Moonlight Kisses

the deal's doing

My reflection in the mirror stares back at me with a shock-stricken face. Sophie stands behind me, curling my hair into effortless waves. Kat sits on my bed, facetiming Grant while they both take their turns at teasing me about how much effort I'm putting in for tonight. All of this seems out of a dream, I've been pinching myself all day.

Outside of Kat and Sophie, the only person that knows about the deal is Grant. It doesn't bother me much because I knew Kat couldn't keep her mouth shut about it for that long and I trust him enough to be with my sister so I don't think him knowing about some juvenile deal will jeopardize anything. Besides, he has no reason to care about it considering he has his own set of friends, his own life; Kat just dates him and I happen to be Kat's little sister. Still, he and Kat take great humor out of the lengths I go to to impress some boy.

But the thing is, Jake isn't just some boy.

He really gets me and if I blow it this weekend, I'll only sink further into the dreaded friend-zone. It feels like everything is riding on this trip. I'm not expecting more than a few good conversations, but I don't want to stumble and say the wrong thing to only push him away. I have no way of knowing if he knows I have feelings for him, but in the case that he doesn't, pushing him away would only kill my chances at anything real with him and that scares me more than the pressure this trip has on it.

"Jo!" Kat squeals while simultaneously chucking a throw pillow at me.

"Hey! Don't ruin my work of art here with your bloody antics," Soph chastises. She lets go of another blonde curl and lets it fall down my back seamlessly. I admit, for someone who I've never seen do her own hair, she is an expert at styling it. I told her in the car as we were leaving school that I didn't want it to look like I put too much effort in and she understood me perfectly.

"I cannot believe you're going to a beach house for the weekend and didn't even shoot the invite," Kat rambles on playfully. "More importantly, I can't believe Mom and Dad said yes to you even going, with a boy at that. When I was your age I couldn't even go to a sleepover if they didn't know the parents of that house."

I shrug and smile snidely. "Guess we know who the favorite is then," I answer in a nasally voice.

She flips me off and starts talking to Grant about their plans to go sightseeing on Hollywood Blvd. tomorrow. She's practically begging him to take her ghost hunting in the Roosevelt Hotel while he's leaning towards a walk through at a wax museum.

After admiring her work proudly, Sophie clasps her hands together excitedly and jumps up and down. "Ah, girl you look so good!" she squeals before quickly composing herself, "Okay, so we packed everything right? Clothes? Makeup? Toiletries?"

"Yes, Soph." I stand up and put my hands on her shoulders. You'd think by how amped up she's getting that she's more excited than I am, which is far from the truth. On the inside, my stomach is going to explode with butterflies. My heart is racing and my excitement is soaring. I haven't felt this way in months, maybe even years.

"Ok, I just have to make sure because-"

The sound of my phone ringing cuts her off. Our eyes both dart to my bedside table and we both freeze.

It's Jake.

My first instinct is to snatch my phone and answer the call as quickly as possible, but my logic reminds me that that would seem weird, like I was waiting right there for him to call. So instead, I wait until three rings pass before pressing the flashing green button on the screen.

"Hey," his heavenly voice rings through the silent room. A beaming smile lights up Kat's face and her phone is faced towards me so Grant could also be in on what's going on. Sophie is standing in the corner of my room, clutching the same pillow Kat threw at me earlier and her mouth hanging open in eagerness.