She Will Be Loved

Chapter 12

I had work the next morning and it did not go well. I was so distracted that I ended up getting shoved back to kitchen duty, washing dishes as my boss frantically ran around doing everything else while still managing to point out several times that I'd been staring at the same plate for twenty minutes. By the time I got out of there, an hour after the lunch rush, she was pretty happy to see me go and I was three seconds away from ripping a plate in half from sheer frustration.

Getting off of work made things worse.

It turned out, surprise surprise, that once I didn't have an angry boss to think about, I had Tyler to think about. I ended up sitting in my car alone, staring at the dashboard, muttering to myself and wishing Forks had daisies so I could pull of all their petals and figure him out already. Then Dad called and left two voicemails pointing out that I was still grounded and had better get my butt home: I listened to them listlessly, not bothering to pick up when he called the third time. I was too busy studying my nails and wondering why Tyler Crowley hadn't kissed me.

The worst was yet to come.

As I sat there, mutely wondering if there was anything from last night that I was missing, if something had happened while I'd been in the bathroom or having my lame dance with Eric, if I should just text Tyler and pretend that I'd noticed nothing... as I sat there wondering what I should do, I got a text.

With a sigh, I picked up the phone, telling myself that I was overthinking things. He'd probably just been distracted and suddenly realized how close he'd gotten. He just thought of me as a friend and had gotten carried away with the romantic atmosphere and all the laughter and...

It was a text from Jess.

I stared at it for a minute and felt the numbness begin to take hold, felt confusion sparkling through my mind and blotting out any other thoughts. Almost blindly, I shoved the keys into the ignition and slammed into reverse, making my way home automatically as I began the whole process over, trying desperately to figure out where I'd gone wrong. At the last stop sign before home I couldn't take it anymore and I pulled out my phone to read it again, staring angrily down at the letters until a horn startled me out of my stunned reverie.

"So how did Tyler ask you out? He didn't tell me his plan ;)"

When I pulled into the driveway, I opened the phone again and hit the call button, not sure if I would have the chance to talk after my dad saw I'd finally gotten home.

"Hey, Gen!"

"Jess... " I said awkwardly. "Tyler was going to ask me out?"

Long pause.

"Yeah... He told Mike... what was it, Friday? And I asked him about it last night and he was still planning on it." She sounded incredulous as she finished. "Did he not do it?"

I bit my lip, the world starting to turn blurry. "Nope."

"Wow." Jess said. She sounded almost genuinely sorry.

"Yep." I choked out a laugh. "And he changed his mind about kissing me, too." I admitted.

"Who's that?" I heard; Mike's voice in the background.

"Um, I have to go Gen. I'm out with Mike." Jess paused for a second. "Talk later?"

"Only if you beat Tyler up first." I said, trying to sound flippant and uncaring.

Jess laughed, falling for it. "I'll get Mike to help. Talk to you tomorrow."

"Bye."

Click.

I snatched the keys from the ignition and turned, finding a pair of red-rimmed brown eyes staring back at me from the rearview mirror. They looked away immediately, ashamed at this sign of weakness, but I could still feel the tears building up as I hurried past the cars in the driveway and into the house.