my school papers to get to the folded-up invitation at the bottom of the mess. “Found it!”, I yelled.

“Okay. Put it in your pants pocket so you won't forget it,” Kacia yelled back at me. She was right. I sometimes tend to forget things, so I went into my messy walk-in closet and put my invitation into the pants pocket of my Jos. A. Bank purple and black pinstripe suit. As I walked back out, I almost tripped over my black and red Adidas sweat pants. I picked them up, and a small piece of paper fell out. I remembered I got this note from a secret admirer yesterday in my locker when everyone was let out of school for the weekend. The note was written in nice handwriting, and it said, “ Your smile makes me smile.” Now, I had many friends in and outside of school who were girls, but I've seen their handwriting, and none of them match up. Whoever wrote the note did make me smile though. I've gotten about ten notes now, all from the same person. I picked the note up and folded it up, then put it in the secret compartment on the top shelf in my closet, along with the rest of the notes. I wanted to find out, because it was starting to bother me a little that I didn't know.

“Kai! Get in the shower!” Kacia shouted. “I mean it, if you're not ready to go when it's time to go, I'm leaving you here. I have to meet Deanna at the party to talk about that major project I told you about.” Ms. Deanna Cortez was Kacia's best friend and work partner. They both worked as secretaries at the City County Building in Downtown Pittsburgh. They were looking for a way to speed up production in the workplace or something like that. Also, I know Deanna through her daughter, Adriana. We're both in 11th grade at CAPA High School. We don't talk much inside of school because of our classes, but she's a nice person. Outside of school, we're very close friends. She usually comes over to my house with her mom or I go over to Ms. Deanna's house when she and Kacia work together on projects. She was more on the shy side, and liked to wear hoodies and jeans. She was very pretty, with long, brown and gold hair. She wore glasses, but they went well with her big, hazel eyes and mocha colored skin. She also has a cute dimple when she smiles with her pearly white teeth and her full heart shaped lips. Adriana had a small body, but she had a lovely hourglass shape. To be honest, I actually have very deep feelings for her. I want to tell her, but there was never a perfect time. If I had her, just one moment alone, I would kiss her like there would never be another tomorrow. I wondered if she was the one putting the notes in my locker. The only problem is, her handwriting doesn't match up with the writing on the notes.

“Kaire Sean, get in there now! I'm done with my hair already!” Kacia snapped me out of my daydream.

“Fine. I'm going in there now. Sheesh,” I replied. I grabbed a clean pair of boxers to put on after I got out of the shower. When I got in, I adjusted the shower head setting to high pressure so I could relax my mind – I didn't know what to do about this secret admirer thing. The first note, which I got five days after school started, revealed that my admirer has liked me for two years and counting. I keep trying to think which one of my friends has gone to Freedom Middle School in 8th grade and transferred to CAPA during freshman year. Once again, that's why I thought Adriana was the one putting my notes in my locker. The year I met her was when Kacia got transferred from South Side to her new job in Pittsburgh, which was in 2007. If she is the one, then I wouldn't know what to say. Trying to get my mind off of it, I turned on the shower radio and put it to WAMO 100.7. “Halfcrazy” by Musiq Soulchild was playing, and I chuckled, knowing I exactly felt that way. I started to sing along quietly because I didn't want Kacia to hear me, just in case she came back up the stairs. I really didn't get moony over girls. Most of the girls I talk to aren't my type anyway. Some are too obnoxious, some act too fake, and some act really ghetto. They're okay as friends, but a girlfriend? No thanks.

Realizing that it was already quarter to 12, I washed my body down with Dove for Men (Yes, I admit, I love it,) jumped out of the shower and put my boxers on. I grabbed a fresh razor out of the cabinet, since I needed a quick shape up on my fast growing mustache. As I closed the mirror, I stopped to look at myself with my chocolate brown eyes. Kacia told me once I look more like Mom, and she looks more like Dad. She says I have Mom's eyes, hair color, skin color, and smile, and she has Dad's hair color, height, and build. I don't really have anything to remember them by, because they died in a car accident when I was 3. Kacia was 20 at the time since Mom was a young mother. When they died, she already was going to Sanford Brown's online college program to for her Associate's Degree in Business and had a good job, so she decided to raise me until I'm able to hold my own. She told me about Mom and Dad when I was about 12, after I asked her where my father is, since I thought she was my mother. Now, here I am, with my sister. She's my everything.

“You know, you look like Mom more than Dad.” She startled me as she came and stood in the doorway with that sad look only she could possess. She only got that look when she talked about them. “Another thing you have from her is you height. You're short for your age.” She was right. I stood at 5'7”, which made me shorter than all of my boys. “C'mon, let's go, Short Stuff.”

“Don't call me that. You know I hate it.” I took a towel hanging on the door, wound it up tight, and snapped it onto her stomach. She snatched the wet towel off from her neck and managed to snap me in my back as I tried to dodge her and get to my room. This ensued a 5 minute towel fight which ended up in her running to her bedroom, giggling and yelling, “Okay, I quit! I surrender!”

“That's right. I always win,” I said, laughing. Kacia and I have a brother-sister relationship that no one can break. I closed my door, took my robe off and dried myself off before laying on my bed naked . I went into my nightstand drawer again and checked my phone, which said I had 3 text messages. The first one was from my friend, Darnell. I've known him ever since the beginning of 4th grade in Thaddeus Stevens Elementary School, when we both got into a fight with someone.. It said “ay u comin to the party or what, im here already.” I invited him last week after I found out there were extra tickets, and his mom said she was going to come, so I was pretty happy about it. I texted him back, “gettin dressed now, be there in bout half an hour.”

The second was from my step cousin, Tina. My mom's sister, Natasha, remarried after she got a divorce 16 years ago and had her first child. She told me she liked me more than a friend, which I found strange at first. I kinda like her back and try to flirt with her, but not as much, since Natasha's husband, Bruce, had a big argument recently with Kacia. We try to keep it on the down low as much as possible, but recently, it's been hard to do that. The text said, “Hey. I need to talk to you when you get here. Really important.” I texted back, “Is this good or bad? Cuz if its bad u can just text me it.” I got an almost automatic reply, “Its bad but I need to tell u face to face... :/” I replied, “Ok, just dont break my heart lol,” but she didn't answer, so I went ahead and checked my last message, and saw it was from Adriana. She said, “Morning lazy. Bring money so we can take pics together :)” First, I checked my wallet and saw I had $50, half from my job at Moe's Southwest Grill as a busboy, and the other half from my biweekly allowance. I responded, “How much should I bring?” She answered, “About $30-$40. See u! :D” Just in case, I'll bring all of it with me.

Looking at my phone and seeing it was 12:33, I ran into my closet and grabbed my suit off of the hanger. First, I put on my pants, socks, and shoes. Then, I ran back into my closet to grab my royal purple dress shirt. It was nice and thin, so I could show off some of my muscle to Adriana. Maybe today was the day I would tell her. Then again, me being so afraid might get in the way once again.

Shaking off those thoughts for now, I put on my shirt and went to go put on my vest. Since I was almost ready to go, I plopped down on my bed, grabbed my phone, and listened to Paul Wall's song Sittin' Sidewayz. I was halfway through the song when Kacia banged on the door, saying, “Let's go, let's go!” She opened it, poked her head in and said, “Alright. I'm going downstairs.” I smelled her perfume, which was Viva La Juicy.

“I'll be right there. I just have to grab a few things.” I got up, turned my phone off, and grabbed my black Angry Bird chain, my watch, and my wallet from my nightstand. Also, I double checked to see if I still had my invitation in my pocket. When I saw I did, I ran downstairs, where I saw Kacia grabbing her purse and keys. “Great, we're late.”

“Kacia, we're fashionably late. That's different than just being plain late. Fashionable people take time to look this good.” I stood there and did a pose, as if I was a model.

She laughed, put her hands on her hips, and did a catwalk strut to the end of the long hallway, then turned and came back. “We look pretty good! Well, I look better than you.”

“”Please, I look a million times better than you,” I replied with a smirk. Kacia did look nice, though. She had on her Deb silver and black wrap dress with Jimmy Choo heels and Gucci purse. Her hair was up in a bun, but she let a couple of curly strands hang on either side of her face. She also had her cocktail ring I bought her for her birthday last year.

“Yeah. In your dreams. Now seriously, let's go.” She opened up the front door and playfully pushed me down the small, almost non-existing driveway to her red Dodge Dart. She followed right behind me, pushing the unlock button on her keychain so I can get in. When she started it, I tuned the radio to Sirius XM The Heat, where Ginuwine's “In Those Jeans” was playing. I turned my phone back on, checked my phone for any messages, and sat back into the leather seat.


“Ahem.” Kacia cleared her throat loudly as she sat there.

I looked at her with a blank stare. “What?”

“You're 16, and you still don't know what to do when you get into a car?”

I knew what she meant. “Oh.” I put my seat belt on and went back to staring out of the window. While I stared at the passing buildings and trees, the only other thing I could think about was Adriana. She was smart, cute, and nice. In my mind, she was perfect. I think I could really consider her as a girlfriend. I could imagine kissing her smooth rosy lips. The first time I realized I liked her was when we were playing Truth or Dare, back when we first met and became friends. She asked me truth or dare, and I said dare. She picked up a dare card, which read, “Kiss the girl who appeals to you the most.” She was the one who appealed to me the most, so I went in for my first kiss with her. She blushed afterwards, knowing I chose her over the other two girls there, who were also my friends (now my ex-friends, because they were jealous of her.)

My phone vibrated in my pocket, so I took it out to read the message, which was from Adri. “Mia, I'm telling you, if Kai told me he likes me the way I like him, I would die and go to heaven.”

My eyes widened to about the size of Venus. Holy shi- What in the-... All of these thoughts ran through my mind about a mile a minute. Adri likes me? She actually hes feelings for me? I felt a little flutter in my heart, and butterflies in my stomach. My hands started to shake, and I opened the window a little to feel the nice September breeze.

“You okay? You look scared or something.” Kacia looked over at me when she stopped at a red light.

I cleared my throat. “Uh, yeah. I'm good. Trey just texted me something weird.” My closest friend of 9 years, Trey Hill, is the captain of our football team, the North Side Eagles. We met way back in 1st grade at Thaddeus Stevens Elementary. We both got in trouble for cussing at the teacher, and we basically became inseparable. Kacia always calls him cute and handsome when he's over my house, which I find really strange.

“Oh, really? What did he say?” Her eyes lit up, and a huge smile came to her face. I wondered if she really did have a little crush on Trey. She turned her attention back to the road when the light turned green.

“He said, 'I hope your sis looks pretty as always'. Hey, by the way, can I ask you a question concerning him?”

“Aw! How sweet of him! And what do you want to know?”

“Well, um, how do I put this...”

“Kaire, if there's something you need to tell me, then tell me. Is it bad?”

“In my mind, it is,” I muttered.

“I heard that. Seriously, tell me.”

“Okay, fine.” I took a deep breath and asked her, “Do you like Trey? I mean, do you really like Trey?”

She sighed. “I knew you would ask me soon. Is it obvious?”

“Yes. You always call him cute when he spends the night at the house.”

“ Alright. To be honest, a tiny bit. He reminds me of my last boyfriend.”

I did a huge eye roll and frowned. “Please. Trey is nothing like Ricky.” Kacia's last boyfriend, Ricky Richards, was horrible. I nearly got into a fight with him twice for disrespecting my sister. She broke up with him after he pushed me into the wall.

“I don't mean by how Ricky acted. I mean by his looks. You know I like light-skinned guys with hazel eyes. It doesn't mean I'm gonna try to date him,” she chuckled. “So you don't have anything to worry about, okay?”

“That's true. And I never said you were gonna date him. But thanks for reassuring me about it anyways.”

“No problem. You're more important than anyone. I love you.” She flashed a quick smile before turning into the entry of West End Point. “Give me your invitation so I can give it to the guard.” I reached into my back pocket and pulled out my crumpled invite. She shook her head in disappointment. “Kai, you're never organized.”

“I try, but I fail.”

“Then you need to try harder.” She took the invite out of my hand and gave it to the guard, who opened up the gates and gave the go-ahead signal. My anxiety rose as she ascended up the hill to the parking lot. We rode past Trey's mom's white Range Rover, then Darnell's cousin's Grand Caravan. She almost hit a car trying to find a space, but she finally found one, pulled in, turned off the car, and said, “I knew it was gonna be packed. We should have left earlier. Oh look, there's Adri and Trey.”

I grabbed her hand before she opened the door. “Wait, hold on. Where?”

She pointed to her right and answered, “Right there. Well, you might not see them because of the car next to you. Now are you ready?”

Hell no, I'm not ready!, my mind said, but I tried my hardest to keep my cool. To assure myself, I tried to be funny. “Ready, Freddy,” I replied with my goofiest smile.

She laughed. “Get out, silly.”

When I got out, I finally saw Adriana, and my heartbeat skyrocketed. Oh my God...