- He did what?
My best friend was staring at me and slammed the door to her locker in my face the following Monday.
- He kissed me on the cheek! I yelled before I realized how loud my voice was and was able to stop me.
- Yeah! What a coward, she said straight forward.
I crinkled my nose and continued in a normal tone:
- Nah, it was kind of cute. Pretty mind fucking though.
She made a face, clearly disagreeing. I shrug and she sighed as Patty walked around the corner.
- Has someone made your mind fizzy? She said, putting her nose in the conversation.
- Yeah, a dude. He's just a dude… I muttered.
We started to walk off, up towards history class. I was thinking about what I'd just said. About Samuel being "just a dude". Wasn't he more? I realized that I was pretty good at lying to myself, but now I was torn. As much as I wanted him to be nothing but any boy, I had to admit that I was glad about what had happened the other night and that he was really sweet since I'd expect him to be a jerk.
- Who is it? Is it that guy that asked you out the other day? Patty interrupted my thoughts.
- Yeah, I muttered once again. He's name is Samuel.
- So you were on a date? She continued.
I saw Hannah roll her eyes in a quiet sigh. She had not asked for Patty's company and was about to strangle her any minute. Surely I hadn't asked for Patty to join us in any way either, but she was kind of an outsider and had no one else so I guessed that someone had to have her hanging around.
- No, I was in Spain dining with the prime minister, I snatched. Yes I was on a date.
- Oh, she said; hand fallen. Well how was it?
- It was great, Hannah putted in. And soon the semester is over, how lovely isn't that?
I smiled at her attempt to change subject, but Patty fell for it, starting to talk about how her and her family would be going north, skiing and celebrating Christmas with old family friends.
That the days until the holidays were less than a week away didn't however stop the teachers. With just three days left in school they filled their last classes with testes and essays, leaving no room for enjoying oneself, nor think about boys.
Just like the week before the date previous week, Samuel seemed to had magically disappeared. It happened that I saw my neighbor and the Turk, smirkingly hanging around down in the cafeteria among a group of blonde girls, but John and Samuel seemed to have been whipped of the earth's surface, abducted by aliens.
- This isn't going well at all, I told Hannah as we had bunkered down in the library, hiding from all the Christmas celebrations the last day before the weekend. I have not talked to him since the date, I haven't even seen him since that.
She crinkled her nose.
- I know. And I don't know what to do about it. And I don't know what to do about John.
I rolled my eyes, again she changed subject into John.
- That's a later problem, I mean if I get a foot in at Samuels I can try to fix that, but right now I got nothing.
- You'll see, it'll come around, she told me. Now there's just waiting.
- But there is no waiting. Next time I'll see him is in 3 weeks, do you know how much that can happen in 3 weeks? Dennis Kerr broke up with Leanne and got a new girlfriend in 17 days, that's less than 3 weeks!
- Well, she responded quite insecure about what to say, we'll figure it out somehow.
I made a face, thinking that we'd better make up a plan quite soon if this was going to go well for any of us.
- Yeah, because the next thing we know they are both going to have girlfriends, and we'll be standing here like two fools, like "fine, have it your way. I wanted to fuck you as well, but okey, have your ugly girlfriend and walk around and ignore everything else in life. Fine, sure"!
- You mad Jennifer?
I spun around looking at the unfamiliar voice. The face of the speaker, and his laughter, was on the other hand quite recognizable as I faced my neighbor. For a second I looked into his blue eyes, praying that this wouldn't forward to Samuel, or John.
Next to Isaac stood the Turk. He seemed to think this was just as funny as Isaac thought and grinned happily, close to burst out into laughter.
- With you in sight, yea, I answered Isaac.
He grinned bigger and I felt my body get hot from anger. This was ridiculous, didn't they had anything better to do than to mock me? Don't show them any sign of weakness, Jenny, the voice in my head told me. I reminded the voice that it probably was too late and that I assumingly was shaking of wrath.
- Don't worry, your secret is safe with me, he said, smiled once more and walked off.
The days were going slower the closer to Christmas it got. At home my mum were stressing out with the last of decorations and the first preparing of the big family dinner which were including our family of 4, my grandpa and grandma, my aunt and her family of 6 among them my cousin Martin and last: my grandmother, her new husband and my great grandfather from my dad's side.
The box which had contained Christmas ornaments until yesterday, stood at the floor next to my closet. Hannah, who had helped me decorate my room, laid at my bed, bored. We had spent the last week together watching Pretty Woman, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Bridget Jones diary and several kids cartoon's about Christmas, feeling lazy and sometimes quite miserable. The truth was that we both putted in too much energy in this Samuel-&-John-thing, and neither of us had anything to do during all this free time.
- Are you done with all your presents? I asked as I bumped down in the bed besides her and turned on the television.
- Oh George, how come… A blonde lady with red lipstick told a tall man with black water combed hair and a tiny black mustache before Hannah's speech drowned her words.
- Nah, I still got to buy something for my mum, and Linda…
She grinned badly as she thought of her smallest cousin. I had never met her but I had heard quite a lot about the eager, young lady who seemed to be a pain in the ass.
- …like what do you buy to an 8 year old?
I didn't answer since I didn't know. I had bought some magazines for approximately 2 bucks each from the local grocery store to my 10 year old brother Robbie. There were cars and baseball players in them so I'd figured that he would be happy.
- I bought some bath bombs from the little make-up store on the corner of Maple Street for my mother.
- Hmm, yeah, that'd be something. I have yours though, you'll get it on Christmas Eve or something.
I smiled and thought about the red present hidden in my drawer of underwear that was for Hannah. It was Alice Cooper's latest CD that I'd picked up from another one of the little town stores. That she listened to Cooper, Queen or Ramones were not displayed in her looks. To judge by her appearance she could be admiring Justin Bieber or One Direction, but just the mention of them made her snap.
What Samuel liked I didn't know but it seemed to be a fair guess to believe that Club was his thing. I had tried to act cool about I-haven't-seen-him-in-like-two-weeks!-thing but my head was brainstorming ideas to get in touch with him as soon as possible, all the time. And no matter how bad I wanted it to not be a fact, it kinda was. I liked the guy.