Never The Right Time, Jordan Knight

Chapter 21

UNEDITED

"Cindy," Andrew called as he came strolling to me from his car. Seeing his Mom drive off without any greeting. She's always been like that, not very fond of anyone and quite distant from past occurrences shared.

"Hi yourself,' I smiled, closing the boot of my car and giving him a small and quick hug to be polite. He tensed suddenly by this, shocking me ever so slightly, but hiding the emotion as if nothing happened, avoiding any kind of unwanted and awkward tension between us.

"How you been'," He tilted his head marginally to view eye contact as we walked to the old building that we earned only a small wage at. 'Baby's Classic Arcade'  it displayed in neon light up writing, yet the letters that were missing of the word classic only showed the discreet word 'ass' flashing in bold red, cursive lights, making me terribly annoyed that we showcased this business as 'Baby's ass Arcade' and I couldn't do anything about it.

"I'm pretty well thank you, what about you?"

"Eh, same old same old, smoking again, laughing at my own jokes, forgetting about things... important things," He drew out quieter as he finished speaking, almost like he was reflecting on his choices.

"You good?" I asked, wanting to know if he was okay, obviously he wasn't but I wanted to him to tell himself the truth, trying to hiddenly tell him that he shouldn't be lying to me or himself.

"I'm getting there," He chuckled, nodding to me as he sent a small signal of thankfulness, seeing that I cared and wasn't avoiding his depressive state. "You seen Scott lately?"

"Uh," I muttered as he opened the door for me.

"Morning Cindy," Our boss Christian interrupted, grateful for dodging Andrew's question.

"Evening boss," I corrected him playfully, referring to the late and cold night that Boston presented us with today. Normally Mom and Dad would have dropped me off from the surroundings at night but they had somewhere to go so I was staying over at Matty's after work. He laughed letting me go as he bluntly greeted Andrew.

"God he hates me," He shook his head as we placed our bags in our lockers at the back.

"I don't know, maybe he envy's you," I suggested, trying to light up the mood.

"Envy me. Cindy no," He disagreed but still smiled to be polite.

"Children," Samuel nodded as he dropped his bag to the side.

"Hi-"

"Douche," Andrew lowly sung as I tried to be nice to our staff.

"I'm hearing you loud and clear Andrew," Samuel faked a smile to Andrew and went off.

"Glad buddy, really glad," Andrew shouted just loud enough for him to hear. I never understood what was wrong with them two, Sam did go to our school so maybe it had something to do with there, but it wasn't my business so I chose to ignore it.

"I'll meet you out," I told him as I quickly checked my appearance in the mirror, fixing my hair and changing it into a messy half up half down look, letting a few strands of hair shape my face. Walking out to the front, my body was greeted with a light push, noticing a small child had accidentally bumped into my side, he giggled and ran off, back to his friends. Music and lights were made me warmer in the weather, this place lacked warmth, remembering to always bring the hooded jumper with the small logo on the top right hand corner. It only said 'Baby's Arcade' in light pink cursive writing, I admit it was nice enough to wear out to casual outings but Mom hated it whenever I did, always telling me to wear a coat or a sweater. I liked Christian, he wasn't skeptical about hiring people, he knew to give them chances and acted our age, almost as if he wanted to be young again. He only made us wear black jeans and white runners which I was very happy about, Matty said when he worked at Maccas they had to wear dress pants which I personally don't like.

"Basketball hoops?" Andrew's voice made me jump, laughing at my shocked expression.

"Sure," I agreed walking over with him and seeing people ranging from 8 to 19 running crazy around the large place.

"You and Scott hitting okay?" He asked, leaning on the side of the machine as I stood there monitoring everyone's move with my hands stuffed in my pockets, rolling back and forth on my feet.

"Hah, no,"

"Yeah neither are Camila and I," He laughed.

"You broken up right?"

"Yeah, I guess so,"

"What does that mean?" I asked casually, keeping a light voice as my eyebrows were slightly raised.

"I guess you can put it as, her wanting to go and me not wanting her too," He shrugged as I nodded at his answer. "Hey, is that?" Andrew spoke as I looked to the direction that his eyes rested. To the entrance of the place I saw him. I saw him with Heidi and I couldn't believe my eyes.

"Bitch," I scoffed, shaking my head as my body began to shake, to tremble, to explode.

"Dick," Andrew laughed, having no clue why I was ticked off for this particular situation.

They looked around the space, wondering on where to go first, holding hands as the laughed and talked amongst themselves, making me struggle to breathe.

"I didn't know they were hanging out now," Andrew told me as I still kept my gaze on them. It was when I instantly regretted it when Jordan's smile lowered as he came in contact with my presence, seeing me looking absolutely vulnerable as he kissed me just to forget about it and move onto my best friend. What does she see in him? Heidi saw me too, smiling wide as she rushed both herself and Jordan to Andrew and I's way.

"Hold me back if I loss it," I muttered, putting on a fake smile just as Heidi embraced me in a tight hug.

"How are you?" She asked in her fake high pitched voice, still holding Jordan's hand while she greeted me.

"I'm fine," I weakly smiled, feeling my heart immediately rise into my throat.

"Andrew," Heidi went pale, nodding her head awkwardly to him.

"Hi to you too Heidi," Andrew answered emphasising the 'too' as he acted a little stunned and hurt by her rude welcoming.

"Haven't seen you in a while," Jordan directed his attention to myself and it made my eyes angry. I nodded in response as I kept a sarcastic smile displayed on my lips. I couldn't form a single word to him, he still held onto her hand like it was nothing, as if he had never looked at me before or when he told me he wanted to kiss me didn't ever happen.

"Cindy, Andrew, what did I say about no friends at work?" Christian asked from a far with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, these aren't my friends," Andrew pointed to Heidi and Jordan with a large smile, making me amused and wishing I could say the same but I refused to.

"I don't care, just can you please keep an eye out for the little ones,"

"Sir yes, sir," He saluted and dragged me away from them over to the pin pong machines.

"Thank you," I smiled.

"No worries,"

___________________

Hate on me. Sorry for late update...