Since Day One

10. - Jarred

“Fine. But five minutes tops.” I compromised, still a little bit jealous.

“Ok.” She said, pulling her phone out of her jumper pocket and unlocking it. I watched her put in the password in case I needed to know it later on. She dialled in a number and called it, picking up her hot milo and walking out of the kitchen, me following close behind. She sat down, pressing her index finger to her lips to tell me to be quiet, silently letting me know that Matthew had picked up the phone. I sat in silence, listening to Ali’s end of the conversation.

Hey Matthew.

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Yeah, yeah good and you?

She was smiling, why would she not stop smiling? I could feel the jealousy and the anger rising within me.

Are you busy today?

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Oh, was just hoping we could meet up.

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Now? Preferably.

I stood up, nearly knocking the chair over as I did so, and stormed off to Ali’s room and waited for her to finish on the phone. After a few minutes, Ali emerged in the doorway of her room. It felt like she was out there for a fucking eternity.

“Hey Jarred, Matthew said we can meet him at the beach.” She said softly, knowing I was angry. I didn’t want to meet Matthew, I didn’t give a fuck who he was to her, the point is he is someone to her and I don’t like that. I looked at her; she was still standing in the doorway. I could barely make out the feature on her face but I knew she was ready to go.

“Do we have to?” I said much harsher than I meant it.

“Please.” She walked towards me, pushing me back a little bit by the shoulders and kissing me on the cheek. “Please?” she repeated.

“You better get to the car before I rip those stupid clothes off you.” I threatened, meaning it. She giggled and quickly ran out of her room and outside. I couldn’t help but smile at her actions. Once I reached the car, I saw that she had the gates open and was sitting on the ground cuddling her family’s Rottweiler. I quickly climbed into the car, a smile still on my face, and reversed it out past the gates and stopped, waiting for Ali to get in.

“How do we get there?” I asked, driving out of her driveway and on to the high way.

“I’ll tell you when to turn.” She smiled, pulling her phone out of her pocket and unlocking it. “I’m just calling Matthew and letting him know we’ve left. Second exit.” She explained as I started to go around a roundabout.

We drove the rest of the way to the beach in silence, with the exception of Ali telling me when to turn every so often.  Out of the corner of my eye I could see Ali glancing at me as I drove. I could tell by the way she was playing with her fingers that she was nervous, and in all honesty, I was too.

“There he is.” She laughed, pointing out the window at a guy not much taller than she is. I pulled up into a car park a few metres up from where Matthew was walking. As soon as the car was stopped Ali unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door, quickly walking towards Matthew and getting on her tippy toes and hugging him. I slowly made my way over to them, trying to suppress my anger.

“Who’s this?” I heard Matthew asked, pointing to me as I stopped and stood next to Ali.

“Jarred.” I stated, wrapping my arm around Ali and pulling her to my side.

“Jarred, this is Matthew, and Matthew this is Jarred.” She smiled, leaning into my side.

“Nice to meet you.” Matthew smiled, extending his hand towards me for a handshake. I stared at his hand, contemplating whether or not to shake his hand. Ali jabbed me in the ribs with her elbow, silently letting me know to shake his hand and stop being a jealous little prick.

“You too.” I mumbled, shaking his hand briefly before pulling my hand back into my side and wiping the palm of my hand on the leg of my pants. We stood there awkwardly, Matthew looking at me and glancing at Ali, Ali leaning into my side and looking at the beach, and me warily watching Matthew.

“Oh my god!” Ali squealed, unlooping my arm from around her and running down the path to the beach. What the fuck? Matthew laughed, walking down the same path as Ali. I quickly moved, walking next to Matthew.

“So you’re the infamous Jarred, hey?” Matthew asked me cautiously, smiling as Ali spun around knee deep in the water, her leggings pulled up her legs just above the water line.

“Yeah, I guess so.” I shrugged, not really wanting to talk to him. He started telling me about all these stories about her, and how she talks about me all the time to him. By the time we reached Ali, I had a smile on my face, which was unexpected. Ali saw us and ran up to me, jumping and wrapping her arms around my neck and her legs around my torso.

“Hey.” She laughed, kissing me on the cheek before remembering that Matthew was still there. She glanced over at him and blushed, jumping down from me and laughed, clearly embarrassed. She dug her toes into the sand and mumbled an almost incoherent apology, her face still red.

“What for?” me and Matthew laughed at the same time. Matthew laughed even harder because of it.

“We should go.” Ali suggested, grabbing my hand and leaning into me again, yawning.

“Alright.” I shrugged, looking at Matthew quickly before turning around and starting to go back the way we came, Ali’s hand in mine and Matthew walking on the other side of her. I walked in silence, listening to Ali and Matthew talk about school and their plans after school.

“I don’t know, I want to do something with singing I guess. It’s the only thing I’m semi-okay at.” I heard her say at one stage. Singing? I didn’t know she could sing. I guess there was still a lot for me to learn about her, but I was willing to wait and learn all there is to learn about her. We finally reached the car park again and Ali pulled her hand out of mine. She hugged Matthew and said a quick goodbye to him before climbing into the passenger seat of my car. I was already seated and waiting for her. I liked to think I had a nice car. It was a dual cab Ute, a Nissan Nivara to be exact, and Ali loved it. I twisted the key in the ignition, bringing the car to life as Ali put the window down and waved to Matthew as I reversed out and started to drive away. She put her seat belt on and turned in her seat slightly, looking at me with a massive smile on her face.

“What?” I laughed, placing both my hands on the steering wheel.

“You like him, admit it!” she accused jokingly, grabbing her phone and plugging it in, playing the music from her phone through the speakers of the car.

“Never.” I winked, smiling at her as we turned onto the highway and started to make our way back to my home town, badly singing along to Ali’s music, laughing.