I take a deep, reassuring breath as Roger walks through the door. I look over at Kiera who squeals in delight and tightly hugs him, nearly causing him to lose him balance.
“Hi Roger,” She squeaks.
“Hey Kiera,” he says and smiles. “You look great.”
“Aww thanks! So do you!” she’s says, continuing to shout excitedly.
I swear, one more squeak from her, and I’ll probably go deaf.
“Hey Roger,” I say as I rub my ear, with one eye closed. I probably look like a freak right about now.
“Uh, hi Kasey,” He says awkwardly, then adds on, “Hi Autumn. How are you doing?”
Kiera looks at Roger and steps away. “I’m going to go get a drink,” she mumbles and walks to the kitchen.
Autumn looks up from the book she is reading, Divergent, as Kiera walks by and then replies, “Um…I’m good. In the middle of a really great book.”
He nods at her and turns back to me. “So, I got a text from Jacob and he said he’s on his way. He’ll be here in about ten minutes.”
I nod, continuing to stare at him, with my mouth partially open. I fiddle with the pony tail that's on my wrist by twisting it and pulling it, just to occupy myself.
He stares at me and then tilts his head. “Really, you said yes to Jacob?” my mouth drops a little more, but I stay quiet as no words come. “I thought you hated that guy, so when he told me and Ethan that you agreed I thought that you were drunk or something.”
Before I can reply to his unnecessary comment, I hear a loud, spit like sound behind me and turn around.
“What?” Kiera shouts, “Kasey, drunk? How old do you think she is, she’s only seventeen! She can’t drink yet!” she says beginning to crack up.
I look down and see that she has done a spit take while hearing what Roger said about me.
“Anyway, Roger, let’s go.” She says putting her glass of water down on the counter next to Autumn who is back to reading her book.
“Okay, Kiera,” he says and walks out the door, Kiera following.
“Bye Kiera, have fun! Remember what we told you,” Autumn shouts at I close the door.
I turn around and sit next to Autumn who is still in the middle of Divergent.
I read the book last summer and found it really great. But for some reason, I can’t stand that Beatrice changed her name to Tris when she joined Dauntless, so in my head as I read that I always read Beatrice when someone called her Tris. I know, quite strange. When I told Autumn that when she started the book she couldn’t help but laugh and call me lame.
“Hey guys, whatcha doing?”
I look over at the stairs and see my sister as she climbs down. She is now wearing a baggy gray tank top with the straps low on her shoulders, some black sweat pants and her hair is in a messy bun.
“I’m reading a book!” Autumn says raising her hand.
“Of course you are, you are always reading. You are such a nerd.” Jackie says grapping one of those packaged ice cream cone.
Ignoring my sister’s harsh comment, I reply. “Not much, just hanging.” I reply. She nods and walks to the fridge. “Hey,” I continue. “Where are mom and dad?”
She looks at the clock and back at me and tears open the wrapper. “I think they both said something about working late tonight, so they should be back at around eleven o’clock.”
“Okay,” I say.
“So where’s Kiera?"
“She’s on a date.”
“Okay, cool. With who?”
I look up at her, “With Roger, Roger Haze.”
Jackie looks at me with disgusts. “Ewe, why would she date him? I went out with him for like, two months and he was a complete jerk to me."
Now that caught Autumn’s attention. She looked up from her book and stared at her with shock. “I never knew you dated him, when was that?”
“About a year and a half ago,” She replies and licks her ice cream.
“You know, Kasey is also on a date tonight.” Autumn says.
Jackie starts having a coughing fit as if she choked on her ice cream. She hits her chest and then looks up at me. “You have a date?” she asks and slowly I nod.
It’s quiet for a short while at we all stare at each other awkwardly.
That silence is soon broken at Jackie starts laughing hysterically. “You haven’t been on a date since that nerd kid Axle in ninth grade asked you out and even that wasn’t a date! It was for the schools science fair!”
I blush with embarrassment as I stand there and I look onto the floor. I don’t say anything, but I wish I had because Jackie continues.
“Who in the world would ask you out?” She says, still laughing and I look up at her frowning. She then stops and covers her mouth with her free hand. “Oh no, you’re serious…I’m so sorry Kasey I didn’t mean to offend you! I thought you were joking around!”
I just nod and sit down next to Autumn. She still hasn’t spoken a word and looks up at us from her book every now and then. “So,” Jackie then starts. “Who is he?”
I freeze. I couldn’t tell her it was Jacob, because when we broke up, and I ran home crying, she swore to me that she’ll kick his ass if he ever hurts me again, or anything.
“I’m waiting.” She says taking another lick from her ice cream.
“Uh…” I start. How do I explain this to her? “Well, um…you know him and…”
“And…?”
“Uh…his name is…he is…” I continue not sure how to find the right way to say it.
“It’s Jacob.” Autumn says next to me, her eyes still on her book.
I look at Jackie and her mouth hangs open. “You sneaky little bitch!”
Before anyone can reply, the doorbell rings.
“Uh, I’ll get it.” I say and begin to walk to the door.
“No you won’t,” Jackie says. “I will.” And she runs to the door.
I follow her with Autumn behind me and Jackie opens the door.
And there is Jacob, with his back facing the door. He then turns around, probably expecting to see me, because he steps back when he sees my sister.
“Uh…hi, is Kasey there?” he asks, stuttering.
From behind Jackie, I could see Jacob clearly. He’s cleaned up well for this, with his black hair combed back. He is wearing jeans and a white T-shirt with a black jacket.
“Wow…” Autumn mumbles from behind me. “He looks…so…hot.” She says emphasizing the last word.
And honestly, she is not wrong. He looks so different, not like the Jacob I usually see at school. Not like the Jacob I hate with my guts. His hair is usually ruffles up, his school jackets are always full of stains and his jeans always have rips in them. Honestly, if I have not known better, I probably think that I would have fallen for him instantly.
“Yeah, she’s behind me,” Jackie says keeping him from coming him.
“Thanks, can I see her?”
“Aren’t you the guy who broke my little sister’s heart?” she continues and continues to lick her ice cream.
Before he answers, I push Jackie aside. “Hi Jacob,” I then say looking at him. I then turn to Jackie. “You can go now.”
“We will talk about this later! I’m going to my room,” she says and leaves back upstairs.
Autumn then appears next to me and takes a look at Jacob. “You look different.” She says.
“Uh…thanks?” Jacob replies, more like a question instead of a statement.
“Finally cleaned up, huh?” She states.
“Okay Autumn, have fun I guess and I’ll see you later, we will be leaving now.” I say, grabbing Jacob’s hand leading him out the door.
“What’s the rush for?” Jacob asks and then smirks. “Can’t wait to get with this?” he asks and moves his hands down.
“Ewe, gross no,” I yell. “You are such a pervert!”
He laughs and puts his hand behind his back. “I’m just joking. Sorry."
I just nod not knowing how to reply to that.
“Let’s get going,” he says and leads me to his car.
I sit down in the front seat next to him. As he starts the car, from the corner of my eye I can see that he keeps glancing at me. But I just stare out the front window and don’t do anything.
“So where do you want to go?” he asks. I turn to him and shrug. He keeps looking at me. “To eat, I mean. Where do you want to go and eat?”
I think for a moment and then nod to myself. “I’m in the mood for a burger. Can we go to Denney’s?” I ask.
He looks at me, seeming a bit surprised.
“What?” I ask, “Something wrong with Denney’s?”
He shakes his head. “No, there isn’t a problem…I just didn’t know you liked burgers, you always said that you hated them.”
Wow, I can’t believe he remembered that about me. I used to hate burgers. I never wanted to do anything with them. “Well, I guess I grew to like them. Let’s just go.” I say.
He nods and starts to drive off.
When we get there, the place is packed, but we quickly get seats.
“Wow,” I say. “I guess people love breakfast for dinner here.” I say as I sit down.
Jacob sits down across from me and nods. “Yeah, I guess. Plus, it’s Friday night and it’s usually crowded then.”
I nod agreeing with him.
Then, there is silence among us. No one speaks for what, five minutes maybe? So, I take the time of silence to look through the menu, and Jacob does the same.
Soon enough, to break the silence, a waitress whose name tag says “RONDA” comes up. She looks about our age, maybe a little older. She has curly ginger hair and blue eyes and freckles all over her face.
“So, what can I get ya’ll?” she asks chewing on a piece of gum. “You ready to order?”
“Um, yeah,” I say. “Can I have a bacon cheese burger with French fries?” I ask. “And for a drink I would like Dr. Pepper.”
“Sure,” she says and scribbles my order down. She then turns to Jacob and I see a grin on her face, “And what ‘bout you handsome?”
“I’ll have a double cheese burger with union rings and Coke.” He says.
She nods smiling as she scribbles down his order, collects the menus and then leaves.
I chuckle a bit and face him. “She was so flirting with you.” I say.
“Does that bother you?” he asks grabbing his phone from his pocket.
“No, of course not. Why would it?” he holds his phone up for a sec, clicks something and then puts it down. “What are you doing?”
“Instagram,” he says and types something into his phone. He then holds out his phone in front of me. I see a picture of me as I was blankly staring at him. It’s a pretty picture, I’d admit to that, but I don’t think it was necessary to take it.
“You like it?” he asks.
“Huh? Oh, yeah. I guess.” I reply.
Ronda soon comes back with our drinks. She places mine down swiftly and then hands Jacob his.
I take a sip from the drink slowly. I put my drink down, and then my head goes down.
“Are your bored?” Jacob asks leaning down a bit to face me.
My eyes look up at him, “Yeah. But mostly I’m hungry.”
He chuckles. “You always are.”
“Is that a problem?” I ask defending myself and sit up straight. It’s true; I have very bad eating habits, as I love food.
He chuckles again and sits up, “Nope, nothing wrong with that.”
I smile a bit and take out my phone. I look down on it and notice that I have a new text message. I open it up and see its from Autumn.
Hey Kasey, omg so I’m almost done with Divergent! Just ten more chapters to go! That’s for recommending it to me! :D btw, how is the date thing going on?
I smile a bit reading the text. Autumn just started Divergent the other day unsure about it at first since it seemed a bit confusing at the beginning, but now she is hooked. Quickly, I type in my reply.
Hey, that’s awesome! You sure do read fast. My sister was right, you are a nerd. x3 and I guess you can say that the date is going okay, we aren’t really talking, just…staring.
I click the send button and put my phone down.
“Who are you texting?” Jacob asks suddenly.
“Oh, Autumn. She was telling me that she is almost done with her book.” I reply. I was not going to tell him the part about how the date was going.
“Cool, she’s reading Divergent, right?” I nod. “That’s awesome, I read that book when it came out, and damn, that book was so awesome.”
“You think so?” I ask. “I read it too, I just love Beatrice. Her character is so realistic; I guess that's how you could say it.”
Jacob nods. “Yeah, books are good.”
I nod. “I’ve read so many books in my life time. I’ve read few Sarah Dessen books, and of course The Hunger Games. I normally re-read most of my books.”
Before he could reply, Ronda comes back with our food.
“Okay, so I have a bacon cheese burger with French fries for the young lady and a double cheese burger with union rings for the handsome man.” She says and gives us our food.
“Uh, thanks.” I say and take the food.
She then leans down to face me. “You might wanna lose the curls; they don’t look good on you.”
I grab a strain of my hair and look at it, noticing that my curls have formed again. I guess it wasn’t worth straightening it after all. “How rude,” I mumble as she walks away.
“Just ignore her, your hair looks great.” Jacob says takes a large chunk out of his burger.
I nod and begin to eat my food.
We drive up to my place at around eight o’clock maybe. He parks the car outside on my front lawn and he gets out. He walks around the car and opens the door for me.
“Uh, thanks.” I say.
The rest of the date went by okay. I finished eating quickly, without a word said and when I was done, we started talking about our families as Jacob finished up. And during the car ride, we just listened to music on the car radio.
Jacob grabs my hand and pulls me out of the car and stops when we are face to face. My mouth hangs a little open, as always and my eyes stare into his. Before anything can really happen, he steps aside and closes the car door behind me.
“I’ll walk you up.” He says.
I follow him to my front door without saying a word. I could tell him that he can just leave and I can get there on my own, but for some reason I don’t.
He stops when he’s in front of the door and I stop in front of him.
“So…” I begin to break the silence. “Tonight was fun…I guess.”
“You guess?” he asks and smiles a bit.
“Um, yeah,” I say. “I had fun, honestly.”
“I believe you.” Jacob says.
I look at him and a smile creeps up on my face and I’m unable to remove it.
“So…” Jacob starts and trails off.
“So?” I ask waiting for him to continue.
“Uh, do you like, want to do this again?” he asks. “You know, like, go on another date?”
I stare at him and shake my head. “No, I’m sorry but I don’t think so.” I say.
“Oh, okay. Can we at least hang out as civilized friends?” he then asks.
I don’t know how to respond. Honestly, I still don’t like him, and the thought of being friends hasn’t occurred to me before. “Um…” I start but I’m unable to finish when the door swings open.
“Oh hey Kasey! What are you doing out there in the cold?” Kiera squeaks.
“Oh, hi Kiera,” I say looking at her.
“Come on in, Autumn is waiting! Let’s get this party started!” Kiera shouts.
I turn to Jacob. “Um, bye, I gotta go.” I say and walk in side.
“Wait Kasey—” he starts but is cut off when Kiera shuts the door behind her.