Fine...Ish?

I Am Not Jealous

I'm just scrolling through my phone when I hear Cori clear her throat.

I look over. "Yeah?"

"So... um this is a date?" She says, awkwardly.

I blush. "Um, I guess?"

We sit in silence. I look to see that Cori's nervous, so I take her hand. Cori jumps a little, looks at our hands, then looks at me. I instantly blush. I remove my hand and apologize. "I-I'm sorry. I saw that you were nervous and I-I wanted to calm you down and so I grabbed your hand and I didn't mean to scare you I-"

"Shut up." I stop and turn to Cori, stunned. "What?"

"I said 'Shut up. You rant when you overthink. You need to breathe." She says. She starts to take deep breaths, and I do them with her. When I'm calm, she continues.

"For the record, I liked when you were holding my hand. I just didn't know you were going to do it." She says. I smile and grab her hand again. The rest of the ride was silent. But instead of it being awkward, it was comfortable.

We pull up in front of a restaurant called: The People Kitchen. I raise an eyebrow toward Cori. "Who the hell names their restaurant 'The People Kitchen'??" Cori just laughs and pulls the keys out of the ignition. "My thoughts exactly. It's actually a really good restaurant though." She says as she grabs her phone and bag. I grab my bag and phone and step out of the car. I meet Cori in front of the car and grab her hand.

"You ready?" She asks. I nod and we both walk in. The waitress walks us over to our table and I engage in a nervous conversation with Cori. "So, uh. What's your favorite color?" I ask her.

"Green. You?"

"Red," I respond and we both sit there in awkward silence until the waitress comes to take our order.

"Hi! I'm Alexa! Can I take your order?" She asks. Alexa has navy blue hair that she tied in a sloppy bun on the top of her head, green eyes, and a nose ring. She has on a sleeveless white button-up shirt with black skin-tight shorts, and black heels to pull it all together.

"I'll have the Fish N Chips," Cori says.

"And what'll you have, gorgeous?" Alexa asks me. I could see Cori's facial expression change in the split second it took me to blink.

"I'll have a steak burger, thank you," I say to Alexa.

"Okay. Your order will be out shortly." She says as she lightly touches my arm, smiles, and winks at me. As Alexa leaves, I turn to see Cori glaring in her direction.

"Cori."

"Hm?"

"If you keep staring, you're gonna burn a hole through the door." At that, she finally looks at me. "What do you mean?" She asks.

"Ohh. I get it now." I say.

"Get what?" Now she looks confused.

"You know, jealousy isn't a good look on you," I say as I smirk.

"I-uh. You-! Wh-? I am not jealous!" Cori sputters.

"You so are."

"At least I didn't flirt with the fucking waitress while on a date!"

"I did not flirt with her! I said 'thank you'! That's not flirting!" Cori scoffs.

"Yeah, whatever." I sigh.

"Look. If this bothers you, I'll just tell her to back off. Okay?" I say as I grab Cori's hand from across the table. Cori looks at me and her face softens. She slowly nods and I nod back. Our conversation flows more smoothly as we wait for our food. We're laughing as we learn more about each other.

"Okay, okay, okay. Life or death question." I say as I stare into her eyes, "Which comes first; milk or cereal?"

Cori doesn't hesitate.

"Cereal." My jaw drops in shock.

"Are you fucking serious?"

"Serious as hell."

"How could you say that? If you pour cereal first, how would you know how much milk you have?" I say genuinely confused.

"That's the best part. You don't." We stare at each other intensely before breaking into uncontrollable laughter. As we calm down, Alexa comes back with our food.

"I'm back. Did you miss me?" She says as she stands particularly close to me. I'm about to answer when I see Cori glaring at Alexa again.

"Alexa," I start. "You're cool and all, but I'm actually on a date right now," I say. Alexa looks at me then Cori, blinks twice, then smiles mischievously.

"Oh. Well whoever it is, they're really lucky to have a beautiful girl like you." She says with a smile. Cori is fuming. Obviously, Cori was planning on taking the high road. Alexa looks around as if looking for someone.

"So, when is your date gonna get here?" Alexa asks me. I can see something in Cori snap.

"This bitch." Cori says not so much to herself. Alexa looks smug.

"Relax. I know it's you." Alexa then gasps.

"I'm not making you jealous, am I?" I try to stifle a laugh as steam literally comes out of Cori's ears from how mad she was.

"Just give us our food and go," Cori says to Alexa through gritted teeth.

"Okay. Here's your food, and my number if you wanna call me later." She says the last part in my ear and winks at me. I grab Cori's hand to calm her down as we eat.

We split the bill evenly and tread out of the restaurant. We drive in silence, given the fact that I was tired. We reach the dorm building and grab our bags. As we're nearing the door to our dorm, Cori suddenly holds both my hands.

"I had a great time tonight." She says as she looks me in the eyes.

"I did too," I say with a smile. We stand there staring into each other's eyes until Cori starts inching closer. Her eyes flicker from mine to my lips. My breath hitches as she leans in. I close my eyes as she closes the gap. The kiss was electric. It was short and sweet. Nothing like my first kiss. As we part, we both have this goofy smile on our faces.

"That was..." Cori trails off.

"Yeah..." I answer. I squeeze Cori's hand as I unlock our dorm door. We walk in and I slightly drop her hand.

"I have to get ready for bed. I have classes tomorrow." I informed her. She nods.

"Same. Goodnight, Stella." She says as she nears her door.

"Goodnight, Cori." I close my door and get dressed for bed. As I'm laying in bed, I keep replaying our kiss in my mind. I close my eyes and fall asleep with a wide smile. I didn't have nightmares that night.