A/N - Thanks everyone for the reviews! You guys are awesome! Oh, and if you guys have MySpaces, feel free to add me or anything. I love talking to new people. And congrats to starfly20 for being my 100th reviewer!
My mom didn't really ask me any questions last night about my clothes, she just told me to go to bed. As I woke up this morning, I realized that I was still in Nate's clothes. Mmm, they smell like him, too. Whoa, where did that come from?
I have to go back to that house again. Mainly because of the project, and I need my favorite beater and my jeans back. Come on, who can resist Boys Like Girls? I'm about to walk over to their house, but when I open the door, I saw that Nicole was about to knock on it. We both crack up at this.
"Wow, hey, what's up?" I ask her. We both walk down the drive way, Nate's clothes in my arms, neatly folded up. "I dunno, I wanted to talk to you about last night," she hesitantly says. "Well, I'm about to head to their house, wanna come along?" I ask her. She smiles brightly before saying, "Yay, I mean, yes!"
After five minutes of walking, I finally mention last night to her. "So, you and Jason? What's the current status?" She shrugs before telling me, "I don't really know yet, but he's an awesome kisser." She gets a dreamy look on her face. Okay, it's not cute anymore. It's almost gross.
"What's up with everybody kissing guys except for me? My lips need to lose their virginity!" I exclaim. "Oh wait, that came out wrong," I correct myself. We both start laughing hysterically, and have to stop walking. "It'll happen one day," Nicole reassures me after we calm down and start walking again.
"You know, I highly doubt it. I mean, I'm not attractive," I tell her. I felt so unwanted when it came to guys. "I wouldn't say that, I think Shane and Nate have a thing for you." I give her a dry laugh, and reply, "Yeah, and Global Warming isn't going to KILL US ALL." I scream the last part. "No, it's not going to kill us, it's going to kill our grandkids," Nicole says.
"Yeah, nice way of putting it, dude. Now I don't want kids, so my grandkids won't have to go through that shit," I humor her. "Wow, we're laughing too much today," she tells me. I nod my head, and we're quiet for the rest of the trip. We were walking up the drive way to the Grey house when I finally ask Nicole the question that's been bugging me.
"Nicole, don't you think that you and Jason are moving along a bit fast?" I ask her. She bites her lip, thinking about the question. "Hmm, I guess so. I'll try and slow it down," she tells me. "And don't forget to make sure you guys are actually dating before doing anything else with him," I remind her. "Sure thing, mom!" she says.
I ring the door bell and wait for someone to answer. We wait, but no one opens the door. "Hmm, that's funny. Is anyone home?" I ask no one in particular. I turn the door knob and the door opens. "Yeah, nice move," Nicole says. I stick out my tongue at her before going inside. The living room looks totally trashed.
We walk further into the kitchen and see a bunch of beer bottles everywhere. I grab about four at a time and throw them into the Grey's recycling bin. There were quite a few beer bottles. Nicole and I did this for a couple minutes before we decided to go upstairs.
"Oh wait, they probably have football practice!" I finally realize. "I just walked two miles here only to find out that they have football practice?!" Nicole yells. "Uhh, yes?" I awkwardly answer her. "Okay, I'm gonna walk to the school then," she decides.
"Hey, at least they live closer to the school than we do," I say to lighten up things. "Yeah, I'll catch you later," she tells me before walking out the door. "Hey, you've been ditching me a lot lately! Oh, and do you want to go ice skating with me and the guys!?" I yell at her since she was getting further and further away.
"Yeah, I'll call you about it!" she screams before disappearing from my sight. I start to clean up the mess and putting back the furniture where it was supposed to be. I seriously hate cleaning, but the guys were my friends now, might as well help them. After five minutes, I get bored and lock the door then I go upstairs.
They shouldn't be leaving their door unlocked like that, even if it's Green Oak, one of the safest boroughs in New Jersey. I saw that Shane's door was slightly ajar, so I walk inside. There was Shane, just laying in his bed sleeping with his comforter tightly wrapped around him. I have to admit, it was a cute sight.
I close his door behind me, trying my best to not make any noise. I guess I did make some noise because Shane starts to stir in his bed. I'm freeze on the spot. Maybe I'll be so still, he won't see me! "Jenny, is that you?" he groggily asks. Shit! That never does work, does it? I plaster a smile on my face before turning around and saying, "Hey, what's up?!"
Okay, that was a bit too perky. He doesn't reply to my greeting. I walk up to him and see that his eyes are red, and he just plain looks sick. I put the back of my hand to his forehead to check his temperature. It's literally burning up. "Oh my God, Joe, you have a fever!" I exclaim. He groans and turns to face me, "Oh, no wonder why I feel like shit," he manages to say.
"When do Jason and Nate come back from practice?" I ask Shane. He mumbles "Four" through his comforter. It was about 1:30 right now. Two and a half hours, that kinda seems like a long time to me. "I'll be right back," I tell him. I go up to Nate's room to get the tri-fold and rummage through his back pack and found some black sharpies. PERFECT.
I go back to Shane's room, tri-fold in hand and two sharpies. "Hey, what's that for?" Shane asks me. "It's our project. OUR project. Should I repeat that again?" I say. I lay that thing down and start tracing the pencil marks with the sharpie. "Hey, did you take your temperature?" I ask him. I knew his forehead felt hot, but I didn't know the exact temperature. "I really don't think so. We don't get sick much," he answers me.
You'd think that rich people would at least have a thermometer around for fevers. Apparently, these guys don't. You're fucking kidding me! "Do you guys have anything with vitamin C in the fridge?" I ask him. "You know what? Never mind, I'll go check myself." I go down the stairs to the kitchen and open their fridge to find it virtually empty. Of course, there was beer.
Wait, was that some facial creams? Okay, that's strange. Probably their mom's. I see some orange juice, yes! And it's not from Concentrate. Today's my lucky day. I grab a big glass and pour everything in. There wasn't so much juice left. I threw out the carton before walking upstairs. I hand Shane the glass, and he happily accepts it. He gulps down the entire thing in one swig. Wow, probably got that skill from drinking alcohol so much.
"Hey, lemme help you with our project," Shane says as he unsteadily stands up. "Dude, it looks like you have a major hangover," I laugh. He didn't drink anything last night, so this was pretty funny. He grabs a sharpie and starts tracing the other floors that I hadn't started on yet. "Wow, even when you're sick, you manage to draw straight lines," I try to compliment him.
"The orange juice makes me feel a bit better," he says. "Oh, that's good then," I reply. We continue tracing the lines until we're finished a couple minutes later. Shane was much faster than I was. Unlike me, he wasn't a perfectionist when it came to projects.
"Hey, you know, about ice skating," Shane starts.
"Well, what about it?" I ask him.
"I was thinking of something else instead, since I'm sick," he says.
"And what exactly were you thinking of?" I wonder.
"Be my date to the Homecoming Dance," he tells me.
I start choking on my own saliva. Yes guys, I actually do that. If there's no water to spit out, or some other liquid, I start choking on my own saliva. And trust me, it's very painful and takes several minutes to get rid of. After my coughs subsided, I say, "Wait, freshmen aren't allowed to go, just sophomores, juniors and seniors."
This was true. I don't think other high schools had this rule, but Green Oak didn't give freshmen a lot of privileges at dances. Of course, there was the Freshmen Dance, strictly freshmen only. "Well, a freshman can come if they're the date of an upperclassman," Shane says. I'm still bewildered as I ask him, "But why me? Why not some other chick? You've got literally hundreds of girls awaiting attention from you."
"Can't you just respect my decision?" he asks me. "But would this count as a date?" I ask him. He scoffs before hoarsely answering, "Well, no duh. You are my 'date'." My face drops at this, and it seems like he notices. "What's with the face," he asks me. He's giving me this weird stare. "Uh, date? I haven't really been on a date.." I tell him, embarrassed.
"You know, kinda figures since you haven't even kissed a guy before," he points out. "Gee, thanks for reminding me. I already had that talk with Nicole this morning, thank you very much." God, he sure knows how to make people feel better. SIKE!
"So, is your answer yes or no?" he asks me. Obviously, the fever's not making him any less of a jerk, really. "The answer's yes," I finalize. He smiles at me, then says, "Buy a new dress, you'll need it." My jaw drops before I yell, "What!? I just spent like, over half a grand this week. I'm not gonna be shopping for awhile!"
Oops, none of the guys were supposed to know how much I spent. Nate thought that I was wearing one of my old dresses. "Wait, why would you be spending that much?" he asks me. Just like Nate did last night, I got that "oh shit" look on my face. I guess Shane should know the truth. "You know where I went for Nate's birthday?" I ask him. He nods and says, "Yeah, my mom's fashion show and stuff." I sigh and tell him, "Well, the dress and shoes I bought for the event were worth over five hundred bucks."
His eyes go wide, then he gets a huge scowl. "So you spent that much money for Nate?" he asks me. Why did he seem so pissed all of a sudden? "No, I thought Nate would want you to wear that stuff!" I was being honest, too. "Wait, who told you that?" Shane seems pretty curious. "Nicole just assumed, and I somehow hypnotized myself into thinking it, too. I mean, that would be pretty funny, wouldn't it?" I try to reason.
"You still spent all that money on me. Okay, here's the deal. You and me go shopping for the dress tomorrow since the dance is this Friday. I promise to pay for everything, okay?" he suggests. "No, I'm not gonna let you pay for all of that," I tell him. "Think of it as a favor, okay?" he says. I still look doubtful. He's being too nice. Knowing him, he'll pick something extremely expensive, and go overboard on everything else.
But then he's gonna hold it against me, making me owe him more stuff. I didn't want that. As if reading my mind, he tells me, "You won't owe me anything. I promise," he holds out his pinkie. Wow, my second pinkie swear this week. We pinkie swear on it. "Shane, you're being too nice," I tell him. "Well, if I'm being too nice, I'll be a jerk and tell you that you're Angela's replacement," he says.
I give him my intense glare like I did last week. "And unlike her, you're not a slut and you're the exact opposite of easy," he tries to redeem himself. "Nice save, dude. I was just about to pull that hair of yours. People who have fevers easily get hurt when their hair gets pulled, ya know?" I try to humor him. Today, his hair wasn't perfect. It was more wavy and out of control. This is probably my first time seeing Shane without amazing hair.
"Yeah, don't touch the hair. You've damaged it enough already." I laugh, remembering the first day. "Oh yeah, that water ice!" I exclaim. He tries to laugh, but it comes out pained. "Let's get you back in bed," I order him. He groggily gets up and lays down and wraps himself in the comforter again.
I touch his forehead once more. It cooled down a bit. "Hey, your fever's slowly going down," I tell him. He smiles and says, "That's good. I'll call you tomorrow, okay?" As I walk out his bedroom door, he calls out, "What, no hug today?" I laugh before telling him, "No offense, but I don't wanna get sick. Get better!"
I walk down stairs and see through the windows that Jason and Nate were home. They were getting out of Jason's car, gym bags in hand. When they get to the door, I can tell that they're surprised that the door's locked. I giggle before opening the door for them. They're both shocked to see me there. I walk to one of their couches and hand Nate his clothes from last night.
"Thanks for letting me borrow your threads. I washed them and everything," I say after he puts them in his gym bag. "Wait, where's Nicole?" I ask Jason. "We dropped her off before coming here," he answers me. "Aw, you're so sweet to her," I say. He could tell I was teasing him. He rushes upstairs to his room, leaving me alone with Nate.
"Make sure Shane gets better, okay?" I instruct Nate. I hate it when my friends are sick. Wow, I just addressed Shane as my friend. Nate gives me a tight-lipped smile before he too, runs upstairs to his room. Before I can walk out the door, Jason rushes down and asks me, "Hey, want me to drive you home?" You know, my legs are starting to hurt a bit, so I answer him, "Yes, please!"
We get in and buckle our seatbelts before Jason backs up from the driveway and zooms to my house. "Shane asked me to the Homecoming Dance," I tell him. He doesn't seem that shocked. "I asked Nicole, too. We should double date or something," he replies. "Hey, that's a good idea. But what about Nate? He'll be alone for the night," I say. I didn't want Nate to be all alone.
"Maybe you could let him stay at your house again," Jason suggests. Okay, now it's his turn to get that "oh shit" look on his face. I don't think he was supposed to say that. "Wait, you know about that?!" I shriek at him. "W-well, I mean, I saw Nate walking away from the house, and coming back early next morning," he tries to explain. "YOU KNEW?!" I ask him again. "I just assumed that's where he was, since it's the first time that I'm aware of that he sneaked out like that," he continues trying to explain himself.
"Wait, does Shane know? Or Nicole?" I ask him. I think I'm hyperventilating. "No, it's just me, okay? Your secret's safe with me. I don't see anything wrong with it, though," he reassures me. "Look, I've never had a boy over at my house, let alone a guy sleeping over in my bed, and Nicole might tease me about it, but I don't know about Shane," I tell him.
"Maybe you don't want Shane to be jealous," Jason suggests. "Why would Shane be jealous?" I ask him. Instead of answering my question, he tells me, "We're at your house, Jenny." He was right, we were right in front of it. "So you're not going to answer my question?" I ask him. He replies, "You'll have to find the answer to that question yourself."
I look at him in disbelief as I get out of his car. We wave good-bye to each other as he speeds away. 'You'll have to find the answer to that question yourself.' What was he talking about?
Okay, Homecoming Dance just came up out of nowhere. Every high school's got one, right? I'm not In high school yet, so I don't really know. REVIEW!!