Jessie's Girl

Chapter 2

I woke up to the noise of my phone going off. Groggily, I sat up and paused what I guess was an episode from the fifth season of Friends. I dragged myself to the coat rack, and fished my phone out of my jacket pocket. 

"Jessie, it's four in the morning, what do you want?" I asked, irritated. I was answered by the sound of Salma giggling, and Jessie shushing her. I rolled my eyes and snapped, "Mind telling me what's so funny?" 

Jessie cleared his throat on the other end of the line, "Uh, I just wanted you to know that I won't be coming home until maybe tomorrow night, I'm really sorry, Tara. I know that we were gonna go to the Science Hall in Queens today...But we, Salma and I, made plans with some of her friends."

Great. "It's really no problem, Jess. I'll just hang out with someone else. It's really no big deal." Jessie didn't respond immediately. "Thanks a million, Tara, I'll make it up to you. Bye!" The call ended, and I sighed.

I threw my phone on to the couch, and changed the TV to the Today show. This really sucked. You know what? I was the one who introduced Salma and Jessie to each other in the first place! And to add onto that, I was going to make a move on Sal before the two of them got together.

But I bet she's straight, and that was one of the reasons why I didn't. I guess Jess and her just, clicked, or something that night at Danny's party. Ever since then, I've always wondered what would have happened if I'd done things differently. 

To make things worse, I broke up with my ex girlfriend because of Salma. I never told anybody that, of course. I always said some stupid lie and brushed it off. We were like best friends, obviously not the same as Jessie and I.

It was one of those things, where it was always a game of "is she queer????". But unfortunately, I ended up losing. I've always regretted not telling her how I felt, or even just straight up asking her what she felt about me. 

"Frick." I said as I ran to the bathroom to brush my teeth. It wasn't actually 4 in the morning, it was about seven. I had to find someone else to go to the Science Hall with, since Jessie would be with Salma the whole day. 

"Hey, Danny!" I said into the phone. "Um, do you want to spend the day with me? Jessie is with Salma all day, so I'm in need of another friend." I heard Danny laughing, "Oh so now I'm choice number two, Tara? Nice." I was at a loss for words. "I'm just messing with you! Of course I'll hang out with you for today."

I felt relieved and smiled. "I'm just gonna get ready and we can meet up for breakfast? How does Lafayette sound?" I asked. "Yeah no sweat, I'll be there." 

I picked out a pair of jeans and a shirt, and grabbed my phone and wallet. In no time I was on a train south bound. I had been thinking non stop about Salma and Jessie all morning, it was good to get away from that and spend time with Danny. 

By about 8, Danny and I were heading into Lafayette Grand Cafe and Bakery. "Do you want to pick something up at the bakery and then eat at Washington Square Park?" Danny nodded and held the door open for me. "We can get those tiny rum cakes, three for four dollars I think, and grab some coffee on the way." 

The man running the counter looked up from the napkins he was folding and grinned at me. "Morning Nathan, how's Louis?" Nathan responded, "Bon matin, Tara. Louis on vient juste de la Californie." (Good morning, Tara. Louis just got back from California.) 

"C'est parfait, nous allons prendre trois des gâteaux au rhum, s'il vous plaît." (That's great, we'll take three of the rum cakes, please) I replied. Danny hit my arm. "Sorry but some of us don't have a childhood in France." Nathan was laughing now.