*Later that night*
Jackie waited patiently by the phone and hoped he'd call her tonight. He was already 10 minutes late to their little...phone date? Well, whatever it was he had no reason to be this late...unless..unless he reconsidered, maybe he just decided she wasn't his type that she wasn't cool enough, that she-
RING RING RING
Jackie froze, "Oh god it's him" she whispered to herself and then cleared her throat to try and prepare herself.
"H-Hello?" She asked nervously.
"Hey, Jackie!" The voice responded excitedly.
Jackie was taken back the voice sounded nothing like Steven and from the small amount of time she spent with him, he didn't seem the type to ever say anything excitedly more sort of cool and calm.
"Jackie yea there?" The voice snapped her out of her little daze and she just figured that he was happy to talk to her, which just elated her.
"Umm yeah yeah I'm here, just uh little caught off guard" She confessed.
"Really why?" He questioned.
"Well..you sound a lot more different than you usually do over the phone," She said bluntly, she'd never been one to beat around the bush, it always seemed so exhausting to do so.
"Really? Is that bad?...oh who am I kidding I could never sound bad" He responded confidently.
"Uh well no it doesn't sound bad, you just sound more high pitched and goofy," She said hesitantly not wanting to upset him.
"Really thanks! Anyways so do you wanna go out this weekend" He asked with zero hesitation and filled with confidence.
"Huh r-really!?" She asked excitedly, maybe his sudden change of attitude was a good thing.
"Well yeah you're really cute and funny and you know a..a pretty cool chick," He said bashfully, even though he was a cocky guy, and could ask out any chick he wanted, it was always the mushy stuff that caught him.
"Wow thanks, and I'd love to go out with you" She responded coyly.
"Really? Alright sweet! I mean I'd knew you'd say yes because come on it's me! How about I take you to the funfair down by the docks tomorrow" He questioned excitedly.
"That sounds great! Believe it or not, I've never been to a funfair before" she giggled as she twisted a piece of hair around her finger.
"Woah really? What's wrong with you? Fairs are like the funniest place on earth" Kelso said unimpressed, how could anyone not go to the fair, that's just impossible.
"N-no no, I've been to the fair! I was just joking" she ended with a forced fake laugh and could feel a slight fear and worry come over her, Steven's a fun guy, he likes doing fun things like skateboarding, skipping school, graffiti, he already knows that I hadn't been to the arcade and I'm pretty much a teacher's pet if he thinks I've never been to the fair he might think I'm some loser shut-in that has zero social life and who finds that attractive?! Just play it cool Jackie, play. It. Coool.
"Oh whew you had me going there, I mean that's pretty crazy not going to the fair" He howled in laughter.
"Yeah, I'm quite the jokester" She mumbled nervously "what time?" She inquired.
"Umm, how bout Seven when it gets dark, I like how the lights look on the water.. and also after you get off the rides and things are spinning with the lights on it makes you wanna throw up" He laughed goofily.
"Uh..ok? That suits me" She confirmed slowly.
"Great I'll see you then!" He chirped before abruptly hanging up.
When Jackie put the phone down she got the feeling that was something..off, which didn't make any sense because everything was going perfectly, she and Steven are going to the fair tomorrow which is totally romantic and it's her first date but still...something wasn't right.
RING RING RING
The blaring phone threw Jackie from her thoughts.
"Who could be ringing at this time?" she thought "It couldn't be Steven we just talked," she thought as she picked up the phone.
"Hello?"
"Did he call!" Buddy questioned excitedly.
"Buddy?" She asked confused.
"Of course it's me, who else would it be? You don't have any other friends" He giggled at the end.
"Woooow I'll have you know I'm friends with you out of pity," She replied tauntingly.
"Haha very funny, anyways did he call?" He asked expectedly.
"Oh yeah, he did I actually just got off the phone with him, we're supposed to be going to the fair around Steven tomorrow" She signed unenthusiastically.
"What's up, love? You don't sound too happy?" He asked concerned "Was the call not good...he didn't, like, say anything..bad?" He gasped
"What?! No no I'm fine, it was fine but it's just that…" she trailed off not knowing how she could describe how she was feeling.
"What? I thought this is what you wanted? You know your Knight in ratty concert t-shirts" He joked, but she could hear the confusion in his voice.
"Ok first off their not ratty their just vintage and secondly, it just seemed off, he seemed off" She insisted "He sounded really weird, like earlier he had this nasal sort of voice, you know like his nose was blocked but now it sounded high pitched and sort of goofy" She complained falling back into bed.
"Well maybe that's just how he sounds on the phone, I know that sometimes's when I'm talking to you, you sound like an entirely different person" He reasoned.
"Yeah that's what he said to but it's not only his voice that was different he was acting weird too like he was all excited and just sorta full of himself, which is just so not Steven, I mean from our time spent together he was all cool, calm and collected and to be honest he's a man of very few words, so it's just weird" She huffed, it's not like she didn't enjoy the fact he was excited but it just didn't seem like him.
"Huh that is weird, look if you're not comfortable going then don't, no one's forcing you," Buddy said reassuringly, the last thing he wanted her to do was to go out with a boy she wasn't entirely sure about.
"No no I wanna go, I guess I'm just nervous it's gonna be my first date after all and…oh my God maybe the first kiss" She squealed throwing her hands over her blushing face.
"Yeah then maybe you can finally stop practising on all your stuffed animals" He jabbed playfully at her.
"Oh Ha Ha at least I don't practice on my Sean Connery poster" She bit back smugly.
"Bitch" He muttered bashfully.
Jackie couldn't help but giggle hysterically, it was just meant to be a lighthearted joke but it did bring back memories of when she had actually walked in on him practising on his brand new Sean Connery poster, she had since vouched to never let him live it down.
"Well, I'm just gonna quickly change the topic and ask if you would like me to tag along on your date?" He inquired inquisitively.
"Uh Buddy I don't know if you know this but there's nothing that kills the mood faster than bringing along your guy best friend," Jackie said in her classic 'Duh' voice while exaggeratedly rolling her eyes.
"No not like that, I mean like staying in the background, watching from afar like some crazy stalker, you know just to make sure things don't go amiss," He said exasperated, shaking his head back and forth.
"Amiss? Who says amiss anymore? I swear Buddy sometimes you sound like a really old fortune teller or someone's grampa, I'm just waiting for you to say 'well back in my day' or call me a 'young whipper snapper'" Jackie said smirking slightly giving her best old man impression, knowing it would get a rise out of him, what kind of best friend would she be if she didn't tease him on how he sounded like an old man.
"Hey! Say's the girl who sounds like some old love poet from the 1800s, 'Oh Steven, from our exceptionally short time together I feel as if I know your entry in's and out's as a human-being and shall spend this day forth over analysing everything you do'" Buddy said struggling to hold in his laughter as he did his best impression of a sappy lovesick poet.
Jackie again couldn't contain her giggles but this time Buddy joined in both laughing hysterically, No matter what the situation was she could always count on Buddy to put a smile on her face and while she was nervous about tomorrow she felt better knowing that she always had someone in her corner looking out for her, It made her feel safe and loved.
"H-hey I'm just a romantic" Jackie stuttered as she struggled to catch her breath.
"Oh yeah I know I've had to listen to your many fantasies about how prince charming is going to come and sweep you off your feet" He responded sarcastically "But seriously do you want me to tag along in the background or do you want to brave it on your own?" He asked his tone turning from lighthearted to serious.
Jackie took a few moments to really think about it, it wasn't that she didn't trust Steven or that she believed he would do something to her, if he did he could've done something the entire day they were alone together and she knew he wasn't that type of guy but it's just that something about this date didn't sit right with her, like this nagging feeling in her gut telling her that something's wrong or 'amiss' but why was that? She didn't get that feeling earlier so why now?
"Mmm Yeah..yeah ok I think I'd feel a lot better if you were there Buddy, I know Steven wouldn't hurt me but it's just..there's this bad feeling in my gut saying somethings wrong, not sinister but just wrong" She confessed with a slight tone of confusion hidden in her voice, still not entirely sure why she's feeling this way.
"Yeah well, that's called a gut feeling Jackie something you should always listen to, ok? But yeah if it even make's you feel a tiny bit better about tomorrow then I'll totally come alone as your spy in disguise" He said reassuringly.
"Ok great! I'll talk to you more about it tomorrow but for now, I need to get my beauty sleep" She said trying to stifle a yawn.
"You mean your much-needed beauty sleep"
"I think you're referring to yourself dear friend, night Buddy" She giggled.
"Night young whipper-snapper"
Hey everyone sorry for the long delay, I've just been completely burned out this last while because I've just started my GCSE's and if you are from the UK or Ireland you'll know how important these tests are, so I've just been completely out of energy to do just about anything and I'm sure you can see that in my writing I honestly hate this chapter and have rewritten it twice but I couldn't delay it off anymore so I hope you guys like it, also please give me feedback on how Buddy and Jackie's friendship let me know if you like it or not.
Also, the thing that checks my writing and spelling has stopped working and I've tried my best to go over everything but as you prodigy know now I have dyslexia so these things are hard for me to spot.