I looked at the time on my phone: 3:59 pm. I waited for the time to switch to exactly 4:00 before ringing the doorbell to Jade's house. It had been about two months since we'd really gotten to talk and I was bracing myself for the many awkward silences we were sure to encounter during our sleepover.
Pounding footsteps coming down the stairs, a screamed "I'll get it Mom!" and then the door swished open to reveal Jade, her hair pulled back in a messy, frizzy ponytail and her cheeks a flushed red.
"Hi!" She beamed at me, grabbing my arm and pulling me inside. "Sorry, I completely forgot to check what time it was," she said, gesturing apologetically to her gold soccer uniform with the black number 17 on the back. "Just let me get changed out of these dirty clothes and I'll be right back." She was right, her shorts and sneakers were caked in mud and a streak of dirt ran up her leg. She raced upstairs quickly.
I looked around, then decided to take a seat on the couch rather than awkwardly stand by the steps waiting for her. I looked around at the house I had been in a million times and sighed in relief. Everything was unchanged, the floor was still covered in shiny white tiles, the chandelier still hung from the ceiling over the dining room and the flat screen T.V. was still mounted over one of the bright white walls. I'd had an irrational fear that somehow Jade's house would have undergone a complete makeover and everything would be different. Even though the pristine, nothing out of it's place house with a glass table or expensive glass vase at every turn still unnerved me, making me feel like I should have on a cocktail dress and heels and not touch anything, at least the familiarity was comforting.
Clomping footsteps, and Jade was back, more out of breath and flushed than before. "I couldn't find any clean shirts!" She exclaimed, trying to smooth out the rumpled 'Madame Mika's Dance Academy' t-shirt she was wearing. She plopped down next to me on the couch.
"So how've you been? Anything exciting happen yet this summer? Meet any cute boys?" She bounced up and down on the couch excitedly.
"Are you high or something?" I asked suspiciously taking in her flushed cheeks and brightly lit up eyes as she continued to bounce on the couch.
She chortled like a maniac. "No. I just went to Starbucks before soccer and had like, three cups of espresso." She burst out laughing at my expression and then composed herself.
"Don't ignore my questions though!"
"I'm fine, yes, and yes.." I kept my answers short, not yet wanting to elaborate. Jade stopped bouncing very quickly.
"OMG who's the cute boy?!?! Did you and Danny Marger finally hook up?" She squealed in delight.
"No," I said quickly, steering her thoughts away from my old science class partner. "His name is Jason..."
"I bet Charlotte's in heaven! You're finally finding 'true love' ". She snorted. "Did you tell her yet?" Jade thought Charlotte was every bit as dramatic as I did from what I'd told her. I hesitated.
"Well, Charlotte's in Europe for the summer," I said, choosing my words carefully.
She just stared, waiting for me to continue.
"Jason is.. Charlotte's...."
"Brother?" Jade supplied helpfully. I wish, I added silently.
"Boyfriend." I finished off lamely. Her jaw dropped.
"You're kidding, right?" Cue awkward silence. "KATELYN! Are you KIDDING ME????? Everyone hates the backstabbing boyfriend stealer! Besides, it is so cliche, do you like expect you'll both fall madly in love and ride off into the sunset while she's away?
"No I know what it is. You're going to date 'secretly' and then break the news to her and she'll be all like, ' omg no hard feelings!' NO! You are treading into dangerous territory, Katelyn! Beep beep, back up now girl before you destroy your friendship with her indefinitely!!"
Jade's face was flushed even more brightly than before and she looked at me furiously. I just stared at her in shock.
"Look. You know that girl on my soccer team, Stacy Baron, who's dated like every guy in the school?" I nodded. "She ruined like 3 of my relationships in the past 2 years. And every time she sees me she acts like there's no hard feelings. THERE ARE! I spent like half of my junior year lying on my bed crying and eating icecream because of her. Got it?" She stared at me pointedly.
I could feel my cheeks burning profusely and I didn't dare meet her eyes. "I didn't know he was her boyfriend," I mumbled. "Nothing's going to happen, Jade. It's just a stupid little crush. I am nothing like Stacy," I assured her.
She still wouldn't look at me. "So Charlotte doesn't know? Does Jason know? Does he like you back?" This had been a harder conversation to have than I'd thought.
"No she doesn't... And neither does he... I don't think. But he definitely doesn't like me back." I shook my head emphatically. "I shouldn't have even brought it up, it's hardly a crush, more like just a passing thought like you know, 'hmm he's kind of cute', but that's it, this is being blown out of proportion," I was lying of course but Jade seems too look a little more relieved if not mostly dubious.
Thankfully she let it go as her mom walked in. "Hi, Katelyn!"
She greeted me warmly but I felt extremely embarrassed and underdressed compared to her Chanel business suit. Thankfully, Jade balanced me out.
"I bought some icecream if you girls wanna make sundaes now, I know that's always your favorite part of your little get togethers," she said, already walking toward the kitchen. We quickly followed her and soon we were making gigantic sundaes, watching rom-coms and telling ghost stories, just like at every other sleepover.
"Okay," Jade said when we'd finished our film. "Truth or Dare?"
"Dare" I said, feeling confident. Jade's dares were always something like balance a spoon on your nose or eat a quadruple decker sandwich.
"I dare you to trade phones with me for the rest of the sleepover."
"Fine." I said, quickly handing it over. I hated turning down dares, and besides I could always use her phone against her if she tried to use mine against me. I immediately clicked the home button of her phone and it asked for a password.
I looked at her expectantly and she just grinned. "I said we'd trade phones, I never said I'd give you my password." Damn it.
I put her phone to the side and we continued our game. The whole time I was on edge, waiting for her to go through the messages between Jason and me. They were innocent enough but Jade would of course find a way to spin it out of proportion.
Buzz buzz. I knew it. I stared having a major heart attack and I could feel the blood rushing through my ears as I anxiously watched her pick up my phone.
"It's your mom, checking in on you," she said and looked up at me. "What should I write?" Unfortunately Jade was too intelligent to trust me to give her back the phone if she handed it over to me.
"Just tell her to pick me up at 12 tomorrow," I said, panting as my heartbeat slowed down slightly.
"Kay," she answered casually and slipped the phone into her pocket. "So want to see a really funny video?"
The rest of the night was just like old times with board games and pointless chatter and way too much junk food, so I'd completely forgotten about my phone. It was about five in the morning before we realized how tired we actually were.
"There's no point in sleeping now, your mom is going to pick you up in seven hours!!!! Let's just eat a spoonful of sugar to keep ourselves awake." We quietly slipped into the kitchen and turned on a light, making sure not to wake anyone.
A huge clattering sound filled the room and I dropped to the ground in fright. "Shit!" Jade exclaimed, picking up what I quickly realized was my phone.
"You are so lucky that I splurged for the extra protective case, otherwise I would have killed you," I told her.
"No, I mean 'shit you have 8 new messages'.... I must have accidentally put it on silent or something...." She trailed off and quickly opened up the messages, making sure that she was backed against a wall so that I couldn't peek over her shoulder.
"2 from Charlotte and..." Her eyes narrowed and she gave me the most accusing look I had ever seen in my entire life.
"Six from Jason." She opened them up and began reading them aloud.
"Hey are you there?
Katelyn?
Come on, how could you stay mad @ me? :P
Please?
Just answer !
I had a real phone convo with Char, r u happy??? "
"Someone was desperate to reach you. Any idea why?" She kept her tone light but there was still a slight edge to it.
"Look, I don't like him, okay? And since when do you care about Charlotte anyway? You two aren't even friends!"
"It doesn't matter if we're friends, Katelyn!" She looked at me in exasperation. "You were always a super loyal friend to me, and now you're hooking up with your new best friend's boyfriend and she doesn't know. It makes me wonder if you might've had your eye on one or two of my old boyfriends..."
"I can prove I don't like him!" I said, thinking quickly. I swiped my phone from her and scrolled through my contacts until I got to W for Williams.
"I met this guy the other day, Darren, at the coffee shop. He gave me his number and I was thinking I would go on a movie date with him soon." Of course, I hadn't been planning this at all, but then I remembered how happy and fluttery my stomach had gotten when he'd been talking to me, and I realized I definitely wouldn't mind seeing him again soon.
"Text him then, make it official." She looked at me expectantly and I sighed. Even though it was only about 5:30am by now, I texted him, figuring it would be too early for him to respond.
After sending a quick message asking if he would want to see a movie with me tomorrow, I was surprised to immediately get a text back.
"Sure thing! Text me deets later?" Jade read aloud from over my shoulder.
"Are you happy now?" I asked, looking over at her, annoyed. "And when did you get so pushy?" I wondered under my breath.
"A lot can happen in the time you stop talking to someone, Katelyn. you're hardly the same sweet innocent girl from fifth grade now are you?" She retorted and I dropped the subject.
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--> pic of Jade to the right
A/N: so i obviously sucked @ writing this chapter, but whatever I am going to continue on with my story, and for the record, *NOT* have it turn into a ~completely~ cheesy cliche novel (i dont think :p) haha thanks to all for reading you're the bestest <3 please please let me know if I made any grammer errors, etc? xox!