Fifteen Feet Ahead

Chapter XVI

Chapter XVI

The party began to settle down around eleven, and it made me happy to watch Brandon leave.

Soon enough it was just Janie and I, and together we worked to clean up the basement. Loads of candy wrappers and pieces of food were scattered all over the floor.

"So," she began. "You want to tell me what's really going on?" My heart skipped a beat. God, what do I always have to wear my emotions on my sleeve? It was quite obvious that something was bothering me.

"What do you mean?" It was a stupid idea to try to play dumb.

"C'mon, you know exactly what I am talking about. There's something really bothering you. You're not as happy as you used to be."

I sighed, "Yeah, I mean it's just everything's changing now."

"Yeah," she huffed. "I know what you mean. I can already see it happening."

"I guess you could say it all started the day Duncan fell off his bike...Er, I mean, that's when everything ended."

Janie tilted her head, obviously interested in what I had to say.

So, I proceeded to tell her the story about how we used to race our bicycles through the hurricane, and how he would go too fast. I told her how he fell on his leg, and how I got him home safely.

"And that, that was the last time everything ever felt normal." I frowned.

"I know the feeling. You see, Harper's my best friend, but ever since high school started, she's just been distant. It that what's happened to Duncan?"

I cleared my throat, picking up another Reese's wrapper from the floor, "I guess you could say so, it's almost hard to explain."

"Don't worry we have loads of time."

In that moment, I realized that Janie was different from anyone I had ever met. Janie was deeper, she had much more to her than met the eye. Janie was the type of person you could talk to about nearly anything.

"Things started getting bad at homecoming," I began. "You see, I've had a huge crush on Sanders Healy since like fourth grade and--,"

"Wait, wait, Sanders Healy? Really?" She giggled.

Blushing I admitted, "Haha, yeah."

To my surprise, Janie nearly exploded with excitement, "I knew it! I knew it!"

My face got redder and redder each second.

"Your eyes light up every time he walks into biology, and you stiffen in your seat every time he speaks," She smirked. "It's actually adorable."

"You don't--you don't think he's noticed right?" I panicked.

"Oh, heck no. Guys don't pay attention to anything," Then she added, "Especially Sanders."

"Good," I forced a smile, a wave of relief smacking my face. Finally finished the cleaning, we slumped onto her blue couch.

"Sorry," she laughed. "Continue..."

"Yeah, so I went to the dance with my friends Dani, Margret, and Lucile. We were having a pretty great time, not gonna lie. Duncan came over about halfway through, and he asked me to dance with him for a few songs. He and I were having a blast until I saw Dani and Sanders making out right in front of us!" I hated talking about it, the scene replaying through my mind once again.

"Oh, ouch."

"Yeah, if one of my closest friends betraying me isn't enough, just wait, it gets worse. So then at lunch we had a fight, and she left our table. The next day I find out that apparently Duncan likes me, and he just randomly kisses me!"