I watched as the seconds hand of the clock on the wall spun agonizingly slow and fought the urge to yawn. The guy sitting across from me, with short brown hair and green eyes, spoke animatedly, his hands waving about. Honestly, I wasn't even listening to him. I had been forced to come on this blind date in the first place by the captain of the matching-making club from Ava's college, a girl named Miranda, when I had stopped by to give Ava her homework she had forgotten in my room the night before. Apparently, Miranda needed to get at least fifty people to go on blind dates every month so that her club wouldn't be shut down. She was desperate, and no matter how much I said no (I practically spit venom at her), she would not give up. So, here I am, on this blind date I didn't even want to be at in the first place.
As soon as the clock struck two p.m., I stood up from my seat across from the guy, who was in the middle of explaining his science project to me. "Well, Kevin, it was nice meeting you. Sorry, but I'm not interested in dating. See you."
He frowned. "My name is Calvin."
I shrugged as I slung my bag on my shoulder. "Close enough."
I exited the cafeteria of the school, where all the blind dates take place for Miranda's club, and texted her. 'Don't you ever make me do this again,' I sent to her, pressing the 'send' button quite harshly before deleting her number from my phone.
"You look like you had fun," Ava said from her spot on the bench just outside of the cafeteria, trying not to laugh. Ava had been my best friend since middle school, when we found out that we both hated the same girl during sixth grade. Yay to making friendship over mutual dislike!
I rolled my eyes. "It's your fault I even had to go in the first place. If you didn't forget your stupid history essay in my room last night, I wouldn't have had to come here, and Miranda would've never been able to force me into it."
She laughed. "Yeah, yeah. Now, let's go."
We made our way to a pizza place not too far from her campus, where we usually went to get lunch. This time of day it wasn't usually too packed, so after placing our order at the counter, we sat down at a table a few feet away. "So, how was the blind date, really?" she asked me, sipping her soda.
"Boring."
She laughed. "Well, that's being really honest."
"It's true," I said. "Besides, I'm not really looking for a relationship right now, anyway. Especially after Jace."
Jace is my ex-boyfriend, whom I had broken up with a few weeks ago after I caught him cheating on me with his ex-girlfriend. We had only dated for two months so I wasn't too hurt about it, mostly just pissed that I wasted my time with an asshole like that. After I found out, he kept texting me non-stop, asking to meet up so he can talk to me and 'try to explain what happened.' I ended up blocking and deleting his number from my phone.
Ava made a face at the mention of Jace's name. "Ugh, seriously," she said. "What a scumbag."
"Who's a scumbag?" A soft, warm voice asked us as our pizza got set down in front of us. The voice belonged to a good-looking tall guy with brown hair and tan skin, who smiled down at us.
"Well, for one, it's not you, Luka," Ava said to him, smiling brightly as she gazed dreamily at him. He grinned down at her before leaning down, pecking her on the lips quickly.
"Thanks," he said. "So, who's the scumbag you two were talking about?"
"Jace," Ava told him, her look of disgust returning to her face.
He groaned. "Gross, why are you two talking about him?" Turning to me, his eyes got serious. "Nova, is that guy bothering you again? Should I talk to him?"
"He's not, but thanks for offering. If he does, I can take care of him myself."
Luka nodded. "Alright, but never hesitate to call me and Ava. We'll both kick his ass."
I laughed. "Thanks, guys."
After Luka returned to the kitchen, Ava leaned in. "So, you know Luka's birthday is coming up, right?" she whispered. "Well, I'm doing a surprise party for him. The other guys are going to be distracting him by taking him out during the day so I can set up everything at the apartment. Will you help me?"
"Of course I will," I told her.
"Thank you so much!" she exclaimed. "I'll text you the details!"
After lunch, I returned home to find my mother and Linda, her best friend who lived next door to us, chatting in the living room. "Hey, Nova!" Linda greeted me. "How have you been? I haven't seen you in a while even though we're right next to each other."
"I've been good," I told her. "We haven't had dinner together lately either."
"Well, with work picking up now that the weather is warmer, we just can't make the time," my mom said. She runs a catering business and usually serves for events such as birthday parties, business events, and weddings.
"Plus, with Everett being away at school, his father and I have been taking the opportunity to take more hours at work ourselves," Linda explained. "So, Nova, do you know how Everett has been? That boy never calls me no matter how much I nag him to."
I smiled slightly. "He's been great. He's having a lot of fun at school and with his band."
"That's good." She nodded her head, feeling at ease. "I'm glad that you're there for him."
Laughing sheepishly, I excused myself and went up the stairs to my room, shutting the door behind me and belly flopped onto my bed, feeling the guilt form in my chest from lying to Linda. The truth is, I don't really know how Everett is doing; we haven't spoken since he left two years ago. I mean, we do follow each other on social media, so I can see that he's been doing good and I'm not totally lying to his mom, but I still feel bad.
Curious now, I unlocked my phone and opened Instagram, scrolling down until I saw a post from Everett. He was smiling, holding up a glass of beer with a few other guys and girls, looking like he was having fun. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding in relief. At least he really is doing good.
The next day, it was late afternoon when I parked my car in the driveway after returning from my shift at the local coffee shop. I was halfway to the front door when I heard a familiar voice call my name. I turned to see Jace, coming up the sidewalk towards my house. Immediately, a scowl formed on my face. "Go away," I told him, turning my back on him.
"Wait, Nova!" He jogged the rest of the way, grabbing my arm and turned me to face him. "Can't we just talk?"
"What's there to talk about?" I asked him. "You cheated on me by having sex with your ex."
"Which was a mistake!" he exclaimed. "I've said sorry a million times; can't you just forgive me and we can get back together?"
I laughed dryly. "You think you can just apologize and I'll take you back without any complaints?" I ripped my arm out of his grasp. "Leave me alone. I'm never going to accept your apology, let alone take you back. Go home." Moving to turn away from him again, I intended to walk away when he grabbed hold of my shoulder, stopping me. "Seriously?" I sighed.
"You were always like this," he started, glaring at me. "When we were dating, you never seemed like you were having fun and your mind was like it was thinking about other things."
"So is that the reason you cheated on me?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "Because I didn't laugh at every word you said like some dumb bimbo?"
"See, your personality is so prickly!"
"Then why did you go out with me?" I yanked my shoulder out of his grasp. "It definitely wasn't for my personality - you just wanted to get into my pants. So when I never let you, you turned back to your ex." I shook my head at him. "Now, go away."
He rolled his eyes. "You're such a bitch."
Once he was gone, I opened the door to my house and slammed it shut. Great, that ruined my mood. Sighing, I turned around, locking eyes with someone I didn't expect.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I stared, in shock, at the tall boy before me, with his dark hair and eyes and lightly tanned skin. He wore a white t-shirt and dark jeans, his hair slightly messy and a stylish earring dangling from his left earlobe. I stared at him, the person I haven't seen in two years: Everett.
He stared back at me quietly before opening his mouth to talk. "What was going on outside?" he asked, his voice deep. "Seemed like you were arguing with someone."
I blinked as I came to my senses, shifting the strap of my bag higher onto my shoulder. "It was nothing," I told him.
My mom came out of the kitchen, smiling. "Nova, you're home! As you can see, Everett just returned home. He surprised his parents since he didn't say anything to them about coming back. He just came over to say hi to your dad and I." She turned to Everett, reaching up to pat his shoulder. "He's become really handsome, right?" I laughed awkwardly, not knowing what to say.
Everett laughed. "Thanks, Auntie, but I think I'm pretty much the same." He started towards the door. "I should get back home to unpack my things now. It was nice seeing you and uncle." He glanced at me as he opened the door. "See you later."
My mom waved as she disappeared into the kitchen. "See you, Everett!"
Still in shock, I didn't answer him, though he didn't wait for me to say anything anyway as he walked out of the house, the door shutting behind him. I exhaled the breath I'd been holding and leaned against the wall. How could he just show up out of nowhere? A normal person would at least message their childhood friend that they're coming back home from being away for two years.
Then again, it wasn't like we were especially close anyway. It's funny how two people who lived next door to each other, who grew up together, could be so distant. Though, this time is different from how we were in high school. Back then we'd get into petty little arguments over nothing, while now we barely speak. Him leaving home definitely widened the distance between us, and I wasn't sure how I felt about it.
However, since he seemed completely fine with how things are, I decided that I wouldn't let myself mull over it, and hiked the strap of my bag back up my shoulder, walking up the stairs to my room.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author's Note: And here we have present day Nova and Everett! As always, I hope you enjoyed and please leave a comment if you like the story so far :)