Exception

*Chapter 5*

My friends seemed to think I was being over-dramatic about the whole party invite thing. Was I being over-dramatic? I didn't think so but Linda and Amelia were convinced I was being a drama queen.

"I can't believe that Leo didn't think of at least consulting me first before he did such a thing," I whined sulking in the back seat of Amelia's car.

"Oh get over yourself bitch," Linda said and I gasped.

She had never said that to me ever.

"So what if he asked Gabby to invite you? It just shows that he really wanted to go to what might be the party of the semester and he didn't want to go without you. In my opinion that shows commitment," Linda explained and I rolled my eyes.

How the hell was that a sign of commitment?

"Just let it go Jenna," Amelia said and I gasped feeling betrayed by my best friends. "Just accept the invitation and we can all go to the party."

I hoped I hadn't heard right. Amelia had just said 'all go to the party' which meant my friends had accepted the invitation.

"You guys accepted the invites?" I questioned.

"Um you know we um," Amelia stopped talking after Linda elbowed her.

"Yes we accepted the invitations but in our defense we were not about to miss the party of the semester," Linda told me and I huffed crossing my arms over my chest.

"Let's all just go, it'll be fun, pretty please?" Amelia begged me and I nodded before taking my phone so that I could accept the invitation.

"I just accepted a pity invite," I grumbled and Linda, always the pessimist agreed with me while Amelia elbowed her for being mean.

"It wasn't a pity invite, it was just an invite," Amelia consoled me and Linda and I chose not to disagree with our very optimistic friend.

***

Soft music played as I wrote my assignments while eating tacos. I was bored but I hadn't apologized to Leo and Leo hadn't texted me back so I didn't have him to talk to. Maybe I had overreacted a bit but wasn't him icing me out taking it a bit too far?

I contemplated texting Leo but what would I say.

Hey Leo...I'm sorry I overreacted today

That sounded dumb but it was the truth. I had overreacted. Or I could just text him an emoji but which one? A smiley face emoji but what message would that send across?

As I tortured myself with memories of my reaction my phone started ringing. It was Leo and I took several deep breaths before answering the call.

"Hey babe," Leo said sounding absolutely normal.

So I guess that rules out him being mad at me then.

"Hey, listen I'm sorry about the way I overreacted today. That wasn't cool," I blurted and I pinched myself.

"You don't need to apologize I'm the one who needs to apologize to you. I shouldn't have gone to Gabby behind your back like that. So I'm really sorry," he apologized and I silently screamed.

Leo was a dream boyfriend. He owned up to his mistake and he didn't give me hell for what I did.

"It's okay."

"It is?" Leo questioned and I could sense the amusement in his voice.

"Yeah it is we both messed up."

"Well if it is really okay then I want you to go out on a date with me on Saturday," Leo said and my heart stopped.

"A date?" I squeaked before pinching myself for my embarrassing reaction.

"Yes a date. We do need a story to tell people when they ask about our first date and I figured why not have a real story that isn't fictional." His voice was husky as he spoke and I couldn't help but take continuous deep breaths to slow my racing heart.

"I would love to go on a date with you Leo Harrington," I responded and he chuckled which made my heart flutter.

"So Saturday it is," he said and I hummed in response. "Goodnight Jenna."

"Goodnight Leo."

I hung up the call before squealing loudly. My life was perfect and nothing could ruin it, not now anyway.

***

Wednesday

Today Leo and I were putting rule number three into action.

Rule 3: Every week Leo must sit at Jenna's table with Jenna's friends at least once and Jenna must sit at Leo's table with Leo's friends at least once a week.

Leo was sitting at my table and so far he was going on really well with my friends.

"So guys I have decided to go on a vegan diet for the next two weeks," Linda announced and Chris choked on his coke.

"Why would you do such a thing?" I questioned biting into my chicken nugget making sure Linda could see what she would be missing during the next two weeks.

"To maintain my figure," she responded taking out what seemed to be burgers without meat.

"Your figure is perfect," Amelia said biting into her cheese burger that had meat probably wanting to relay the same message as me.

"I know that's why I said I want to maintain it plus I just want to do it," Linda told us and Amelia and I shot each other unsure looks.

"Good for you," I mumbled sarcastically taking another chicken nugget from Leo's plate.

"Can I taste one of your burgers?" Leo asked Linda and she beamed before handing him one of her "burgers".

"You really don't want to have one of those," Amelia warned him with a disgusted expression and he brushed her off.

"I'm sure they're not that bad," he told her and we all stared at him waiting for his reaction.

As soon as he chewed the burger his expression morphed into one of complete disgust but we elbowed him so that he wouldn't show Linda her burgers tasted really bad. She would have worked really hard on them and we didn't want to hurt her feelings. Leo caught onto what we were trying to tell him and he forced himself to smile while chewing the piece he'd chewed off.

"Tastes good?" Linda questioned with a bright smile and Leo nodded with yet another forced smile.

"They taste amazing," he told her sarcastically after he had swallowed them and Linda beamed not having caught onto the sarcasm at all.

We all laughed at Leo and he glared at all of us. Before Linda could ask what was so funny, her phone beeped and she frowned looking at it.

"Is everything okay?" Chris asked her and she nodded plastering a fake smile across her face.

"Just some student body president things I have to attend to," she replied before kissing his cheek and waving goodbye to all of us.

As soon as Linda was out of shot we all started laughing at Leo who didn't seem to be as amused as we were.

"Why didn't you guys warn me?" he whined and Amelia gave him a look.

"Ah I did warn you but what did you say?" she replied and he rolled his eyes.

"I need to cleanse my mouth," he said before grabbing Chris' coke and gurgling it down before he swallowed it. "Much better."

We all laughed at his over-dramatic reaction and I couldn't help but continue staring at him. He stared back and he smiled at me making a smile break out on my face.

The snap of a picture broke us out of our trance and I found Amelia waving her phone in our faces.

"You guys looked so cute, I couldn't resist," she explained with a shrug and I lunged for her phone so that I could delete the picture but I couldn't. Instead I sent it to my phone and decided it would be my new background.