Summer Hatin'

First Date Blues

Jade's POV:

She slides down the wall of the cabin, landing on the porch with her knees brought up to her chest as she chews on her nail. If I didn't know any better, I'd think she was about to go into cardiac arrest with the way she's breathing so unevenly.

"It's only a performance review, Vega. Not the Grim Reaper."

Her sad little frown is so quick to morph into a glare that it's actually kind of impressive.

Okay. Maybe it's not the time for jokes yet.

"They've been in there for a long time."

I check my watch, frowning. "It's been like twelve minutes."

"That's over a minute per child! Why do each of them need to talk about us for a whole minute?" She holds her hand over her eyes to shield them from the sun while looking up at me.

"Well," I go to sit next to her, "they could be talking about how you can't throw a ball to save your life; how mediocre your guitar-playing is; how-"

She smacks me. Hard. Right on my arm. I groan, rubbing it although it doesn't really hurt.

"It's not funny! If I get sacked, that means Trina lasted in a summer job longer than I did. Trina!!"

It's almost impossible to keep a straight face at her major concern. Now that is embarrassing.

"Relax. We're not getting sacked," I manage to get out without any teasing. I should get a medal for that. 

"How can you be so sure of that? What if-"

Nope. Nuh uh. We are NOT going through the whole 'what if' speech again. I'd rather listen to someone scream bloody murder in my ears for an hour straight than to endure that.

"Here. Give me your hand."

She frowns when I cut her off, glancing down at her hands, then reluctantly placing her left one in my open palm.

Huh. Most people would be terrified to give me their hand. It could be because of my track record of breaking wrists and threatening to chop off pinkies. Then again, Vega was never like 'most people'.

"Are you just going to hold it?"

I snap out of my daze with a scowl at her comment. No, I wasn't going to- ugh, whatever.

Telling her to make a fist, I start to knead her fingers together. Then, I slap her open palm and repeat the first bit until I press my finger in the middle. Her eyes widen when her hand starts to tingle and the sparkle in her eyes is so elated that I can't help but to smile along with her.

"That's so cool! Let me do it to you."

I shrug before holding out my hand for her to take. Only Vega somehow manages to miss a step because I'm feeling absolutely no tingles once she's pressing into the middle of my palm.

"Well?" She raises both eyebrows, waiting on the big reveal.

"Oh, yeah. Yup. Those are some funky tingles."

"You don't feel anything, do you?"

"Not one funky tingle."

She rolls her eyes with a smile before grabbing my hand again. She moves away from the wall to sit cross-legged in front of me, dragging me to do the same. Pretending to be bored, I check my nails, ignoring the weird knot in my stomach at her delicate touch.

It's so careful the way she holds my hands. Almost afraid of letting go, as if I'm made of glass waiting to be shattered.

"Okay. Fist." She commands and I follow her instructions, silently admiring her concentrated brow focus so deeply on what really is a kids' game.