The Downfall of the 'It Girl'

It's Time For A Little Heart To Heart Talk, Here.

“You ready to get back to work?” The sound of Calvin’s voice nearly made me jump out of my skin. 

“Oh, yeah, sure,” I said quickly, locking my phone’s screen and shoving it deep into my pant’s pocket. 

“Alright, so, where were we?” Calvin asked as we sat back down at the kitchen table. My mind was anywhere but on chemistry work. Calvin was rambling on about something, I wasn’t even entirely sure what. He could’ve been talking about Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog for all I knew. “Hello? Earth to Jenna…” Calvin snapping his fingers in front of my face caught my attention finally.

“Oh, sorry, what? My mind drifted off onto something else, I guess,” 

“I see that. Is everything alright?” he asked, eyeing me carefully. “Who was that text message from?” he asked, nodding at my pocket. 

“Oh, no one, really,” I quickly lied. Why did I feel the need to lie to him about Landon texting me out of the blue? I wasn’t entirely sure. But I knew that I definitely didn’t want him knowing who the text was from. 

“Huh,” Calvin watched me for a long moment. I dropped my eyes to the textbook and papers spread out in front of me, but seeing nothing. It was all just a blur of black smudges on white paper. “Well, I think we’ll pick this up again on Friday, if you want to, that is,” Calvin stood up and started gathering his belongings together, placing them carefully and neatly inside his bag.

“You don’t have to go, really,” Jumping up, I suddenly realized that I didn’t want him to leave. Not so much because I didn’t want to be alone, but because I thoroughly enjoyed his company. I loved talking to him. He was so sweet and insightful. 

“Jenna, I don’t know. It seems as though you have other things on your mind,” Calvin said, resting his hands on the top of his bag that was resting on the chair in front of him.

“I…do,” I said finally with a long sigh. Walking over to the couch, I flopped down feeling utterly defeated. 

“Do you want to…talk…about it?” Calvin asked, closing the distance I had made between us. I couldn’t even look him in the face. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to talk to him about it or not. I did, but at the same time, I really didn’t. Ugh! This is what girl friends are for! ‘Yeah, if you had some girl friends,’ that spiteful voice of reason in my head spoke up. Mentally flicking her in the head to shush her, I sunk a little deeper into the couch. 

“It’s really probably nothing,” I mumbled, wishing that I hadn’t even seen the text from Landon. I thought I’d been doing so well without him. I had really thought that I was getting over him, getting on with my life. I had honestly thought that I was doing alright. One solitary text from him blew all of that out of the water. Damn him. 

“You were alright until you checked your phone. Was it from your mom? Is everything okay with her?” Calvin asked. I could feel his eyes on me, watching me intently, even though I was forcing myself to keep my eyes glued on the little stain on the carpet in front of me. 

Silence. He was waiting for an answer, and I needed to give him something, or he really was going to leave.

“No, it wasn’t from my mom,” I mumbled, absentmindedly picking at a fuzz fraying on the hem of the couch cushion next to me.

“Ahh, well, who was it from, then?” I felt Calvin scooting back and settling in next to me. A whiff of his cologne wafted its way into my nostrils. The sweet, yet manly smell relaxed me a teeny bit. I was always a sucker for a guy wearing good smelling cologne. 

“What cologne are you wearing?” I asked, braving a glance over at him.

“Uh, Lucky for Men, but I’m failing to see how that’s at all relevant,” he answered.