Wednesday, early evening
After the date with Daniel changed into a simple hang-out session with their friends, Frey felt a bit disappointed. It wasn't like he felt like their date got ruined, simply because it wasn't really their date in the first place.
But he did feel disappointed because Daniel and Jordy had suggested to drop Michelle and Lacy off at home. He hadn't even gotten an actual kiss, and now he longed for one.
But Daniel hadn't been in school and Frey hadn't gotten a chance to talk to him about an actual date.
He wanted to go over after school, but Daniel wasn't answering his phone either, and Frey had no idea if he was home or would be working on Wednesday too. Besides, even if Daniel would be home, he didn't know if he was welcome to come over.
He had no idea how much their 'relationship' had progressed by now, and if casually dropping by while Frey knew Daniel's mother was sick, was acceptable.
So, he kept calling in the hopes of reaching Daniel and ask him to hang out.
In the mean time he was keeping Jenna at a safe distance, since she asked him if they could talk.
He didn't mind talking to Jenna or hanging out with her. But he did mind the fact she was so eagerly trying to be with him all the time, that he still hadn't had much alone-time with Daniel.
Except for the fact they had sex last weekend.
That had been very intimate alone-time. And Frey had caught himself fantasizing about it in the shower twice already.
Which made him wonder if he was more into Daniel than he was into Jenna. Besides the fact he felt happy whenever he was with her, he hadn't fantasized about her so far.
Besides a couple of kisses, they had mostly bonded. While Frey and Daniel hadn't really bonded so far. They had mostly been physical, either in the form of teasing, kissing, or the heated sex on Saturday.
Whatever he'd made of it, whatever he had with Jenna was mostly romantic, while with Daniel it was more a physical thing.
But there was still the nagging voice in the back of his mind that told him he had always found Jenna attractive, and the fact Daniel and him had actually both felt a click during their short chat on Sparkl—even though Frey hadn't known it was Daniel until later.
So, why wasn't he acting upon his attraction to Jenna, and why wasn't he trying to get to know Daniel better on a personal level?
Well, for starters, Daniel was currently not responding to him, and Jenna was being a bit clingy—which Frey disliked.
But then she shot him a text that told him she felt as if her ex Robby was following her and she was too afraid to go out on her own.
He had asked her if her parents couldn't bring her, or Samuel, but she said she didn't want them to make a big deal out of it.
And since Daniel wasn't answering his phone anyway, he reluctantly agreed to bring her to ballet, and bring her home afterwards.
He wouldn't have done it, if it wouldn't be for the fact he hadn't talked to Julia in the past few days, and he missed his sister.
He told his father he was going out to meet with Jenna and left it at that—despite his father asking if it would be a date and wiggling his eyebrows.
He replied with a simple roll of the eye at his stupid humour and left after grabbing a coat to wear.
He jumped on his bike and even on his way to Jenna, he kept checking his phone to see if Daniel would reply, but eventually he gave up and figured he was probably busy working to be able to pay for food or whatever he needed to pay for.
When he arrived at Jenna's house, he rang the bell after she didn't answer his message, a bit nervous because he still remembered her father judging him for simply being a Sanders.
He still hated the fact their name alone was enough for people to come up with an opinion about him, even though he knew he never did much to honour his name in the first place.
It was, of course, Jenna's father who answered the door.
"Hi... I'm eh... picking up Jenna? She asked me to ride with her to ballet..." That sounded way too girly. Why would he even go to a girl's ballet practise? He never even went to Julia's recitals. Let alone anyone's practise.
"Ah, right." Mr. Lark opened the door further and waved him in. "Come in, she's grabbing her stuff right now."
"Oh, eh, I can wait outside..."
"Nonsense!" The man called out with a chuckle. "Come in and take a seat. Jenna is a girl, Frey. She'll probably take another ten minutes getting ready."
"Oh, well..." Frey mumbled, awkwardly following him into the living room, finding Samuel lounging on the couch with a game controller in his hand.
He shot him an annoyed look, that Frey chose to ignore, sitting down on the edge of the other couch.
"How are you doing, Frey? Jenna speaks highly of you." Mr. Lark casually told him, sitting down next to his son.
"I-I'm fine, sir..."
"Do you game just as much as Sam here does?" His father nudged his son, who scowled at him since he missed a shot in the game he was playing. "You two are in the same class, right?"
"We are, yes."
"Aren't you the guy Samuel tried to outdrink the other day?"
"DAD!" Samuel called out.
"He's a weakling, I heard you did a better job. Jenna keeps teasing her brother for it."
Frey opened his mouth to reply, but when he realised he really had no reply, he closed it back down and shrugged a shoulder, staring at his hands because he simply didn't know how to behave.
"Dad, he's just uncomfortable because you always act like a jerk whenever you meet a guy Jenna hangs out with." Samuel paused his game and leaned forwards to look at Frey. "Just ignore him. Daniel had to deal with it too, even though dad knows the kid is as gay as they can be."
"Oh, okay..." Frey really wanted to disappear until Jenna was ready, simply because he had no idea why Mr. Lark was suddenly a lot nicer, and why Samuel was trying to comfort him by telling him he treated all of Jenna's male friends the same way.
He didn't know which one was more out of the ordinary.
He was more than happy to escape from the situation as soon Jenna came downstairs, ready to go.
Frey didn't know what had exactly changed between Jenna and him, but the last couple of days their contact had been awkward.
The kept silent most of the ride to the sports centre, and when they arrived and she had to go to the locker room, she leaned in to kiss him on the lips, while he went for her cheek.
It ended up in an awkward half-on-the-lips kiss.
Jenna had sent him a weird look, before she looked down and shuffled away. Frey waited in the hallway since they had been early and he hoped to see Julia, but knowing his sister, she was probably already in the dance room, practising on her own.
She liked ballet a little more than she was willing to admit to their mother.
So, he sauntered towards the bar and took a seat, ordered a beer and played on his phone for a while.
He even contemplated on swiping on Sparkl—just because it was an old habit of his whenever he felt bored—but he ended up deleting his account and the app in total.
And then he stared at his phone, feeling a bit shocked by his actions, simply because he never expected himself to just delete the app while he wasn't in a relationship with anyone.
He was just dating two people, of which one was ignoring his phone calls, and the other was acting weird.
Frey wondered if Jenna was acting the way she did because Robby was bothering her again, or if she somehow found out about him sleeping with Daniel.
Which was a possibility, seeing the fact Daniel and Jenna were suddenly fighting. Or, arguing, as they both called it.
Whatever it was, they weren't talking, and they refused to talk about it to him too.
And then he concluded Jenna might act different because of both reasons, and he told himself to ask her more about Robby to show interest and have her worry less over the fact he had slept with Daniel.
He didn't want to upset Jenna because of it. And he surely still wanted to date her. He just wanted her to keep in mind they all agreed he was going to date both of them.
Which would mean she had to let him have his time with Daniel too.
Frey was still staring at his phone, not really doing anything but thinking, when someone sat down beside him.
He looked up and found Michelle, who smiled shyly at him.
She was still in her dancing outfit but she didn't seem as if she had done a lot of practise. She still seemed flawless as ever.
"Hi Frey."
And she sounded just as timid as the first time they spoke. Or like she did when he was hitting on her. And his gut wrenched at the memory of using her the way he had done.
"Oh, hey Michelle." He mumbled back, putting away his phone.
"Can I... ask you a question?"
"Eh, the least I could do is answer a question." Frey awkwardly scratched his head. "But can I apologize for what I did first? Because I really feel shitty for doing... that."
"It's... okay. You told me things when you were drunk and... well I'm not happy about it, but I could've known what was going to happen, right? I chose to go home with you."
"Yeah but still..."
"You're forgiven..." She cleared her throat, while her face flushed. "On one condition."
"Which is?"
"I ehm... I was wondering—I don't know—but ehm, could you give me Arun's number?" She stuttered, then spoke fast, but in a whisper, and Frey had to take a couple of seconds to process her request.
He was quite taken aback by her request, and he really didn't know what to do with it. Would Arun mind?
"I just..." She took in a deep breath, gulped down half of his beer and giggled. "I think we had a click yesterday and I think he's kind of sweet..."
Frey chuckled, before he smirked, nodding in agreement. They sure had seemed to click while they played pool yesterday. "I don't think Arun would mind if I gave his number to a cute girl who likes him..."
Michelle was now as red as a tomato, but she handed her phone to him, and he entered Arun's number.
"But he's my best friend and if you're going to treat him the way Nina did yesterday, I will take back my apologies."
Michelle giggled again and nodded her head, grabbing back her phone with a smile. "Thanks, Frey. I won't treat him like that. You know I would never hurt another person."
"Which makes it even worse that I did exactly that... I really am sorry, Michelle."
"Just make sure you won't hurt Jenna or Daniel whenever you figured out who you like more. They're my friends and I will sent Lacy after you if you hurt either of them."
"Note taken." Frey laughed a little and then sighed. "I'm not planning to hurt either of them. But things are complicated, aren't they? I heard they're fighting..."
"Oh, please." Michelle rolled her eyes and laughed. "You're not the first guy they're fighting over, and they'll be back to being friends soon enough." Michelle placed her hand on his arm. "Just don't act like the asshole you were before to them. They both have a bit of a history with dating, and they trust you. Else they wouldn't be dating you in the first place."
"Yeah... I'm starting to learn about their history more each they. I will not treat them the way their exes have done before."
"Okay, good." Michelle nodded happily. "I need to go now, because my bathroom break is taking a little long and Miss Simone doesn't accept students slacking off. But if there's ever anything you want to talk about with someone who doesn't hate your guts and knows Daniel and Jenna very well, know that I'm here."
Frey smiled thankfully and leaned in to hug Michelle. "And if you ever need advice about Arun, you can always ask me."
"Thanks, I think that won't be a problem. But it's good to know." She pecked a small kiss on his cheek and smiled warmly. "You're a great guy, Frey. Never forget that."
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