Thanks everyone for your ongoing support! Life has been very busy but I still want to continue this story, so I'm glad you are still reading!
"So like two weekends from now… can you get away for the night?" Jordan asked, his face close to hers, the beginning of a sly smile playing over his lips.
"Are you like, making plans with me in advance?" Angela asked teasingly. "I thought that wasn't your style."
"It's not," Jordan said. "But there's this thing…"
"And you want me to go with you?"
"Well not exactly," he began.
"Well what then?" she asked, trying to keep the impatience out of her voice.
"I want to take you."
"Really?" she exclaimed in excitement. "Where are we going?"
"I'm not telling," he smiled at her excitement.
"Aw, come on! This is going to drive me insane!"
"But I need you to be able to get away for the night. Do you think you can?" The look on her face made him stop and give her a playful shove with his elbow. "Come on, it's not for that."
"For what?" she asked, her cheeks already beginning to flush.
"You know. But we can if you want…" he whispered in her ear, which made her insides turn to mush.
"I'll think of something to tell Patti," she whispered back.
"Good. It'll be a blast." She sensed something close to excitement in his voice and it made her smile again.
"Oh my god!" Rayanne squealed. "I bet he's taking you to Smashing Pumpkins in the city! Tino told me he got tickets, but he didn't offer me one, the bastard. Oh I'm so jealous! I'd tag along just so I could try and sneak backstage…"
"You're not tagging along on Angela and Jordan's thing," Rickie said flatly. "What if they're not going to Philly after all?"
"Well Jordan said we'd probably be out all night, which probably means we're going to the city, right?" Angela said in an attempt to prevent a fight between the two of them.
"I'm not talking about Philly," Rayanne said loftily. "I'm talking about New York, the real city."
"Really?" Angela couldn't help but lean back against the wall, a smile breaking across her face.
"Wow, this is major," Rickie said.
Despite being only about two hours away, Angela had only been to New York a handful of times, the last time at least three years ago. She had never experienced the big city through the eyes of a teenager and the idea gave her a huge thrill.
"Angelika, imagine having your first time be in New York," Rayanne said dreamily. "How amazing would that be?"
"He kind of made a joke about it," Angela said. "I think he thought that I was worried he'd be expecting us to do it that night."
"Did you say something?" Rickie asked.
"No… I never know what to say. It's driving me crazy. Maybe I should just do it and get it over with."
"Yeah, it's driving me crazy," Rayanne said drily.
"Manhattan is so where I'm going as soon as we graduate," Rickie said. "There have got to be way more people there like me."
"We should all go together!" Rayanne exclaimed. "Could you imagine, the three of us taking on Manhattan?"
"Maybe…" Angela mused. She'd never seen the future in such a tangible way before. In fact, it was the first time she'd dared to imagine life away from her family and all of the familiarities of home, and it actually seemed plausible. "It does make the future seem more exciting."
"What's there not to be excited about? The future's looking bright, baby!" Rayanne chirped excitedly.
For once Angela had to agree.
"So what are you going to do?" Sharon asked curiously.
They were sitting in the yearbook editor's office after school, Sharon determined not to let her recent bad luck with her health slow her down. Angela admired her friend's drive, and she had to admit that she felt like a slacker in comparison.
"Well I don't know if we're going to New York for sure," Angela replied, watching Sharon go through a stack of proofs. "What are those pictures of?"
"Oh just sporting events and stuff," Sharon said. "I destroyed those ones, in case you were wondering."
"Oh," Angela said, a bit startled by the unexpected reminder of Jordan and Rayanne.
"Well either way, he wants to take you somewhere and chances are you'll be together all night. So what are you going to do?"
"Do I have to think about this? Why does it have to be so like, premeditated?"
"Because we live with our parents and we don't get a ton of opportunities to be alone," Sharon said. "Although that didn't seem to stop me."
"Have you been talking to Kyle?"
"A little," she admitted. "But I'm over him, I think. We don't really have that much in common, and he was a total jerk over this whole thing."
"Could this have anything to do with Shane?" Angela asked teasingly.
"God no," Sharon laughed. "We're just friends. I don't see him that way."
"Sure," Angela replied, unconvinced. "Actually I kind of wish you were into him, so I would have some idea of where Jordan is taking me."
"He wants it to be a surprise, Ange. I think it's cute."
"I don't think I like surprises," Angela moaned.
"Just try to relax and go with the flow. It's sexier that way," Sharon said. "Now quit obsessing about this and just tell Patti that you're spending the night at our place."
"Like that would ever work. She talks to your mom every single day."
"What about Rayanne's?"
"I'm kind of banned from spending the night there, after what happened with Rayanne OD'ing and all that. We haven't really revisited the issue."
"Well you'd better revisit it, unless you want to tell Patti the truth. I mean, I know she likes Jordan, but I doubt she likes him that much." She picked up a pair of scissors and began cutting something out. "Hold on, I feel an idea forming." She put the scissors down. "Are your parents speaking to each other?"
"Sort of," Angela said. "I know she talked to him the other day, but they don't have like lengthy conversations or anything. Are you suggesting that I use this to my advantage?"
"Yeah," Sharon said sheepishly. "It might be your only chance. Have dinner with your dad and uncle that night, then say you're going to Rayanne's. He's not going to say no to that. And your mom won't object to you spending time with your dad."
"I guess that could work," Angela said thoughtfully. "Except it involves me talking to my dad, which I'm kind of not doing right now."
"I know it's hard," Sharon said with a sigh. "But you know he cares about you. And you don't know for sure if anything is going on between him and that Callie woman."
"Well why else would he walk out on us then?" she said, unable to keep the bitterness out of her voice.
"Yeah it looks bad, but people have like a million reasons for why they need to spend some time apart. Like maybe she just made him see something that was missing in his relationship with your mom. I don't know. I'm sorry, Angela, this must be so hard for you."
"And this thing with Jordan was the only thing that made me forget about it for a little while." Angela began absently cutting a piece of paper into strips. "You know, Rayanne and Rickie and I were talking about what we want to do when we finally graduate. Have you thought about it?"
"Of course," Sharon said. "Like all the time."
"Do you think you'd move away?"
"I always thought for sure yes. I mean, there are so many great schools. But when my dad got sick, it made me question everything, like what if he gets sick again? Or what if he dies? I would hate to be across the country or something." She began cutting again, then placed her cut-out piece onto a template she was working on. "Although New York isn't that far away, and it seems like a great option."
"That's what we were saying," Angela said. "Is it weird that this is like the first time I've ever thought about being away from home before, like in a real way?"
"No," Sharon said with a giggle. "But it's time you thought about it. You're going to college, right? Befriending Rayanne Graf hasn't changed that life decision, has it?"
"College sounds like fun, actually," Angela admitted. "Living away, being with other people who like to overthink too? Sounds like a dream. I'm not aiming for Ivy League or anything, but maybe I can get into a decent state school."
"We'll plan that part later," Sharon said with a wink. "First we need to get you through this weekend with Jordan Catalano."
"We were at the loft the other night and um, things went further than before," Angela lowered her voice to a whisper and ducked behind a curtain of hair. She didn't know why talking about these things still embarrassed her when Sharon and Rayanne were so brazen about it. Maybe she would never be totally comfortable with it.
"You guys had sex?" Sharon squealed, dropping the scissors with a thunk.
"No, but he um…"
"He went down on you?" she whispered excitedly.
Angela nodded mutely.
"Did you like it?"
"Well, yeah… except now I have to, you know…" Angela could feel her cheeks turning redder and redder.
"Return the favour?" Sharon couldn't help but smile at her friend's obvious discomfort. "Sure, if you want to. But he's a jerk if he expects it."
"He didn't say anything about it, but I kind of did…"
"You're too funny," Sharon mused fondly. "And you're so flustered, it's cute."
"I don't know why," Angela said miserably. "I swear I'm not this awkward in the moment. At least I hope not."
"So how did it happen?"
"I don't know, we were sort of hanging out in the loft and we started taking off our clothes and I didn't want to stop. It was fun, and nice not to overthink things for once."
"Well that's how it should be. Don't overthink. If you feel like returning the favour or whatever, then do it. Or don't." She picked up the scissors again. "Is he any good? I imagine he would be good." She smiled mischievously.
"Well yeah, not that I really have any comparison… But yeah, definitely. He makes my stomach feel like it's made of jelly."
"That's good. It should be like that, I think." She arranged a few more shapes onto the page, frowned slightly then reorganized a couple of the pieces. "I'm impressed he's being like, really respectful of you and your feelings."
"I know!" Angela exclaimed, pleased. "I just wish it was easier to find time to be alone. The second we were finished, his friends were walking in. They almost caught me running around looking for my clothes!"
"Are his friends nice to you?" Sharon asked.
"Oh yeah. They've warmed up. I mean, we don't really hang out together that much, but they always say hi and everything."
"He really likes you," she said, and she said it in a contemplative, serious way, not the gushing way that she spoke to some of her cheerleader friends.
"I hope so," Angela said. "'Cause it's like, it for me, for now. I could never think about having sex with him if I didn't think it was like, right for me now. I'm not talking about forever, but I mean now. I've thought about it so much and wondered about whether he really liked me or if he just wanted to see if he could get me, and I'm really starting to think it's more than that. It's not one-sided anymore, at least it doesn't feel like it."
"Well go with it then. This is going to sound cheesy, Chase Face, but you're like always true to yourself, whatever that happens to be in the moment."
"I try," Angela said awkwardly.
Sharon worked in silence for a few moments and Angela looked through more photos, observing the happy faces of her classmates and wondering what they would be doing five, ten, twenty years from now.
"Look at these photos of Rickie dancing," Angela said, smiling as she showed them to Sharon. "He's so much fun and I was such a downer that night."
"Delia Fischer totally developed this huge crush on him that night. I mean, she knows he's gay – he's gay, right? – but she felt like he was a bit of a kindred spirit, or something."
"Rickie's awesome," Angela said simply. "There is no one else like him, anywhere. But that's a good thing. He's always hoping to find more people like him though… I hope it happens for him, someday."
"Maybe the world will change," Sharon mused. "Maybe someday everyone can be with whoever they love. Do you think that's weird?"
"Not at all," Angela said, smiling. "I think it would be… aspirational."
"That's because you're in love," Sharon said, and she gushed a little bit then.
"That's not why," Angela insisted. "I just can't imagine being told that I can't love someone, because of the colour of their skin, or where they live, or whatever, so gender just seems like this other absurd thing."
"What's absurd?" a male voice called out from the hallway.
Startled, Angela and Sharon turned to look up at the door, which had been ajar, and was now wide open. Shane was standing in the doorway grinning, while Jordan stood beside him, looking sheepish.
"How much of our conversation did you overhear?" Sharon asked sharply. "Were you snooping on us?"
"Relax, Cherski, you're too uptight," Shane said easily, making his way into the room, Jordan beside him.
"Hi," Jordan said, making his way over to where Angela sat on the counter.
"Why hello," she said, unable to stop herself from smiling. He pushed her knees apart and pressed into the counter between her legs. She gave him a little squeeze and put her arms around his neck.
"Look at those two, can't keep their hands off each other. Aren't they cute?" Shane exclaimed.
"Shut up," Jordan said good-naturedly.
"What are you girls doing here at school so late?"
"Working on a deadline," Sharon said curtly.
"What's all this?" Shane spied the various photos laid out on the pages Sharon had started to set out. "Haha, nice head," he chuckled to himself, pointing at a photo of two football players in their uniforms.
"Shane," Sharon said, her tone taking on a sharp edge. "Did you come here to disturb us?"
"Actually, I'll have you know that my boy Catalano was very courteously inquiring about your well-being. He knew you were both here and figured you might have worked up an appetite."
Sharon eyed him suspiciously. "That's very nice of Jordan," she said finally. "But why are you here?"
Angela and Jordan couldn't help but laugh.
Shane took it all in stride. "I didn't want you to feel like the third wheel, obviously."
