3 GUYS, A GIRL, AND A ROSE
Chapter Eight
Jack watched Christina walk off to help Tommy
and Fabrizio. He had wanted to talk about the kiss, especially since he knew
she wasn't gonna bring it up. He wanted to tell her what it meant to him. That
he wished they could've continued it, possibly even more.
He looked at his drawing. His drawing of
Christina as an angel. He had so many drawings of her. He looked at the one of
her he drew last night. The one where she was sleeping. He kept the memory in
his head. Out of nowhere another face snapped into his head.
It was Rose's face. The girl he had just met
this very night. The beautiful redhead with the curly hairy, her eyes so green,
as if he were staring at the Emerald City. Her skin so beautiful. She smelled
so sweet. Her very name described her. Rose. Her name over and over again in
her head. It played in his head like a record. He turned to the next clean
sheet of paper in his art portfolio and drew her face. It was an image so clear
in his head.
"Jack!" Fabrizio yelled to him.
Jack lifted his head up. His best friend came next to him and saw what he was
drawing. "Who’s this? She looks hot!"
"Yeah. That's Rose. The girl I met
tonight."
"That girl. Oh, I remember now. We saw
what happened." Fabrizio heard Christina talking about her to him and
Tommy before, hinting at her jealousy and seeing Tommy's jealousy.
"What do you mean, that girl?" Jack
asked.
"Nothing. Just that Christina mentioned
her name before."
"Oh."
"Jack, why don't you talk to her about
the kiss?"
"I don't know. What if I do? What will
happen? What if we do start dating and we break up? What then? Can we seriously
go back to being just Jack and Christina? The best of friends?"
"Why don't you find that out?"
"I don't know, Fabri. I'll just not
mention it all. Forget that it ever even happened." Fabrizio kind of felt
like this was a bad choice.
"Whatever you want."
"So you'll drop this?"
"Yeah. Sure."
Jack just wanted this whole situation to blow
over. It would, soon enough, or would it?
*****
Tommy looked at Christina, who was writing in
her poetry notebook. She just looked so beautiful. Fabrizio was off speaking to
Jack.
"So, Christina, are you really gonna
wear all green tomorrow?" he asked her, trying to start up a conversation.
"I don't know. I was thinking about just
wearing something green. Like my shirt. Ya know?"
"I think you'd look great in all green.
Actually, in whatever you wear." Tommy started to flirt, and he saw her
smiling back, closing her notebook.
"Really?" Her smile brightened, and
it lit up his heart.
"Yeah. Let's face it. You're hot. You
got hot curves, hot legs, a hot ass, hot breasts. Overall, a hot body."
"My hot breasts? Is that what you boys
stare at?"
"Yeah. Who doesn't?"
"Interesting."
"I will be honored if tomorrow you
shared a dance with me."
"Of course. That'd be great."
Tommy's flirtation was working, and his smile grew big.
"Christina! Tommy!" He heard Jack
call their names. He got jealous when he saw Christina's attention turn to Jack.
"I'm gonna go now!" Jack said. He
saw Christina's eyes sink.
"You're not gonna wait for me to lock
up?" she asked, all soft spoken.
"I'm not going home, actually. I'm just
gonna walk around, ya know. Tommy and Fabrizio can go home with ya."
"Yeah. Okay. Whatever." Tommy saw
that she wasn't satisfied. Jack and Tommy gave each other their usual pounds
good-bye. He watched as Jack turned to Christina with his arms wide open. She
jumped into his embrace, and he kissed her on the cheek. Her eyes were filled
with joy for that brief moment, and it quickly went away when she saw him walk
out the door.
He wished that sooner or later Christina
would see how much he was in love with her.
*****
Rose had come home and told her mom that she
broke things off with Cal. At first her mom was mad, but got over it in a few
seconds, realizing her daughter could make her own choices.
She felt bad for breaking up with Cal on
their one year anniversary, but she knew it had to be done. She wasn't in love
with him. She knew Cal would get over it in a few days. She knew he wasn't in
love with her, either. He just cared for her a lot.
She took the blue diamond out of her coat
pocket and stared at it for a few minutes. It was certainly beautiful. She
planned on never wearing it, because she didn't have a reason to.
She changed into her pajamas and laid down on
her bed, staring at the ceiling. She had many thoughts in her head. She felt so
free now. Free to go where ever she might wish to go. She knew where she wanted
to go tomorrow night. She knew who she wanted to see.