The Two Middles

Chapter 17: Superman and The Emotionally Unstable Girl

I’ve been thinking a lot lately. About Jaden. Now wait, before you get the completely wrong idea, I’ve been thinking about him, because I’ve realized I’m a bitch.

I AM A HORRIBLE PERSON! It has been brought to my notice (by no one but myself), that I only go to Jaden when I’m upset and need help. Don’t get me wrong – I consider him a very very good friend and consider myself a very very good friend of his and I really love having him in my life and now I can’t imagine what what my life was like before I met him and he’s just such an amazing person who’s helped me out so much and –

Right, back on track now.

We never really hang out because we want to. I mean, we never just hang out, but always end up hanging out when I have a problem. And that is going to stop.

I'm the distressed damsel and he's like Superman.

Thing is, I don't want to be his distressed damsel. I don't  want to be the helpless girl he aways has to swoop in and save. I want to support him as much as he supports me, and I want us to be Aubrey and Jaden, not Superman and Emotionally Unstable Girl.

So I picked up my phone and called him. As it rang, I held the phone in my hand and stared at the picture we’d taken. It was just so….nice. The both of us were super happy, both smiling and just looking good. Not like, the oh-my-god-I’m-so-hot good, but the I-am-so-happy-I-feel-so-good-and-therefore-look-so-good good.

So as I held the phone in my hand, I smiled down at the picture, an actual, goofy smile on my face. It was just a picture, but it managed to mean so much more. Yes, I’m obsessed with a picture. I could’ve stared at it all day, if I hadn’t heard a faint yell coming from my phone.

“Hello?!” I put the phone to my ear, practically shouting as I regained my senses.

Jaden chuckled on the other end, “What’s up?”

“Wanna hang out?”

“Sure,” he said. “When?”

“Fifteen minutes?”

“Okay,”

“I’ll come over and we go somewhere?”

“Yep,”

“Car?”

“We can walk,” he said.

“Okay.”

I hung up, threw on some jeans and converse and was ready to go.

“Where are you off to?” Mom asked as I headed downstairs.

“Jaden,” I said, without once looking over at her.

“Who’s Jaden?” a more manly voice spoke.

It’s been a week and I dad and I have hardly spoken to each other. All that either of us said to the other has been said in nods, grunts, or shrugs. No verbal contact. And I was okay with it. Like Preston had said, he’d left me alone. Until now, that is. I stopped and looked over.

“A friend,” I said, giving myself a virtual pat on the back for being so calm.

“I’ve never heard of him,” he said.

“Well, now you have.” I said, in attempts to end the conversation.

Needless to say, my attempts were futile.

“I’d like to meet him,” my dad said. Though he sounded interested, not threatening.

“Okay,” I said, blinking. “Later, you can meet him.”