Page 11 of For the Fans

He steps over to me slowly. “Don’t worry, superstar. I wouldn’t be caught dead associating with your preppy ass.” Stuffing his hands into his pockets, he leans in. “Bad for my image.” Then he winks, twirls around, and leaves me standing out on the deck alone…

Desperately clinging to some truth in his words.

It won’t last.

There’s no way…

The high will wear off and my dad will come to his senses.

This isn’t permanent.

DarthKittyVader: 10/10 I would let those hands be my necklace.

6 Months Later…

Welp, the unthinkable happened…

Tom proposed to my mother. And she actually saidyes.

He did it on Thanksgiving. We had dinner at his house, just the four of us…

Me, Mom, Thomas Harbor, and his football-playing jerk-wad of a son,Kyran.

I was already annoyed at having Thanksgiving with people other than my mother for the first time since I was a little kid. Even more so, having it with people I don’t really care for all that much. But then after dinner, while we were all sitting around the den, having pumpkin pie like some kind of new little family, Tom dropped onto one knee and fuckingproposedto my mother.

All summer, I’d really been trying to stay positive about the whole thing. I never want to rain on my mom’s parade, mainly because she’s spent so many years depressed and kind of lonelyafter the death of my father. But the proposal just smacked me in the face. And I wasn’t the only one…

The wordyeswas barely out of my mother’s mouth before Kyran got up and stormed off. Tom went after him, and we heard them yelling for a few minutes while I just sat there quietly, forcing an uneasy smile and telling Mom that I washappy for her.

When Tom returned, he said, “He’ll come around. Ky just needs time to adjust. He took the divorce pretty hard…”

My mother comforted him, likehewas the one who was upset, and we didn’t see Kyran again for the rest of the night.

My head spun for days on end after that. Because even though they hadn’t told us outright how big things would be changing, I just knew it was true. My mother, my best friend and the only person I have in this world, was getting remarried. Moving to Boston was just the beginning…

Apparently, I was getting a whole new family dynamic, and I had no choice but to get on board with it. And sure enough, the changes came on like rapid-fire after that.

Over Christmas break, we moved into Tom and Kyran’s house in Somerville. And now, I’ve officially resumed my junior year atyet anothernew school… Somerville High.

The school thing isn’t the biggest deal for me. I’m really not a fan of high school anyway, and it’s not like I had much time to grow accustomed to Malden, since I was barely there for a full school year. But Holly took it kind of hard…

She had sort of become mygirlfriend, only in the sense that I lost my virginity to her. We were never even really an official item, and I know it sounds bad to say, but I think she liked me more than I liked her. Not that Ididn’tlike her, or that I don’t, but I never got butterflies being with her.

Don’t get me wrong, losing my virginity was cool and all, but it seemed more like something I wassupposedto do… Not something that made me feel weightless.

We agreed to stay in touch when I left Malden. In theory, I guess I could have kept dating her, since I’m only a town over. But it just didn’t seem realistic at my age to come to a new school with a girlfriend. And that probably goes to show how little I was invested in therelationship, because it would have been pretty easy to keep dating Holly. The whole thing makes me feel like a jerk, and I don’t like that.

It’s all Tom’s fault.

He’sthe one who swept my mother off her feet in record time.He’sthe one with the big fancy house in Somerville, within the new school district, so transferring me was easier than keeping me at Malden High.He’sthe one with the son who clearly hates my guts without even making the slightest effort to get to know me.

Kyran is a dick, and that’s putting it mildly. I’m not used to having siblings as it is, and now I’ve been saddled with one who’s nothing like me, and who spends every interaction we have scowling at me like I pissed in his Raisin Bran.

I wish it wasn’t just us… Like, if there was another sibling to maybe soften the blow. Kyran has an older sister, Bridget, but I guess she left home after the divorce and went to school in California. I can’t say I don’t get it…Putting distance between me and the ray of sunshine known as Kyran Harbordoesseem like a fun concept.

But I can’t do that. I refuse to leave my mother, which is why the meeting with my guidance counselor to talk about college applications revolved around me applying to all schools in the Boston area.

It’s just after lunch, and I’m on my way to art class when I hear a symphony of raucous laughter that grates in my ears like aparticularly terrible song.Ever heard “Hollaback Girl” by Gwen Stefani?