She's Kind of a Disaster

20- It's Romantic

Jesse is quiet on our drive back home. I haven't spoken to him since I heard him fighting with Clay on Tuesday and I'm not sure if they've made up yet. I almost want to ask him about it, because we used to talk about things like this.

I don't though, because it's just too weird to talk to Jesse about his relationship problems with my ex-boyfriend. 

"Do you think Clay's actually going to tell Bella?" he asks halfway through the two hour drive.

"I didn't exactly give him a choice."

Some silence passes before he follows that up with, "What do you think she'll do? Will she tell anybody?"

"No, she won't. She's going to kick your ass though."

I know he wants to ask me to change my mind, to not make Clayton tell her the truth. To his credit, he knows better than to actually ask it.

"So, I was thinking if you're free next weekend, maybe we could go to that weird interactive museum you've been wanting to try out," He changes the subject.

"I've been trying to get you to go to that place for years," I point out. This museum has crawl spaces to move through and immersive neon rooms with plants made out of human body parts. Nobody's wanted to go with me because it's kind of freaky and Jesse is claustrophobic. 

He shrugs and says, "I don't know, it could be fun."

"You don't have anything better to do now that you're fighting with Clay?" I ask him. 

"No, I just miss spending time with you. You're dating this new guy and I don't know anything about him. I don't like things going on in your life that I don't know about," Jesse explains and when he sees me open my mouth to remind him that I haven't known what was going on in his life for a long time, he stops me. "I know it's hypocritical and all of it's my fault. I want to fix what I broke and get back to how we used to be."

He says it like going back would be so easy. Like I could ever trust him again. I wish it was that easy because it's not like I enjoy looking at my brother and not recognizing who I see. 

"I'll think about it," I mumble under my breath. We're not going to ever be what we used to, but maybe we can get something back from this. I don't know if I'm ready to try yet, but I want my brother back. 

The fact that I don't say no immediately seems to excite him as he starts planning out the whole trip. "There's that frozen yogurt place you like that's over there too and-"

My phone interrupts him with a shrill ringtone. Shaw's name pops up on the caller ID and I know Jesse sees it before I answer. 

"Hello?" I say into the phone.

"Hey, what are you doing right now?" He asks me.

"Driving home," I respond. "For my parents' anniversary party."

"Oh yeah. I didn't know that it was a real thing, that people celebrate their anniversaries," He admits.

"It's romantic," I defend with a small laugh. "What's up?"

"I can't find one of the ice packs that you used on Tuesday," He explains. "Do you know where you put them after they melted?"

"I'm pretty sure that I put all of them back in the freezer," I answer.

"How sure are you though?" He questions and then he laughs a little bit. "You were pretty distracted."

My mind flashes back to Tuesday and how we spent that night. He was too sore for us to have sex but I think that I gave him a pretty memorable night. "Yeah, I was pretty distracted but I'm sure that I put them all back in the freezer. Is everything okay?"