Just Teenagers

She listened to the coins clink down into the vending machine. Wrestling with her conscience, Kaley tapped a blue fingernail on her chin, debating between a shiny red apple and the Treasure Potato Chips. After pressing B1, the package slid down into the tray. She stepped to the beverage machine and didn’t hesitate to select a bottle of water. Kaley stuffed the chips into the pocket of her windbreaker and bottled water went inside the canvas tote bag she carried. She paid no attention to the man that stood too close, or followed her out of the building to where her impatient friend waited.

“Let’s hurry before the movie starts,” her friend said.

The man hung back enough to mingle with other pedestrians, but kept the girl in the yellow jacket in his site. He watched the girls chatter as they hurried the two blocks to the movie theater. When Kaley and her friend disappeared into darkness that smelled of buttered popcorn, he waited a few moments before purchasing a ticket to the silly teen comedy.

The girls sat five rows from the front. Too close for his eyes, but he didn’t care. He was here to watch over Kaley. Three rows behind his girl, the man slumped into a seat.

He smiled when she laughed at something on the screen, and thought it clever that she brought her own snacks. The man, momentarily content to spy on her happiness, so wanted to hug her, and show his doting side. To be able to chain his arm through hers, admitting he was her father.

He still loved Kaley’s mother despite the fact they didn’t marry because they were just teenagers—like her father warned with anger, “Forget this ever happened, or go to jail, punk.”

But he couldn’t.


Word Count: 300