“Guess what,” Erin said as she carried a bag of groceries into the house. Justin came up behind her and reached in for the cereal. “Wait, Jay.”
“Sorry.”
“Anyway, while I was at the store, I saw a flyer, and there’s this party on Saturday at some guys house on the other side of the lake.”
“A change of scenery,” Justin said as he took the bag and flyer out of Erin’s hand.
“I love a good party,” Shannon smiled from where her and Lance were playing checkers on the floor.
“So, this kid, Freddie or something, was really nice. He said we should all come.”
“Wait, you were talking to him at the store?”
“Yeah.”
“Was he good looking?” Justin asked suspiciously.
“Oh my God, he was so fyne, so much hotter than my boyfriend. By the way, where is he?” She started looking around the room. “Oh there he is,” she said, hugging Justin.
“Very funny, Wearing.”
“Aw, poor baby. Don’t worry, I’m yours.”
Julie came into the room and climbed into my lap, bringing my attention to her. “A party, Jace. Wouldn’t that be fun? We haven’t gone to one in the longest time.”
“I’m not that much of a party guy.”
“You are with me,” she said before leaning over to kiss me.
When she was finished pressing her lips against mine, I looked up to see Emily standing in the doorway looking at me. I tried to give her a look to explain why I was kissing a girl I had admitted to not having feeling for, but she just shook her head at me before walking away.
“Julz, let me up for a second.”
“Okay.”
I began walking toward the door when Lance pushed me into the couch. “So, Justin and I were talking earlier, right?”
“Uh-huh,” I said, keeping my eye on the door.
“We need to have a guy night or something tomorrow. Just us three.”
“Leave the girls here,” Justin said, coming over to me. “They can have a slumber party or something. You know, talk about us.”
“You wish!” Erin yelled.
“And we can go play some football or Frisbee or something since you don’t have a basketball net.”
“Sorry,” I mumbled.
“It’s okay.”
“We need to have some time to just us.”
“So, what do you think?”
“An evening without any girls?” I asked, sneaking a glance at Julie who was currently filing her nails, again. “It sounds good to me.”
“That’s what I like to here!”
“Okay, so it’s settled. Tomorrow night or afternoon, whatever, it’s just us,” Lance said.
“Oh yeah, who’s da man?”
“Justin,” I said, falling into the sand, “it’s a game of Frisbee, not the Olympics.”
“You okay, JC?” Lance asked, sitting down next to me.
“He’s fine. He’s just tired from being whooped so bad.”
“Shut up,” he yelled to Justin as he was doing his victory dance. “Seriously, C, what’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing,” I lied.
“We are your best buds here. Tell us what’s on your mind,” Justin said, laying down on the other side of me.
“You guys don’t want to hear about it. It’s girl problems.”
The two of them looked at each other curiously.
“I think we want to hear.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Let us guess then.”
“You guys wouldn’t.”
“Twenty questions,” Justin said, sitting up.
“Fine.”
“So, it’s a problem,” Justin said.
“Yes. That’s one.”
“Okay, and it has to do with a girl, right?” Lance asked.
“Yes. Two.”
“Or two girls?” Justin suggested.
“Yeah.”
“Oh! Oh! Oh! I got it!” Lance said. “You’ve finally realized that Julie’s a princess, and the two of you are totally wrong for each other, and now you are also finally realizing that you are in fact in love with Emily, and you don’t know what to do about it.”
“Okay, guys,” I laughed, “how’d you…”
“JC, we’ve known that this was going to happen for awhile,” Justin said. “It’s about time you figured it out.”
“So,” Lance began, “tell us what happened.”
“She’s just so irritating!” I said, standing up. “And annoying. But Emily’s…” I stopped myself. It was the first time I had even begun to verbalize what I had been feeling. “Never mind.”
“What?”
“You know what this is?” I said after a brief moment of clarity. “I just don’t want her to like Joey. That’s what’s going on.”
“JC…”
“And anybody can seem more annoying when you’ve spent a large quantity of time with them. Julie’s really out of her environment. She’s a shopper, not a hiker.”
“Man, why are you trying to deny all of this?” Justin asked.
“I’m not denying anything.”
“What wrong with being in love with someone?”
“Nothing,” Lance answered. “I love it.”
“Are you guys really in love though?”
“Yeah, I am,” Lance smiled.
“Same here,” Justin agreed with a similar expression crossing his face.
“But how do you know?”
“It’s just a feeling you get when you’re with them,” Justin said.
“Or when you’re not.”
“When you think about them all the time.”
“You would do anything in the world to keep ‘em safe.”
“When just one look from her is better than a thousand kisses from someone else?” I asked.
“Exactly.”
“Give this boy a gold star,” Justin laughed. “He’s catching on.”
“I don’t know you guys. It’s Emily. She’s my best friend.”
“You guys already know everything about each other. You’d get to skip that stage in the relationship.”
“But…”
“You guys have tons in common.”
“But what if it’s just because of Joey and this Julie situation.”
“Trust us. Don’t try and make excuses for it.”
“Okay,” I said, “say I’m in love with her. I can’t do anything about it.”
“Don’t worry,” Lance said. “If there’s one thing that Shannon has taught me, it’s that if things are supposed to happen, they will. God may want you two together.”
“Speaking of Shannon, what do you suppose girls do at slumber parties?” Justin asked suddenly.
“I really don’t know,” Lance answered. “I guess they talk and gossip, maybe eat some popcorn.”
“You know,” I said, “they don’t expect us back for another two hours or so. We could always find out.”
“If we spied on them, and they found out, do you know how pissed they would be?”
“I guess, but we do have lots of time, and curious minds want to know,” Justin smiled, happy with the plan.
“I don’t know,” Lance said.
“Lance, how often do you get a chance to do something like this?” Justin asked.
“If I really wanted to spy on my girlfriend, I could fairly easily.”
“But do you?”
“No.”
“Well, we are. Come on, JC.”
“Guys, they’re gonna be so…”
“They’re not going to find out,” I said. The three of us walked as quietly back to the cabin as we knew how. When we got there we stooped under an open window that we could hear laughing through.
“Okay, okay,” Shannon laughed. “Pick another question from the bowl.”
“Okay,” Erin said, “who do you find attractive on this trip? Oh, I’d have to say that Justin is most attractive in my eyes.”
“That’s my girl,” Justin whispered.
“Of course, that guy at the store was pretty cute.” Justin was about to stand up to protest when we dragged him back down.
“Don’t let them know that we’re here,” I hissed.
“Well, besides Lance,” Shannon began to answer, “who I of course find very attractive, I think Justin has his own set of good looks.
This time it was Lance’s turn to get up.
“Lance, calm down.”
“Justin?” he whispered. “JC, he’s not even that good looking!”
“Hey! I like to think of myself as a studly guy.”
“Could you possibly have a bigger…”
“Okay, Em, it’s your turn.”
“Shhhhhhh!”
“I don’t you, you guys.”
“Emily, there has to be somebody.
“Yeah, but…”
“They’re not here to hear you either. It’s just us girls.”
“Okay, I guess Joey’s kinda cute. He doesn’t look like David Shimmer anymore, so that’s good. But his little goatee does kinda itch when he…”
“You’ve kissed him!”
“She’s kissed him!” I said in shock.
“It’s okay, C.”
“I can’t believe she’s kissed him. He’s so not right for her.”
“Shhhhh…” Lance whispered.
“It was okay, I guess,” Emily finished
“Oh.”
“Is there anyone else?”
“No,” she said.
“You answered that rather quickly, Emily. Who is it?”
“Nobody.”
“Spit it out.”
“Well, he’s my best friend, you know.”
“You think JC’s cute?” Shannon asked.
“Oh, I agree with you, Em.”
“Well, you know, I think he’s attractive and everything, but it’s just JC.”
“I never would have guessed that you liked him.”
“I never said that I liked him. He’s just cute. I mean, I can see why Julie would like him.”
“It’s too bad that Ms. Julie decided not to join us. She’s be flipping out right about now.”
“If she was here, I probably wouldn’t have said anything. She hates my enough already.”
“Aren’t we surprised that because JC’s not here, she wouldn’t dare spend a moment alone with us?”
“Not surprised here.”
“I just don’t see what he likes in her.”
“Maybe she’s good in bed.”
“He’s not like that. I mean, he hasn’t even told her that he loves her yet.”
“So much for secrets,” I mumbled.
“Relax, she’s just defending you.”
“Besides,” Em began, “I guess he likes some other girl now.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. He’s not sure whether or not he does.”
“I am now,” I whispered to myself.
“Um, anyways, I think it’s time for the next question.”
“I wonder what the boys are doing right now?” Shannon asked.
“I meant from the bowl.”
“I know.”
“Justin’s probably doing some stupid victory dance.”
“Maybe they’re talking about us.”
“I highly doubt it. If they were it, would be stupid boy talk.”
“Hey guys, let’s go. I don’t think we should stay any longer.” Lance said.
“Yeah, let’s go, JC.”
Were Emily and Joey actually becoming a couple? I was still in complete shock that they had kissed, or that Emily had let him. She hadn’t told me that anything serious had happened between the two of them, something I was usually informed about.
“JC, come on,” Justin repeated as he pulled me to my feet. “Let’s go before they find us.”
They pulled me away from the cabin, and we ran until it was no longer in our sight.
“Joey!” I yelled after we paused to catch our breath. “What the hell does she see in Joey?”
“Calm down, man,” Justin said. “At least she thinks you’re good looking.”
“No, see that’ not that big of a deal. I think lots of girls are good looking, but I’m not in love with any of them.”
“Well, look at it this way,” Lance suggested. “You guys live a couple of houses away from each other. Joey and Emily live a few states away.”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s not like I can act on anything I’m feeling anyways. So why do I even bother getting angry? She likes Joey, not me.”