Kylie smacked her gum as she bounced around in the driver's street to Goo Goo Doll's ‘Slide''. Signaling, she turned into the parking lot of the ‘Wherehouse', where she and her two best friends, Tabitha and Emma, worked. Parking her dark green utility vehicle on the side of the building, she grabbed her bag and keys and climbed out. Locking her door behind her, she walked up onto the sidewalk and down towards the store. Outside was a stack of Metro waiting to be brought inside. Grabbing the string that wrapped the stack together, she opened the door and walked in. A new display had been put up. It was of the Moffatts. Kylie smiled to herself and set the Metros in the stand that they always are in.
"Kylie!!!!!," a voice screeched. Kylie set her bag on the counter and turned around. Tabitha was running up to her. Kylie had known Tabitha for the three year she had been in Palo Alto. Kylie and her family had moved her from their old town and Tabitha lived in the house behind theirs. She had short blonde hair and green eyes. She was a sports freak and played just about anything and everything. And she was good at it too. Tabitha wearing jeans and her basketball championships t-shirt. She was waving a paper in her hand.
"What now Tabby?," she asked walking behind it and grabbing her keys and slide in card. She ran it through the machine and punched in some keys.
"They are coming!," she exclaimed. Kylie's blue eyes were glued to the screen as she signed into the computer system.
"Who are?," she asked not glancing up.
"They are!!!," she exclaimed again throwing the paper down on the keyboard. Four familiar faces came into focus. The headline read: The Moffatts Come To The Bay Area. She grabbed the paper and quickly scanned the article:
Backstreet Boys, Hanson, Nsync, 98 Degrees and now the Moffatts. How much more boy bands do they think we can handle? Obviously a lot. On June 14th at the Concord Pavilion, the Moffatts will play their sold out concert-
Kylie, Emma, and Tabitha loved the Moffatts. They were one of their favorite bands. Kylie slowly set the article down and glanced at the counter beside her where a small calender sat. The concert would be in less than 2 weeks. But if it were to be at the Concord Pavilion, then the tickets should have gone on sale ages ago. Kylie looked over at Tabitha. Emma had now joined her on the other side of the counter. She had long curly fiery red hair. They had straightened it out once and it was less than a foot away from the ground. She had dark brown eyes that seemed so innocent. She was wearing a Hanson t-shirt and jean shorts. Kylie smiled. They had all gotten a job at the ‘Wherehouse' because after getting lawn at the Hanson concert, they were determined to never have bad seats again. This way they got first dibs on tickets to any concert using BASS. Emma shifted the box full of CD cartridges that she was holding.
"When the hell did the tickets go on sale?," Kylie asked obviously confused.
"Spring Break when we went to Tahoe," Emma explained. Kylie remembered the trip she had taken with her friends from school and church.
"Why didn't anyone tell us?," Kylie asked, staring to panic.
"They didn't want us to freak out. That is what Helen told me," Tabitha whispered, referring to their shift manager. Kylie held back tears as she slowly set down the article. Three years. Three years she had waited for him to return. Now there was no hope.
Flopping back on her bed, Kylie stared at her huge Hanson poster on her ceiling. Work had been hell the whole day after she had heard what happened. There was no way she had any chance to get into the concert. This sucks!, she thought bitterly. Rolling over, she felt under her bed for the shoebox. She hadn't taken it out of it's dark hiding place in the three years she had been here. Finding it behind the bag she had put it in, she slid it out. The box was decorated in comics from the newspaper and magazine cut outs. Scribbled on the top was one single word. Clint. Sighing, she picked the top off and set it down beside her. Smiling she took out a picture that sat on top. It was two people hanging upside down from a thick tree branch. One of them was Clint, and the other, was her. She remembered that day so well. Clint, Scott, MaryBeth, and her had gone on a picnic for fun and Clint had bet Kylie she wouldn't hang upside down. Kylie hated to lose a bet, so tucking in her tank top into her shorts, she followed him up the tree and flipped over upside down. MaryBeth, seizing the moment, snapped a picture. It was Kylie's favorite. Her and Clint had been play fighting and were twisting each others arms around. It was truly a Kodak moment. The box was full of memories. Pictures of them. Notes he had written her and things that meant something to them. For instance, there was a leaf in there that he said would bring her to her true love. It was a Weeping Willow leaf. There was a small picture of Clint Eastwood in there that said whenever she held it, she would think of "what a sexy Cowboy I am" were his words exactly. Smiling, Kylie picked up a letter. Unfolding it, she sucked in her breath. It was a photocopy of the note she had written him before she had moved. It read:
-Clint-
By the time you receive this letter, I will be gone. Obvious because the ‘For Sale' sign in my front yard across the street just might give it away. I never got to see you before you left for tour. I had been out of town, remember? Papa got a job transfer, I have no clue where, somewhere in the Bay Area in California. I don't think I will want to say good-bye. So I won't. I don't know if I will keep in contact either. It would be to hard for me. There are a couple of things I never told you, that I want you to know now. I love you. I have since the day I met you. I never wanted to tell you because your friendship was so important to me, I couldn't bare to ruin it. I will keep in contact with you, if I can bare the humiliation now that I have poured out my darkest secret to my best friend. I hope to see our smiling face again some day. Bye for now.
-Kylie-
Kylie silently folded up the note and placed outside and beside the box.
"I never did call him," she whispered aloud. She had never told anyone about how she had known Clint. Not a soul. It had been the secret she would have carried to her grave, but how she wanted him back so much. She wanted to see him. She picked up a stack of letters from Clint. Making herself comfortable, she began to go through them. Before she knew it, she was fast asleep.