I felt her lean even closer, but I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want to be that guy any more. I whispered softly against her ear, “I can’t.”
She nodded like she already knew and pulled away slowly. We didn’t say anything as we walked back down to the quilt and packed everything up. I put the cupcakes back in the container and we headed back up to the car.
I drove her home in utter, awkward silence. I couldn’t believe I had almost kissed her. There was no denying anymore that we were more than friends.
I pulled up to her house and was about to open my door when she stopped me, “You don’t have to walk me to my door. You have no idea how much tonight meant to me. Thank you so much.”
“It was just dinner.”
“No. It wasn’t.”
She opened her car door and ran up to her house.
Chapter 7
Jackie
I ran up to my house and went inside closing the door behind me. My mom was sitting on the couch. “Jackie. You’re home early, how was it?”
I ignored her and went into my bedroom, locking the door behind me.
I flopped down on my bed and kicked my shoes off. I felt so stupid. I almost kissed Andy. What the hell was I thinking? Operation Keep Things Platonic sure wasn’t going very well, but he was incredible. He planned an entire birthday dinner complete with cake just for me. I never saw that coming.
I tossed and turned for most of the night, mostly thinking about what it would have been like to kiss Andy. I finally fell asleep feeling completely pathetic. Great, another guy I can’t have.
The next morning I woke up and went to school utterly exhausted. I was really dreading seeing Andy. Luckily he wasn’t at his locker when I walked by. I saw Maddy at hers and walked over. She looked at me cheerfully, “Jackie! Good morning! How was your birthday?”
I shrugged. I didn’t want to keep things from my best friend, but I didn’t really feel like talking about it either. “It was fine. Just another day.”
She shook her head. “You’re legally an adult now! That’s pretty awesome.”
I laughed, Maddy had always been an optimist and now that Jake had stopped being a total asshole to her she was always cheery. I was really going to miss her when she went to K-State in the fall.
Michelle and I had both been accepted to the local community college and were rooming together, but Maddy had picked a school two and half hours away.
Michelle joined us looking as tired as I was and I wondered what she was up to last night. “Thank God it’s Friday. I am so sick of school.”
We all started walked to class and Maddy split off from us after a minute. Michelle looked me over as we were walking. “You look like shit.”
I rolled my eyes. I could always count on Michelle to be honest with me. That was for damn sure. “Yeah I know, I couldn’t sleep last night.”
“Why? Did something happen? Your mom forget your birthday?” Michelle was actually my oldest friends and she knew my mom was a flake, but I didn’t tell her everything. I had never told her about never celebrating my birthday.
“No. She ordered Chinese. Just couldn’t sleep.”
She looked at me suspiciously, but luckily she dropped it. I knew there was no way in hell she would approve of me hanging out with Andy. She hated him with a passion after he cheated on Maddy.
Andy
I was in a really shitty mood when I finally arrived at school fifteen minutes late for my first class the day after Jackie’s birthday. Jake eyed me suspiciously when I walked into the classroom, but didn’t ask. I didn’t sleep well the night before because I did was dream about Jackie and what it would have been like to kiss her.
Kourtney had blown up my phone the entire night before and most of the morning, but I managed to avoid her until lunch. Lunch was fucking awkward as hell.
Thanks to Maddy and Jake “getting along” we all sat at the same lunch table again, so there I was with Jackie and Kourtney. Kourtney was sitting so close to me at the table that our legs were touching and she was rambling on about going to a party tonight and how much she had missed me lately.
I was too much of a coward to look at Jackie. I did wonder what she was thinking and wanted to talk to her, but there was something I had to do first.
When lunch was over I looked at Kourtney, “Why don’t you come over to my house tonight?”
She nodded her head excitedly, “Of course I can. Eight? That way your parents won’t be home.” She bit her lip suggestively.
“Yeah. Eight works.” I picked up my tray and went off to class.
My doorbell rang at eight that night and I walked over to the door with dread in the pit of my stomach. I opened the door and Kourtney flew inside and wrapped her arms around me. “Are your parents gone?”
I closed the door. “Yeah, but…” She didn’t let me finish my sentence and started kissing me and pulling at my shirt, moving us toward the couch.
“God, I’ve missed you. It’s been way too long. I was starting to think you were getting bored with me.”
I pushed her away gently and held her hands together so she would stop pawing at me. Then I let go and sat down on the couch. “Kourtney, wait. We need to talk.”
She scoffed and sat down next to me. She smiled slyly and whispered in my ear, “Are you playing hard to get?”
“No.”
She smiled and moved so she was straddling my lap. “Good because I don’t think I can take it tonight. It’s been three weeks.”
I knew I just needed to get this over with and I was growing irritated with her not taking the hint. “Kourtney I actually want to talk.”
She pouted, “I don’t want to talk Andy.” She pulled her shirt over her head quickly, revealing a lacy red bra I knew she wore just for me. She started kissing my neck and trying to pull my shirt up again.
This was definitely not how I had planned the night would go. The old Andy would have given in and given her exactly what she wanted, but I had to stop. I grabbed her hands again and with one swift motion moved her from my lap to next to me on the couch.
She looked at me stunned. “You seriously just want to talk?”
I picked her shirt off and handed it to her, “Yes.”
She put her shirt back on, “So talk.”
I took a deep breath. “Kourtney, this isn’t working anymore.”
She looked confused, “What isn’t working?”
“This. With us. I can’t do it anymore.”
Anger flashed in her eyes and she stood up furiously, “Are you breaking up with me?”
I stood up also, “I guess if that’s what you want to call it.”
“What the fuck else would I call it? You want to end our relationship?”
“What relationship Kourtney? All it is sex. We don’t talk about anything real. We barely even see each other. I just…I guess I want more.”
Her eyes brightened, “You want more? I can do that. I’ve always wanted that, but didn’t want to scare you away.”
Shit. This wasn’t going well. “Kourtney, that’s not what I mean.”
“You said you want more than just sex, I want that to.”
I really didn’t want to hurt her, but I had no real feelings for her and I couldn’t lead her on anymore. “Look, I don’t know how to say this, but I do want more…someday. I just…”
She looked really upset, “Just not with me?”
I nodded. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you felt that way about me.”
She laughed an angry, hateful laugh, “Are you kidding? We have been dating for over a year? Are you truly that fucking clueless?”
“I guess so. I really thought this was just sex.”
She folded her arms, still looking really pissed off. “You can’t do this! Especially a month before Senior Prom! Everyone expects us to go together.”
There we go. There was that shallow Kourtney I knew. “Oh so that’s it. It’s not just sex, it’s also an image.”
“You’re da
mn right it’s an image. We are the perfect high school couple. Everyone wants to be us.”
I rolled my eyes. “You will find someone else to go to prom with you Kourtney. Don’t worry.”
She grabbed my arm, “I don’t want to just go with anyone. I want to go with Andy Clark. And you didn’t have a problem with just sex a few months ago. So what changed?”
She looked at me with a knowing look. “Maybe I don’t want to be an asshole anymore.”
“Bullshit. You’ve always been an asshole. This is about her.”
I knew exactly who she was talking about, but played stupid. “There is no her. This is about me.”
“Look into my eyes and tell me you aren’t fucking that slut.”
I hated that fucking word. “Don’t call her that.”
“So you admit it!”
I stared into her eyes and said firmly, “No. Since you and I started our “relationship” I have not had sex with anyone but you.”
“You’re a liar.”
I sighed and for some reason decided to be totally honest. “I haven’t had sex with anyone, but maybe I am guilty of cheating.”
She reached up and slapped me hard across my cheek. “You bastard! I knew it!”
Well that was dramatic. I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything less and maybe I deserved it. “Okay. It’s time to go.”
I walked over and opened the front door. “Leave. This is over.”
She walked over to the door. “This isn’t even close to over.” With that she walked out in a huff.
Chapter 8
Jackie
“I fucking hate Mondays.” Michelle and I were walking to class Monday morning and she was her usual cheery self.
I laughed. “Me too, what did you do this weekend?”
“Not much. Went to the lake house for a little while on Friday, but it was lame. You need to start going to parties again.”
I shook my head, “No thanks, I’m done.”
She laughed. “Oh please. You are just going through a phase, a really boring phase, so what did you do this weekend?”
I thought about my boring weekend that consisted of staying home and wondering what Andy was doing. Pathetic I know. I hadn’t talked to him since my birthday and it was driving me crazy. And listening to him make plans with his girlfriend on Friday didn’t help. I shrugged. “Not much.”
“Boring!”
We got into our classroom and headed to our desks when Kourtney rammed into my shoulder with hers, and exclaimed, “Watch it bitch!”
Michelle of course couldn’t let it go, “Who the fuck are you calling a bitch? Bitch.”
I looked at my friend who I could tell was seeing red. “Michelle, let it go.”
She just glared at Kourtney who looked a little unnerved. Michelle could do that easily with just a look. She turned my attention to me. “I know about you and Andy.”
I just looked at her, not knowing exactly what she meant. “What are you talking about?”
“I know that you are screwing him. Stay away from him. He is mine.”
Michelle laughed cruelly, “Please. Jackie isn’t stupid enough to be with Andy. He’s all yours.”
Kourtney looked upset and I wondered if something had happened with her and Andy. She cleared her throat. “You’re right, he is all mine.” She looked at me. “So stay away from him.”
The teacher told us to take our seats and we all obeyed without saying anything else to each other.
I spent the entire hour wondering why Kourtney thought there was something going on between Andy and me.
Michelle and I went out for lunch so I didn’t have an opportunity to see Andy until school was over and I saw him heading out to the parking lot. I ran to catch up with him, “Andy, wait up!”
He stopped and smiled at me, “Hey, Jackie.”
“Hey. No practice tonight?”
He shook his head, “Nope, You?”
“Nope, are you busy tonight?”
“No. What do you have in mind?” He grinned at me.
“Our project is due Thursday. I was hoping we could wrap it up tonight.”
He looked slightly disappointed, and then smiled “Sounds good to me. You want to come over now?”
“Yeah, that would be great.”
I followed him to his house and we went inside.
Andy’s mom and dad were sitting on the couch, watching television together. Mrs. Clark’s head was resting on her husband’s shoulder. They looked perfectly content in that moment.
Mrs. Clark looked over, “Well hi!”
I greeted them both. Andy’s dad asked, “So what are you kids up to?”
“Finishing up our project, dad, its due Thursday.”
Mrs. Clark smiled, “Ah. You guys going to get an “A”?”
I smiled back, “I hope so.”
“We’ll be in the dining room.” Andy started walking into the dining room where the computer was after Mrs. Clark caught us sleeping in his room. I followed him in and sat down at the table.
I took out my laptop. “We can use this if you want. Or we can use yours.”
“Laptop is fine.” He sat next to me at the table. We worked on our project, neither one of us bringing up my birthday or Kourtney.
Andy’s parents went to work a couple of hours later and left money for us to order a pizza. As Andy ordered the pizza, I realized our report was finished. There wasn’t anything else to do and I felt surprisingly sad. I had a lot of fun on this project with him.
He hung up his cell phone, “It’ll be here in fifteen minutes. So what’s left?”
“Just the oral report on Thursday.”
“Wow. I can’t believe we are finished.”
“I know it’s actually been fun.”
He sat down at the table. “Yeah, who knew anything for school could be fun. Want to go into the living room to wait for pizza then?”
I nodded and followed him into the living room. We sat next to each other on the couch and Andy started flipping through channels.
I couldn’t take it anymore and had to ask, “What’s up with you and Kourtney?”
Andy
I had spent hours with Jackie after school and she didn’t mention Kourtney so I had assumed she didn’t know about the breakup. No one knew apparently. When I got to school that morning I had expected to be bombarded with questions about Kourtney, but no one said a thing. It was really strange because our town was so small I knew it would be a big deal.
Kourtney wasn’t at lunch and I had wondered if she had skipped school that day. I finally saw Kourtney before my last class of the day and found out why no one was talking about it. She had hugged me and tried to act like nothing had happened. I looked at her like she was insane and tried to make it very clear that we were broken up. She told me I would regret it, another empty threat I thought. That time there were a few witnesses including her best friend Kelsey, so I knew it would be common knowledge soon.
So when Jackie asked what was up with Kourtney and me, I wasn’t too surprised she had heard, but I was surprised it had taken so long for her to ask.
“There is nothing with me and Kourtney anymore. We broke up Friday.”
She looked really surprised. Maybe she hadn’t heard yet. “Really?”
“Yeah, that’s why I asked her over that night.”
I saw a slight smile on her face before she turned to passive, “Oh. Well I’m sorry it didn’t work out.”
I grinned over at her. She was sitting so close to me I could smell her flowery perfume. She was pretending to watch the TV intently. “You don’t have to lie.”
She turned to face me, “Okay. I’m not sorry. She’s awful.”
I laughed. “Yeah.”
“So how did she take it? I’m guessing not well.”
“She tried to pretend like it didn’t happen.”
“Wow. She’s insane.”
I chuckled. “Yeah I thought so too. I knew something was up when no one mentione
d it all day.”
“Yeah I didn’t hear about it, although she did tell me to stay away from you.”
That didn’t surprise me. “Sorry. I don’t know why, but she thinks there is something going on between us. Even though I told her there wasn’t.”
She turned back to the television and tried to act nonchalant, but I sensed something else was there. Before I could ask her about it the doorbell rang and I got up to get the pizza.
We ate and then Jackie started to pack up her stuff, “Well I better get home. Thank your parents for dinner okay?”
I walked her over to the door. There was so much I wanted to say to her, but I just didn’t think it was the right time since I had just ended things with Kourtney. “I will. I’ll see ya tomorrow.”
She left and I checked my phone that I had turned off while Jackie was over. I had three missed calls and two texts, all from Kourtney. I didn’t listen to the messages or read the texts and just deleted them all.
Chapter 9
Jackie
The next day I walked into school, oddly giddy. I had an amazingly hot dream about Andy the night before and woke up in a great mood. Of course I knew I couldn’t pursue anything with Andy, but a girl can always dream.
At least he wasn’t with Kourtney anymore. I walked over to my locker and was pleasantly surprised when I saw Andy leaning his gorgeous, large body, against it with a cocky grin. My face flushed thinking about my dream the night before. I walked over to him, “Hey.”
“Hey. You have plans on Friday?”
“Uh, no, but our report is done on Thursday.”
He smiled and moved so I could open my locker, “Yeah I know. I was wondering if you would let me take you out on a date.”
I was stunned. He didn’t mention anything about wanting to date me last night. “A date?”
Evolve (Soulmates Book 4) Page 5
