"I can't come, sorry, I already made plans to travel over break with my family," says Cassie apollogetically, about not being able to come on the mission trip. It is the day after I had been invited by Mrs. Baxter.
"We can't either because our grandmother is coming all the way from California," says Foster about him and Danny.
"I can't because I have All-Stars football games, it's a tournament," Jay says.
"Well, I can come," grumbles Alexx, which surprises me that she would even consider doing that, since she hates kids. The looks at everyone else around the lunch table reflects my shock.4
"Count me in, too!" Lily says.
"Great, that makes four of us!" I say, clapping my hands together.
"Five," says James as he walks by me, to grab a soda in the vending machine behind our table.
"What are you talking about, James?" I ask him. I haven't talken to him in over a month! Not once!
"I saw your name on the volunteer sheet at Church when I went to morning mass the other day, and guess what, would you know that I happened to have been invited to help the middle schoolers too?" he says, smirking as he leaves me looking dumbfounded.
Cassie's mouth is hanging open and suddenly she snaps it shut saying, "Oh my gosh! That's so weird. What do you think he wants?"
"To torment me because he's still upset I chose to date your brother instead of himself," I say with a sigh.
"Maybe he wants to be friends?" Lily suggests and a few heads at our table shake, denying the conclusion.
"Bullshit. Has he even talked to you since you told him you wanted to be with Noah?" Alexx asks me, propping her face up on the table with her elbows.
"No, ugh, at least you, Lily, and Noah will be there," I say, sighing and gathering my belongings as the bell rang.
In study hall, I tried to study for my test in geography last period, but my mind kept drifting back to the worry I had over going on that mission trip with James. He's up to something, I know it.
My phone buzzed, and I pulled it out to see a text from the devil himself.
I want to be friends again.
Really? Wow, thanks. I suggested that idea a long time ago. Tell me what you really want.
It really is no use trying to pretend like he is so innocent- I know him better than that. I decide to cut right to the chase and be a bit harsh to him because he should've pulled himself together like this sooner. I recieve another text.
To be friends, honestly. I realized my mistake. Meet me after school today?
Fine. We do need to talk. Where?
Let's go back to our first date. Remember where?
Of course I remember, the arcade with the bowling and lazer tag.
The one where you blackmailed me to go on with you? Doesn't count.
Whatever you would like to think. See you in an hour.
Sixth period passed by so slowly and not just because I was taking a super hard test. I couldn't concentrate on anything and it was so frustrating! I studied so hard for this test all to throw it away because this is the moment stupid James decides to mess with me.
I accidentaly slam my head on the table and I recieve a few stares and I quickly hide my face behind the folders set up to prevent cheating.
Laying my head down on the desk, giving up, I recieve a tap on my shoulder.
"Addison, would you like to retake this test another day? You are one of my best students and I don't want you to ruin your day because of a bad day," Miss Daniels tells me kindly.
"Thank you so much! Can I take it tommorow morning? I'm sorry, I just have a lot on my mind right now."
"It's okay. Be here at 7:30, and you'll have an hour to take the test," Miss Daniels advises me as she takes up my test, stashing it away for tommorow. Normally if this happened, I would've remembered the questions and taken the time to search them, but I was so distracted I don't remember a single thing!
I close my eyes and put my headphones in, blocking everything out. I gradually began to fall asleep, thoughts of James swimming in my mind, when I heard the final bell ring, and I sprung out of my seat. I skipped dropping off my books at my locker and hurried to the bus station a block away. My friends wouldn't exactly be happy if I told them why I was going to the arcade and Noah would take it even worse. Looks like hitching a ride from them isn't an option, so this bus is my only way there.
As I stand at the stop, waiting, I hear a honk, interrupting my thoughts. I swear I jumped ten feet in the air and looking into the tinted windows, I can't see who it is. The window rolls down and of course, it is James.
"Get in, princess," he says and without hesitation, I hop in, closing the door behind me.
"I thought I was going to meet you there," I say, as I buckle myself into the car.
"Your welcome," is all he replies and he starts driving to the arcade.
"Your welcome?" I ask confused.
"Your welcome for saving you for riding the bus with a smelly old man with moldy cheese and a mean goat," he says.
"You must have not ridden the bus before. It's actually not bad at all," I tell him.
"I've had bad experiences, that's all. Hows Noah?" he asks and I sense his tone change to annoyance.
Really not wanting to talk about Noah with him, which is obviously a sore subject, I change the subject. "So why do you suddenly want to become friends again?"
"Why wouldn't I? Though you have bad taste in boys, except for me, and make horrible life decisions in the guy department, you're actually not half bad," James says, turning to face me as we arrive at a red light. Since he changed the subject back, his goal is to obviously make me feel guilty, which is not going to happen.
"Well, as friends again, we are surely off to a great start, don't you think?" I say sarcastically as the nearby arcade comes into view. James doesn't say anything and parks the car. I get out, but instead of walking to the enterance, I walk away from James.
"Addie, wrong way," he shouts to me, putting a hand on my shoulder, making me angry.
"No, right way. I knew it was a mistake, thinking that you were actually genuine when you said we should be friends again. You liar! You're just trying to make me feel guilty for choosing Noah instead of you. You know what? I won't feel guilty because I made the right choice, I picked a man instead of a boy and if you want to make me think that I made a mistake in picking Noah, you are totally not heading in that direction, let alone any direction in the friend zone. Would you just stop playing games for once and tell me what you really feel?" I ask him and notice his eyes changing emotions. First, there's worry, then anger, then sadness, then some undectable emotion, maybe admiration, but then he's already blocked.
"Fine, the truth is, I miss you, okay? I waited for you to come to me, but you didn't. You don't need me, you never did, so instead of you chasing me like I had hoped, no, you just carried on without a care in the world. Did you even value our friendship at all?" he asks me and I have a perfect way to deflect his "pity me" act.
"You needed to do some more apologizing, James. You're the one who screwed up. I understand you were upset, but you just shut me out, okay? Don't put this all on me! You were the one who needed to man up and talk to me first, which you did. Is that it? Friends again? Great! I have to go right a geography paper now, if you'll excuse me," I tell him, walking away.
"I'm sorry, okay? I just couldn't handle seeing you with him. I kept wishing I had done more to get you to like me, I was wondering what made him so much better," he says, truth shining through his eyes.
"You didn't do anything wrong! You were perfect, okay? And I really liked you, but just not enough. I'm sorry, too. I feel so bad for hurting you, James. That was never my intention, I just want you to know that," I apologize and he pulls me in for a hug.
"See? I actually do just want to be friends. How hard was that?" he asks me and I grumble some profanities at him as he smiles down at me.
"Let's go play some jump rope on that machine," I tell him.
"What about your geography paper? Oh wait, you lied about that, considering we had a test today and she didn't assign a paper," he catches me on my lie and I smile sheepishly.
We walk in and since we are not dating, we each pay for ourselves and I head over to the machine James and I had played on last time, where you jumped over the light beam. It's not nearly as complicated as it sounds.
We had started the machine and were at one hundred jumps, we were coming close to a two person record, I was sure of it.
"Oh shit," I mutter and pull James out of the area of the machine and behind a large Pac Man machine, ignoring the large amount of tickets shooting out of the jump rope machine.
"What?"
"Lily is here," I reply.