"So... did Christopher ever stop texting you?" My twin brother Henry and the last member of my friend group asks me as I try to stuff a couple of textbooks into my locker.
He insists on calling Chris "Christopher" because he says that the full name dehumanizes my ex or something. I don't know how that works, but Henry's really weird so most of the time I just nod and smile and pretend to understand what the hell he's talking about.
"Well-no-he said-we had to-talk-agh," I groan out, trying to respond, shoving my locker closed as it attempts to bounce back open between my words.
These giant textbooks are so unnecessary! We could literally get them online. And then we could have so much extra space, and so much more money since we don't have to spend it on back surgery.
Henry snickers at my struggle, not bothering to help me. Thanks a lot, brother dearest. "Really? How did that go?"
"It hasn't gone," I say, "Not yet, at least. I said we'd talk today just so he'd stop texting me."
"Well! Good luck with that, he's the most clingy, annoying douchebag I've ever...crap," Henry trails off, looking past me at something. Or rather, someone.
A male voice clears his throat behind us. Please don't be Chris. Please don't be Chris. Please don't be Chris.
"Why hello there, Christopher!" Henry says loudly and obviously. "Good to see you, good to see you. Actually it isn't. I don't like you, Christopher and I'm here to tell you why. First of all-"
I cut him off by saying loudly, "Hey Henry why don't you go do that thing that we talked about?"
Henry smiles innocently, batting his eyelashes. He gives me a thumbs up. I do the same thing, just with a different finger.
Once he's gone (or simply out of sight - I have no doubt he's hiding somewhere so he can eavesdrop) I turn around to face my ex boyfriend.
"So," I say.
There's an awkward silence and then the words tumble out of his mouth as if he's been holding them back for years.
"Audrey, I'm really sorry and I know I'm completely in the wrong, I fucked up, and you have absolutely no reason to take me back. But I genuinely didn't know that was vodka, and to be fair, you didn't seem that upset about it at the time, and I was just... I don't even know. I didn't know you fought with your dad about it, I'm so fucking sorry. I just really like you and I think I deserve another ch-"
I cut him off, saying quietly, "Just understand where I'm coming from here. I walked into my house that night, drunk out of my mind, wearing your clothes, and my dad found me. I didn't remember much, what was I supposed to think? What was Dad supposed to think?"
"I know, but I-"
I take a deep breath in irritation and anger. "I don't even know if we... I showed up in your clothes, Chris. And I don't remember anything about that night."
He sucks in a ragged breath, running a hand through his brown hair. "Oh my god. No. Nothing like that happened, Aud, I swear. You were drunk. I would never go that far unless you wanted to. We were just making out."
I sigh in relief. That was the real reason I needed to talk to him; just to make sure nothing too bad had happened that night. I hadn't thought we'd done anything past making out, but it was hard to be sure when you were waking up in someone else's clothes with a throbbing headache and an angry father.
"Audrey..." Chris says quietly when he realizes I'm not going to speak. "I understand why you were nervous and why you're mad. You have every right to be. I just... really really like you and I think I deserve another chance to show you that."
He stares into my green eyes with his big hopeful blue ones, and my heart softens. "Please, Audrey," he repeats.
I glance at my feet, thinking. He hurt me, yes. But as stupid as it sounds, he's not a bad guy. I do still like him, and he was a good boyfriend while we were dating. He was pretty drunk that night himself, maybe it wasn't his fault for not realizing the punch was vodka.
And at least he got me home safely, didn't he?
"Okay," I say at long last, with a shy smile. "Okay! We can try this again. But Chris..."
He looks like he's holding back a grin and he says, "Yes?"
"Baby steps," I say, "We need to take it slow if we want this relationship to work. Promise?"
His face lights up in a radiant smile and I suddenly remember why I liked him so much, and realize I still do. He wraps his arms around my shoulders and squeezes me in an affectionate hug, making my cheeks heat up in a blush. "I promise."
He pulls back slightly to look in my eyes, "To new beginnings?"
"You're cheesy," I mumble with a small smile.
The bell rings and at the same time, the hall monitor shouts at us that we have to get moving in order to make it to our classes on time.
He chuckles and says, "You know it. I'll see you around, then, Aud." He gives me a wink and jogs away with his backpack over his shoulder.
I turn to Henry, who has wandered back to my locker. I don't know how much he overheard, but he definitely saw the hug.
"Ah, young love..." Henry snickers, pretending to swoon. "So I take it it went well?"
I elbow him, "It's none of your business, but we made up. We're fine now."
He elbows me back, wiggling his eyebrows. "Does Dad know yet?"
I grimace, thinking about how the hell I'm going to tell my Dad I'm getting back together with Chris. "Shit... I didn't think of that."
Henry laughs, "Ha! Poor you, that'll be hilarious to watch though."
I glare at him but don't hesitate when he holds out his fist. I give him one of our signature fist-bumps that we made up in fourth grade. With the kicking and the hair yanking and everything. Henry's strawberry blond hair, the same as mine, is even messier than usual now.
"Careful, Rapunzel. Maybe flatten your hair. Flynn might think you've been fornificating with other thieves."
Henry rolls his eyes, knowing that I'm teasing him about his overprotective girlfriend, Melissa Flynn.
Melissa is awesome and honestly really good for Henry, but she moved to New York State to be with her sick grandmother. She left in September. Henry and Melissa still video chat every single a day. That is some hardcore, loyal stuff right there.
She visits sometimes, though, and it always makes Henry so happy and excited. And then depressed once she inevitably leaves.
"Please." Henry rolls his eyes. "She trusts me wholeheartedly. I think."
"Since when do you say 'wholeheartedly'?"
"Since when do you say 'fornificating'?" He counters.
"Touché."
"Since when do you say-"
The bell rings, cutting Henry off. I turn and leave for my next class, which is AP Literature, leaving him to yell down the hallway: "-TOUCHÉ?!"
***
Finally, after what feels like forever, AP Lit is over. Look, I like this class and everything but right now we're doing a poetry unit and I hate poetry. It is really beautiful but it makes me feel like an idiot because I know I'll never be able to write something that good.
I get up quickly, eager to escape the room that smells like a disgusting blend of overly sweet perfume, moldy textbooks, and sweat.
"Shit!"
I suddenly find myself on the floor with a painful arm and back. I've slammed into someone.
"Goddamn motherfuckin' son of a-" I mutter, stopping abruptly because the teacher is in earshot. "-nutcracker," I finish cleanly, getting inspiration from the movie "Elf". I love that movie.
I grab my backpack off the floor and check to see if my computer is okay. Luckily it's fine. Good. Otherwise I would be seriously mad at someone.
I glance upwards to see who I crashed into and my heart skips a beat. I'm staring into the dark, chocolatey eyes of the boy from the diner.
And, of course, I'm forced to admit to how seriously hot this guy is. Like, whoa.
In the bright light of the classroom, he has pale, unblemished skin and well-defined cheekbones that stand out nicely against his messy dark hair. His face is angular and sharp, with a half annoyed and half amused expression on it.
And he's tall, way taller than me even though I'm pretty tall for a girl, reaching to 5'7", or about 170 cm if you're using the metric system.
If he ever smiled, anyone in a ten mile radius (that's a 16 kilometre radius for those of you using the metric system) would probably drop dead. But he isn't smiling. Instead he's frowning at me as if confused to see me.
"...Audrey?"
I nervously nod in confirmation and then realize what he said, looking up at him sharply.
Who is this guy, and why does he know me? And why the hell does he look so familiar?
He reaches a perfectly tanned, muscled arm down to help me up. After a quick second of hesitation, I take it. His hand is warm and soft and his fingers are calloused, and I hope I'm not blushing from the contact.
"Um, thanks," I manage to squeak out once I've stood up. "Have we... met?"
I curse myself internally for asking him this out of the blue. I hope he's not offended or anything that I don't know who he is.
He folds his arms and raises an amused eyebrow at me. "You have to ask?"
I step back, startled. "I...You look familiar but I don't know where I've seen you before," I tell him truthfully.
He shakes his head with a low chuckle. "Damn, there goes my self-esteem. You know, with this face, I really thought I was pretty memorable. You really don't remember me?"
His voice is deep, cool and pitched low, tinged with a bit of amusement. It's the voice that all guys want.
Literally, if any dude out there is, you know, Ursula... this guy's voice would be a great voice to steal. Was that a weird thing to say?
"I'm sorry... I really don't know if I remember you. What's your name?"
I don't make eye contact with him because I'm too busy looking at the floor awkwardly, but I can see him rolling his eyes out of my peripheral vision. I gather the courage to look up at his face as he says pointedly, "I'm Jack. Still don't remember me?"
Jack? I don't know a Jack, do I?
"Um... I'm really sorry."
This guy looks so familiar, but...
"Jack Golden?" He prompts, and suddenly a memory flashes into my brain and is gone in a second.
A post-it note, a doodle of a heart, and a team of seventh-grade detectives. But I can't make sense of the memory, because it's faded too much. I try to cling to the scraps of memory but I can't fully make heads or tails of them.
"We knew each other when we were younger, didn't we?" I try, taking a slightly risky guess and hoping I'm right. "It's been such a long time since I saw you!"
Some unreadable emotion flickers in his eyes as he responds with a smirk, "Really? It doesn't feel like that long ago to me. I could have sworn we saw each other more recently than you'd think..."
But before I can ask what he means, he turns around, shouldering his backpack and walks out of the classroom with a slight smirk on his perfect face, leaving me confused and somewhat annoyed behind him.
I could have sworn we saw each other more recently than you'd think...
________________________________________________________________________________
Hello everyone!
Woo-hoo, we finally got Audrey and Jack's first proper, sober conversation! What did you guys think of him and of their dynamic?
And let's not forget, in the beginning Audrey took Chris back despite their short break-up. What did you guys think of that? Would you have taken Chris back?
I know he hasn't exactly been the best boyfriend in the world so far but hopefully you will see later on why Audrey likes him, because he's really nice most of the time.
I think my favourite part of the chapter other than Audrey and Jack's conversation was when she was joking around with Henry, he's such a cutie and he might be my favourite character in the book.
You'll definitely be seeing more of Henry as the story progresses which is hopefully good news for you guys (and it's not just because I love writing his scenes!)
Don't forget to comment, vote, share, etc. because it really helps!
See you later, alligators, (why did I just write that...?)
- Celia xx