Never Have I Ever

Chapter 9

             “Sleepover, tonight.” Anna’s face filled my vision at the end of the school day. I pushed flyaway hair away from my face, and tucked strands that had fallen from my ponytail, behind my ears. It was Friday.

Nash and me, we were…friends; whatever the hell that really meant. We had hung out every day this week. He had been – well, distant. He didn’t touch me, at all. Not even a brush of the hands when he was passing me something. However, he hadn’t gotten angry with me at all, which made me feel warm inside whenever I thought about it. I hadn’t seen his father at all, and the small encounters with his mother were brief and not pleasant. I grimaced, remembering yesterday.

I had been walking down the hallway, heading straight for Nash’s room, and she bustled out of a room, holding a picture frame tight to her chest. She nearly knocked me over. All she said was “excuse me” and she practically sprinted down the hall. For a middle aged woman, she ran like a cheetah. Our game, we hadn’t played at all. He was either shoving an earphone into my ear so I could listen to music, or we were watching old movies. Nash’s movie obsessions – another thing I found really cute. He watched The Breakfast Club the most.

            “Hello?” Anna asked in a slightly irritated tone. Anna hated being ignored. “You weren’t even listening, were you?”

            I smiled sheepishly, “Ha…ha… of course I was,” I lied, chipping off some of the light purple nail polish I’d had on my fingers for weeks.

            She rolled her eyes, “I said, we can have a slumber party like we used to, with movies and facials, and definitely no Scott,” she said Scott’s name with distaste and I suddenly realized he hadn’t come to meet us by our lockers like he usually did. Anxiety bubbled in my stomach.

            “What happened between you and Scott?” I asked her.

I noticed how her face pinched up and I was immediately worried. That meant it was something she did. She always made that face when she was in the wrong, but didn’t want to admit it.

            “What did you do?”

            “Nothing!” she gasped in an overly dramatic and offended voice, “What makes you think I did anything?”

            I gave her a blank stare.

            “Fine,” she gave in, “He thinks he has feelings for me.”

Now I understood what happened. Scott confessed. Anna rejected him, and Scott lashed out at her, because he was hurt. I was sure that Anna was just not realizing that she had feelings for him too.

            “Anna,” I said sadly, and she sighed.

            “Leave it alone,” she snapped moodily. I dropped the subject. I’d find out from Scott, tomorrow, I decided.

            “Alrighty,” she clapped her hands together after dropping me off at my house. “I’ll pick you up at seven, no later. Be ready!” she yelled at me, before speeding off in a very Anna-like way, her red hair flapping out the windows and her music blasting.

I trudged up my front walk, not looking forward to being home. I practically sprinted up the steps, ignoring my mother when she mumbled to herself in the kitchen, and slammed my door shut. Dropping onto my bed, I felt my eyes flutter closed. Something vibrated and I jumped, feeling around my jeans for whatever it was. My cell phone. I pulled it from my back pocket, and flipped it open.