It's my second time hanging around Jack and his friends this week, as much as I tried to make myself form a friendship with them it never seemed to work in my favor. I decide I can't bar them off of one dinner especially when they still thought I was an imaginary girlfriend before I actually met them.
It worries me that even his friends seem me the way everyone else has. It was clear that I wasn't the type of girl Jack would typically date, and he wasn't someone I'd ideally date but that part didn't bother me.
All the outside eyes did.
Jack and I approach the door as he quickly rings the doorbell and we wait for an answer. I hold Jack's hand tightly unsure of what to do with myself in this unfamiliar place, it made it seem like if he knew what he was going than at least I would.
The door opens and James faces us from the inside, his smile grows once seeing us. He allows us in, my nose adjusts to the sudden change of smell, weed specifically. The smell reminds me of the first time I met Jack, in the back of the church's parking lot with a blunt in his mouth.
oh, to be that innocent again.
"Who was it?" An approaching voice ask, Romeo appears from the hall before smiling at Jack and I. He quickly engulfs me in a tight hug, he definitely warmed up to me a lot quickly that I was to him.
"Hi," I calmly greet.
He pulls away, "Johnson and Noelle are downstairs rolling up. My parents aren't going to be home for a few hours so we have the house to ourselves till then."
Romeo dismisses himself with a smile. I make sure not to ask my next question out loud but directly towards Jack. I did not want another replay of me not knowing what "party favors" were.
I look up to Jack and whisper, "Rolling up?"
He chuckles at my cluelessness, "Rolling the weed Charlotte, the party is the weed and the favor is the high."
"Jack, I can't get high."
"You're not going to," He assures.
Romeo reappears in front of us reaching for my free hand, "Let's go downstairs."
He pulls me away from Jack while leading me to the basements door, we all enter onto the staircase. The basement is poorly lit and surrounded in comfortable seating.
"Girlfriends back?" Noelle comments, I step over one of the empty beanbags.
Jack finds a seat on a soft couch and pulls me down beside him, throwing his arm across the back of the couch. I lean into him crossing one leg over the other and taking in the more grimy appearance of the basement.
"Has she come to smoke her first joint?" She ask, eyeing Jack as if his say was the one that goes.
"No," I answer for myself, "Just to hang out."
"Bummer," She sighs pushing her lip out, "I didn't know Jack dated such vanilla girls."
Okay, I seriously need to branch out not only my social group but my vocabulary as well because what the hell were these people saying. Vanilla girl? What was that supposed to mean?
Jack scoffs at Noelles comment, "People don't judge you for what you do, so don't just her for what she doesn't."
Noelle rolls her eyes, hard enough to not seem playfully anymore, "People do judge me Gilinsky, they're just usually people like your vanilla girlfriend."
Now the tension was there. I never really have had a girl not like me except Kami, but Noelle didn't really have reasoning. I did not know her, I've met her once, it was skeptical for her to critic me after our nice first impression.
You're sounding like a hypocrite, Charlotte. My subconscious adds.
"Noelle, look at her," Romeo comments causing the group to look over to me. I shift uncomfortably under their stares, what was wrong with me? "She's dating Jack, she's no vanilla."
"Anymore, anyways," Johnson now pitches in.
I didn't catch him when I first walked in but now seeing him here reminded me of our conversation in the parking lot. Perhaps there was always going to be something there that I just could never get between.
Jack sighs in annoyance silencing the rest of the group, "For fucks sake, is there anything else to talk about?"
I notice Jack's tenseness which only angers me that Noelle and her stupid remarks were stressing him. Even I didn't stress him out - maybe my reputation was, how innocent I came across. I guess it didn't matter because Jack and I shared private intimate moments that we didn't have to prove to anybody else.
I rest my hand on Jack's thigh as the conversation drift somewhere into Romeo and Noelle's acid trip. Jack always knew the right things to say, but here I was speechless when he looked like he really needed to calm down.
I clear my throat at the uncomfortableness, "Is there a bathroom?"
"Second door on the right," Romeo instructs.
I step back over the seats and take the stairs to the first floor. I feel relieved to be away from the chaotic group, I really just needed a breather.
"I know that walk from anywhere."
I slightly jump at the sudden voice invading my unwanted thoughts. I face James who approaches me from the other side of the room, he only has a cup in his hands. I sigh in relief once seeing the familiar face, although I cannot tolerate James he was one of the few people in Jack's life that was coerced into mine - familiar status settled me.
Now I definitely know what Johnson meant. Noelle wasn't threatened by me, she just didn't know me.
"It's the walk of shame," He chuckles, "Have you finally noticed they aren't your favorite type of people?"
I eye him cautiously, "No, I just need to use the restroom."
He scoffs, "Charlotte, not only are you dating my best friend but you're also best friends with my little sister. I know the people you hang around, I know the things you tolerate. But even I don't like Gilinsky's Brookhaven friends, so I would never expect you to."
Another sigh of relief.
It's the one thing James and I can finally agree on. Maybe that's why I always steer clear of him, besides his relentless teasing James can predetermine a person in seconds. Since the first time I met him he pegged me as the closed off church girl who followed whatever rules mom and dad applied. And it wasn't like he was wrong.
He also told me that I wasn't going to be a kid forever, might as well start acting as whatever maturity they've seemed to obtain.
So, fuck it.
"What's in your cup?"
***
can't wait to get to the climax & drama in this book
anyways, opinions?
