The Imperfect Plan | Wattys2023

Chapter Thirty Three

"I'm confused. Are you trying to make Jax jealous or have you dumped him?" Shay asked me after I had filled her in on the events of the last twenty-four hours, including my not date with Lucas after his practice.

Surprisingly, we had a lovely time and I only thought about Jackson a few times. The majority of the evening we had chatted about everything from our families to school and then onto our future plans.

"Jax can't be jealous because then he would have to admit that he actually likes me enough to be affected and you can't dump somebody if you've never dated them," I explained, while trying my best to pull my dress zipper the remainder of the way up.

I glanced in the mirror at the small red number, made out of a gorgeous soft fabric, that clung to my body in all the right places. It had spaghetti straps that crossed at the back, a low scoop neckline with a tied effect at the front, and other than hugging me around my chest, the remainder of the dress fell to just about mid-thigh. Thank you to my sister for finally spotting a dress she knew I'd love, better late than never.

"I mean, put it this way, it feels a little bit like you're walking straight into the core of the inferno with you life choices right now," Shay said carefully from the other side of the room, catching my eye in the mirror.

I spun around to face her, my dress dancing with me as I turned abruptly.

"I'm not making any life choices; this very much feels completely out of my hands. If anything, life is making choices for me," I replied dramatically, my arms seemingly waving around the room of their own accord.

"So, what exactly are you planning on doing tonight? You do realise they're both going to be there," Shay trailed off.

"I have no idea, so instead of behaving like a normal adult, I've decided I'll ignore the both of them and wait for mother nature to give me a sign!" I said with a big sigh, as if I had created a bulletproof plan.

Just as I clasped my hands together, my phone buzzed with an incoming text.

Jax: See you tonight. I hate it when you're mad at me ☹

Ronnie: I'm beginning to move you from the hate pile to the dislike pile 😉

Jax: Does that mean we can kiss and make up soon?

I let out a sigh and showed Shay the texts.

"Ten seconds ago, you said you were going to ignore him and now you're sending him flirty emojis!" Shay sighed with frustration and grabbed my phone from my hand. "I'm confiscating this, until you start thinking with you head, rather than that and that," she added, pointing directly at my heart and vagina.

"You're no fun," I pouted.

A knock sounded at the door, catching my attention and as I headed towards the front of the house to open up, the last person I expected to be standing there was Lucas.

"Hey, wow you look great. I was wondering if you girls needed a lift to the party as I'm headed there now," Lucas suggested, motioning to his waiting car in the driveway next door.

"That would actually be fantastic, right Shay?" I asked, giving her a beaming smile as she came to join me by the door.

"Really fantastic Lucas, thank you. It's almost as if you were hand delivered by mother nature herself," Shay beamed back at me, emphasising on the words I had said earlier.

I narrowed my eyes, grabbed my purse off the side and followed closely behind Lucas as we made our way towards his car and the endless night ahead.

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