Never The Right Time, Jordan Knight

Chapter 15

unedited

"So... you gonna' tell me why you wanted to leave so early?" Joe spoke up, dissolving the awkward air that filled the car.

"I remembered I had stuff to do," I lied, looking to the road to avoid his eyes.

"Alrighty then," He clicked his tongue on the roof of his mouth, assuring me that he knew I wasn't telling the truth. Looking back on the encounter that I just had with Jordan makes my stomach churn. What am I supposed to do now? I can't tell anyone about this, they will summon me dead if they knew what I just did. 'Then kiss me,' I replay the words that fell from my stupid mouth, how could I do such a thing? "Are you going to school tomorrow?"

"Yes, I am,"

"Oh okay," He replied awkwardly, making me feel twice as bad for snapping at him.

"You didn't have to leave with me you know,"

"I know,"

"So why did you?"

"I don't want to be rude, I thought you didn't want to stay there anymore,"

"No, it's not that," My voice went quiet, feeling absolutely ashamed of myself. And the fact that the kiss felt so real, hurts me so bad. I wish Scott could kiss me like that.

"Then what is it?"

"Why don't we just hang out, the two of us?" I changed the subject, pulling up on the side of the road to decide what to do.

"I don't mind," He forced a smile, obviously something was bothering him.

"What's wrong, you wanna go home?"

"No... It's just... Ugh,"

"It's just what?"

"You don't like them do you?"

"Like who?"

"Danny, Donnie, Jordan and Jonathan,"

"That's not true," I frowned, upset that that's how I seem to portray my judgements towards them.

"Well, I don't know, you've been acting weird ever since you've met them,"

"Joe. I really like them, I mean it. They were all so nice and so fun to hang around with, I guess the reason I'm probably not myself is because I haven't become comfortable around them yet,"

"Yet," The light smirk on his face turned into his famous smile, chuckling as he placed his palm on the top of my hand and squeezing it gently.

"I think Donnie's my favorite," I admitted.

"Don't you dare tell me you have a crush on him," His lips pursed in a straight line, making me laugh at his childish actions.

"No idiot, you guys are always forgetting about Scott aren't you?"

"Oh," He laughed as he shook his head. "I wouldn't mind hanging out with Dylan," He muttered. Woah. I haven't talked or seen Dylan since 4th grade.

"Uh, I guess, but how do you know if he still lives in that same house?"

"Might as well check it out,"

I nodded then proceeded at attempting to find our close old friend. There was a local park that all the kids would go to, meeting almost 5 different people each week and getting along with every single one of them. We played football and baseball non-stop. Sometimes if us girls got tired, we would all take turns on the swings and tell each other who we think is the cutest boy that was playing. Mine was always Dylan. But I swore to them I didn't like anyone, making them even more intrigued.

"Hey, do you know if he still goes to school?" I asked Joe to double check if he was even home.

"He dropped remember?"

"Yeah but you know how Maria was,"

"I just wanna see if he's okay, doing well, I have way too many people that I've lost touch with and I feel really bad about it,"

"It's fine, I want to see him too," I admitted, forcing a smile and trying to remember where Dylan's house was.

"Oh, you're going the wrong way now," Joe straightened up in his seat and flashed me a warm smile.

"Whoops. Lead the way Mcintyre," I spoke as I gestured my hands towards the road.

"Will be happy to," He laughed and told me to turn back to the opposite direction.

"I'm lost from here," He said worriedly, making me drive slower than usual and try to remember the street we played on when we were little kids. I turned, following a road that had a large familiar house that we raved about because it look abandoned and haunted.

"Oh my God, do you remember that?" He pointed to it, assuring me that we were going in the right direction.

"Little Nancy plays with her dolls as her Mother prepares a hot bath for her inside," I recited the story that this other boy Oscar used to say every the time the ball would fall even close to the gloomy house.

"Then tricks her into thinking she puts bath bubbles in the water so she can burn the skin of the little child Neredith,"

"Neredith?" I looked at him like he was growing two heads. Her name was Meredith, where was his head?

"Yeah, Neredith?"

"Joe, it's Meredith," I laughed, clutching my stomach while trying to use my other hand to steer the car.

"It's Neredith,"

"No it's not, there's no such name!"

"Well, I feel like an idiot," He sighed as I still couldn't stop my self from laughing.

"My head was in the clouds," He muttered, smirking at me as he shook his head in disgust.

"Clearly! I'm telling them about this,"

"Of course you are," He chuckled, looking back out the window and attempting to find Dylan's house.

"It's that one," He pointed to the brown colored house, urging for me to stop the car so we could walk out.

I parked and watched as Joe opened the passenger door and struggled to walk on the snowy lawn following the front door.

"You coming?" He yelled, snapping me out of my gaze and daydreaming. I turned off the ignition and claimed out of the car, holding only my keys with me. Joe knocked on the door and waited as I tried to walk safety across the tall snow. The food flung opened and there stood a little girl that looked Dylan.

"Joey," She gasped, making Joe look back at me with a confused stare. I made it to the porch and said hi to who I can try to recall was Brandi. Only remembering the girl from when she was only just born, flashes of different occurrences of Dylan telling us about her come to mind.

"Hi, is Dylan here?" Joey asked as the little girl stood there admiring the boy beside me in utter shock. "I think she knows," His voice was low and smug, absolutely full of himself at this point.

"Briana, who's at the door?" A male voice from upstairs shouted. Realising that I wasn't far off from her name. The voice came closer and closer as footsteps hit the hardwood floor. Dylan came in view, holding a towel around his waist with wet hair dripping down the nape of his neck.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the Popstar and Cleopatra," He laughed, inviting us inside.
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Okay but if Dylan was River Phoenix.....