It was somehow easy to get over to Haley's house the next morning. I did not think that Jared and Gen would allow me to stay in a house alone with a boy for eight whole hours. According to Haley, the best way to get your parents to let you hang out with a guy alone is lie to your parents and say that you are going to a girlfriend's house.
Obviously, I was not all for this idea, but before I could even begin to protest, Haley had her plan in action. She called Jared in the morning and asked him if I could spend the whole day at her house. Technically, she didn't lie, because I was going to be spending the entire day at her house, she just wasn't going to be there.
I have to hand it to her, that was pretty clever.
Around eleven thirty, Gen drops me off at Haley's house. Haley is standing there on the porch when we get there, probably just to make the lie seem more real. I know she is going to leave the minute I get in there. I have never went behind an adult's back to do something like this, so I feel kind of guilty. But, I also know that I am far too terrified to do anything with Jason yet.
"Bye, Gen! I'll bring her home at nine!" Haley says, as I get out of the car, making me widen my eyes a bit. I wave goodbye to Gen as I walk towards the porch, giving Haley a pointed look.
"Nine?" I ask, through gritted teeth. I definitely did not plan on staying that long. I'm afraid that Jason will become bored with me after only a few hours. Haley just laughs, amused with my nervousness as she steps inside, with me trailing behind her.
"Well, yeah," she murmurs in response. "Emily! Charlie's here!" She yells up the stairs, and I get a little impatient with her. She turns to me, and surprisingly answers me. "There's condoms in the top drawer in the bathroom upstairs," she says quietly, and I scoff, finding her behavior quite ridiculous.
"Haley," I groan in frustration. "We're not going to do anything." I take my shoes off by the door as I hear footsteps coming down the stairs.
"Hey, Charlie," Emily says, greeting me as she heads for the door. "I heard you're going to get laid today." She sets her hands on my shoulders and smiles. "Congratulations." Then, she walks out the door, calling out for Haley.
"See you later," I mumble, still frustrated with their assumptions. I mean, why would they think that we are going to have sex? I haven't even known Jason that long. I'm not quite sure he would even want to, anyways.
After she leaves, I feel slightly relieved to have her away from me for the moment. She's really nice, but sometimes I just take the joking and teasing a little too seriously.
"Jason?" I call out, searching for the person I am supposed to spend the day with. This is going to be fun.
"In here," I hear his voice from the other room. I have not been in their house long enough to know where every room is, so it takes me a few minutes to find him. "You lost?" He asks as I step into the room. He's sitting on a blue chair, leaned back, and watching the walking dead on the big screen TV. I roll my eyes and step forward, realizing that this particular episode is from season three.
"Shut up, I've only been here twice." I plop down on the chair opposite of Jason, glancing at the screen. A few minutes later, I glance over and notice him staring at me with a small smile on his face. "What are you looking at?"
"You like this show?" He questions, raising an eyebrow and adjusting his glasses. I scoff.
"I think every person in America likes this show," I reply, though I have only seen seasons one through five of it myself. "I don't want to watch TV right now. Let's go outside." He scoffs, the corner of his mouth turning up in an amused smirk.
"Too bad. I live here."
"But I'm the guest."
"Who cares?" I sigh in frustration, standing up from my seat and standing in front of the screen, blocking his view. "Move," he mutters, glaring at me a little bit. He is trying to act all tough and intimidating, but I just think it's cute.
"Okay, I'll make a deal with you," I say, causing him to roll his eyes. "You come outside with me for an hour, a measly little hour, and then we'll watch TV the rest of the day, and maybe even order a pizza." I raise my eyebrows as he tries to decide. Finally, he sighs in defeat and gets up off the chair, shutting the show off with a click of the remote.
"One hour, and that's it," he says. "And when we come back inside, you are going to cuddle with me." I lower my eyebrows at his odd request, but agree nonetheless. Getting close to another person, especially an extremely hot person, will never be something that I have a problem with.
______________
"Then Andy flipped the wheeler over, and he ended up with a huge scar on his elbow."
So, we ended up grabbing a few ice cream cones from Dairy Queen, then we started to walk around in the woods behind Jason's house. For about forty-five minutes, we've been telling each other stories about ourselves. Some of his have his sisters in them, and some of them have this other guy, Andrew, who is Jason's best friend. Apparently Andrew is a bit of a troublemaker.
"Yeah, right," I reply, not believing that someone could flip a three wheeler over and make it out with only a scar.
"It's true," he responds, finishing off his ice cream cone. "When you meet him, ask him to show you the scar." I furrow my eyebrows.
"When I meet him?" I question, wondering what he meant by that. He realizes what he just says and laughs nervously.
"Right." He shakes his head a little. "My birthday is in a few days, and I was hoping you would come to the party." I raise my eyebrows, shrugging, as I lean down to the ground and pluck out a tall piece of grass. "Andrew's going to be there. And some other friends of mine."
"Um...I'm not exactly a party person, Jason." I reach out with my hand and brush the tall piece of grass against his neck. He swats at it with his hand, thinking that it's a bug or something. He doesn't get time to see that it's me who's doing it.
"That's okay," he replies. "It's a costume party, so you can wear whatever you want." I ignore how strange I find it that he would have a costume party in the middle of June.
"Hmm, whatever I want," I say, and rub my chin as if I'm deep in thought. "You will most likely regret giving me that information." He laughs in response, which gives me a tingly feeling in my chest. I look away from him, trying to rid myself of this feeling, but it doesn't seem to be going away any time soon. "Who are you going as?" I ask.
"I'm not sure yet. But I know that Haley is going as Harley Quinn." I nod a little and glance at the ground as we keep walking through the woods. Suddenly, my mind wanders to those videos I watched last night, and I instantly feel a pang of sadness in my stomach. I have tried my best to shove them to the very back of my mind so I could enjoy this day, but it doesn't seem to be working anymore.
"Charlie, are you okay? You've been kind of distant all day." I shake my head, trying to clear my thoughts and focus on what is happening right now.
"I'm fine," I reply, almost involuntarily.
"Ah, the classic lie. Right up there with 'I'm just tired'." I sigh in frustration, but something about Jason makes me realize that I can trust him at least a little bit.
"Uh, okay," I start. "I've had this...problem for a while, and last night I found out that my dad had the same problem before he died. I guess it shook me up a little." He's quiet, and for a moment, I regret saying anything.
"Is this problem cancer, or more like early baldness?" Somewhere in me, I find that funny, so I actually laugh a little, shrugging.
"I don't know, somewhere in between," I reply. "I can't talk about it," I add, quietly. Even if I wanted to open up to him, I would be way beyond terrifying to see his reaction to how insane I am. I probably could never have the guts to confess this to anyone. Except maybe my dad, but he's not here.
"You want to go back to the house?" Jason asks, pulling me out of my trance. I nod a little, tossing the piece of grass on the ground as we turn around and head back.
______________
The rest of the day consist of eating pizza, drinking soda, and watching movies of my choice. First, we watched Avengers: Age of Ultron, then Wolverine, X-Men First Class, and finally, Guardians of the Galaxy.
Now, it's seven–thirty pm, and Jason and I are curled up on the sofa watching a TV show from the nineties called Mad About You. I remember watching the first two seasons when I was younger, and I also remember how much I loved the cheesiness of it. It's a pretty simple show, about a married couple living in a New York City apartment.
I'm not sure when I scooted over so much that Jason and I are basically cuddling. I don't know when he slung his arm loosely over my shoulders, or when I hooked my leg together with his.
He doesn't really seem interested in the show very much, maybe a little at the most. I keep wondering why he doesn't ask me to change it, or why he is even watching it with me in the first place. My theory is that boring TV show + boring girl = boring time.
"You don't seem very interested in this," I say, breaking the silence. When I turn my head to look at him, I didn't think that his face would be so close that I can feel his breath against my face a little. "You want to watch something else?" He lowers his eyebrows and shakes his head, looking at me in a way that I have never been looked at before. It causes a strange feeling in my stomach, one that makes me slightly uncomfortable. I look away from him, trying to find anything else to look at.
"No, this is okay," he replies, his arm tightening around my shoulders, causing the feeling in my stomach to intensify. It's not just the physical contact, it's the way the atmosphere is set. It isn't like there's candles and rose petals and romantic music, but there might as well be.
The room is completely dark, the only light coming from the TV. Also, it's so obvious that Jason is wearing cologne, and he may have even overdid it a little. Even so, I'm not complaining. It's still Jason; he doesn't need to smell great to get my attention. He's been doing an outstanding job thus far.
The reality of it hits me like a truck. I'm cuddling up in a dark room with a very cute British boy watching one of the most sappy shows known to mankind.
Of course, when this realization kicks in, so does my anxiety. I feel my heart start beating faster and faster, which makes it harder to get air into my lungs. I want to get up and rush to the bathroom, where this can happen in private, but I'm frozen in place. I can't move.
So, I do what I used to do when this acted up. I focus on the TV show.
Surprisingly, this works, better than ever. When my breathing returns to normal a few minutes later, I notice Jason giving me a concerned look. "Are you okay?" He questions. I smile, nodding a little.
"Yeah."
And for the first time in years, I actually meant it.