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Chapter 16: Acting

When I returned to Wagner two weeks later, I was a different person. Being with my friends back home over the long Christmas break had reinvigorated me. I was refreshed and ready to take on the last semester of my college career. Even Charli noticed my change.

"You look happier," she had said as we unpacked our spring clothes into our separate dressers.

"I am. I had the best freaking time at home. Like, I don't know how to explain it. I just feel... alive. Like everything is brighter and I don't want to sleep all day and food tastes better. Music sounds better."

"Are you on drugs?" She laughed half haphazardly.

"No," I laughed. "I did try some new things with Greyson over the break, but nothing too crazy. I think it's just from me being surrounded by them. Obviously, Katherine and Jordan are still gross when they pull the whole 'baaaabbbyyyy" crap, but when they aren't being gross, we have so much fun. Greyson and I hung out ALL the time and I seriously feel like he's my other half, like he's this piece of me that's just right."

"So you like him," she stated.

"Well, I don't not like him. But it's like, even if he never wants to be anything more than best friends, then I'm okay with it," I smiled, throwing myself on to my bed.

I sat up and crossed my legs in the middle of my bed and continued, "we just have so much fun. Any ways, you know I texted you Jordan and Katherine broke up?" I asked.

I had texted Charli. I updated her almost every day over the break about what was going on in Lovejoy. She would normally reply with a picture of a new book she was reading or a quick "haha".

"Yeah? What happened with that? You told me they broke up and like two days later I saw her post a Christmas picture with him?" Charli hopped up on to her twin bed that paralleled mine on the other side of the room.

"Okay, you ready for the tea?"

"YES!" She clapped

"Okay," I started, "so pretty much, Jordan is addicted to Porn. Which like, whatever, right? What guy hasn't watched porn? But apparently it's SUPER bad in his case. Thinking about it is gross, but Katherine found out and they had a huge fight over it. He told her he had an addictive personality and that he was trying to stop, but he just couldn't. So between her being upset about that and about his temper,"

"Yeah, what the heck? If he's the assistant Youth Pastor and he's addicted to Porn and does all that other crazy stuff, why does he still have that job?" Charli quipped.

"Not sure. I think they just don't know, and

I'm not going to be the one to bring it up."

"Oh."

"Yeah, so with all of that, she told him she needed a break. I don't blame her. He can be crazy. Part of me really didn't want them to get back together. Did I tell you about us going to Shake Shack over the break and what happened?"

Charli shook her head, and I began to tell her how Katherine, Jordan, and I had gone to a concert with the youth group during the first few weeks of Christmas break. We were the only leaders and were in charge of seventy teenagers at a concert with over 10,000 people. After the concert, Jordan and Katherine had asked me to go eat with them. I declined their offer and told them I didn't have the money to go. Jordan insisted I go anyways and that he would buy my dinner. He explained that we would go somewhere cheap since it was so late. We ate at the Shake Shack and when we were finished with our meals, Jordan paid for the three of us. "It's okay, you can pay me back when you can. Its only $6.44," he had said. A few weeks later, I tried to give him six bucks to cover the meal he had paid for. When I handed him the money, he snapped at me, "You still owe me .44 cents, Ind."