Find a Penny, Pick Her Up

Chapter 24

"This is a tragedy," I said to Jess, who was busy applying her own makeup in the mirror. She grinned, looking at me through it. The guests would be arriving in thirty minutes, and the smell of Thanksgiving foods wafted up the stairs and through the house. Jess - thank God, was able to get out of her own Thanksgiving for my own personal night of hell. It was very uncharacteristic of her family to allow her to skip out on family events, but Jess must've made quite the argument: that I was family, and I needed her support. 

"I think it's great. She'll be walking on eggshells all night around you. You have the power right now." 

"I don't want the power," I said glumly, resting my chin in my hand. "I just want to graduate." 

"Want me to do your hair?" Jess held up the iron, wiggling her eyebrows. "Royal high's favorite boy is about to be in your living room." 

"That's another thing. What am I supposed to say to him?" I resisted the urge to put a pillow over my face, not wanting to ruin my makeup. 

"That you're really into him?" It came out like a question, in an um duh?  sorta way. "That you don't have a boyfriend like he thought you did. That you got the message on the chips he dropped at your door. That you want to kiss his face off-"

"Okay, I get it," I said, shaking my head. 

"There's so many things to say to him. What's the holdup?" she asked seriously this time, plugging in the iron and setting it on the vanity. 

"I don't know," I said. "I think. . .I think I'm-"

"Nervous?" Jess filled in while I surrendered with a nod.  "It's totally normal to be nervous. You haven't been with a guy since the accident with Jack, and just like talking to Annie was one of your tasks that Dr.  Yao gave you, letting yourself get back out there and tell a guy how you feel is one of them, too." 

"Since when did you get your PhD?" I grinned. 

"On the weekends in my free time," Jess gave a nonchalant shrug, feeling the iron for its level of heat. "Plus, I can finally submit my art portfolio to Carnegie if you talk to him." 

I threw the pillow in my hand at her. "Shut up! You're lying." 

"I'm not!" She giggled, dodging the pillow. "A deal was a deal." 

"Okay, one: I already talked to him," I said, holding up a finger, "and two: I told you that you were  crazy for doing that." 

"Calm yourself, Penelope," she rolled her eyes. "Of course I submitted my portfolio." 

I sighed. "Good." 

"The morning after I saw you emerge from a bathroom with Hampton," Jess grinned. "What, exactly, did happen in that bathroom? Anything worth explaining?" 

My face grew red, and I brought my hands to my warm neck. "No, we didn't do anything. I walked in on him peeing - you know that." 

"Yeah, but I didn't know if you left some details out."

I scowled, standing and crossing the room. "Do my hair." 

"Boss-y," she said, but went to work anyway in separating my hair into sections, then straightening pieces. 

"Do I just go out and say it?" I asked. 

"Say what?" A piece of straightened hair was moved to my shoulder. 

I huffed, irritated she was making me say it. "That I like I him."

"Aha!" Jess cheered, stepping away from my hair with the wand in her hand. She danced in a circle, arms above her head. The wire got caught in her legs, and she had to readjust her footing. "Finally! Took you long enough." Just then, we heard Dad yell up to us.