Stupid First Impressions

Stupid First Impressions - Part 22

Chapter 22

“…and then I came out and there Geoffrey was,” I moaned to Louise, burying my face in my hands. “I mean, I just ran here. I don’t know what to do! I thought, you know, with Luke and Marigold being done, I’d be happy if he kissed me but I just…I freaked out!”

“You want to know what I think?” Alex piped up. When I looked at her hopefully, she said, “I say you have a roll around with Luke and Geoffrey and see which one’s, you know, better.”

“Ugh, Alex, you are so not helping. Can’t you see that Amy’s in turmoil?” Jessie said, shooting Louise a look. “Look, Amy’s not the kind of girl who can fool around with two guys at once. And I think it’s totally obvious that she should just get with Geoffrey and stop pretending she wants anything else,” she finished pointedly, lifting a delicate eyebrow at me.

“H-hey, I never said I was into Geoffrey,” I said defensively, grabbing my bottle of Dr. Pepper and peeling the label furiously. “I mean, what was he even doing there? And did he have to, like, totally eavesdrop on my conversation with Luke? I don’t know, I just feel so confused.”

“Well,” Louise began, clearly knowing I wasn’t really listening to advice. “I think that, just for now, you should just enjoy hanging out with us, giving us all the lowdown on Luke and Geoffrey so we can giggle about it and you can make a decision another day. I mean, it’s Christmas soon – it’s not like you’re going to see them any time soon. Not if you don’t want-”

We were all cut off by the sudden shrill of Louise’s phone. She looked confused for a second, pulling it out and staring at the screen. “Uh, Amy,” she said, looking up at me and squinting. “Why are you calling me? And how?” I looked at her, confused for a second and then I grabbed her phone, to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. But no, that was my number.

“Oh sweet rollerblading Jesus, I left my phone at Luke’s today,” I said, suddenly panicky. “Oh Gawd, don’t answer it. Or do. Oh, I don’t know, what should we do?” I said, eyes round and wide. “Do you think he’s trying you guys because he can’t get me at home? Oh, my God, what if he called my parents and said something stupid?”

“Hey Amy, I’m like, so glad you called!” Alex cooed into the phone. “Louise is like totally busy comforting you at the moment so I don’t know if she can come to the phone?”

“Ok, which one of you is this, Alex or Jessie?” came Geoffrey’s gruff voice and I squeaked and buried my face in my hands. Louise rolled her eyes and yanked the phone out of Alex’s hands, turning speaker phone off. I heard some indistinct rumbling from the other end of the phone. Until Louise cut him off.

“Look, Luke, I don’t know what you think you’re playing at but Amy so does not want to speak to you after earlier. And just so we’re clear, ‘no’ means no! And if you try anything like that again you’re going to be cas…trated…” I was making wide motions, trying to cut her off before she said anymore.

“Louise, that’s Geoffrey,” I exclaimed, my voice rising to a mortified squeak. The other end of the phone burst into life and Louise went red along with me as she tried to stutter out an excuse.

“No, of course I knew it was you, Geoff,” Louise said frantically, her eyes bugging out in a ‘help me’ gesture. “I was just jerking your chain. Amy’s fine, honest, she’s just a bit- No, no, he didn’t do anything! I was just trying to get a reaction. And boy didn’t that work!” More furious ranting from the other end. “Look, she doesn’t want to talk to either of you right now. But you could always come and drop her phone off at my house? Yeah, ok, so we’ll see you in a bit. Yeah, bye.”