AJ brought in some candles and a flashlight. We all gathered around the light.
“What the heck is going on?” Tracy demanded. “Have you been ditching me to spend time with that…”
“Jennifer, it’s not true, is it?” Howie asked her, wide-eyed.
“Tracy, let me explain. I’m so sorry…”
Jennifer didn’t manage to speak. Howie took that as his answer. “How could you lie to me?” he grabbed the flashlight, and made a break for the stairs. After calling Kevin some things, Tracy followed him. The door to the guys room shut.
“I’m going with them, I can’t even stay in the same room as filth like you,” Amy yelled, running to catch up with them.
“Whatever! You can’t blame this all on me!” AJ went back to his room, after grabbing a candle.
The rest of us looked at Kevin and Jennifer, probably hoping for some answers. But they retreated to what had been the girls guestroom.
‘And then there were four…’ I thought. Brian and I exchanged looks.
“Could you guys leave us alone?” Brian asked.
“And congrats by the way on getting together, and now getting to be the happy couple at least for tonight,” I added.
Nick sighed. “Yeah. But you’re gonna owe us some huge explanations in the morning." Finally, they, too, went upstairs. Which of the three occupied rooms they took, I didn’t see. Brian sat next to me on the couch. The smallest candle was all the light we had.
“I’m sorry,” I started.
“Why on earth would you think I’d be back with Jennifer?”
“Well, you always liked her better anyway. She was your ex and you liked her at the beginning of the summer, but she hooked up with Howie. I was just a second option.”
Brian laughed. “You really thought that?”
“I’m not seeing the humor.”
“You’ve always been the only girl for me, I thought you knew that.”
“Well, Jennifer and Kevin starting acting weird, so I thought something was happening between them. But then I heard you two in the kitchen talking about going out on the date.”
“That had been Kev and Jen. I was hiding under the kitchen table so they couldn’t see me. You just didn’t see Kevin because he went out the other door.”
“What about blowing me off on our first date and then I find you at the gas station meeting Jen?”
“Where were you anyway?”
“I was hiding in the back of Jen’s car.”
“Oh… well, I was there following Jennifer and Kevin. The other night, when you went out for pizza, I came downstairs and saw them in the living room kissing. I wanted to make sure they were together for sure before I decided whether to tell Tracy and Howie, so I followed them. I saw they were for sure tonight and I was leaving just as you came in,” he told me.
"The night we went out to eat..." I recalled, "I'd told them on purpose they were gonna be the only ones here... I guess my inuition was right," I sighed.
"So, you were there just to follow me right?" he flashed a grin.
“Yeah,” I admitted. “What were Amy and AJ doing there?”
“Wrong place at the wrong time. They didn’t even see Kevin and Jennifer though.”
“At least they were able to give me a ride home,” I mentioned. We laughed uneasily. “What do you think will happen with them?”
“I honestly don’t know.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said again.
“Well, I wasn't exactly being honest with you."
I yawned. “Man, I don’t dare go up there and try to find a place to sleep.”
“Me niether,” Brian agreed, and we laid down on the couch. I fell asleep in his arms.
Chapter 53
Chapter 55
As Time Goes
Frick's Fairytales