Between Us

Chapter 14

Avoid Jordan for a few days. That was the last advice he had given me before we went our seperate ways. I could do that. Easy.

"Do you really know what you're doing?" Sai asked me that night after dinner with us.

"What do you mean?"

"This...plan with your neighbour. You think it's gonna work?"

"By work, I mean, I'm not that afraid to speak to strangers anymore especially on the phone? And I like the new outfits that I've bought, too." I spun around a little, wearing my cozy chunky knit jumper and ripped blue jeans, combining both the fashion sense of Caden and mine into one.

"You do look cuter," Sai said. "Is he cute?"

"Shut up," I said, laughing. "Are you sure you don't want to sleep over?"

"My dad's been drunk texting me," she said with a sigh. "He's looked after me when that's happened so many times. It's only fair if I do it, too, right?"

The atmosphere was as dark and heavy as the black blanket up above us. "Text me tomorrow."

"Text me first if this ends up with Jordan asking you out. I can make your neighbour dude my personal transformation artist, too."

"It wasn't a transformation," I exclaimed. Her words, however, stayed with me until I said bye to her and walked inside and helped my mom and dad with the dishes. I didn't want Jordan to ask me out, did I? If he did, what would I say? Why was I even doing this if not to get to his attention?

And once I finally did, what then?

The question was never answered, not even the next day when Caden texted me:

Pizza parlour @ Rickys pizzeria. 6pm.

What do you mean? I typed back.

Your chance to show Jordan the new you.

New me? I hadn't even changed much. I guess I could pretend, right? Today was the day we would see if my 'transformation', as Sai liked to call it, actually made a difference in how Jordan saw me or not.

I had already asked my parent's permission, but I was starting to get that they would just about say yes to just about anything so I didn't meet the same fate as Saria. I wanted to talk to them about it, but it would have to wait. My brain was all juice thinking about how I was going to do this. Talking about it and practicing it was one thing, but actually doing it in front of the guy that you thought was cute was another.

"Do you want me to drop you off?" my dad asked later that evening. I fiddled with the sleeves of the dark green off shoulder top I wore. Maybe this wasn't a good idea, I thought, thinking back to what Sai had said.

"Yes, please," I murmured, then followed my dad out the front door.

"Is that a new outfit?" My mom hurried over, wiping her hand on a bright orange tea towel.

"Yeah, remember when I went shopping a few weeks ago?"

"That looks beautiful on you."

The nerves settled, just a little bit. "Thanks, mom."

"Can I meet those friends of yours one day?"

"Sure." Jordan wasn't exactly my friend, but I didn't bother going into the specifics. We hugged, with her smoothing my straight, layered hair down and kissing my forehead. Her eyes were a little glassy and I wondered if it was because she was thinking about Saria, regretting being lenient on me or because she was proud of me.

I didn't know. It wasn't like she could see a change in me, right?

I headed out into the car and for something to distract myself with, I opened Sai's name and typed in: