Friday October 12, 2012
In the hallway there was no sign of James, or any other King. Donna and her ‘hot’ girl crew were absent as well. My heart pounded as I exchanged some notebooks in my locker and then headed to English. Usually they’d all huddle together a row of lockers away from English, but I didn’t see any of them.
He’s going to break his promise.
I shook the thought away and entered English. The room was half filled and I chose a seat in the back next to the window. Ten minutes went by, a few more people showed up, but there was still no James. The final bell rang and Mr. Doors got up from his chair and closed the door.
Mr. Doors stood in front of the chalkboard, rubbing his hands together, scouring the room. He raised an eyebrow. “I hope everyone remembers that today is a half day. Some of you decided not to show up, making it an unofficial long weekend. Our class still counts and I will be teaching you something that will be very valuable during next week’s midweek quiz. As for the students that decided to not show up today, you all are welcome to share your notes, but I think if you want it to be fair you shouldn’t and let them worry. Tough luck for them.”
Today’s a half-day!
*~*~*
I didn’t do anything wrong last night. But would Jenna think so?
Shit!
How was I going to explain last night to her?
“What did you do after? Did you go home?” Jenna asked as we stopped next to the curb, waiting for her mom’s blue minivan to show up.
“Yeah, I went home.” I answered, which technically was the truth, I did go home after the game. A few hours later, but still, I went home, so it didn’t count as a lie. There was no way I could tell her, she’d kill me or worse stop being my friend because she couldn’t handle my up and down craziness. She already thought I was stupid, I could tell even if she didn’t flat out say it.
Wait a minute this was Jenna, she totally said it, just in her own way.
But could I really keep this ‘big momentous thing’ from her? This was big news in the best friend department… LOSING YOUR VIRGINITY.
I lost mine last night and in the best friend rulebook weren’t you supposed to tell your BFF right away? It’s already been over twelve hours. If I waited any longer it might be worse.
I’d better tell her before her mom showed up.
Face to face.
“Jenna?” I said to her. “I have something to tell you.”
“Ugh oh, I know that face, Anna. What happened, something did happen right?” Jenna exclaimed, looking horrified, then something flashed over her eyes and she looked at me in shock. “Don’t tell me you – you did what I hoped you said you were never going to do ever again.”
I gave her my best ‘oops’ look. “I’m sorry.”
She snorted. “Sure you are. What you guys do, fool around in his car?”
I looked away, feeling very guilty. “Something like that.”
“No.” Jenna whispered, hoarsely. “No.”
I gazed back at her. “Things kind of….” I started to explain but she held out her palm for me to stop.
“No.” she whispered again, shaking her head like it wasn’t true. “You didn’t.”
“Surprise,” I cringed. “I’m not a…. virgin anymore.”
I quickly turned so I wouldn’t have to see her death glare.
I felt her hands grip my shoulders tightly. “Oh no you don’t, you look me in the eye, Miss… I give douchebag boys everything they want!”
“I wanted to.” I declared, hoping she’d lay off a little knowing that fact.
“Yeah, well where’s Boy Wonder now?” Jenna hissed, looking over my shoulder. Her mom’s blue minivan pulled to the curb.
The passenger side window rolled down and Mrs. Sabini yelled through it. “Hello Anna banana! How are you, sweetie?”
“Hi, I’m okay!” I told her with a huge smile, blinking away the slight wetness around my eyes. I loved Jenna’s mom.
“Do you need a ride, sweetheart?” Mrs. Sabini asked me.
“No I’m okay, I need the exercise.” I told her.
“You don’t need the exercise, you’re perfect.” She laughed, looking at me like I was crazy, but in a nice way.
I smiled at her. “Thank you, but I’m okay.”
“Are you sure?” she asked again.
“She’s sure Mom!” Jenna answered for me and turned to her mom. “Mom, I just need a minute to speak with Annabelle, top secret stuff.”
“Oh, okay, got it, sweetheart.” Mrs. Sabini nodded, understanding right way and rolled the window back up giving us privacy.
“Well?” Jenna pushed. “What’s the plan?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“This time it’s personal, we need to get to the bottom of things in the next few days, if not today. I’m serious! I want blood. If he’s playing again, he needs to feel pain!” Jenna exclaimed seriously.
I stared at her wide-eyed, shocked. “I’m going to try and contact him, if he doesn’t answer me with an explanation, I’ll call you.”
Jenna opened the sliding van door and turned to me. “You better, or else you’re shark bait!” She waved goodbye and slammed the door shut. Her mom waved at me and drove off.
I pulled out my phone and dialed his number. I needed to hear his voice so he could confirm the mix up with today. That he was at home, sleeping the day away. The line connected and rang for a few seconds, and then abruptly the answering machine came on.
“Leave me a message and I’ll get back to you soon.” James’ voice took over the receiver. I hung up, not wanting to leave a message.
I decided to text him.
Annabelle: Where are you?
*~*~*
Dean: What are you doing now?
Annabelle: Relaxing, thinking.
Dean: Thinking about what?
Annabelle: Life, making mistakes.
Dean: I can relate. I keep thinking about a big mistake I made a while ago.
Annabelle: You wanna share that mistake.
Dean: When I didn’t call you after that disaster date.
Annabelle: it’s okay, I’m over it.
Dean: I’m not. I wish I did things differently.
Annabelle: I wish I had done some things differently too.
Dean: Like?
Annabelle: I’d rather not say it’s embarrassing.
Dean: I can respect that. By the way I was at your school yesterday. I didn’t see you.
Annabelle: I saw you.
Dean: You did? Why didn’t you come say hi?
Annabelle: I was dealing with some stuff.
Dean: I can respect that.
Annabelle: Hope you’re not sad still.
Dean: Meh, I got over it. It was just a friendly game, doesn’t count. At least that’s what I’ve been telling myself to help ease the pain of losing to that douchebag James guy. I think it only stings as much if I was being honest was because it was him hitting that homerun, winning the game for your school. He’s an asshole.
Annabelle: Yeah, that pretty much sums up who he is….
Dean: Anyways…. what are you doing tonight?
Annabelle: Nothing, why?
Dean: Some of my friends and I are going to see that new action adventure movie, you should come with us, bring your friend too.
Annabelle: Can I get back to you about that?
Dean: Yeah, we’re going to the 7:30 pm show. Text me.
Annabelle: Okay.
I dropped my phone on the side table and tucked my head into my hands. Why was this happening to me?
My door bursts open with Jenna steam rolling in. “Anna, fire up your laptop!”
I jumped off my bed and quickly shut the door behind her. “What happened?” I asked her as she planted herself on my desk chair, turning on my laptop.
“The final nail, my friend.” she screeched a touch quieter.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, my heart thumping miles a second.
“By the way, Latisha put her profile on private, hence me being here to show you this.” She logged into her account. “Guess what I found on her page like thirty minutes ago? By the way she didn’t show up for practice this morning either. Not cool.”
“What’d you find?” I asked her quietly, slowly.
“All of them, together at some cabin place.” Jenna informed, clicking on Latisha’s page. A window popped up and Jenna scrolled the cursor down to a folder called ‘Our long weekend bitches!’.
She opened the file and ten photos popped up. I leaned over her shoulder to get a better look. Picture after picture, they were all the same, their group together, hanging out on the beach, looking like they were having the time of their lives. The time was stamped at the bottom. A few of them were from 9am this morning.
The last photo was taken just recently. Their group was chilling around a fire. James was sitting on a large log with Peter, Tom…. and Donna.
Jenna pointed at the screen. “Bingo, bango… caught you.”