Kissing Is the Easy Part

Part 5 ◎ Chapter 48 The yearbook

Sean

Janet was sitting by herself on the lawn when I got to school on Monday. She had a pair of full-size headphones around her head, which she believed was the only way to go. She liked to feed herself on enough rock and roll to last her through the day. Instead of joining the rest of the girls for giant lattes, this was her idea of breakfast.

I saw her drumming her fingers on the grass and plopped myself down next to her.

She pulled down her headphones and handed it over to me. "Check out this awesome new band I just discovered. They're called Previous Search."

It had an infectious beat and was moody and sensual. I listened until the song had ended.

"Very dark and sultry, right?" Janet asked. "It's like getting stoned before first period. Not that you'd know what that feels like."

"Trust me, I know." I was dating Flora, after all. I didn't even see her yet but I felt lightheaded already. She was the first thought that came to my head this morning when I opened my eyes and had stayed there ever since.

"Do you like the song?" Janet took back the headphones.

"Absolutely."

"Great! I know the bassist, and I'm invited to see them perform next Friday. It's at a warehouse all the way over in the industrial area, which is very cool. Wanna come?"

I was her go-to guy whenever Brian was busy at university. A week ago I would have agreed right away, but now I hesitated.

"Don't worry, it's completely legal," Janet said.

"I'll ask Flora if she's up for it," I said, even though I had a sneaking suspicion it wasn't her cup of tea.

Janet only paused for one second before the realization clicked into place on her face. I knew that with a silent understanding, she would stop asking me to hang out with her since I was back in a relationship. She never complained about it because she knew how I always set rules for myself, even though Janet really was just Janet to me.

"Of course, ask Flora to come!" she said. "I'll ask Nicholas too. This is totally Nick's kind of thing."

"Sure." I could feel the undercurrent of the changed dynamics. We were once Sean, Flora, and Janet, but now we had shifted into the couple and the friend. The friend who didn't want to get stuck being the third wheel, to be exact.

"Didn't I predict you guys will get back together?" she said. "I saw everything through my crystal ball. I just knew you're both pining for each other."

"Yeah, you're right about everything. As usual."

"I heard about the Raymond incident." She shook her head. "I don't need to point out the obvious. If you had confided in me, at all, at any point during junior year, then-"

I groaned. "I get it. J. I brought this on myself. In the future I'll report everything to you first hand."

"Unless Flora beats you to it. I've already heard about all the fights you had during the weekend, including her guy friends issue and how you don't appreciate good wine, and I was forced to take sides on everything."

"Do you want to subscribe to our newsletter? It's called Flora and Sean's fightlog and you'll get updates every time we fight," I joked.

"No thanks, I have limited space on my Gmail."

I was surprised that the greatest weekend of my life was just a series of arguments in Flora's opinion. I didn't even think the issues were that important, not to mention they were resolved already. It was definitely nothing worth telling our friends about. "Of all the things that took place, she told you about us fighting?"