missing | gilinsky

6

I'm waiting outside Westside for a total of ten minutes when I decide to text Sammy asking where the hell he is.

i've been waiting forever are you coming??

It takes five more minutes for him to answer which sort of bugs me but I'll get over it.

shit I'm sorry I forgot to tell you, I cant make it today 

I don't bother texting him back saying okay, I just slide my phone back in the pocket of my shorts and make my way back to the school to go find Hannah. Hopefully she won't ignore me even though I ignored her all day yesterday after I saw her with Jack. I'm mildly annoyed. He probably blew me off to go hang out with that stupid girl he was with yesterday. It's not that I'm jealous, it's just that he's one of my only friends and it'd be nice if we could hangout at our normal time.

I'm about to walk up the school steps when I notice a black jeep out of the corner of my eye. I don't know anyone in our school who drives a black jeep, so I assume that it's Jack's. Why would Jack even be here? I turn to the left and confirm that that is in fact, his jeep. 

Striding away from the school I walk straight up to the car and start knocking on the window. Jack sits up straight and shakes his head around. I probably just woke him up. How weird is that, why is he sleeping in his car at the school? When he sees that it's me he rolls down his window, squinting as the sun rushes at his face. 

"Nadia?"

"What are you doing here?" I ask. 

"I'm really sorry about yesterday, I didn't mean to get all mad." 

There he goes again, changing the subject when I ask him a question he doesn't want to answer. "It's fine, I don't care." 

"Let me make it up to you," He says, pushing open the passenger door. "Get in." 

I raise my eyebrows, contemplating whether I should go or not. "Wendy's?"

"Of course."

"Alright." I jump up into the seat and buckle my seat belt, then shut the door beside me. I didn't end up eating my Baconator from yesterday, I gave it to my mom. 

I decide not to start asking any questions because I don't want a repeat of yesterday. That's why I'm surprised when Jack starts up the conversation.

"Jack and I met online, from that app Vine?" He offers, shifting a little in his seat. 

I nod my head, recalling Jack using the app a couple times and making me film for him. 

"Well, yeah, so that's how I know him," he says. "We both had the same name and both posted relatively the same stuff so I messaged him and that's how we became friends." 

"Did you come here to visit him?" I ask. Jack never told me anything about meeting anyone online, then again after Dad died he stopped telling me a lot of things about his personal life. I wonder if he told Jack about the car accident.

"Not exactly," Jack answers, pulling into Wendy's. This time we go through the drive thru and order the same things we did the day before. 

"Ok," I say, not wanting to press for anything information. I finally got something out of him and I don't wanna ruin it. 

As Jack drives out of Wendy's without opening his food yet again I can tell that he's not done talking. "Hannah came to the pool yesterday to see you, but she found me instead."

Now I'm more curious than I was before. "Did she tell you what she wanted to tell me?"

Jack shakes his head. "No, she asked me if I'd seen you and I said no, then she told me about Johnson." 

"Oh." Is all I can manage to say. Is that why they didn't wanna tell me what they had been talking about? Because it was about Jack and Hannah knows how much I hate when people bring him up? I wish I knew what she had come to the pool to tell me, I shouldn't be ignoring her right now. I'm so dumb. 

"Yeah, sorry I've been so private about him, it's just I didn't want to upset you." Jack leaves one hand on the steering wheel as he unwraps his burger with the other. 

"It's fine," I say, unwrapping mine. 

A silence comes over us as we eat, and Jack drives. I have no idea where we're even going. Back to the school? Back to my house? His house? Why would he take me to his house? Do I want him to take me to his house? He's so bipolar. One minute he's angry and mad, then the next he's all cool, calm, and collected.

I'm glad he told me about how he knew Jack, and I'm glad I finally have a sense of who he is to my brother. He's not much of a stranger anymore. I know he knows more than he's telling me but I've already gotten so far I don't want to scare him away by asking any questions. I guess that's the way he works, he doesn't like to be asked to say things because he'll say them when he's ready. 

Ten minutes later we're sitting in Westside's parking lot, finishing up our food. It's already 12:40 but I don't really care if I'm late. I know I'll be getting detention but that's fine by me. I'm content with how my lunch has been going, I don't want it to end. 

"Thanks for the food," I say, crumpling all my garbage up into a ball. 

"No problem," he says, taking a sip from his water. 

My phone buzzes and I know it's Hannah before I even click on the message. 

Where are you? Murrey marked you absent

I'm in the parking lot

Well hurry your ass up and get in here, what are you and Sam doing, making out???

Would you be jealous if we were making out?

Shut up and let's go

I'm with Jack

...Gilinsky?

No shit

Ooooh did you guys go on a date

I laugh and roll my eyes, putting my phone back in my pocket. Hannah is such a hopeless romantic. As if I'd be on a date with Jack. How could she think Sam and me were making out? That better have been a joke. 

"What's so funny?" Jack asks. "Who were you texting?"

"Bye," I say, getting out of the car. There's no way I was telling him I was laughing because Hannah suggested we were out on a date. 

"Bye," he replies, giving me a quick wave before driving off. 

I smile to myself as I walk up the stairs of Westside, throwing the Wendy's wrapper in a garbage right outside the front door. This was so worth getting detention over. 

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-gilinskyshigh