Jerrie Oneshot Book

Mix-Up

Summary: Jade finally gathers her courage to talk to the girl Leigh-Anne has been trying to set her up with but accidentally approaches a wrong one.

The bar's dingy and musty and Jade reaches for the glasses she keeps in her pocket, as though those will help illuminate the darkness. Leigh-Anne made her leave them at their dorm. Along with her dignity, she thinks.

There's a girl sitting at the bar, there's a girl sitting in one of the booths, there's a girl playing some shooting arcade game in the back, there's a girl talking to the bartender, and there's a girl waiting in line for the bathroom. It feels like a nightmare she's had several times. They all stare back at her. They all turn up their noses. Their boyfriends all come back from bathroom at the same time. All their boyfriends turn up their noses. She sighs.

Jade wishes she'd never agreed to it. There's a perfectly good movie waiting on her laptop, albeit one that she just downloaded illegally. Her prototype is waiting for her in the lab. She's got leftovers from last night in the fridge. Any of those options are far preferable to this one. She wishes Leigh-Anne wouldn't have talked her into this.

Now that her mind's done playing tricks on her, she thinks she spots her. Sitting by herself. Check. Pretty. Check. Blonde. Check. Maybe. That was the description, right? She's been sitting by herself since Jade walked in and she seems to be looking around. She's waiting for someone. That's got to be her.

She calls Leigh-Anne to double check.

"She's too pretty, Leigh. I can't talk to her!" Jade whispers loudly into her phone from a dark corner. It's loud enough that she can't full-on whisper but quiet enough that she swears the girl can hear her. Somehow there's still a payphone and one of those change-only cigarette machines back in the corner with her.

"I don't know if I'd describe her as 'too pretty,' but to each their own," Leigh-Anne chuckles.


"I thought you said you didn't know her." Jade takes another quick glance. The girl's folding a paper straw wrapper into intricate patterns. Jade hopes she hasn't noticed her in this dark corner by a payphone and a change-operated cigarette machine. That can't be a good first impression.

"I don't. She's my lab partner's friend. But she showed me a picture. My lab partner said she's really nice, maybe you should give her a chance."

"What am I supposed to say?"

Leigh-Anne laughs. "Introduce yourself."

"I can't." It's automatic. There's a lot of automatics in Jade's life. It's automatic to go to the library between classes to study. It's automatic to go to the lab after classes to work on her prototype. Her confidence in academics: automatic. Her lack of confidence with girls: automatic.

"It goes like this: 'Hi, my name is Jade.'"

"You're a jerk." She takes another glance at the girl. Her eyes flick up and Jade swears she's caught. "I don't think I can approach her. My feet feel like they're stuck to the ground."

"You're at the bar, right?"

"Yeah, the one just off Main Street."

"Do a shot," Leigh-Anne suggests.

"A shot?" she squeaks. She looks up again and the girl's eyes are glued to her phone. "What if she sees me? She's going to think I'm pathetic."

"Well, then she's not the right girl for you."

Jade creeps out of the darkness and looks around. It feels safe enough for the moment. And she figures it'll probably feel a little bit safer after a shot.

The tequila burns and Leigh-Anne laughs when she breathes fire into the phone afterwards. It's like she's right next to her and Jade feels only slightly relieved by it all.

"Did she see you?"

"No, but this other girl is staring at me like I'm pathetic now. How can she be at the bar by herself and look so confident and I'm tripping over my feet and almost spitting out shots of tequila?"

"You tripped? You almost spit it out? Shots plural? How many did you take? Oh, Jade."

Jade looks at the girl again. She's looking back at Jade. How much of that did she catch? She blows a big sigh into the phone and hears Leigh-Anne laugh.

"Give a go for an hour. I'll be there at nine to rescue you just like we discussed, okay?" Leigh-Anne's voice is distant as Jade catches the girl's eye. This is it.

"Okay."