“I’m gonna go,” Nick said uncomfortably. He didn’t like people walking in on his romantic, mushy moments. “I’ll see you two later. I’ll call you, Lauren.”
“Okay, bye,” Lauren replied.
As soon as the door closed, Jessica blew up. “I can’t believe you’d do something like this, Lauren! I thought you were my best friend, not to mention my sister!”
“What? What did I do?”
“You kissed Nick, and you’re probably going out with him!”
“Yeah, I am going out with him. So what?” Lauren replied, totally lost as to why Jessica was angry.
“You know I like him!”
“I do? You like him? Since when?” True, she had suspected it, but Jessica had never actually confirmed it.
“Since the first damned day I met him! You can get any guy you want, Lauren! Why do you have to go for the one that I like?” Jessica exclaimed.
“Jess, I didn’t even know you liked him. I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have done that if I would have known, but I’m not about to take it back now,” Lauren said. “I like him, and I refuse to break up with a sweet, romantic, totally not typical guy just because you like him, too.”
“What’s do different about that than turning him down in the first place?” Jessica interrogated.
“I told him I’d be his girlfriend, and he was so happy. I couldn’t take that away from him. That’s cruel!”
“Fine, then you can count on spending all your time with him because I won’t be talking to you,” Jessica muttered as she dashed up the stairs to her room.
Lauren sighed, not upset, but just annoyed, and walked next door to Nick’s. He opened the door and saw the look of irritation on her face. “Hey. What’s wrong?”
“Jessica is being an idiot,” she replied. “Did you know she liked you?”
“No, why? What happened?” He gently grabbed her arm and led her inside. “Did you guys get into a fight?”
“I wouldn’t say we got into a fight. Fights are usually defined as two people screaming at each other. I was just listening to Jess yell at me because I supposedly betrayed her,” Lauren replied. “I really don’t understand that girl. Be honest. Did I do anything wrong here?”
“Tell me what happened and I’ll tell you if you did anything wrong,” Nick answered.
“When you left, she started screaming because she liked you, which I didn’t know, and I went and kissed you-”
Nick interrupted her. “Which you did not do because I kissed you.”
“Yeah, and then she told me I should break up with you because if I don’t, she won’t be talking to me for the rest of the summer or something like that…” Lauren trailed off. “It doesn’t make any difference to me. She’s being really immature, and it will all blow over soon, no doubt.”
“You’re right, she is. If I would have known that she liked me, I probably wouldn’t have gone after you, but now that I’ve got you, I’m not going to let you go,” Nick said determinedly, wrapping his arms around his new girlfriend.
“That’s good because I like you holding me,” Lauren replied, smiling. “I just don’t know what to do about Jess. She’s going to have PMS around me all the time until we break up, which we hopefully won’t do.”
“No, I’ll straighten this out. You just wait here, and I’ll be back,” Nick said. He walked out and marched straight next door, went inside, and walked up the stairs to Jessica’s room. He knocked softly on the door.
“I’m not speaking to you,” Jessica called from inside. Her voice sounded sad, but he could tell she wasn’t crying.
“Jess, it’s Nick.”
There was a brief pause. “Oh, okay. I guess you can come in.”
He opened the door to find her writing in a notebook, most likely her journal, which she now clutched protectively to her chest, and he sat down next to her on the bed and waited for her to say something. When she didn’t, he broke the silence. “Why are you mad at Lauren?”
“I’m mad at Lauren…well, I can’t tell you the reason, but I’m still mad at her,” Jessica answered snootily.
“You’re going to be even madder when you hear this, but she told me the reason,” Nick said softly.
Jessica pretended she didn’t care, but Nick could see on her face that she did. “I would never do something like that to her.”
“I bet you would,” Nick whispered.
“What? How would you know?”
“Well, if I had asked you out instead of her, would you have said yes?” Nick asked.
“Of course I would have!” Jessica exclaimed, not seeing what he was getting at.
“You both like me, Jess, and if you would say yes, then you would do exactly the same thing she did,” Nick explained.
“Yeah, but, yeah, but…” Jessica couldn’t come up with a legitimate argument. “I still wish she hadn’t have done that.”
A few moments passed as Nick tried to figure out the easiest way to put his thoughts into words. “This is going to hurt a little bit, Jess, but I love your sister a lot, and at least you know she’ll be happy.”
“I guess you’re right,” Jessica sniffled. “I’m also a little bit worried about her, though, because she’s so fragile, and-”
“You don’t have to worry. I won’t hurt her. I’ll take good care of her,” Nick interrupted.
“And I don’t know if you can really handle her. I have a hard time, and I’m her sister,” Jessica finished. “No offense to you, but she’s got a lot of weird emotional problems, and you have to be really careful with her.”
“Jess, I’ll do fine,” Nick assured her. “I know I can’t erase her problems, but I’ll do my best to keep them in check. Trust me.”