“KELSIE LEWIS! You get down here this instant!” My mom shouted from downstairs two hours later since I left the party.
Oops. I forgot to pick up mom and Danny. I’m in big trouble.
When I got home from the party, I changed into my PJ’s and began weeping silently on my pillow until no more tears could be shed. I think I cried for one and a half hour, but who’s counting?
I got up from my bed and washed my face. My eyes were puffy and red and my nose looked bigger on account of all the crying I’d done. I hope no one notices.
“I’m sorry, mom! I went home and forgot to pick you up. Please don’t ground me!” I pleaded as hard as I could.
My mom had mercy on me and forgave me. “But the next time—”
“Don’t worry mom, there won’t be a next time,” I assured her.
“That car was the bomb!” Danny said, bursting through the door and startling me. “I hate to say this, but THANK YOU KELSIE!”
“For what?” because I swear I have no idea what he means.
“For leaving us at the party, Captain Obvious!” he rolled his eyes at me. “I gotta crash, see you all in the morning!” and he ascended the stairs.
What is he talking about? Has he gone mental?
“I have to sleep too. It’s been a long day,” my mom said “Just thank Jared for me. He’s waiting outside. Goodnight.” she went up to her room.
Jared’s name sent a chill down my spine.
Thank Jared for her? He’s waiting outside?
Oh my god. JARED IS OUTSIDE MY HOUSE?
I poked my head outside the cold, windy night. Sure enough, he was there. So was a sleek black BMW Z4. Now I know what Danny was talking about.
He was standing on our lawn, staring at me as I looked at him in the awkward, embarrassing silence.
“Uh, I’m sorry,” I apologized cautiously. After all, it was my fault in the first place. I was the one who drank gallons of punch and cocktail. “For what happened. At the party”
“It’s cool. I mean, part of it was my fault.” I could see his cheeks turning red under the moon’s light.
“No, it’s all mine. I was trying to find the bathroom,” I said sheepishly. “But then I opened the wrong door. So, I had to go home and I’m so, so, so sorry!!! I—”
Then he put his finger on my lips, cutting me off mid-sentence. His touch sent a thrill through my spine. Swoon! I’m going to die!!!
“Ssh! Why don’t we just forget that anything happened?”
He took his finger from my lips and gave me one of those heart-stopping smiles. His cool fingers felt really good. That is, until he pulled it away.
It took me about a minute to compose myself. Jared’s eyes were glued to mine the whole time, making me feel more self-conscious. So, childishly, I avoided his eyes and stared at the ground.
Seconds ticked by and still he said nothing. This has got to be the most awkward position in the whole world! I mean here I am standing in front of the man of my dreams looking more or less like a total loser. I mentally sighed. What is wrong with me?
So I finally gave up trying to avoid his eyes and quickly thought about things that we could talk about. Just to get this stupid awkwardness off!
“So, uh,” I looked around the place to think of an interesting subject. Then I spotted his sleek BMW car and without thinking I blurted out, “Nice car you got there.”
“Yeah, sixteenth birthday,” he shrugged.
I could see that he was staring at my eyes, as if he could see right through me! That made me more nervous and I started to fidget on the loose strand of my shirt. Uggh! It’s so embarrassing that I have to wear my humiliating PJ’s in front of Jared. He must think I’m the lamest person on earth! I mean who wears PJ’s with bunny imprints?!? Go figure.
“Oh, yeah! Your birthday was just last month!” I said with a shrill voice. I guess all that crying made my voice smaller. How could I forget? “Should I greet you or am I too late?”
“Greetings are still open.”
We laughed shortly.
“Can I ask you something?” I began, biting my lip.
“Sure.” He looked at me with expectant eyes.
I looked down. I don’t know how I’ll be able to say this. “I mean, you don’t have to answer it if you don’t want to…”
He held up one hand. “Just ask. I’ll answer it, I swear.”
“Okay.” I took a deep breath. “How did you and Amanda, you know, meet?”
He stared at me, probably wondering why I was so nervous to ask. “No idea why you were sweating bullets over that one,” He chuckled, ignoring my question.
“No idea why you won’t answer it.”
“Mandy and I go way back…” He trailed off.
“How back?” I replied automatically.
“Since middle school. I already told you this.” Oh yeah. Stupid short-term memory. “Anyway,” He continued. “It was the first day of sixth grade, and this blond girl went up to me and introduced herself. Turns out Amanda’s dad also got transferred to New York—she’s from San Diego—and works with my father. We started dating during the eighth grade.”
“So, that’s like”—gulp—“three years?!”
“And she knows Math,” He joked. “Yeah, kinda like that.”
My eyes were still wide with bewilderment. “Wow. So you really love her.”
He shrugged, getting uncomfortable.
“If she’s from San Diego, why is she here?” I almost demanded. Thankfully I gained control half-way through the sentence.
“Her parents wanted to move here,” he said. And I could sense that he wanted to drop the subject fast.
We stared at each other in the gauche night. The chirping of the crickets hurt my ears.
“So, a BMW huh?” I tried, desperate for a subject change myself.
He laughed at my attempt at topic-shifting. Before long, I was laughing with him too.
When we gained control, he asked me about random stuff until it got us to the topic of petty fights we used to be in before. That left us breathless from laughing.
“Which reminds me,” Jared said when we had settled down. He stood up and went to the big old urn near the door. He put his hand inside and looked like he was feeling something with his hand.
“What are you doing?” I got up and went to stand by him. I ignored my palpitating heart. That big old urn had been untouched for several years now. Who knew what could be inside there?
He pulled his hand back and retrieved a crumpled piece of paper.
“Do you remember this?” He straightened the paper and held it for me to read.
Kelsi,
emember tis day, am not yor frend enimor! its yor folt cos you eated the last pis of yor moms pay dat was supose to bi for me. yor not my bestest frend enimor!
Hate.
Jared
I laughed at his adorable letter. “When was this?”
“I think we were six. I was mad at you because you ate the last piece of pie that your mother was supposed to give to me. And you know how I love you mom’s cinnamon apple pie.”
“Well, I never knew you were angry with me.” I said between a fit of giggles. “You should have told me you know.”
“I was supposed to give it to you but I was too angry so I just tossed it in your urn and scampered away. Then after a few days, I completely forgot about it and I wasn’t angry at you anymore.”
And we laughed. Loud. So loud that Danny had to lean out of his window—which was directly above us—and go, “Will you two please shut up! In case you don’t know, there are people here who can’t get a wink of sleep because you two have been blabbering for over an hour!!”
We laughed harder. We didn’t stop until Jared’s mom had to call and told him to go home because it was already past ten.
“So, uh, I guess I better get going now,” Jared said as he shut his expensive looking phone.
“Oh,” I sure hope Jared wouldn’t hear the sadness that colored my tone. I just don’t want him to leave yet. We could talk until sunrise and I still won’t be tired!
Man! I can’t believe we’ve been talking for an hour!
“Goodnight, Kelsie,” Jared said. He began walking towards his car. I almost ran after him to convince him not to go yet. Almost. “Thanks for talking with me.”
I watched his car pull up from our driveway and into the street. He flashed me another smile before his car disappeared on the road. I hadn’t realized I didn’t say goodnight back to him. So I just mumbled, “Goodnight, Jared”, feeling kind of idiotic.
I don’t know how I’ll be able to wake up tomorrow. I’m gonna have even bigger eye bags in the morning.
But I don’t care.
This has got to be the best night ever—despite what happened at the party.
I went inside, locked the door and headed upstairs to my room.
I lay down on my bed while thinking about all that has happened tonight. Come to think of it, this night wasn’t so bad after all. Well that is if you take away the whole making out in the bed scene. I tried to shake it off my head and think about all the things that Jared and I talked about. I ran the conversation we had through my head several times until I think I have memorized it all.
My eyes finally gave up on staying awake and I managed to sleep with Jared still in my thoughts.