Jovie & Bash

Twelve || Ludicrous

|CHAPTER TWELVE|

Quinn sat beside me listening intently to Zoey’s exaggerated boy drama in the school cafeteria. I tried to mirror Quinn’s absorbed posture, and nodded along when prolonged silence called for it, but my mind was elsewhere.

It amazed me how open other people were. Zoey cussed over a boy she wasn’t attached to. She heatedly recalled an incident where he insulted an aspect of her personality and refused to apologize. He was attractive, but he wasn’t nice. It was the singular most confusing thing I saw in everyone around me: they kept going back to take a sip of poison because it tasted like candy.

When Zoey finished ranting, she got up and left with Noel at her side and I heard a heavy sigh come from Quinn.

She pursed her lips and rested her arms beside her tray. “I know what you’re thinking,” she guessed.

“That people don’t know when to quit?” I said blankly while spooning rice onto my utensil.

She gave me a look that reminded me how much she loved being young and dumb. “Would you quit on your boy toy?”

“Yes,” I replied so quickly the word was almost unrecognizable. I had to hold back shooting her a dirty look for her use of the term boy toy. She thought what I had with Bash was a fling, and I guess it was supposed to be. But, it wasn't anymore. It hadn't been for a long time. I cared about Bash. 

“Really?”

I turned to her with frown. Lately she’d been trying to pry little details about Bash out of me. It drove her crazy that I didn’t want to share everything with her. She said she’d wait for me to say something, but she was getting antsy. That’s just how she was.

My mother knew now, though I couldn’t really tell how she felt about Bash—and Henry, well Henry had picked up on something a long time ago, but he never pushed a discussion. I should be comfortable enough to talk about Bash to Quinn, now. But, I didn’t want to discuss Bash like that. I liked the privacy I had with him. Besides, how was I supposed to say things to Quinn that I couldn't even stomach saying to him?

“Really,” was all I said seriously. It was all I could give her and I didn’t even know if it was true.

She groaned, dropping her chin to her chest. “Are you ever going to tell me about this mystery man?”

I shrugged. “I don’t want to jinx anything.”

“Would it jinx you to tell me his name?” she wondered pressingly, scooping blonde hair off the back of her neck like she was getting hot with impatience.

I tapped my fingers on the freckled surface of the lunch table thoughtfully. Her eyes found mine and held contact, cornering me. She probably thought I didn’t trust her. I was beginning to grow worried that she was offended.

 “Uhm...his name is Bash. Bash Daley,” I finally breathed out.

“Bash.” She tested the way his name rolled off her tongue, smiling a little at her success. “Jovie and Bash....Has a nice ring, doesn’t it?”

I felt my cheeks warm and a small smile tease my lips. “I guess so.”

She nodded and Zoey and Noel returned with icy expressions and black tongues. Like we hadn’t skipped a moment of Zoey’s story, Quinn and I reassumed position.

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The first time Bash said he loved me was on one of those final semi-comfortable days of fall where summer still attempts to linger in the air while winter is determined to  choke it off.