The Second Chance

Chapter 4

Everyone in the car was interrogating me as if I had just robbed a bank. "What did she give you? Were you nervous? Oooh, Bryan is in love," my sisters would say. Just like the first time that they had seen me with Jade, I ignored them. My hands were tightly closed around Jade's gift, I wouldn't let go, no matter how long they tugged at me. A few minutes later, when no one was looking, I opened my hands slowly. It was beautiful. It was a small bracelet, shiny, and contained a Green Jade gemstone. At the top, it read, "Forever and Always". I stared at it for a minute or so and smiled. I wanted to shed a tear but I held it in. "If you gave me a leaf with meaning behind it as a gift, I'd cry so much," I once said to someone. I looked out the car window. I imagined the moment she gave it to me as if it happened a long time ago. Memories flooded in quickly. It wasn't even a month yet. I turned back to the bracelet still in my hand. I put it on my right hand and never took it off since.

We got home and as usual, I was the first one out of the car. I quickly walked up the stairs of the porch but before I stepped in my Mom yelled out to me. "Bryan! Don't even think about changing, you know we have to take pictures," she yelled. I hated pictures, or at least I used to. I would hate having to stand there like the guys at parties that had no one to dance with. "It's to keep the memories," she would always say. Even though she would always run out of space in her memory and would have to delete a handful of pictures just to fit in new ones. We all stood still and smiled. If you saw the picture, you would immediately notice the big grin on my face. It was probably the first picture I ever took where I genuinely smiled and even showed my teeth. She had that effect on me where I'd become more responsible and more careful how I behaved. I once even reached a point where I took 3 showers a day until I realized how much water I was wasting. After the photo, I left and went to my room, changed into more comfortable clothes, and laid on my bed again. It was my go-to when I was sad, happy, or just needed to for whatever reason. I stared into the ceiling for a good minute or two. "If I hadn't gone up to her that day if I didn't take Nick's advice, what would I be doing now?" I wondered.

I called her but no answer. I called her again, but it got sent to voicemail again. "Did her phone die?" I asked myself. I decided to give her some space and time to answer. Sometimes as a lover, partner, boyfriend-whatever we were- you needed to do that. They had a life to live as well. I stood there staring at my phone for minutes until a thought raced in my head. What exactly were we? Before I had any time to think, I got a call. I picked up and even if I didn't have Jade's name as her contact name I would've known it was her straight away. "Hey, sorry I was busy, I was out with some friends," she said softly. "It's okay," I said. Soon, one conversation led to another and then another, and just like that, the time flew by. I didn't realize it was already dark out. "I have to go, but I'll call you tomorrow," she said. "Okay, bye I love you," I responded. She hung up and I moved my phone to the side and stared at the ceiling once more. I thought a lot about what popped in my head earlier. I haven't exactly asked her to be mine. It just flowed and I went along with it. Was I supposed to ask her? What would I say? I didn't sleep much that night, I was thinking too much about what I'd do next.

I used to be able to run on four hours of sleep, but now I would get cranky if I didn't get at least ten hours. Every night since I met her my body would get weary and eye bags would begin to sag and darken below my eyes. One look at me was all it would take to notice the effect on me. It wasn't nice at all and I especially didn't want Jade to see me like this. I went to go take a shower and freshen up. DING. I picked up my phone and it was a text from Jade. "Hey, I know this may be weird to ask but my parents are having a dinner thing and asked if you would want to come join us?" I looked at the text and then turned towards the bathroom mirror. A surprised look on my face arose. Meet her parents? I only met her dad that one time and that was awkward enough, but I couldn't bail out on her like that. I got out of the bathroom and asked my parents if I could go. We didn't have any plans for that day, usually, no one ever did, but I did now. I went back to the bathroom for my phone and started typing. "I'll be there, thanks," I said. I put on something fancy and got in the car. I spent the entire car ride thinking of how I would ask her. For once I felt like I one-hundred percent knew she would say yes, but the problem was how I would ask her. I used to be an extreme introvert and hell, I still am now, but I had to get over it eventually. "If I could ask her out that time at the Cathedral, I still could now," I said to myself confidently. I put on some music, focused on driving, and before I knew it, I was at her house.

I parked in the driveway, reached for my phone, and stepped out of my car onto the concrete. This time, all the lights from her house were on. Even her room light was on but I couldn't tell if anyone was in there. I looked back to the front door and made my way to it. I reached up to knock on the door but before my hand even touched the door, Matthew had already opened the door for me. "Hey, Bryan! How are you?! I saw you drive in! Come on inside!" he said energetically. He always asked me so many questions with little time to answer but I began to get used to it. "Leave him alone, Matthew," said his father. "Come have a seat Bryan, make yourself at home." I thanked him and sat in the living room. Jade's mother was there this time and she made her way towards me. "Hey Bryan, I don't believe we've formally met, I'm Jade's mother. But you can call me Helen," she said. "Jade's in her room, she'll be down shortly but in the meantime, you can come to sit with us at the table." "Thank you, it's nice to finally meet you," I said to her and I made my way to the kitchen. The table was huge, I figured since normally there would be six people seated here and now with me there would be seven. That's if Jade's sisters were here. Jade's father sat at the far end. He was the only one at the table, everyone else was either doing various things in the kitchen or in their room. I sat towards the middle of the table on the right of Jade's father and waited. "Dinner is almost ready! I hope you're hungry!" yelled Helen from the kitchen. I wasn't really hungry but when your future mother-in-law offers you food, you eat it. Hungry or not it didn't matter. Juan did at once with my mom but now he declines it every time but her being a nice person, she didn't mind. Jade finally came down from her room. She looked as beautiful as ever.

She wore a dark green dress with white lace-up shoes that somehow matched her. It was as if everything she wore just made her instantly more attractive than before, no matter what it was. I got up from my seat and walked towards her. "You look beautiful," I said to her. "Thank you," she responded. I pulled out the seat next to mine and she sat down. Shortly after, Matthew sat next to her on the other side and her sisters sat across from us. Helen came in last since she had prepared the food. She placed an entire buffet in front of us and gave us all plates and utensils. Matthew began to dig in before Helen stopped him. "Matthew, no eating yet, now you have to give grace, those are the rules. He pouted for a bit and realized that was going nowhere so he began to talk. "Thank you, Jesus, for me being alive and the food you gave me and everybody today. Also if Bryan and Jade kiss, let me be there to record it and edit it with explosions. Thank you." Everyone looked at him weirdly and frankly, so did I. I blushed but thankfully no one noticed. "Shut up Matthew, leave them alone," one of Jade's sisters said. He just smiled and laughed and reached for the food. We all tried ignoring what happened and began to eat. "So, Bryan, Jade tells me you want to be an architect," said Helen. "How's that going?" I turned nervously in her direction and began to talk. "Yeah, I plan on going to NC State actually and I hope to become a commercial architect. My mom always wanted to be one so I hope I can make her proud someday," I said. "That's good that you're trying to achieve your goals," she said. "Long-term thinking helps in the long run." Jade looked at her then at me and reached for my hand. She held it tightly as if it was her most prized possession. I figured what her Mom said hit her hard too. One conversation led to another and soon it was more about the talking than about the food. Minutes later, we finished and they offered me to stay but I kindly declined. "It's late and I have to get home before I start drooling on the steering wheel," I said jokingly. They all either smiled or laughed and it made me smile as well. I excused myself and Jade turned and reached for my hand and we both walked out onto her porch. "Thank you for coming," she said. "It was my pleasure," I responded. She looked up to the moon and back into my eyes. "It's my turn to pick date night you know," she said softly. "Oh yeah?" I said. "Where are we going this time?" She stared deeply into my eyes and reached for both my eyes. She had all my attention now. If you asked me what was happening around us at that moment, I would either not respond or simply say "I don't know," because I was so focused on her, nothing else mattered. She had that glow in her eyes that made it sparkle like glitter at night. "It's a surprise," she said calmly and softly. I smiled and hugged her. She turned towards me and kissed me on the cheek and finally let go. We said goodbye to each other and I left towards the car. I turned on the car and as I was leaving out of the driveway I caught a glimpse of her in the rearview mirror. She stood there on the porch until I left. I thought-no, I KNEW I was going to ask her on the date tomorrow. The only question was, how was I going to do it?