The Epitome of Me

Chapter Eight: Pinky Promise

Monday mornings are always the hardest. Getting up after being able to sleep in all weekend is severely overrated. Plus I wasn't prepared to see Alex after our steamy exchange on Saturday. Would she act like it never happened? Or would she try to kiss me again? I wasn't sure which was worse, to be honest. There was a part of me that didn't care if she wanted to keep things secret, but the other part of me was lingering on what Elgin had said about friends with benefits. That was definitely not what I wanted from Alex. But what if that was all she was offering? Maybe I could be okay with it for her ...

I put on the comfiest cute clothes I owned, a pair of black fitted joggers and a soft knit beige sweater. I let my mousy brown hair hang down that day, hoping it would help me blend into the background. If Alex didn't notice me, she wouldn't be able to reject or accept me. That was a lot less pressure on either of us to make a decision.

Then again, if we didn't actually talk or see each other, were we really giving this experiment a fair trial? Ugh! I beat my own logic with more logic and wrapped a scrunchy around my wrist. There, now there was a solid chance I would get sick of my hair being in my face, pull it up and be approached by Alex. Problem solved.

My parents drove me to school, and to my surprise, when we arrived, Alex was standing in the same place she was on Friday. She was sporting a pair of extremely ripped jeans that may as well have been in the garbage bin behind her. She had chopsticks in her hair instead of her usual beanie and she wore an oversized plaid button-up. She almost looked like a completely different person, aside from the fact that she still had purple hair and that mischievous smile.

"Hey, stalker," I remarked as I approached her. She giggled a soft, girly laugh that didn't sound like her. It was odd to see her nervous when she was so confident before. I wrinkled my nose and glanced around. The coast was clear.

"I just wanted to make sure everything was okay after what happened with Elgin." She scraped her converse-clad foot on the concrete. There was a slight blush in her cheeks.

"Oh, yeah. He apologized and we made up." I smiled at her. I liked that she cared enough to ask about that. She gave a curt nod and stepped closer.

"And about what happened Saturday morning ..?" Now the blush was really prominent on her face, but she didn't look away. Even when she was embarrassed, she was confident. I was jealous of her composure.

"Did you change your mind?" I asked, dejected. Her feelings were already gone, weren't they? It was just a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing. She never really liked me. She—

"Definitely not," She choked out, getting even closer. "Did you?" Not at all. If I could have been all in at that moment, I totally would have said so. But she wanted to wait, so I just shook my head with a small smile. "Good, because I've been thinking about your lips since they left mine." She breathed. The space between us shifted from a foot to nothing in an instant, and then our lips met. It felt like it had been years since it happened last. We were fervent and a little more handsy than before. It was certainly not as innocent as our first kiss was, but it was a million times better. More passionate, more intimate.

Then the first bell rang and we had to break away from each other. "Lunch. Stairwell 5. I'll be waiting," Alex said breathlessly, then brushed past me towards her first-period class. 

I was awe-struck. I didn't pay attention in English or Math, although I should have, considering how much school I had missed last week. It somehow didn't matter to me. I doodled Alex in my notebook instead, like a lovesick puppy. I was pathetic, really. All I could do was wait for lunch.

Needless to say, I ran as fast I could to stairwell 5 after the bell rang for lunch. Alex stood in the corner under the stairs with a giant grin on her lips. "Hey, hottie," She said, looking me up and down. My whole body shivered. "If you're cold," she smirked at me, "I could warm you up pretty easily ..." She didn't have to ask me twice. I rushed at her and pinned her body against the wall.

I never used to understand teenage love songs. I thought that things couldn't possibly be as great as they sounded. It turned out that I was wrong. Like, way wrong. Not that I was in love with Alex yet or anything, but I could feel all the tension and angst in the air when I was around her. Our thing, whatever it was, was palpable. I wondered if anyone traipsing the stairs could feel it. Were they just as giddy over it as I was? Probably not, but Alex sure was. I could see it in her wild eyes. All she wanted was to be seen by me.

Too soon, the bell sounded, ending lunch. We said our goodbyes and made our way to our next classes. 

This became a routine, sneaking around the school on our breaks. It got to the point that, on Wednesday, Elgin texted me.

Elgin: Look, I know you're macking on a cute girl, but I miss my bestie

When I met Alex in the stairwell, I showed her the text and she laughed. "Alright, well I guess we have to go eat lunch with him then." She said firmly, seemingly unbothered. I wasn't. I wanted to stay in that stairwell, just me and Alex together forever. But she was right, I couldn't just ignore my best friend (even though we spent every afternoon after school studying and hanging out with each other).

We made our way to the cafeteria, and when Elgin saw me, he gasped. "Oh my god, she's alive! I was beginning to think that you had been a figment of my imagination this whole time." I swatted his arm playfully and stuck out my tongue.

"Maybe I am. You did summon me, after all." Alex chuckled at that and we sat down across from Elgin.

"Nah, cuz then what am I?" She flipped her hair sarcastically and I stared at her with all the intensity in the world.

"Will you cut that out?" Elgin huffed at me, snapping his fingers in front of my face. "Take a picture, it'll last longer!" I smiled sheepishly at him. Alex was doubled over in laughter and there I was staring at her again.

"It's not my fault she's so god damn good-looking," I said defensively. Alex stopped laughing then and her blush was so deep that her ears had turned red. "That's a marvellous colour on you," I whispered in her ear. I watched her body tremble and smirked. I finally got back at her for how she made me feel. I know it wasn't a competition but it felt good to know that she liked me just as much as I liked her.

"Okay, I see why you were avoiding me now," Elgin looked like he was about to barf. I immediately felt bad for being so flirty in front of him. "You were sparing me." Alex and I shifted slightly farther away from each other and started eating our lunches. Elgin looked grateful. If we ended up dating, Alex and I were going to have to figure out how to tone it down.

Later that day, I apologized to Elgin. "I'm sorry that I've been kind of neglecting you at school, and also for how I was acting with Alex at lunch." We were walking home, so he had an excuse not to actually look at me. I didn't blame him for not wanting to. I was being a selfish bitch.

"I'm not mad," He finally sighed and looked down at me. "I just wasn't expecting it to be, like, the Jamie and Alex show, featuring Elgin. I'm way more used to the Elgin and Jamie show, featuring absolutely no one." 

"Why does your name get to go first?" That wasn't the point, but I wanted to lighten the mood. He grinned and shoved me lightly.

"Creative licensing, obviously," He retorted. I laughed and gave him a side hug as we turned onto our street. There was a beat of silence where I didn't know what to say, but Elgin always did. No matter what the situation was, it was like he had the script for life. "You know I love you, dude. So, if you guys do start dating—which I'm 90% sure you will—let's just agree to make it the Elgin, Jamie and Alex show." My eye shined, but I refused to cry for such a stupid reason.

"Or the Jamie, Alex and Elgin show," I winked, sticking my pinky out to swear on it. I wasn't about to lose my best friend, and Alex seemed to be okay with that fact. That was a good sign. If Elgin was right, I wanted to have a well-balanced life. This was a promise to him, as well as myself. "Either way, it's you and me always, buddy."

"Yeah whatever," Elgin laughed with an eye roll. he wrapped his giant pinky around mine and we both pressed our lips to the space between our thumb and index fingers. Promise sealed.