Jo
"WHY THE HELL am I freaking out?" I ask myself in the mirror as I stare at my outfit and wait for Flynn to arrive. Yesterday, Flynn told me everyone is going to be there and he said everything will be fine as long as I play along. So why the hell am I freaking out?
I resume my pacing again when the mirror provides no answer and repeatedly tap my palm with my purse. My hands are jittery and anxiety slowly coils around my neck like a snake.
I plop down on my bed and try to relax. Deep breaths Jo. It's not like you've never been to a party before even though this is the first time you're going to be the center of attention. But that's not so bad, is it?
I breathe in and out using a common counting exercise. "1...2...3...Oh my god!" My breathing exercise is ruined when I hear the familiar chime of the door bell and I jump before placing a hand on my chest and exiting my room.
I bound down the stairs and sling my purse over my shoulder. Grandma is sitting idly at the dining table, going through the family album so she doesn't turn her head even though my feet are stomping the stairs.
"Bye Grandma," I greet and she barely grunts in reply. I get to the door and swallow. It's just Flynn. With that thought in mind, I swing the door wide open and I'm met with Flynn's wry smile.
"Aloha," he greets but his smile slips when he glances at my outfit. Unlike me, he's wearing a partially buttoned nautical themed patterned shirt and a pair of shorts to match. He looks like he's about to go on a boat cruise especially with that tousled hair and sailor's pendant hanging around his necklace.
"Well?" I ask and look down at my outfit. "What do you think?"
"The party's at the beach, Pryce." He deadpans.
"I know that," I snap.
He folds his arms. "Then why do you look like we're about to fly to the North Pole?"
"It's a little cold outside," I grumble to myself as the tips of my ears redden.
He sighs and tries to look behind me. "Is anyone home?"
"Just my grandma," I say. "But she'll barely notice anyone or anything with that book in her hand."
"Good," he comes closer and grabs my elbow before dragging me back inside. He shuts the door behind us and tugs me forward.
"Hi ma'am," Flynn politely acknowledges grandma regardless of if she'll respond or not and then he looks round and turns back to me.
"Lovely home," he comments. His hand is still holding my elbow. "Where's your room?"
"What?" I splutter. "I didn't even invite you in and you're asking for my room?"
"Upstairs," Grandma grunts without turning to us. "First room to the right."
Embarrassment floods my cheeks. What the hell? I thought she wasn't usually aware of her surroundings whenever she was trying to remember her husband in that album.
"Grandma," I hiss but it's too late. Flynn grins and thanks her and then he drags me up the stairs.
"Such a sweet soul," he tells me as soon as we reach the door to my room. He opens the door and pulls me in before shutting it and taking his hand off my elbow. I glance at him, warmth flowing through my body at the sudden realization that he's standing inside my small room with me, looking entire too big to fit in this space.
"Aren't we supposed to be at the party?" I ask because I'm suddenly a nervous wreck around him especially since he's taking my room in. It makes me feel self conscious because it makes me wonder what he thinks of it.
"We will be," he says, finally turning to meet my gaze. "After you decide to drop your plane tickets to Alaska."
I unwillingly trudge towards my closet and grab a handful of clothes before heading to the bathroom. As soon as I reach the door, I warn, "Don't touch my stuff." And he gives me a two finger salute before sitting on my bed.
I face the mirror and rub my cheeks to add more color to them. Flynn is in my room doing god knows what at the other side so I swiftly unzip my parka. I'm a little conscious though, so after I'm sure there's no tiny hole or gap where he could be looking at me from, I take off my clothes and try a neon green gown. It's a night party at the beach. I don't know why I can't just decide on what to wear.
I zip up the dress and open the door. I meet Flynn standing over my table and reading my writings plastered to the wall. It's weird enough that I feel comfortable letting him see it but it's even weirder that I feel more conscious than usual. He turns his head once he hears the creak of the door and then he sizes me up.
He shakes his head once. "It's not a homecoming dance."
I give him the finger and stomp back into the bathroom. It goes on like this for several minutes. Josephine Pryce coming out with several outfits and Flynn Cauley disapproving each of them with a flick of his finger, a shake of the head, a mocking grin, an upturned nose and a usual jab to spice things up. Once he asked why I didn't have any sexy lingerie to which I smacked him on the head.
"You are insatiable," I taunt immediately I step out in a jeans and an everyday top. He gets to his feet and walks towards my closet with a determined look on his face.
"What are you doing?" I ask, standing behind him and watching him search through my clothes.
"Looking for something for you to wear," he says. "Don't get me wrong, you don't look bad in any of those clothes but—yes. Found it." He steps out of my closet with a white and floral blue mini sundress in his hands.
He tosses it to me. "Try that."
I raise a brow. "I'm positive I wore this recently."
"Huh." He says, his voice sounding a little bit distant. "Guess I didn't notice. Come on," he grabs me by the shoulders and steers me towards the bathroom.
I sigh and take off my current plain Jane outfit before stepping into the chiffon sundress. It's a tie back that leaves a fraction of my back exposed, so I reach behind and tighten the cloth around me by tying up the strips of material. I adjust the spaghetti straps and fluff my hair a little more before stepping out of the bathroom.
Flynn is back on my bed. He's sitting sideways, so his legs are sticking out of the bed and he's leaning back on his elbows while reading the sheet of paper in his hands.
"Well," I clear my throat. "I don't even care if you don't agree with it. So you'd better get your ass up and let's go."
The paper falls flat on his chest and his eyes slowly travel from my toes to my head. I fiddle with my thumbs as I watch his eyes judge me from a short distance. His lips move but I don't catch his incoherent words.
"What was that?"
"Um," his cheeks turn red. "Masterpiece. The poem—I said the poem was a masterpiece. You know, like your writing?"
"Oh right," I mumble, feeling a little bit disappointed for some reason. "Thanks."
He gets to his feet and drops the paper on the table. He doesn't look at me again. "We should go," he says, his voice sounding a little rough.
He disappears behind the door first, muttering 'fuck' under his breath and I grab my purse before silently following him down the stairs. The TV is still on and grandma is still rooted in the same position we left her at the dining. I wave her goodbye even though she doesn't turn her head and then I close the door behind me and head towards Flynn's car.
"A lot of people are going to ask questions," Flynn says as soon as I get inside the car. "You don't have to answer them if you don't want to."
"Right," I say rolling my eyes as I grab the seat belt. "Because I'm dating a Kardashian or something."
He smiles a little as he drives away from my porch. "Seriously though. Everyone is going to be interested in what's going on between us."
"Why?" I ask, slightly bewildered. "I mean, I get the fact that you're popular and all, but isn't that a little bit intrusive?"
"Well for starters," he says. "I don't date and people know that—except you of course—so it's only natural for them to be curious. Two, and I'm not saying this in a derogatory way or anything but you're not exactly—"
"Your type. I get it." I snipe, nodding my head.
"I'm mostly seen around with slightly above average height girls, well-known and you get what I'm trying to say. So you—" he says but I cut him off.
"A 5'11 and a half awkward girl with lanky legs, smaller boobs and a perpetually curly haired mess would be a big difference." I describe and he turns to give me a look. Crap, I can't believe I just said that. I don't know what happened within the last few minutes in my house and now but whatever it is, makes me feel even more insecure than I usually am. "Carry on."
"I wasn't going to say that," he says. "Look Jo, you wanna hear my honest opinion?"
"No thanks."
"I'll say it anyway," he counters. He stares at the road ahead as he drives. "I think you're beautiful. No. Fuck, I think you're insanely beautiful. Granted, you drive me insane sometimes and I don't mean that in the good way," he pauses and looks at me. "Like I legit want to stick your head down the toilet sometimes, especially when you're being annoying or rereading your stupid rules whenever I break one of them but I don't think you're anything short of beautiful. And that's that. End of story."
At this rate, I am going to combust. I lean back on the chair, grateful that it isn't day but I'm sure he'll be able to see the blush on my cheeks from the little evening light reflecting from the outside. "Thanks. You're not that hard on the eyes as well."
He laughs and turns to look at me. "I'm not that hard on the eyes?"
I shrug and pat the edges of my skirt in a guise to hide my smile. "Why don't you date though?"
"I don't think I've ever been ready for a relationship."
"What do you think it means to be ready for one?"
"I don't know," he shrugs. "Commitment, Emotional availability, all of that shit. I don't know. Sounds like a burden."
"It's okay if you don't want to date though. But are you just doing this to make Semia jealous? You don't plan on dating her?"
He sighs. "I don't know. Maybe. I can't say. I've never really considered it until now." He answers truthfully.
"The bad boy who doesn't date suddenly falls for the clueless nerd at the back of the class. I think it would make a great story."
"Speaking of stories," he smirks. "We'll need to have one. A believable one because at-least one person is going to ask how we met and how we started dating."
"Simple. We met at school. You needed help with English and I agreed to be your tutor in the peer-peer tutorship program that is currently ongoing. And with time, we grew to like each other."
"Boring."
I narrow my eyes at him. "What else do you want to hear?"
"Granted, it sounds believable and all but no one wants to hear a basic, vanilla 'how I met your mother' story. It's got to catch their attention. Listen," he says, breaking his stare with the road. The beach is slowly coming into focus and I can already see the glimmer of light radiating from it. "You've always had a crush on me but you've never really known how to approach me. So one day, we were in gym class and of course, you were ogling me from a distance like you usually do and then a ball hit you on the head because you were distracted—"
I scoff. "Yeah, I'm never going to say that."
"I'm not done," he halts. "Listen, it gets better. You fell on the ground, groaning and all because you were having a concussion but guess who came to your rescue?"
"I don't know? God?"
"No, stupid. Your knight in shining armor."
"Daniel Corrigan?" I ask, even though I know what he wants me to say.
"No." He grimaces. "Ew. Anyway, it was me. A shirtless, body-to-die-for Flynn came running over to see if you were okay but of course, you were not. So I did what I do best. Swept you off your feet—"
"I thought I was lying on the ground."
"Doesn't matter if you were floating or flying. My point stands. Anyway, I did that and I hurried over to the infirmary to have you taken care off. When all was said and done, you opened your eyes and I was the first one you saw. And just like that, a beautiful love story began."
"Yeah, no-one, absolutely no-one is going to believe this obnoxious story of yours."
"I would."
"I'm not going to say that. Never."
The road transitions into sand and the beach becomes clearer and clearer by the minute. "Well, good-luck with that because if anyone asks me how we met, that's what I'm going to tell them and imagine what people would think if we had completely different stories as to how we started dating."
"Flynn." I grit my teeth but he's not listening to me anymore. The car comes to a smooth halt and I spot an obscene group of teenagers hanging around on the beach. A few cars are dotted around Flynn's car and the car next to his, has a girl and a boy making out on the hood. A campfire burns bright in a pit and very few people sit around it. The music is loud and booming and it's accentuated by the rhythmic crashing of the waves from the ocean which of course, has a couple of people diving in and out.
Flynn gets down of the car and rounds the hood before opening my door. He holds out a hand and I reluctantly take it.
"You ready?"
"I'm not saying your stupid story," I announce as soon as my feet hit the ground. The sand somehow finds its way between my toes despite the sandals I'm putting on. Flynn slams the door shut just as the ocean breeze breathes past us and sends strands of my hair astray. My dress doesn't go unnoticed by it either. I brush my hair away with my free hand because Flynn is still holding my other hand and with the kind of grip he has on it, I'm sure he's not letting me go anytime soon.
"Remember you have to be in love with me and vice versa."
"Aye aye captain."
"And we met because I saved you from imminent death."
"Again," I say, turning my head to him just as we start walking further down to where most people are located. "I'm not going to say that to anyone."
"Holy shit, it is true." I hear a voice slur and I look ahead just in time to see Amanda stumbling her way towards us. She's wearing a pair of Jean shorts and a yellow bikini bra. "Oh my god," she chants excitedly as soon as she's close enough and hugs us both in her drunken state.
And it begins.
"Amanda, hi," I say, hoping I don't sound too weird and Flynn shoots her a mischievous grin.
"I can't believe it," she says disentangling herself from the hug and staring at our hands. A few heads are turning to us now. I swallow and look away immediately. "I mean I can cos I've always wanted it to happen but seeing it in real life, is like, wow." She demonstrates it by raising both hands to her temples and mimicking a mind blowing motion. "Mind blowing."
"You've always wanted it to happen?" Flynn asks, smiling easily like a goddamn actor on set.
"Oh yeah," she nods quickly with a wide smile. "From the first day Mrs Lendermann introduced you as our newest member and Jo had this nasty glare on her face, I knew you guys would end up together at one point."
Flynn squeezes my hand. "If you had placed a bet, you'd have won."
"Oh my god," Amanda shouts excitedly and wraps a hand around my shoulder tugging us forward into the crowd. I'm trying to keep up the Cheshire Cat facade but it's getting a bit harder by the second.
"Hey guys," Amanda booms, waving her arm around. "My favorite couple has arrived."
Everyone turns their head to us and I silently shrink. Oh god. Right now, I wish for nothing more, than for the ground to open up and swallow me completely.
AN: splitting this chapter was necessary otherwise it would have been too long. anyway, vote and comment!! the next chapter should be up soon ;)