The Keys to Jericho by Ren Alexander Page B

the first time, genuinely not recognizing me, I took off before I broke down in front of him. It was my nightmare come true. I always thought if I ran into him again after all these years, he’d remember me and, and if we were both single, possibly picking up where we left off…whatever it was that we left.
    I just can’t forget that he did forget me.
    This is definitely a curse.
    Love is something I’ve never been good at or have possessed much luck. I’ve had two boyfriends and a handful of crushes from afar. Well, almost all of them were from a distance. Years ago, I thought Jared and I were friends. I had wanted more, but he didn’t. He only liked teasing me with the possibility before yanking it out of my reach.
    I should go back to the beginning.
    My name is Katriona Elyse Merrick. Kat.
    Or as Jared Beckett used to call me, Kit Kat.
    Jared and I went to high school together. During my sophomore year, which was his junior year, we took driver’s education class together that was offered after school three times a week for a semester. The class was split up and we would rotate practicing things like parking, driving around cones, and backing into a parking space in the school’s parking lot, while others would spend an hour in a classroom, and one student would drive on the road with another instructor.
    When we were practicing in the lot, we each were paired with a partner, while the instructor looked on and graded us. They wanted us to practice driving with someone who could possibly distract us, but in a safer setting instead of throwing us out onto the street with distractions. I was paired with Jared often.
    The first two weeks was classroom instruction, to become familiarized with the laws of the road, and the basics of operating a motor vehicle. Jared and I each sat in the second chair, a row apart. Helena Keiser sat between us, since we were seated alphabetically. One day during the second week, Helena caught Jared smiling at me as I casually caught his eye. She thought it was some kind of significant moment, I guess, because she remarked that we would look “cute together” and that Jared should ask me out on a date. I was so horrified that she would put him in that awkward situation of being caught unawares like that. I wasn’t anyone in my school. I didn’t play any sports. I wasn’t a cheerleader, in any high-profile clubs, or the band. I wasn’t popular or even known for being one of the extremely smart kids. I wasn’t a burnout, a dropout, or put out. I did my work, was a good student and had a handful of friends, but there wasn’t anything that singled me out. I wasn’t unlike other students, yet that’s it. I was just…there.
    In contrast, Jared was a varsity football player—wide receiver, to be exact. I knew that because after Helena’s comment, I looked him up in my previous yearbooks and school newsletters. I even stopped by the team picture, hanging outside the gym doors, which listed their names and positions. Since I wasn’t into football or into who’s who in school, I had known nothing about him prior to having class with him.
    After I knew who he was, that’s when I started hearing his name more, or rather, I knew who they were talking about when I heard his name. The more I heard his name, the more awkward I felt that Helena suggested he ask me out. Jared Beckett was popular, but not massively so, casually finding out from friends of friends’ intel on him that he mostly kept to himself. Nevertheless, he would never be seen with me. Why would he when he could have anyone he wanted? I didn’t think I was horribly ugly, but I wasn’t gorgeous like the cheerleaders or the popular girls. My hair was dull and shoulder-length. I didn’t wear much makeup. I wore glasses, a retainer, and I was a bony thing with hardly any boobs. Those didn’t make a full appearance until my senior year.
    After Helena’s bold proposition, things immediately became different, but in an