After explaining the events that had occurred between Hunter and I to Lucy and Drake, I felt I could finally actually take in what had happened.
"Drake, there was no jealousy in his eyes at all, all I saw was hatred. I have never seem him this mad ever before, he was just out of control. That's when I think I realised what you meant about how Hunter had changed, I mean before he was annoyed and a jerk in a cute way, but today he was just acting like a complete douche..." I trail off, remembering how aggressive Hunter was towards me. I had never felt scared of Hunter, embarrassed, shy, angry, all of those was regular emotions, but fear, that was never something that had ever come up.
"Well I can tell you that the rest of the evening went awfully, Hunter just had a sour expression on his face throughout, and declined Jennifer's call not once, or twice, but several times. And whenever I mentioned your name, he just ordered another pint, until I had to physically stop him, it was ridiculous. He kept saying over and over again on the ride home 'She changed her number' and kept laughing. " Drake looks so confused, whilst my heart burns a little. We sit there in silence for a few moments, a cold breeze passes us, reminding what little time we had till the summer ended.
"Well from what I can tell, this is progress." Lucy chirps up, whilst me and Drake gives a bewildered look to her. "He's already ignoring calls form the ice princess and thinking of you. He hasn't caught you guys out, and you already have another chance to meet Hunter again. So the stupid plans working and that's a good thing." Lucy says matter-of-factly.
"Did you just compliment my amazeballs plan Lucy?" Drake asks out of mock shock. By this comment Lucy turns red, realising that she had.
"If it weren't for Jade's amazeballs acting your plan would've flushed down the loo before your very eyes, idiot." Lucy says fiercely to Drake, then she gets off the slide she was sitting on and starts to walk away from us, "now if you don't mind, I have a boyfriend to meet, a real genuine one." Lucy gives me a wink and strides away, I look at Drake who seems to be in another world.
"Sorry about her, that's just the way she is." I say, but Drake's mind seems to still be somewhere far far away.
"Geez she's so hot when she's mad" Drake murmurs to himself, but I just about catch what he says.
"Dude, she's off limits! Don't even think about it, plus your meant to be my boyfriend." I punch Drake in the arm so he gets out of his trance. He puts an arm around me sweetly, realising my presence once again.
"Don't worry, I only have eyes for you my gorgeous darling." he says whilst showing me a big toothy cheesy smile. "Happy now?" He asks. "Very happy!" I say, I take a quick glance onto my phone, 8:30 pm, we both get up so that we don't make the same mistake again and make my mum very angry, we didn't have time for 'mum' problems, I was pretty sure staring competitions weren't always going to win my mum over.
*****
On a gloomy Monday morning, where summer seemed to have disappeared for a day- which is a regular thing in the UK, the weather is as temperamental as a teenager's mood- I get a text from Hunter, whilst eating a delicious breakfast of leftover pizza from yesterday when Myself and Sadie were watching a film. Sadie knew about the plan because of James, but we didn't talk about boys the whole night, we just enjoyed some best friend time in each other's company, which I had missed, a lot. But when seeing Hunter's name pop on my phone screen, I forget about last evening's enjoyable moments and almost choke on the hard crust. I open the text in a instant.
Hey, it's Hunter, your boyfriend's brother.
I stop reading momentarily, he was taking this whole 'forgetting I completely ever existed' a little too seriously. I scan my eyes back onto the message,
I would really like it if you could meet my girlfriend, Jennifer, today for some 'getting to know each other' time. It's at my place, around 7:30-ish.
My hand had absentmindly already formed at a fist at the mention of that Jenny-Bitch's name. 'getting to know each other' , I think I know just about how much I can cope about Jennifer, there really wasn't much to know about her. She was a desperate, life-sucking, fake plastic doll. How on earth was I supposed to remain calm around her? Hunter knew I can't stand her, I thought he couldn't stand her as well, who knew things would change so fast. I rapidly text a message back,
Sure, I'd love to :)
Goldy- oh I mean, Jade
I send it without having a chance to change my mind. I ditch the unfinished breakfast on the coffee table and rush upstairs. I had a quick peep at the mirror to see what I'm working with:
Hair, usual hot blonde mess
skin, visible revolting red circles ready to sprout
legs, shaved and still smooth
clothes, old orange top with red stains of ketchup from yesterday, and James' hand-me-down old baggy jogging bottoms.
Right, as usual I had not a lot to work with, but if Sadie could always make me look somewhat presentable, it shouldn't be too hard to do it myself. Now what do I wear, do I go sexy, pretty, plain, tomboyish? I definitely know which one of these Jennifer would go for, and I decide I needed to go the complete opposite.
I rummage through my wardrobe and see a plain light blue dress, with tiny daisy details on the border of it, grabbing a navy cardigan I try it on and see the same reflection looking back, but looking a lot more livelier. That was at least a step closer, I thought. I slap on some make up covering the gross hormonal growth on my face, tie my hair into a neat ponytail and chuck on my trusty converses.
After a few hours of hard work and 'picking' and 'adding' things, I glance back at my reflection. I looked bright, my face was putting a plastic smile and I completely transformed into someone who was happy, chirpy and was having the time of her life on a grey summer's eve. Definitely not someone who had broken a nail and almost pulled out some of her hair to look like this, no, never. It always amazed me what a little effort could do. I looked again at the reflection, for this girl no-one could get her down, she was just so alive, no peppermint boy could get in the way of that. I needed all the positive vibes I could get before I went into the lair of the ice princesses.
I arrive five minutes earlier on the doorstep of the house of doom. I stare at the giant oak door, realising it was too late to back out now. As I got to reach the bell, the door opens and Drake is holding a black rubbish bag, giving a look of pure curiosity.
"How long were you standing out there for?" He asks. I look away sheepishly, holding back a laugh. "Just a few minutes?" I say, but when I look at Drake I can't hold it in and laugh out of my own stupidity.
"I think someone's nervous and needs a hug..." Drake comes closer to me, with his arms wide open and a creepily wide grin plastered on his face.
"I think you should drop that dustbin bag before you come anywhere near me." I say, running away from him, whilst he runs behind me, still holding the bag. After a few minutes of pathetic attempts of running and getting breathless, Drake lets go of the dustbin bag and comes over to hug me. We stand like that for a few moments, and honestly it really did make me feel good.
"You are really good at hugging. "I say, before realising how weird that sounded.
"What can I say, I'm a hugger?" Drake replies, then he lets go off me, and we walk hand in hand back to his home, but just before we reach, I see the curtain being closed, as if someone had been watching us from afar the whole time.
YOU ARE READING
The Goldy Project
ChickLitOn a cold February evening at the local bakery, Jade is interrupted from her usual dull and boring routines by a mysterious boy from another part of the world. Little did she know that this was just the beginning of a whole new era. This is a story...
