Stacie woke up with the sun shining in through the window directly onto her face. She turned on her side, stirring her cat beside her, she lifted her head enough to look at her in protest for disturbing her and went back to her slumber. When her eyes adjusted to the brightness of the room, she saw the clock on the nightstand said 9:00. At this rate, she could eat breakfast, shower, go into town to do some grocery shopping and make it home by late after noon. That is if she got up right now.
She laid in bed another 15 minutes or so just staring at the ceiling. She pushed herself greatly to get out of bed. As soon as her feet hit the floor, her cat was up, stretching and heading into the kitchen for her breakfast aswell. The damn cat only got up when it was time to eat in the morning. Which reminds me, I gotta pick up cat food.
She fed the cat, turned on the tv to some cartoons, which is a Saturday ritual for her. She grabbed two eggs from the fridge, turned on the stove, toasted her bread and fried the eggs. Stacie laughed when she realized this scene sort of reminded her of that Jewel song. And Stacie really was missing someone.
The stores were not as crowded as she expected them to be on a Saturday morning. I guess most people did their shopping in the afternoon and not in the morning. She would rather do that, but if she went shopping in the afternoon, she wouldn't have time to relax before Jackies party.
She walked around the store, finding things she needed and others she wanted. She found herself in the soda isle getting a case of Pepsi, and a 12 pack of fruit punch. There was a man in the isle but she never paid any attention to him until she saw his face. CHIP! Stacie freaked when she saw him standing there.It had been atleast 9 years since she saw him last, but the bad part about that was, it was Jackies brother.
She came to the conclusion that she had two options, leave quickly, or stay there and pretend not to notice him and not draw any attention to herself. But it was to late. She caught him looking at her out of the corner of her eye. She pretended to be remembering something that she might have left of the list in her hand, but he slowly started to move towards her.
"Excuse me, I don't want to bother you, but aren't you Stacie? Lisa's daughter?"
She turned to face him, "I sure am."
"I'm Chip."
"I know, you're Jackie's brother. I remember you quite well."
"Wow, it's really been a long time. How have you been?"
"Ok,and yourself?"
"Pretty good." he said looking down at his shoes. Stacie looked in his cart only to find serveral cases of beer. "When Jackie told me you filled out, I didn't think she meant this good."
His words sent chills up and down her spine. It wasn't the fact that he was coming on to her, it was the fact that he said Jackie told him that."Well I've grown up a lot since I've seen you last."
"I can see that." he paused for a moment. "So you seeing anyone?"
She mentally laughed at that point. He was so coming on to her. If she was younger, when she still had strong feelings for guys and the crush on him, she would have been flattered. "No, I have my eye on someone. Someone you know, but no one right now."
"Oh. Where you living now?"
"In town. Not to far from your sister."
"Really." he looked at his watch. "Listen, I gotta get going, Jackie will kill me if I don't get back." he touched her arm. " I guess I will catch you later at the party."
"I'll be there."
"Great." he said over his should as he walked to the check out.
Stacie stood in the soda isle for several minutes seriously contemplating whether she should go to the party or not. She loved Jackie and Chip to death, but he was coming on to her way to much. She wasn't going to tell him she wasn't interested because she liked girls more. And she wasn't about to tell him that she had the hots for his sister. That would be to much of a cruel let down. Not to mention a big blow to his ego.
Stacie finally moved when a salesperson came and asked her if she needed help finding anything. Afterall, she thought she had to look pretty stupid standing in the middle of the isle doing nothing but staring into space. She made her final selections and headed back to her house.
She pulled into the driveway, humming to herself as she got the bags from the car. She almost didn't see Jessica standing on her porch."What are you doing here?"
"Waiting for you. I got bored sitting home by myself so I thought I would stop by, and you weren't here so I decided to wait."
"Oh, well I told you I was going shopping this morning."
"That's ok, I've only been here about 10 minutes anyway."
Stacie opened the door, placed the bags on the cabinet and started putting everything away. "OMG." Stacie said stopping. Jessica's eyes turned wide."YOu are not going to believe what just happened to me in the store."
"What?"
She stopped putting everything away, "Well you know Jackie has a brother right?"
Jessica shook her head. "Well I ran into him in the store, and it's been ages since I've seen him last. He came up to me, started talking, and said, 'When Jackie said you filled out, I didn't think she meant this good.' Which totally freaked me out to begin with, he hit on me the whole time I was in there! I don't know what the hell to tell him. I can't say that I have the hots for his sister and blow him off that way."
Jessica began lauging, "Well looks like you are in a bind. You like his sister, and he likes you. You have this whole love triangle thing going on here."
Stacie grabbed the nearest soft object and threw it in her direction."It's not funny. How the hell would you like to be in this position?"
"Personally I wouldn't give a damn."
Stacie fell onto the stool beside the island."But I am so confused. From the way he said it, Jackie likes me, and now him. "
"Well maybe Jackie does like you, but doesn't think you're bi or lesbian. And maybe he knows about Jackie, and Jackie told him who she liked, and thinking he has a chance with you hit on you."
Stacie looked at him shocked, "That is the first intellegent thing you've said about this since we started talking."
She smirked, "I'm smart, I just don't show it often."
"Well, what do I do if he comes onto me at the party? What if she's around? What the hell am I gonna do?"
"Well, if he comes onto you, say you want to talk to someone, if he wants to dance, do it, but make sure it's not that close nasty stuff. And make a point to hang out with her a lot. Because it's her party, and you like her. And maybe she really does like you to."
"Look, didn't I say she was? But who said she wasn't?"
"Ok, ok."
"Wait a minute, what if she comes onto me?"
"For the love of pete, you like her, so what if she does come onto you. What is such the big deal?"
"I don't know." Stacie said getting up and walking over to the wall where she procedded to hit her head on it several times.
"You worry to much. You just need to take a chill pill and relax. If she comes onto you, do what feels right. That's the best advice I can give you."
Stacie began putting the rest of her things away.Jessica was right, she was so worried about everything, worried about blowing him off, and worried about her. Sometimes, she wished being bi (or lesbian as she sometimes considered herself.) wasn't so hard. Because it was really hard. It seemed harded than a straight persons life. I'm not saying that their life is just peachy, but sometimes it seems that way. Stacie looked down at her watch. Only 5 hours to go.