by J. Preston
“She is?” I look at her hopefully, starting the engine.
“Seriously, lost puppy… Yes, she is. But to let her come to terms with that, you need to be there. The less you’re there the longer she’ll deliberate and, by looking at your love stricken expression, you’d probably prefer if she’d make that decision sooner rather than later, yes?” I nod.
We drive in silence. I’m thinking about all the times that Jenny and I were in the same room, the way she looked at me, the blush on her cheeks every single time my hand brushed hers. Could this be? Could she actually want to be with me? All I’ve been doing is stalling and letting my ego get in the way, thinking that I’ve been rejected.
Is that what you want, to be friends? I remember asking her. Not really, she replied… What if, once again, I screwed up by not fighting for her? Was I right to give her space or was I supposed to just suck it up? A million scenarios run around my head like a bunch of drunken horses, racing. They are bouncing off each other, confusing and in complete chaos. When we arrive, Hayley jumps out of the car and goes straight for the door to the house, not waiting for me. I’m glad. I need to think of a strategy here. Being just friends with Jenny is hard, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do it; and while I’m being just friends, I can always try to get closer at the same time. I’ve got until Christmas to change her mind; that’s a month. Unless. Jenny and Jason are coming to London too.
I get out of the car and rush into the house. Jenny and Hayley are sitting on the kitchen counter. They both wave at me, and Jenny blushes. I’m about to run past her when I decide Phase One of the Jenny Project is officially in action. I skid to a full stop, then turn and walk to her, embracing her in a hug, catching a whiff of strawberries when my nose connects with her hair. She’s shocked and doesn’t react. For a second, I’m mortified. I’ve done the wrong thing, then she wraps her arms around me and squeezes me gently.
“Hey, beautiful,” I say, giving her a peck on her left cheek. “Feels like I haven’t seen you in forever!” I exaggerate, letting her go and moving out of the hug. Her hands stay outstretched for a second too long before she catches herself and puts them next to her on the counter. “All good with you?” She nods, her cheeks turning red. I smile, hoping that my dimples show. C’mon little bastards, work to my advantage! Kitten’s eyes grow wide, and she bites her lower lip. “I’ll talk to you later about volunteering. Benny’s been asking about you.” I smile wider. Jenny nods again and Hayley crosses her arms, laughing silently and shaking her head. I turn around and stroll confidently out of the kitchen. I pat myself on the back. That was a good first step; now step two. I run to my room. Jake has made himself comfortable on my bed. I scratch him behind his ear, jolting him awake. I guess the no sleeping in beds unless it’s me in Jenny’s rule never really stuck. I grab my laptop then run into Jason’s room.
I open the door shielding my eyes. “Cover yourself if you’re indecent. Also, oink if you’ve got company.” Jason bursts into laughter.
“Oink, oink, asshole.” He laughs, and I take a step back. “Just kidding. It’s just me and my ultra large penis here. He’s like a separate dude, that one.”
“Really, man?” I scrunch my face in disgust, taking my hand away from my eyes. Jason is sitting on his bed with his laptop on his lap and, thankfully, dressed.
“What?” he asks innocently. “You asked…” He grins at me.
“Yeah, I’m sorry I did… Anyway!” I change the subject to what’s on my mind. “Jenny mentioned a couple of weeks ago that you guys are going to London for Christmas.”
“Oh yeah! I’ve been meaning to ask you if you’ve booked your tickets already, completely slipped my mind.” Jason replies. “Wanna take the same flight?”
“Exactly what I was thinking. I haven’t booked mine yet, have you?”
“No. I always leave stuff like that to the last minute. Jenny will kill me…”
“Okay, let’s book now,” I say and bring up the airline’s website.
We skim through flight options and decide to fly out in the morning a couple of days before Christmas and return just before New Year’s Eve. The prices are steep, so I tell Jason to just transfer me money for the economy class and I’ll book straight away. He seems legitimately relieved that he doesn’t have to think about it anymore.
I go back into my room and change our flights to First Class, making sure Jenny’s seat is next to mine and Jason’s is as far away as possible on both flights. Proud of myself, I purchase the flights and text my dad the details. I also text Carter asking if he’d take care of Jake while we’re away. As I press send, I hear a booming voice coming from the living room.
“Ladies, drop your pants. Gentlemen, pull yours up and walk away. Carter is here to serve your needs, my dears!” Jake’s head goes up. He barks once, then hops off the bed and runs out of my room. I follow him, meeting Jason in the hallway.
“I guess Kennedy came by.” Jason shrugs.
“I guess so,” I agree.
Carter is spread eagle on the floor when we walk into the living room, Jake on top of him, licking the living shit out of him.
“No, please!” Carter giggles like a child. “It’s ticklish!” I let Jake torture him for a couple of minutes longer before calling him. Jake looks at me judgingly, like I’ve just interrupted him in his favourite play time, which I suppose I did. He does calm down, however, and comes to sit by my leg, wagging his tail and looking at Carter, who’s trying to catch his breath on the floor.
“What an entrance,” Jenny laughs and helps him up.
“That dog,” Carter looks at Jake lovingly, “is the best damn thing that happened on this side of the Atlantic. Aren’t you?” He leans down, baby-talking to Jake, who yelps with happy appreciation, wagging his tail madly.
“Yes, you are,” Carter continues, oblivious to how ridiculous he looks. His shirt is covered in brown fur and slobber, his precious hair all messed up. And half his face is covered in doggy saliva. “If I could, I’d take you away and never give you back,” he says to Jake, then makes kissing noises at him.
Hayley bursts out laughing, unable to keep herself together. Jenny follows soon after.
“Oh. Hi Hayley, didn’t see you there.” Carter’s voice suddenly goes deep. He straightens his back and runs his fingers through his hair. It doesn’t help, now his hair sticks out in two directions, making him look like he’s got horns on each side of his head.
“Hi,” Hayley squeezes out when she and Jenny calm down. “So you’re a dog lover, huh?” She smiles at him, and I swear to God I think Carter blushes for a microsecond.
“I’m a lover,” he winks at her, but Hayley just rolls her eyes, unaffected by his charm. Carter clears his throat, confused, then gestures around to all of us. “Since the entire gang is here,” he starts, “I have come to cordially invite you to Thanksgiving dinner at the Kennedy household.” He bows as he finishes.
“Really?” Jenny asks, excited. “A proper Thanksgiving with your family?”
“If you can call them a family, they’re more like a herd of animals,” Carter mutters.
“Oh, my god!” Jenny exclaims, jumping up and down. “Jason, our first Thanksgiving in America in years! And we’re all going to be together!” She runs up to Jason and jumps into his arms. He twirls her around, his deep laughter bouncing off the walls. I can’t help but smile. She looks so happy, so excited… A twinge of jealousy shoots through me when I look over at Carter. His expression is full of admiration as he follows Jenny’s twirls.
Jake joins in on the excitement and starts barking happily and jumping up and down.
“You’re invited too.” Carter leans down and pats his head. “And you too, don’t think you’re getting out of this one!” he says, straightening up, looking Hayley straight in the eyes and wiggling his eyebrows.
“Oh…” She blushes, not quite as immune to Carter’s charm as I thought. “I’m sorry, but I promised my family I’d go to see them.” She gestures apologetica
lly.
The funny thing is, Carter genuinely looks disappointed.
Huh, wonder what that’s about?
20 A Big Can Of Whoopass
I love children, but I don’t think I can eat a whole one.
- Carter
Jenny
“I can’t believe you’re all going to Carter’s for Thanksgiving tonight. The whole female population of Starwood is jealous of you!” Hayley throws her hands up in the air for the umpteenth time. I just smile at her and continue walking towards her dorm.
“You know, you were invited too. You can still change your mind and come.”
“No, Jen, it really is for the best if I just stay here. Please don’t tell the guys I lied about going home.” Sadness laces her words, but she catches herself quickly and tries to mask it with a smile. I can see right through it. This is the exact smile she puts on when she wants to appear like everything is okay: her ‘professional’ smile. Hayley has recently admitted to me that she’s not going to see her family for Thanksgiving. In fact, she hasn’t seen her ‘family’ in years. I cried when she told me the whole story and swore to keep it a secret. As tough as it has been for her to tell me, I felt honored that she trusted me enough to confide in.
“Of course I won’t.” I give her a small hug. “It’s your story to tell. I just wish you’d at least come with me to London for Christmas.”
She wraps her arm around me as we walk into her building. Her room is on the third floor and the lift is out of order, so we climb the stairs.
“I wish I could, but even though I’m doing as many modelling gigs as possible during the school year without them getting in the way of studying. Holidays are the only time I really have to work, and you know I only have a partial scholarship so...” she trails off, opening the door to her room. Her lips are in a thin line and her eyes are sad and fixated on the poster above her bed. It's a white canvas with a big block ‘You Go Glen Coco’ on it. It makes me giggle every single time I see it. I love it.
“I know, I know… Sorry, I just wish you didn’t have to do it…” I say, slipping under her arm and landing my butt straight on her bed in one swift jump.
“Me too. Anyway, let’s not talk about this now!” she says, clapping her hands and turning around to her closet. In two long steps she’s in front of it, opening the door and diving head first into what I call my personal paradise, filled with all the shoes, bags, and clothes I’m allowed to borrow.
For the next half hour, I get clothes thrown at me every few minutes. I sort them into three piles. Maybe, No, and I’m dying to try this on. Once we go through the clothes, Hayley insists I try them all, disregarding my oh so well thought out sorting system. We end up playing dress up for about an hour before choosing a couple of dressy, black dresses and one red. I fold them carefully and put them in my bag. Getting up, I gather my things and get ready to go home. The gruesome task of packing ahead of me. Seems I’ve only got a couple hours left before we’re supposed to set off.
I hug Hayley goodbye and promise to call and take loads of pictures, so that she doesn’t feel like she’s missing out. Before we know it, we’ve wasted another half an hour, and I’m really starting to panic about not having enough time to get ready.
I run out of Hayley’s room and down the two flights of stairs, patting myself on the back for not breaking my neck in the process. As I cross the green towards the parking lot, I hear someone shout my name.
“Jenny, wait up!” I look around. Did I forget something? But it’s not Hayley. Instead, I see a thin girl with a short blonde bob and an unhealthy-looking tan approaching me. “Thank God you stopped! I thought I’d have to run to catch up with you, and, trust me, these shoes,” she points at her extremely high heeled ankle boots, “are not made for running.” I find myself nodding. The shoes, indeed, look dangerous if not mouthwateringly so.
“Chloe,” I say tensely, once I stop drooling over the grey suede beauties on the dragon’s feet.
“Hi,” she smiles timidly at me.
“Did you need something from me?” I’m totally confused. Chloe looks approachable, apologetic even. Who knew the She-Devil had any other looks apart from the ‘Die little worm, die’ and the ‘I’ll rip your heart out with my dragon claws, then slowly eat it while you’re looking at its diminishing heartbeat’…
“Well, yeah,” Chloe replies, looking down at her feet. I follow her gaze and ogle the boots one more time. They must be about five inches high. If I had them on, they’d basically make me five feet nine. I’d be able to reach things from the top shelves and everything. As it stands, my converse did nothing to help my gnome-like height, especially in comparison to Chloe, who’s towering like a giant above me. She’s almost as tall as Aiden in those shoes, but not quite. She could probably reach his mouth with hers without having to climb him like a koala bear trying to summit a freaking bamboo. I cross my arms in front of my chest and huff with dismay at the unfair reality of my situation.
“Listen.” Chloe looks down at me kindly. Kindly? What the hell is going on? Am I dying? Is it some sort of Make A Wish Thing? Damnit, who’s in charge? This is not my wish! I want full access to Jimmy Choo’s store! “I know we started off on the wrong foot and everything...” You think?
“You think?” My mouth runs faster than my brain. Chloe clutches her Chanel bag to her side and nods at me, her long earrings bumping on her shoulders with each movement of her head. “I just… I wanted to apologize.”
I nearly choke on the chewing gum I’ve been chewing. “Y-y-you what?” The disbelief is making me stutter.
“I wanted to apologize for everything,” she says in a small voice. “I’ve been behaving like a total bitc—not a nice person…”
“You don’t say,” I mutter, stunned.
“Yeah,” she agrees earnestly. “I guess I owe you an explanation. Well, I don’t owe you anything, but I wanted to explain myself anyway.” Ah, there she is! For a second, I thought the reincarnation of Lillith might have actually gone back to hell for a bit, and a normal human being took her place. But I suppose that was just wishful thinking.
“Okay.” I look up at her expectantly.
“Where do I start? I guess you might find this hard to believe, but I’m not a horrible person and I actually have feelings and… The thing is, Jason, your brother, he…he broke my heart,” she blurts out. Thanks to Carter, this does not come as a total shock.
“Carter mentioned that you and Jason used to date.”
She looks surprised but continues on. “Are you going somewhere? We can walk and talk, if you want to? Actually, it might be easier for me to say all this to you if I don’t have to…you know, look at you? Sorry, that sounds bad, but it still hurts when I talk about it.”
I nod and, in silence, we set off towards the parking lot, the jingling of Chloe’s bracelets the only sound.
“So?” I prompt her.
“We dated for the better part of last year, did you know that?” I shake my head. I thought Carter said it was a month. “Well, it was almost eight months. I was in love. And so happy. I couldn’t believe that he’d want to be with me. Then the rumours started, that Jason wasn’t faithful.” She clenches her fists, surely drawing blood with her sharp nails. “I never believed them. Most rumours are just that, rumours. But then I started seeing him around campus with other girls and…”
She stops in her tracks. “He didn’t even have the decency to break up with me. He just phased me out. Stopped texting me, stopped answering my calls… Didn’t even officially break up with me before I found him in another girl’s bed.” Chloe’s voice hitches and her hand flies to her mouth, covering it. I can see the anger and betrayal in her eyes, clear as day. She’s either an amazing actress or Jason really hurt her.
“I didn’t know.”
“Eight months and not even a text, Jenny! He just ghosted me,” she exclaims, and my hand automatically goes out to her, landing on her arm, squeezing it.
“I’m sorry, Chloe.
That’s no way to treat a girl.”
“Yeah.” She nods, a single tear escaping her eye. She quickly wipes it away and turns to face away from me. “It can make a girl go a bit crazy, you know?” She laughs bitterly and resumes walking.
“I get it. I didn’t realize Jason was playing mind games. It doesn’t explain, however, why you’ve been such a bitch to me from the start,” I deadpan.
Chloe sucks in a breath. Her head whips my way. “Wow, you really have bigger balls than most guys in Starwood, don’t ya?” She smiles at me. I’m not buying it just yet but give her a short smile back. “Is it so hard to understand? I felt threatened,” she says. I narrow my eyes. What is she on about? Why would she feel threatened by me out of all people?
“Huh?”
“You don’t even know it, do you?” She smiles knowingly at me.
“What are you talking about?” I ask, exasperated.
“Jenny, you’re gorgeous, and you were hanging out with models, Carter and Aiden. Driving the car Jason drove all last year. Then you were there at Jason’s house—”
“My house and my car!” I interject.
“Yeah. Your house, your car.” She smiles. “I thought for sure you have an agenda, then I found out you’re Jason’s little sister rather than someone who came out of his bedroom. I’m ashamed to say…I lied, hoping that Jason would find out and be jealous. I’m so sorry.”
I have a distinct feeling that I must look a lot like a gremlin right about now. My eyes are large and glassy, my mouth is agape, and the thoughts in my head are causing havoc.
“Okay….” I drawl.
“I don’t want to be that girl,” Chloe says, grabbing my hand. We’ve been standing in front of Kitt for a while now, and I feel the need to lean on the hood before I collapse from confusion. “I don’t want to lie and scheme just because some guy broke my heart last year. I might still hold a torch for him, but I’m not going to stoop that low.”