Side Note: I Think I Love You (Side Notes Book 1) - COMPLETE

Chapter 22 - Attie

Oh how fucking wrong we were.

I was smart to get myself a cup of coffee and a bag of jalapeño chips before starting on the first bracelet. Because in the span of two hours, Amy and I have made a total of two bracelets.

Side note: we broke five of them. Each.

"Stupid thin string," I mutter as it snaps for the sixth time. "Why can't you just stay together?"

"Maybe cut a longer piece of string?" Amy suggests. "Or tie it more than twice?"

"I tried that but it isn't helping."

She then hands me another strand. "Maybe use twice as much string?"

So I do. I remove all the beads and move them to the new string. After tying it—double knot, of course—I cheer out loud, over the music blasting from Amy's phone. "Amy, you are a genius!"

"I know. Duh." She flips her curls over her shoulder and goes back to her bracelet.

I laugh. "What kind of store sells such weak packs of string?"

Amy ties off her second bracelet. She managed to create cherries by tying some strings together or some other tedious process that I could not be bothered to do myself. "Michaels. They were having a two for one deal when I bought the beads."

"But was there a better string than this?" I laugh, picking up the roll off the floor and holding it up.

Amy only shrugs before grabbing her tote bag and pulling out her light pink polaroid. She's had that camera since we were ten, given to her as a birthday gift from Mary, and it's still in pretty good condition. Even now, she always wants to take polaroids of us on days like this, when we're just hanging out. "This is actually a pretty good pose," she laughs. "Smile!"

I laugh at the exact moment the flash goes off. She takes another. "Ames—" I begin to ask.

"Don't worry, I'll give you one of the pictures when they're done developing," she responds while watching the picture come out the top. The world of digital imaging is so popular and much more convenient these days and Amy still uses it but always prefers her polaroid. "I should also point out that you're stretching the string to the breaking point. Literally."

I place the tiny beads down on the paper plate next to me. We've been working on the carpet floor of my bedroom and since the beads are so tiny, it made sense to use plates to keep track. It was Amy's idea—type A and all that—so I didn't even bother to question it.

"Attie, did you happen to see my—" Jason's voice comes to an abrupt stop when he sees what and who's laying on my bedroom floor. "What is going on?"

"Go away Jason," I say, waving him off. "We're debriefing right now."

That doesn't actually brush him off. Instead, he walks into the room and jumps onto my bed, resting his head on my pillow. "Well make sure to include me. It's been a while since we've done a debrief."

"You want to be a part of girl debriefing?" Amy raises a brow at him. I get it, since it's been a while since Jason's done one with us. They end up turning into something similar to class lectures because we end up teaching Jason what to do and what not to do with his girlfriends. Yet, they've never lasted for more than a month.

Then again, he's also the one who always ends it.

"I need something to help me ask Kelly to homecoming," he retorts, which catches me by surprise since he said it so casually. "So, what should I do?"

"Couldn't you ask her friends?" I ask.

"I tried but none of them really like me." He runs one hand over his face. Wow, he must really like her then. "And it's her first homecoming so I want to make it special."