Pretty Boy

Chapter 2

RJ stood looking at herself in the full-length mirror on the back of her door. She had changed outfits three times and put her hair up and down at least five times. She was frustrated that she was letting Steve actually make her this nervous.

You have nothing to be nervous about nothings gonna happen.

She pulled her long red hair into a ponytail and observed herself again.

No, that's not right.

She took out the ponytail and looked at her hair down. She liked how it looked down, but it wasn't too practical for her job.

Eventually, she had an idea. She hurried over to her sister's room and knocked rhythmically on the door.

"Come in," Max replied.

RJ opened the door and saw Max on her bed, nose deep in a comic book. RJ leaned against the doorframe looking at her sister.

"Do you have that headband I let you borrow the other week?"

Without looking up from her book Max pointed to her vanity across the room. On top of it sat a bright pink elastic headband. She walked across Max's room and grabbed it off the vanity. She slipped it on and stood back to look at her entire outfit. Max looked up from her comic and saw her sister staring into the mirror, messing with her hair every which way.

"You seem strangely dressed up for work," Max remarked.

"What do you mean?" RJ replied, annoyed.

"Well, you're wearing your nice acid wash shorts and that new tee shirt."

RJ desperately tried to hide her nerves along with the frustration she felt about being so damn nervous.

"So maybe I was just feeling like looking nicer today ok?" RJ snapped lightly.

Max gave RJ a cheeky look, "It wouldn't have anything to do with a certain ice cream-slinging pretty boy, would it?"

"Steve?! What no he's out of the picture," RJ responded.

Max closed her comic book and cocked her eyebrow. She was clearly unconvinced. Not to mention RJ wasn't a particularly good liar.

"I'm serious! Nothing is gonna happen between us again...ever," RJ said, trying to convince herself more than anyone.

Max sighed, "Ok if you say so," and returned to reading her comic.

RJ huffed at her sister's ability to see through her bullshit. She looked in the mirror once more, smoothing out one more bump in the headband, and made her way out the door.

"Tell me how it goes with Steve," Max teased before RJ closed her door.

~

Ten o'clock, on the dot, RJ was waiting for Steve in front of his house. The nerves she had shaken away returned once she parked in front of his house. Memories came flooding back at the sight of his house: The movie nights in his basement, the Christmas cookies they made in his kitchen, and when he first kissed her. When he first said, "I love you." Right on the porch that RJ now couldn't seem to take her eyes off of.

She just had to get through this drive then she could let it go. Then she thought maybe this was a sign. A sign that she needed to give Steve a second chance. She quickly shook the thought away. Steve deserved better than her second chance. He deserved to find someone better.

Steve walked out and awkwardly smiled at RJ. She smiled back and took a moment to push away the internal crisis she had just experienced while waiting for him to come out. He hopped into the passenger seat of the car.