third time's a charm

"see you tonight?"

chapter twenty: see you tonight?

Tuesday, December 19. 3:57 pm.

"Finals kicked my butt today," I sighed into my phone as I laid down on my stomach. Jamie had called me as soon as I had gotten home. "Tomorrow is going to be so nice."

"Do you not have any tomorrow?" Jamie asked.

"Nope, and I'm only staying at school until eleven. I'm not actually going to classes tomorrow... just making my rounds to say bye to teachers and whatnot. Being a senior is nice."

"I have a huge presentation tomorrow," Jamie pouted. "I'm not going in until twelve, though. We kind of have opposite days."

"Want to get a quick lunch?" I was only joking, but a small part of me wished we would.

"You want to get lunch tomorrow?" Jamie asked, seeming interested.

"We don't actually have to—"

"No, I'd like that... if you wanted to," Jamie said, causing me to smile. "Do you know the bagel place—"

"On Main?" I asked, figuring he was talking about the place I always go.

"Yes, that one. We could go there. They're always quick, and—"

"Wait... what if someone sees us?" I asked, biting my lip gently.

"Oh... yeah. I forgot." Jamie let out a sigh, seeming sad. "I guess we couldn't really do anything, then."

"Fuck it," I said, nodding my head to myself. "Let's just go. I want to."

"Ellie—"

"No, seriously. Let's go," I told him. "We're going to be telling Vales soon, anyhow."

"You know... we never decided," Jamie commented. "Have you been thinking about it?"

"It depends on who wins tomorrow night... I'm using the game as a coin flip, sort of. If you win, we'll wait until he's blown off steam over the game. If we win... I might want to tell him tomorrow night."

"Tomorrow night?" Jamie asked, seeming unsure of that decision. "Ellie, that's soon—"

"Don't you want things to be easier?" I asked him, knowing he did. "The sooner we tell him, the better things are going to be."

"Elle..."

I wasn't sure when Jamie started calling me that nickname, but I was very pleased.

"It's not that I don't want to tell him... I'm just so scared something's going to happen." My eyebrows furrowed and I asked him what he meant. "What if he gets really upset? What if he doesn't want you with me? At all? He might sway you to end things, I don't know—"

"Jamie, that is not going to happen."

"You never know," Jamie said, seeming sad again. "What if you feel too bad to keep seeing me if he has a huge issue with it? I want to believe things will be okay... but I guess a part of me likes the whole idea of having you to myself. I know it's selfish, and he should know... but it's so nice not having to worry about things, in a way. We're having so much fun and we're so happy. I just don't want one negative voice nagging you all the time... I don't want to know what it could do."

"Jamie, you have to trust me when I say that nothing Vales could do or say will push me away from you. I've been listening to his opinions of you for half a decade... he makes rumors up about you for fun... and nothing he has said in the past makes me want you any less."