Green Eyed Daydream #Wattys2016

Chapter 1

Carrie's POV

"Come on, Carrie!" I hear Jonah yell from the hallway, impatience clear in his tone.

"I'm almost done," I answer from the bathroom where I am finishing putting my hair up in a ponytail. I'm definitely not one of those girls who take hours to get ready, but having to wait even for a few minutes seems to be annoying to Jonah.

I exit the bathroom, slip on black velvet ballet flats, and grab my purse from the bed.

"Okay, I'm ready," I announce standing in front of Jonah who is jigging the car keys in his hand. I'm hoping he'll say something about how nice I look since I'm wearing a new dress, and it's been awhile since we had an occasion to dress up and go out.

"Took you long enough," he says instead, and my smile fades. He doesn't notice.

We get into his BMW and he turns on his music. It's some unfamiliar to me underground UK band, and he sings every word along, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel.

"Can you map the directions there?" he asks without looking at me.

"Sure," I say, and take out my phone.

"I still can't believe I'm going to your ex-boyfriend's party," he says, shaking his head.

"We dated like five years ago, Jonah. And we've been friends far longer than we were boyfriend and girlfriend."

"Still. I think it's weird that you're still in touch with your exes. I certainly don't talk to any of mine."

"Well, Alex and I get along better as friends than we did when we dated. He's a good friend to me," I say, and shift uncomfortably in my seat. I don't think I need to defend my friendship with Alex. Our breakup was amicable and our friendship has been strong for years.

"I bet if I wanted to meet up with one of my ex-girlfriends you'd throw a tantrum over it," continues Jonah.

"No, I wouldn't. Unless you game me reason to," I say, looking at his profile.

"Did you find the directions?" he changes the subject.

"Yeah, here," I say, and press the button to activate the voice speaker on my phone.

We spend the rest of the drive in silence, working our way through Saturday night traffic in San Francisco. It's nearly ten o'clock when we arrive at Alex's house.

I get out of the car, and straighten my dress, which crawled up my thighs and is now a little wrinkled. It's black and simple, with capped sleeves, and an empire waist.

Jonah locks his car with the click of the automatic key, and heads up the steep stairs without waiting for me. I take my time, walking behind him.

When we ring the doorbell, a pretty blonde woman opens the door, wearing what I think are supposed to be cat ears, and holding a plastic red cup in her hand.

"Hi!" she says overenthusiastically. "Come in, come in," she moves back and gestures for us to enter.

Jonah and I walk in, and we see that the place is packed. This is definitely not some small sophisticated soiree that Jonah would assume is appropriate for our age, we are college graduates after all. This looks more like a frat house rager.

It's only been two months since I graduated from college, but Jonah is four years older than me and is a full fledged adult in all respects. He has a well paying job and a mortgage. I am still trying to get on my feet. Working as an intern at an ad agency in San Francisco I earn barely enough to make the rent for my tiny studio apartment. Jonah likes to act like he's a lot older than his twenty six years, but sometimes I swear he acts just like an old man. So stodgy and somber.