Chapter 11

Disclaimer: All rights to the Mother-Daughter-Book-Club series belong to Heather Vogel Frederick.

"God, your room is a mess," Katie says, her hands on her hips as she surveys my bedroom from the doorway.

"It's not that bad," I reply offended from my desk where I'm busy finishing up a report.

"Um, yeah it kind of is," she says. "You're surrounded by laundry and books. Plus, there's dust everywhere."

I glance around as I save the final version of my paper to my desktop. My bed is unmade, the sheets and duvet crumpled at the bottom, my desk is covered in stacks of untidy books and office supplies, and there are clothes everywhere.

"Maybe it's a little messy," I acknowledge, "but I've been busy. Anyway, it's nothing a few minutes of tidying won't cure."

Katie rolls her eyes. "I bet you haven't cleaned since Jonas was here two weeks ago. And I thought having him visit would loosen you up."

"It did!" I tell her. "I joined the a cappella group. And I even went to the movies with you yesterday."

She laughs. "Right, because spending time with me is so difficult to do," she says sarcastically. "But speaking of movies, I should get going."

"Why?" I ask curiously, abandoning my laptop.

"I might have a dinner and movie date," she replies mischievously.

"Are you serious?" I shriek, springing up from my chair. "With who?!"

"Um, Oliver. I think his last name is Haywoood. You know, the guy from down the hall?"

"Tall, black hair, kind of geeky?" I say, painting a mental picture of him in my head. I've never spoken to him, but he seems nice enough.

"He's not geeky!" Katie protests.

"I meant in a cute way," I assure her. "Why didn't you tell me?!"

She shrugged. "I guess it slipped my mind until now. And as you pointed out, you've been incredibly busy."

"Stop using my own words against me," I say, prodding her playfully. "Want help getting ready?"

"I guess. But it's going to be pretty casual," she warns me as she leads me down the hall to her room. "So no going overboard."

"Whatever," I say. "We can still do your hair and stuff."

"Um, no," Katie says, backing away. When it comes to fashion Katie is strictly a jeans, t-shirt, and ponytail kind of girl.

"You owe me one," I prompt her. "Remember? For opening Darcy's present in front of Jonas."

"Oh, man," she groans. "Anything but this!"

I grin and shake my head. "Nope. You're out of luck."

Forty-five minutes later Katie is completely transformed. She's dressed in a pair of leggings and knee-high boots with a red tunic-style sweater. Like Mrs. Wong, she looks really great in red. I pinned her hair into a half up, half down type of style and put minimal make-up on. She looks great and I can tell she thinks so too, even though she won't admit it.

A knock on the door sends us into a flurry of activity. Katie grabs her purse and phone while I flutter around her, trying to put another coat of gloss on, switch her earrings,and add a necklace. Finally we're ready and Katie opens the door.

Oliver stands awkwardly in the doorway, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his bulky winter jacket. He looks bashful, but his eyes widen when he sees Katie. "Wow. You look great."

She smiles. "Thanks."

"Okay, off you go," I say, shooing them away. "Oh, and Katie, stop by my room later."

"Only if you clean your room," she calls teasingly over her shoulder and she and Oliver make their way to the elevators.

"Whatever," I mutter good-naturedly as I return to my room.

But I do take her advice and two hours later I've done two loads of laundry and am in the process of wrestling my sheets back onto my bed. When I'm finally done, I step back and fluff the pillows. I then move onto my desk and begin to straighten things out.

I re-shelve my books, dust the surfaces, and straighten the calendar above it. I pick up a pile of pencils and shove them into my desk draw next to the rest of my stationary. As I'm sliding the draw shut, a flash of white catches my eye. Curious about what it is, I draw it out and flip it over. My heart gives a particularly hard thud as I read my name on the front, written in a hand that's as familiar to me as my own.

It's Darcy's card. In all the excitement over the necklace, the card was forgotten about. It must've slipped into my desk draw and since Katie was right in guessing that I hadn't done any cleaning, it went unnoticed until now.

Feeling a burst of courageousness and confidence stemming from my feelings about my relationship with Jonas, I slit the envelope with my finger nail. I pull out the card and ignore the holiday greetings on the front. Instead, I flip open the card and scan the message.

Merry Christmas, Jess! Is this really our fifth Christmas as a couple? It seems as though it was just yesterday that we were both still in high school, spending the holidays with our families. I'm hoping we get to spend many more together. As for your gift, well you know I've always had a tradition of giving you jewelry for Christmas, so I hope you like it. When you wear it remember how much you mean to me. I love you. – Darcy

I kick back my chair, tears stinging my eyes. Not because I'm moved by the emotion in the letter, but because I'm so angry and frustrated that he still gave me the card and present even though we were broken up. What was he trying to achieve? How did he think that would that improve our relationship at all?

Taking a couple of deep breaths I force myself to calm down. Now is not the time to have (another) breakdown. Now is the time to make good on my promise to Jonas and talk to Darcy and make it clear where we stand.

Reaching for my cell phone, I wonder how Katie is doing on her date and pray that she won't end up with the same type of relationship problems I'm having. I dial the familiar number and wait for it to ring. He picks up on the fifth ring.

"Darcy speaking."

I close my eyes at the sound of his voice and force myself to be civil and mature. "Hi, Darcy. It's me…Jess," I add, just in case he's forgotten the sound of my voice or deleted my number or something like that.

"Oh, hi Jess," he says cordially, but his voice has become about ten degrees cooler. "How are you?"

"Fine, thanks," I reply tightly. "And you?"

Darcy sighs. "Look, you obviously didn't call to exchange greetings. I've got better things to do. What do you want?"

"Fine, if you really want to know I just read your card…from Christmas," I say, "and I wanted to know why you'd give me something like that even though I'm with someone else."

"In case you've forgotten," he retorts, "I gave it to you on Christmas, before you and Jonas became…an item. I thought it would help you forgive me. Oh wait; since I don't warrant an explanation, I probably shouldn't expect to be forgiven either."

I scowl, thinking of our last interaction which ended with him storming away after my failed attempt to reason with him.

"You cheated, Darcy!" I hiss. "We had a relationship. A really good one, I thought, and then you went and walked all over my heart. Forgiveness for something like that doesn't come easily!"

It's dead silent and I realize that I've brought the conversation to a topic I didn't mean to bring up. So much for being controlled and mature.

However, after a moment Darcy seems to regain his wits. "Well that didn't seem to stop you from kissing Jonas only days after we broke up!"

I shake my head, trying to refocus and attempt to bring the conversation back to where I can control it. "This isn't about Jonas and me. It's about you and me."

"What about us?" Darcy asks sharply.

"That we're over. We're not getting back together," I tell him.

"I know that," Darcy says. "That was made pretty clear when I saw you and Jonas together."

"So I need to return the necklace and card," I say, "because with those things around me, I can't fully move on."

"No," he responds stubbornly.

"No?" I say, both incredulous and frustrated. "You just said you knew we were broken up, but now you want me to keep a card declaring your love for me and an incredibly expensive necklace?"

"Basically," Darcy replies. I can tell that he's moved on from being annoyed to being amused by his round about logic.

At this point I can't deal with him anymore and hang up without another word. I'll just give the necklace to Emma for her to sneak it into his room or something. It's obviously not going to work trying to talk things out with Darcy.

Still seething from my conversation with Darcy, I shove both the necklace and card into my closet, truly hoping the saying, "Out of sight, out of mind," is true.

The clock on my bedside table reads 9:15 when Katie finally bounces into my room, flushed and breathless with a huge grin on her face. I'm on my bed, reading a novel and after she strips off her jacket, she joins me.

I roll over so I can see her. "So I'm guessing the date went well?"

She nods, still grinning madly. "It was ah-mazing."

Despite my lingering bad mood from my conversation with Darcy, I can't help but laugh. Katie doesn't usually speak like that. "Really?"

"Yeah. It turns out we like all the same stuff: music, food, TV shows. And he's super sweet."

"That's great," I reply, genuinely happy for her. "So you think there'll be another date soon?"

"I hope so. I mean, I think that he really liked me so there shouldn't be any problems, right?" She shrugs self-consciously.

"Hypothetically," I reply, thinking of my own relationships.

"That sounds ominous," Katie comments and shifts so she can see my face. "Wait, Jess. Are you okay?"

I wave her away. "I'm fine," I assure her, but I know that my eyes are red-rimmed from my tears earlier.

"You don't look it," she says. "Please don't tell me this is about Darcy."

I don't meet her eyes and instead reply, "I don't want to rain on your parade. Let's just talk about your date. What movie did you go see?"

Katie shakes her head. "Nope. That doesn't matter. Tell me what's wrong."

I sigh and sit up so that I'm propped up against the headboard. Katie follows suit so that we're right next to each other.

Katie clears her throat after a moment. "You know that I'm not going to talk about my date until you spill why you were crying."

"It's no big deal," I insist. The truth is I'm tired of being the drama queen and having all the relationship problems. Sure, Darcy's card and the conversation with him threw me a bit, but I really just want to have things back to normal and hear Katie talk about a normal, budding relationship.

Instead, she fixes me with an unwavering stare and eventually I break down involuntarily. "There was a card with the necklace," I tell her.

Her eyes widen. "Seriously?"

"Yeah…I forgot all about it. You know, with the whole expensive necklace and Jonas being there. I found it in my desk draw when I was cleaning up."

"Wow, what did it say?"

I show her the card and explained how I called Darcy and what happened. When I'm finished, she looks slightly shell shocked.

"All that happened when I was out on a date?" she asks.

"Unfortunately," I say miserably.

"Cheer up." She bumps her shoulder against mine. "At least you kept your word to Jonas about telling Darcy that it was over. And besides, Jonas can't fault you. You did try to give back the necklace."

"I suppose so." Although I still feel unsettled about Darcy's response, I feel myself reassured by her words.

"C'mon, I know what'll cheer you up. Let's go set up our own personal movie night in my bedroom. We'll stay up late and talk girl stuff."

"I guess," I say unenthusiastically and allow myself to be led to her bedroom.

As it turns out both Katie and I are exhausted and fall asleep half way through our first movie, Letters to Juliet. But when I wake up in the morning, sleepy with horrible morning breath, a good night's sleep is all I needed.

My head is clear and I see exactly what I have to. I scribble a note to the still snoring Katie and creep out of her room into my own. I sit down at my computer and think carefully about what I'm about to do. I then switch on my computer, pull up my email and begin to type.

Darcy,

I have the feeling you won't be very happy to receive this email from me, considering our last two conversations, but it was the only way I could think of to ensure I say everything I need to say without a fight breaking out.

You have been such a huge part of my life for so long. You went from being like an older brother and role model to the best boyfriend a girl could want. Every girl at both Alcott High and Colonial Academy was jealous that I got you. To tell the truth, even I couldn't believe I'd gotten you. Our story was like a fairy tale: high school sweethearts who got together (in England, no less!) after pining after each other. We faced no opposition. Emma was expecting it, our parents thought we were a great match, all our friends were already friends with each other. We were the perfect couple.

So of course, this being real life, it couldn't stay that way. It was obvious Fate wouldn't allow us to be happy together for the rest of our lives, and so something had to change. And that happened when you cheated last December. After you told me I went home and cried for almost a week. Ask anyone: Emma, my parents, my brothers. Darcy, you were my first love, but you were also my first heartbreak.

I know that once I bring up Jonas, you'll be tempted to stop reading (if you haven't already). Well DON'T. You need to hear this at least once. My decision to be with Jonas wasn't to hurt you, it wasn't meant as revenge. It was because we have something that I think is worth trying to make work. It had no relevance to you. Believe me. In three months, six months, a year, you'll find someone, and realize that there's a flicker of attraction and that you think there's a chance to make it work. When that happens, you'll understand what I mean about Jonas.

As for the necklace: You know I can't take it. It isn't right. Take it back and return it to the store or give it to another girl.

I know it's cliché, but I mean it (another cliché). I want us to be friends. If not for our sakes' then for Emma's. She doesn't deserve having her brother and best friend fighting.

Sincerely,

Jess

I press send and sit back. It's done. I've explained my side of the story to Darcy and now the ball is in his court. I can only wait.

The morning passes slowly. I check my inbox every five minutes hoping that he's responded. Each time I'm disappointed. To kill time I pace my floor, sweep my room, and brush my hair for one hundred strokes. Eventually it's one-thirty and I rip myself away from my computer to grab lunch before a cappella practice.

I'm completely distracted during the practice and am relieved when it's over even though I really enjoy it. I race back to the my dorm room and am both excited and worried to find my inbox has one new email from Darcy. I click on it and find this:

Jess,

I'll admit it: I was a bit annoyed to find this email waiting for me when I got back to my dorm room. I thought it was going to be an email telling me off, but instead I got a (virtual) earful about how you've moved on.

I agree. It's not fair on Emma to act like this. I don't think I can handle being "just friends" with you, but I think I can handle calling a truce. No arguing, no name-calling or accusations. When we see each other we're polite and courteous, but that's it.

Keep the necklace. I bought it for you. I imagined you wearing it. It's meant for you.

Sincerely,

Darcy

I smile. I'll keep the necklace if it means avoiding another fight. After all, we've called a truce.

A/N: I'll be the first to admit that this wasn't the best chapter I've ever written, but does the fact it's the second update in less than a week make up for it? Anyway, I've been thinking about how much longer this should go on for and I've decided that this will be the last chapter (not including the epilogue) since I'm running out of steam for this project and want to start some new stories.

As always, my apologies for any grammar errors.

I know I say this all the time, but thank you so much for the reviews! Every time I got an alert, I couldn't stop smiling!

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