More Than A Friend

Chapter 5

It was Monday morning. You woke up to a bright light coming through your window. You laid still and remembered last night and processed the thoughts. You finally rolled over and sat up. You got your purse off the ground and got your phone from it and checked it. You were hoping inside Justin texted you but he didn't. You decided to text Ava about what happened.

I screwed up big time Ava.
Justin asked me to go skating with him last night and when we got home, I got mad and left even though he wanted to fix things between us.

You set your phone on your nightstand. You decided on not telling her about the kiss. You put your shoes away which you threw last night and picked up your purse and put it away with your keys. You went back to check your phone. There were no new messages. You worried about if Justin told Clarissa about you kissing him or if he even would. It was eating you up inside. You fought with yourself trying to decide what to do. You finally decided that if Justin wouldn't text you, you'd be the first to text him instead. You opened up your old messages with him and clicked on the space to type a new message. Your thumbs hovered over the keypad, not knowing how to start or where to start. After a while, you began to type.

About the kiss last night... did you happen to tell Clarissa about it? 😕

You paused after typing it all out. You started to backspace the entire thing before you stopped yourself and retyped exactly what you had before. You sent the message and stared at your screen for about 3 minutes, your mind drifting off before it was pulled back to attention by the feeling of your phone buzzing in your hand. You shook your head a little coming back to reality and opened up the new message from Justin.

Um, no, but I'll have to soon. I don't want my baby getting angry at me and I don't wanna keep things from her...

You put your phone back on sleep mode after reading the message and rolled your eyes. You set the phone on your nightstand and went to brush your teeth in the bathroom. You then came back into your room after you were done, grabbed your phone, and headed downstairs for breakfast.
"Good morning mom, morning dad," you said while walking over to the kitchen table.
"Good morning," both your parents said simultaneously. They both gave you a smile before your dad went back to reading a magazine and your mom went back to flipping the bacon on the stove. You sat down across from your dad and set your phone down next to you on the table. While waiting for breakfast to finish up, you kept fidgeting around with your fingers. You finally decided to make yourself useful and set the table. By the time you were done, your mom turned off the fire on the stove. You took your seat and your dad shoved the magazine under his seat. Your mom put a pancake in everyone's plate and then bacon for everyone and extra pancakes and bacon in the center of the table along with the syrup and butter you placed there. She put the pan back down on the stove, wiped her hands on the little towel and took a seat next to your dad. You all said a little, silent, quick prayer in your heads and began to eat. Your mom started talking about how she had a busy day at work today and had to hurry up. She finished up her food, set her dishes in the sink, said her goodbyes, grabbed her stuff and left for work. Your dad followed and did the same thing minutes later and was off for work. You finished up your breakfast alone. You then cleared the table and went to get ready for work. When you were done, you headed out with your phone and keys and went to work at the bakery. You got there a little early. You had a shorter shift that day, 4 hours. You'd be out by 3pm. You got settled in and when it was 11am, the manager turned the sign to 'open' and work started. You did as usual, serving desserts at the counter to customers who ordered and payed. 2 hours in, you turned to see the next order on the screen. It said '2 vanilla cupcakes with frosted hearts'. You grabbed 2 fresh ones and packed them carefully. You went up to the counter and adjusted your hat.
"Your order," you said holding out the plastic container. You looked up to see Justin. You felt flustered by the sight of him. You then noticed Clarissa was also right next to him and they were holding hands. You set the container down on the counter. Justin was looking at you in a way he never looked at you before. It was kind of like he also felt unsettled inside. It was a weird tension between Justin and you. It was like an elephant in the room. You both were thinking of the other night. Clarissa slowly pulled the tray off the counter.
"Thanks," Clarissa said. You looked over to her. She was giving a small, faint smile. There was a short pause before she spoke again. "Hey um, I'm still new to town. How about we like, go to the mall or something? Just me and you, together?"
You didn't respond right away before finally speaking. "Oh um.. uh, sure." You glanced over at Justin who was looking down at his feet. You looked back at Clarissa.
"Sounds like a plan. I'll get back to you. Bye!" She flashed you a bright smile before turning around, pulling Justin along gently by the hand. He didn't even bother to look back or say bye to you. You watched them walk out before you went back to carry on with work.
Only about 2 hours left. Just gotta get through that and I can just go home. Ugh. Why did I even say yes to Clarissa? It's going to be so awkward. What if she knows? He could have told her by now.
You shook it off but the thoughts kept bothering you for those last 2 hours. Life isn't always easy. No one ever said it was.