by Amanda Abram
I expected him to drag the whole thing out, perhaps making me venture a guess or two as to what he was going to tell me, but surprisingly, he just spit it out: “I told Eric about our plan.”
“Jase!” Trish and I exclaimed in unison.
“Why did you have to tell him?” I groaned, lowering my forehead to the cool, hard surface of the lunch table with a slight thud.
“Lexi, sweetie,” Trish said, reaching over and gently stroking my hair. “This is hardly worth getting a concussion over.”
“Speak for yourself,” I mumbled.
Jase lowered his head closer to the table so he could look me in the eye. “He’s my best friend. I had to tell him for the exact same reasons you had to tell Trish.”
“And it’s not like I’m going to tell anyone,” Eric piped up. “At least, not intentionally.”
I let out a strangled cry of frustration. Pushing my chair back, I shot up out of my seat and walked away from the table.
“Lex,” Jase called out. I could hear the sound of the chair legs scraping against the floor as he moved to get up, to come after me. His long legs allowed him to catch up with me in no time. Reaching out, he grabbed my arm to stop me. “Lex, just stop for a second.”
I yanked my arm out of his grasp as I spun around to face him. “Honestly, Jase, I really see no good reason why you needed to tell him.”
“Look, he saw us together this morning and he started asking all these questions. He knows I’ve had a thing for Kylie for quite a while now, so he couldn’t understand why I was suddenly all over someone else.”
It made sense. It really did. But being the idiot I was, I just had to go and overreact. “You mean he couldn’t understand why you were suddenly all over me. And you just had to tell him the truth, because that would be better than letting him believe for one second that you could possibly be attracted to someone like me.”
He stared at me, slack-jawed. “Way to misinterpret the situation.”
“Whatever,” I said, backing away from him. “I’m beginning to think I had the right idea this morning. Maybe we should just end this before it even begins. It’s a stupid idea, anyway.”
“It’s not a stupid idea. And we’re not ending it yet. Not when we haven’t even started.”
“Oh right, I forgot. You need help getting Kylie to see what a wonderful guy you are. Well, you could always just try getting a real girlfriend to parade around in front of her. And you just never know, you might surprise yourself and find you’re actually capable of falling for someone who isn’t a complete and total airhead.”
I instantly regretted my words as soon as they exited my mouth. I honestly hadn't planned on saying something so mean.
“Wow,” he said, nodding slowly. “You know, maybe you’re right. Maybe this is a stupid idea after all.”
My heart instantly sank in my chest. “Jase,” I said as calmly as possible. “I—”
“Forget it. Just…forget it.”
And with that, he walked away. Not back to the table, but out of the cafeteria. He probably wanted to get as far away from me as possible, and who could blame him? I had promised him that I would never get emotional again. And then what did I do? I got emotional.
I turned back toward the lunch table, where Trish and Eric sat, undoubtedly having watched that little scene unfold. When they saw me turn around and look in their direction, they quickly averted their gaze to anything but me. They were obviously both going to pretend they hadn’t heard anything at all.
Great. I had mostly likely just ruined the best chance I had at getting revenge.
Chapter Nine
The last time Jeffrey and I sat together at my kitchen table, he dumped me. So needless to say, the tension was thick as we sat there once again, our books strewn all around on top of it, seated at opposite ends shooting wary glances at one another.
“So this project seems kinda general, huh?” I said, lowering my gaze to my notebook. “What topic should we even pick to do it on?”
“I don’t know,” Jeffrey replied with a shrug. “Sex?”
I should have known he would pick that one. I should have just assumed he would, so I would have been prepared when he said it so that I wouldn’t have blushed.
“You’re blushing,” he said, thoroughly amused.
“I am not,” I denied. I sat up perfectly straight in my chair. “I don’t think we should do it on sex, though.”
“You’re blushing again.” He started to laugh. “Every time you hear or say the word ‘sex’, your face turns all red.”
“Shut up,” I grumbled
“Okay, if you don’t feel comfortable doing it on sex, then how about smoking? We could make a heart wrenching documentary on all of the shitty side-effects. We could interview smokers themselves, and people who have lost family members to lung cancer or whatever. It will be all sentimental and Mrs. Patterson will weep, and we’ll get an instant A. My parents have a pretty sweet video camera I’m sure they’d let us use.”
I thought it over for a moment, and I had to admit I didn’t totally hate the idea. “Maybe...”
“Maybe? We only have a couple of weeks, so we’ll need to decide right away if we’re going to do it so we’ll have enough time to find people to interview. And then we’ll have to allow for time to edit the video.”
“Okay,” I said, giving in way too easily. But the truth was I hadn’t given any thought to the project all day, so I didn’t even have any suggestions of my own to throw on the table. “That’s what we’ll do then.”
“Great.” He flashed me a sparkling smile.
Jeffrey’s smiles were contagious, because they were just so genuine. It was safe to say my crush on him started after he had simply smiled at me. We were both ten when we met. The Westons moved in across the street from Trish and Jase that summer, and Jeffrey quickly become their friend. And since I was practically a member of the Holloway family and was over at their house 24/7, Jeffrey became my friend as well. It was entirely possible that my crush on him slowly started to form the first day we met, when he smiled upon being introduced to me. Although, it wasn't until a couple of years later that I realized it, due to a crush I already had on...erm...someone else. He had braces back then, but somehow they hadn’t detracted from his smiles. If anything, the braces made them more endearing. And those braces were the reason why his smile was so perfect today.
“Lexi?”
I blinked at the sound of my name and realized, with a reasonable amount of mortification, that I’d been unknowingly staring at Jeffrey. “Sorry,” I mumbled, lowering my gaze to the table.
Jeffrey chuckled. “Don’t be. What were you thinking about?”
You, Jeffrey, I wanted to say. It’s always you.
I swear, I almost did say that out loud. And I’m sure that, being the total loser I was, I would have said it, had I not been interrupted at that moment by the sound of the front door opening.
“Hello?” my mother’s voice called out from the foyer. I could hear the jangling of her keys as she shut the door behind her, and the slight thud of her purse being dropped onto the table. I could hear her shuffling through the mail as she made her way to the kitchen and I instantly went into panic mode.
“Mom!” I exclaimed, jumping up from the table to meet her at the kitchen’s entrance.
“Hello, honey,” she said without glancing up from the envelopes in her hand. “How was school?”
“Fine,” I replied as she walked past me. I held my breath, waiting for her to look up and see Jeffrey sitting at the table. Judging from the fact she was so engrossed with the mail, I figured she must have somehow missed noticing Jeffrey's car parked on the side of the road in front of our house, where I had asked him to park instead of the driveway. Otherwise, I was pretty sure she would have come into the kitchen with guns blazing. She had made it quite clear how she felt about Jeffrey after he broke up with me. In fact, I think she was angrier about the whole thing than I was.
�
�Hello, Mrs. Turner,” Jeffrey greeted her, and I groaned inwardly.
My mother froze in place at the sound of his voice. It took a moment for her brain to register who was speaking to her, and then another moment to respond.
“Jeffrey,” she said stiffly, finally glancing over at him. “Hello.” And then she glanced over at me. “Lexi, dear, may I speak with you in the other room?”
That was universal mother language for, “you’ve got some explaining to do, young lady”.
With a reluctant nod, I followed my mother out of the kitchen.
“What is that boy doing in my house?” she asked as soon as she figured we were out of earshot.
I opened my mouth to reply, but she quickly continued with, “You’re not seeing him again, are you? Are you?”
“Of course not.” I didn't even bother to hide the irritation in my voice. “He’s here because we’re working on a project together for Health class. That's all.”
She glanced down at me with a frown. “Okay, then. If it’s a school project, I guess it can’t be avoided. But I think you two should at least get together at the library. Not at each other’s houses. And definitely not alone.”
“Geez, Mom, you sound just like Jase.”
The mention of Jase turned her frown upside down so fast I’m surprised she didn’t sprain something in her face. “Oh really? Jase has an opinion on this?” From the tone of voice she was using, she might as well have said, “So when are you two getting married?”
“Jase has opinions on lots of things.” Like he had an opinion on me spending time with Jeffrey. He had an opinion on my new wardrobe. He had an opinion on who should know about our fake dating. “And they’re all wrong.”
My mom completely ignored my addendum as she grinned from ear to ear. “So when is he going to cash in on his rain check for dinner?”
“With any luck, never.” I tapped my foot impatiently against the linoleum floor. “Now can I please go back into the kitchen? I’m being rude to my guest.”
She sighed deeply and said, “Fine. By all means. But Alexandria Marie Turner, do not let me find you falling for that boy again. Do you hear me?”
I heard her, but I didn’t acknowledge her. I was already in the kitchen by the time she was done talking, and all I could do was pray Jeffrey hadn’t heard a word of our conversation.
He stood up from his chair when he saw me. Judging from the bored look on his face, he hadn’t heard me and my mother talking. “I should get going.”
I nodded in agreement. There was no way we would get anything done with my mother in the house, anyway. She would probably find some lame excuse to come into the kitchen every five minutes, just to make sure we weren’t having sex on the table or something.
“Yeah,” I said. “We can work on this more tomorrow.”
“Sounds good.” He gathered up his books.
I had no idea why, but Jase popped into my mind at that moment. Maybe it was because I’d just brought him into my conversation just two minutes ago. Or maybe it was because I’d been feeling lousy all day about my little bitchfest in the cafeteria. Either way, I had the sudden urge to go apologize profusely to him.
“Are you going straight home?” I asked, out-of-the-blue. I wasn’t exactly sure what my intentions were when I asked the question. I just knew it had something to do with Jase.
“Yeah. Why?”
“Could you give me a lift to Trish’s house?” Oh. So that was my intent. “I mean, it wouldn’t be any trouble, would it? They live across the street.”
Jeffrey narrowed his eyes at me. “They? You mean, Trish and Jase?”
Hmm. Interesting how he automatically assumed this had anything to do with Jase. “Actually, I meant the Holloways in general. But since that includes Jase, I guess that’s what I meant.”
For the first time since we’d broken up, I could actually detect some sort of emotion in Jeffrey’s eyes—except I had no idea what that emotion was. And it was so fleeting I didn’t have time to try and decipher it.
“Sure. Fine. Whatever,” he said with a shrug of indifference.
“Thank you.” I grabbed my jacket off the back of my chair and headed out.
“So,” he said as soon as we were out the door, “on a scale of one to ten, just how much does your mother hate me?”
“She doesn’t hate you,” I lied. “She just…well, you know how mothers are. They’re protective of their children.”
“Yeah,” he said softly, staring down at the ground. This was the moment I expected him to apologize for breaking my heart, but he didn’t. Instead, he opened the passenger door to his car and motioned for me to get in. At least he was still somewhat of a gentleman.
I climbed into the car and breathed in the scent of Jeffrey’s air freshener. It was “new car” scented. That used to be my favorite scent in the entire world, only because I would associate it with him. It was weird being in his car again, because I used to feel so at home in it when we were dating. Now, it felt like I was in a foreign country where I didn’t know the language.
I had encountered many goodnight kisses in that car during our three year relationship. He never used to walk me to my front door, for fear that my father would be standing at the window in the foyer, watching to make sure things didn’t get out of hand. He used to park farther down the street a good ten minutes before my curfew was up so that we could safely make out in private before he escorted me home.
I was so lost in thought I didn’t even notice when Jeffrey backed the car out of the driveway.
“Lexi,” he said suddenly as he began driving down my street.
“Yeah?” I asked. I turned to glance at his beautiful profile as he stared straight ahead at the road. A strand of black hair had fallen into his eyes, and I had to resist the urge to reach over and brush it away. His hair was always so soft; I used to love running my hands through it.
He opened his mouth, but immediately shut it. I stared at him in anticipation, wondering if this could be it. Wondering if this could be the moment he finally apologized for everything.
“Could you get my sunglasses out of the glove compartment for me?”
Okay. Apparently not.
“Yeah, sure,” I mumbled, feeling somewhat dejected. I opened the glove compartment, retrieved the glasses and handed them to him.
Slouching back in my seat, I stared out the window for the remainder of the trip. Neither one of us attempted to spark up any sort of conversation, and for that I was glad. I just wanted to silently wallow in self-pity until we arrived at our destination.
Only minutes later Jeffrey pulled into his driveway. He hadn't even brought the car to a full stop before I let myself out of it.
“Thanks for the ride,” I called over my shoulder as he exited the car. He only responded with a slight nod.
I speed-walked to the end of the driveway and stopped, glancing both ways before crossing the street. Part of me wished a bus would round the corner a bit too quickly and accidentally run me over, to end my misery. But then I figured my misery would be better ended if it hit Jeffrey instead.
I made it to the other side of the street safely, though, and soon found myself walking up Trish’s driveway despite the fact her car was nowhere in sight. Jase’s car was, though.
About halfway to the front door, I began to question my motive. Why was I there, anyway? To apologize to somebody who probably wasn’t going to accept it?
Yet, much to my chagrin, I found myself boldly stalking up to the door and knocking before I had a chance to talk myself out of it.
It took eighteen seconds for the door to open. I counted. At second number seventeen, I began to turn away, to head back to where I’d come from, but then I heard the door open. I felt an icy gaze piercing the back of my head, so I turned around.
Jase stood with one arm propped up on the side of the door, holding it open. He looked about ready to close it at any moment.
“Hey,” I said tentatively.
“Trish isn’t home,” he returned the greeting. His voice was cold and indifferent.
Why was I there again?
“She’s got drama club on Wednesdays,” he continued. “You know that.”
“I do know that. I’m not here to see Trish.”
That seemed to pique his interest. He folded his arms across his chest and cocked his head slightly. “Then why are you here?”
“Can I come in?”
It was then that Jase’s gaze flickered over my shoulder, to across the street.
Turning my head to glance back at Jeffrey’s house, I noticed he was still in the driveway, staring over at us. However, when he saw us both look, he quickly turned away and pretended not to have seen us at all. He slammed the car door shut, but made no attempt to move. I had a feeling that as soon as I turned back to Jase, Jeffrey returned his gaze in our direction.
“Did he drive you here?” Jase asked.
“Yeah,” I replied, keeping the guilt in my voice to a minimum. And then I wondered where the guilt had come from.
“Nice,” he said, in a way that indicated he didn’t really think it was nice at all. Returning his gaze to me, he took a big step forward, to close the empty space between us. Leaning his head down so that his mouth was practically pressed up against my ear, he whispered, “Are you trying to make him jealous?”
I barely heard the words he said. I was too busy concentrating on the fact that the feel of his breath against my ear sent chills—the good kind—up and down my spine.
Swallowing hard, I managed to relocate whatever dignity I had left in my body and, placing my hands on his chest, I shoved him away.
He backed off with a smirk on his face, and I felt the sudden urge to hit him.
“No, actually, I came to apologize. But if you’re going to be a jackass, I think I’ll reconsider.”
“Hey, I just did a very nice thing for you. Jeffrey probably thinks I invited you in to hook up.”
I blinked. Oh. Right. I’d almost forgotten Jeffrey had witnessed that little close encounter. “How did he react?” I asked with total nonchalance.