Abandon Me

November 30: Celebrate Leo's birthday✅

I put my head against the window of Jay's car, wishing he would roll it down. It was cold outside though, so he refused. I watched as my breath fogged up the window, then drew a smiley face. I glanced over at Jay to see if he would be annoyed, but he was joyful as could be. Of course, that made me suspicious.

"Why are you wearing that weird hat?" he asked. "It's barely fits you."

I completely ignored him. "Why were you so insistent on driving me out to see my grandma? It's an hour away from Medelen," I pointed out. "It's almost like you were eager. What's in my home town that's so important?"

"Can't you believe I'm just being nice?" His tone was still happy. "And you didn't answer my question."

"You won't even take me to Lily's house, and it's a block away." My argument was flawless, and he was easy to break.

His mood finally changed when I said that, so he quit bugging me about the hat. "Bad example. I'd feel awkward seeing Lily again since I had a crush on her in middle school."

We sat in silence for a few minutes, and I saw him weirdly smiling at nothing. "Are you high?"

"I've never done drugs," he responded quickly.

"Well you're obviously doing something," I said, not expecting a reaction.

His eyes widened and he started blushing uncrontrollably.

"What did I say?" I was trying to put the pieces together. "I just said you're clearly doing something."

He left me to decipher his reaction as he focused on the road. When the answer hit me, I began laughing out of instinct. My laughter turned into shock, just like how Jay was a few seconds ago. "You're not doing something, you're doing someone!"

"Why did you have to figure it out?!" This secret reveal was kind of his fault. He didn't seem irritated though, just embarrassed.

I ignored him and made a fake gagging noise. "Ew, I can't believe you did the dirty! Who was it? Does she live in my town? Wait, is it that pretty girl from the grocery store? Did I set you up with your future wife?!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! I'll tell you if you actually save some breathing room in between questions." He nervously fixed his hair so he could distract himself from blushing even more.

Excitedly, I replied, "You'll really tell me about your relationship?"

"I owe it to you since you're the reason we're together," he said with a smile.

"So, it is her! What's the girl's name again?" I didn't realize how invested I was.

"Aria. She lives here, and she was just visiting her dad when we met. Yes, I 'did the dirty,' and how am I supposed to know if she's my future wife?" He answered all my questions, even the awkward one.

He turned his blinker signal on to get off the little interstate. I barely noticed we were already there. "How long have you been seeing her?"

"I've been coming down here since we met and claiming I'm going to my friend's house. I don't even have many friends," he said honestly.

I debated whether I should ask my last question, especially since I didn't know why I wanted to ask. My curiosity betrayed me though, so I hoped I wouldn't bother him with one more. "Am I your friend?"

"More like an annoying sister, but yeah, we're friends."  One of the things that I liked about Jay was that he never let his ego get in the way of what he wanted to say.

We were at my grandma's, so I gave him a big smile as I got out of the car. I hated that I was just as sentimental as Leo deep down. It was one of the few things we had in common.