Feelings

15: Calls

Wren picks up, filling my screen with her pretty face. "Hey." Her hair spreads out all around her like a lion's mane. She must be lying down.

A smile takes over my face. "Hi. You've got time to talk?

She smiles back. "Sure. I've had all day. Literally."

"Wait. You skipped school?"

"Yeah, I'm ok at it, but it's boring."

I would never ever skip school. They said that once you come back, you have to go to each of your teachers to collect missed work. Skipping school and coming back would just mean a whole lot of work you'd have to do. Doesn't seem to bother Wren. "Cool. Remember the night you kissed me?"

"On the cheek," she adds. "And yes. I do. We're good though, right? I hope it didn't mess things up.

In fact, it made things better. "It's fine. Anyways, so those old guys that you saw, they kinda had some sort of party. I invited my friends over, and you know Zoe?"

"Yeah?"

"She confessed, like, her feelings for me."

Wren's eyes widen. "Dammmnnn. What else did she say?"

"Zoe said that she wanted to be together. Like boyfriend-girlfriend."

"Did you say yes?"

For sure, Wren will be disappointed. "No."

She frowns. "Dude! Why didn't you?"

"Because I like..." I save myself from spilling the beans. "Someone. I like someone else."

She's sitting up now. There are 2 pink, frilly pillows behind her. "Who? Tell me, Jae. Spill the beans."

"I can't. Maybe later." By later I mean when we're ice skating on Thursday. Or Friday. Or Saturday. Or Sunday.

"You better."

"Fine. When'll you be coming back?"

Wren shrugs. "Maybe? Depends what's happening tomorrow."

I want her to go, but Mr. Tran might make her do a book report. "Well, there's..."

I spend the next 30 minutes telling Wren about what happened in school, and 2 more hours about random stuff. Apparently, Wren's older sister she talked about is Amy and that they used to close. After her Dad died and Amy going to college, they drifted apart. The bright-coloured room Wren's in is actually Amy's old room. Wren doesn't mind the colours. Amy even left her flute still in it's case under the bed. She taught Wren a bit on how to play it, and Wren shows me. It's fine. Could've been worse. Wren has all this cool stuff about her, but what cool stuff do I have? Nothing out of the ordinary. So I show her the last picture I have with Mom in it. "You miss her?"

Didn't expect Wren to bother much about it. "I mean, yeah. She was the most energetic out of all of us." The divorce is still a sensitive topic. But I think I'm fine talking about it with Wren because she can relate. We keep talking until Dad surprisingly comes home early.

"Jae, I-" He sees Wren on my phone. "Oh. I think I'll..."

"Who's that?" says Wren.

I change the angle so she can see him. "Just my dad."

"Hey Wren." Dad waves.

Wren waves back politely. "Hello." She'd never do that to her own mom. "Um, I should probably go now. I used up a bunch of your time already."

No. No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no. "No, it's fine, really."

"Bye, Jae." Wren disconnects. Dang it.

Dad apologizes, "Sorry for interrupting, should've texted you that I'd be early."

"It's ok." Actually, it's not that ok. No offence to Dad, but he messed a really good conversation with a girl. Add in the fact that the girl is someone I like, and my frustration is reasonable.

He smiles. "At least you're making progress with Wren."

All the anger is washed away by excitement. The date! I completely forgot about it! "Yeah, I'm pretty excited that I'll be asking her out."

"What about Zoe?" he asks.

"Oh." The guilt's back. "She wouldn't talk to me the whole day. Even though I tried talking to her."

"Best to keep your distance until she softens and she'll let you talk to her," he advises.

Guess I'll have to endure her cold shoulder for now. "I know."