Everything I Didn't Say

n i n e t e e n

NINETEEN

"WHAT THE HELL'S going on with you?"

I glanced at Jenna in confusion and as I did so, nearly fell into a patch of nettles. "Whoa!" I cried, teetering on the tips of my toes. Link grabbed my arm quickly, yanking me back safely. "Thanks."

I turned to Jenna and asked "what do you mean 'what's going on with me'?"

Our whole biology group was outside in the crisp January air because our teacher: Mr Moore decided he wanted us to study different plants for our next assignment and something to do with photosynethesis which I'd forgotten already (Science was my worst subject, alright?). We each had our notebooks and were supposed to be sketching the plants and trees we found, taking notes but I'd only wrote one word: 'daisy' and made a half-hearted attempt at a drawing of it. It was a bit better than Jenna - all she'd done was draw sun in the middle of her page, smoking a pipe and wearing black shades.

The rest of the class was on the opposite side of the field, by the brook, listening to Mr Moore explain something about water plants. Link, Jenna, a few others and I were still here, pretending to observe trees when really we were just chatting. It was only five days back into the next semester and I wasn't expecting to start knuckling down with my work until possibly next week.

My best friend shot a suspicious look at Link before declaring as loud as she possibly could: "Isla, I desperately need to have a girl-talk with you. Do you have a spare tampon in your bag?"

Link groaned. "That's it, I'm out of here" and with that headed off to join the other boys who were shooting glares at us, having overheard.

I went bright red even though it wasn't me who'd said it. Jenna gripped my hand and dragged me a bit further away from them.

"Do you really need a tampon?" I whispered to her.

"God no! I just needed something to get Link to piss off. He's everywhere, recently" Jenna replied, rolling her eyes. "Now, come on. 'Fess up and tell me what shit's gone down."

"Nothing's gone down" I said, attempting a half-hearted shrug. I started being incredibly interested on the bark of the nearest tree. "Is it worth sketching this?" I wondered, lifting up my pencil.

"Screw sketching" Jenna slapped the pencil out of my hand.

"Hey!" I stooped down to pick it up.

"Forget the stationery and tell me what's going on with you. Why have you been so upset and gloomy since the Christmas vacation?" Jenna demanded, unrelenting.

"I-"

"Don't give me any crap Isla. I'm warning you, if I smell bull coming from your lips, I'll do more than smack that pencil out of your hands" she threatened seriously.

"Okay, okay!" I held up my palms in a surrender-motion. "I just-"

"Is something happening with Link again?" she interrupted. "I thought I'd told him about this! I swear to god I'll kick his ass into next week if I find out-"

"Jenna, maybe if you let me get a word in edgewise, then I'd tell you?" I said, shaking my head. "And nothing's happening with Link, he's great. It's Jared."

She looked confused. "Why? What's going on? I thought everything was great between you guys. Last I heard, you guys were going on that formal meal as friends, with your parents?"

"Yes but ... you don't know what happened at that meal" I meaningfully implied, lowering my voice.

Her jaw dropped. "You slept with him?"