My Life Plan...Undone

Ch. 18

The next few weeks go by without anything major happening, which honestly is a nice break. For someone who kept a low profile for all of high school up to now, the past two months have been a lot to process. I went from being dedicated to my studies, my "plan", and being anti-high school drama and relationships, to falling head over heels for the nicest and cutest boy who I've ever met, and being the target of a social media smear campaign. It's like the universe wanted to pack four years worth of drama into two months. Thanks for that, universe. You're awesome.

Life with Matt went back to normal, well, a new normal. We weren't awkward around each other after our talk and went back to our regular banter in class, at lunch, and when we all hung out. We decided that it'd be best if we kept our alone time to a minimum. For now, at least. It would be too hard to stick to our "just friends" deal if we kept hanging out after school, just the two of us. I was grateful that he was being so accommodating to my weird "me time" I had imposed. I might not know a ton about guys, but I think most guys would have moved on by now.

As we get closer to the holidays, the service projects for Key Club were ramping up. Something about the holidays makes people more giving or something. I had completely forgotten that Matt was part of the club since he hadn't gone in September or October cause of swimming. But even athletes aren't exempt from completing their required amount of service hours. The others aren't part of the club so when the annual bell ringing opportunity came up, we decided to sign up together. We had signed up together weeks ago, before everything happened. Okay, yes, we weren't supposed to hang out alone if we could help it, but it's not like anything was going to happen in public while we were ringing bells to try to get people to donate money. I'm pretty sure I can control my emotions around the people going into the local supermarket to buy their groceries.

"So Matt and I signed up to do the bell ringing together. It's not a terrible idea, right?" I bite my lip waiting for the girls to assure me that it was fine.

Cara stops eating mid-fry and gives me a sly smile, "No, I think it's a great idea."

"Be serious, do you guys think it'll be an issue? We signed up a while ago and I totally forgot about it," I fidget with my straw in my milkshake as I wait for their replies.

"You guys have been good the past few weeks. It's been sorta normal, right?" Jenn asks.

"Yeah, it's actually been great. I mean, yeah I miss the extra time I'd spend with him...and the daily phone calls and FaceTime sessions after school...but overall, it's been nice to still have him in my life and it not be weird." I was telling the truth. I missed the extra time with him, but I was grateful that he was still in my life at all.

"I guess what I'm asking is...do you think that by us spending time, just the two of us, it'll mess things up?"

Cara sighed, "Honestly, I think it'll be okay, but who knows? You guys clearly still like each other and you've imposed this weird rule so..."

I take a big gulp of my milkshake. They were right, I've brought this whole thing on myself.

"Okay, well we have another week before the bell ringing, so I'll just talk to him about it before then."

"Now here's the more pressing question - what are you going to do about Winter Formal?" Jenn raised an eyebrow at me.

"What do you mean? The dance is two months away. I'm planning to go. What about it?" I was confused.

"Come on, Jules, everyone was talking about it in gym today."

"No..."

"Oh yeah, Jenn, remember she missed class cause she had an appointment with her guidance counselor," Cara reminded her.