Talks and Texts [ #1]

4 | noodles and rubberbands

4 | noodles and rubberbands

Jessica sat at Noodles with Megan and Ben, feeling and looking a picture of dejection as they rattled on about their respective projects with their respective supportive partners.

"You guys were supposed to cheer me up," she groaned.

"And we will," Megan smiled, "right after we tell you how much of a soup you've landed in."

Jessica groaned again, "What did I do to deserve this? Why couldn't Aishwarya's Random Partner Generator have partnered me off with you or you? Or Natasha or Antonio?"

"You're being a tad on the dramatic side here," Ben laughed playing with his can of Pepsi. "You've got good grades."

"Except I missed two tests on art history and this is my chance to make up."

Ben looked up thoughtfully, "Yeah, I don't know how to cheer you up."

Megan gave him a punch on the shoulder, "Dude! Let me do the talking. See, Jess, you confront him at school. Follow him. Become his second shadow. Go to the boys' loos if you have to. Catch him and make him work."

"He slips away the second classes get over and the one time I did talk to him between classes, he refused to recognise me," Jessica said.

Megan looked at Ben who shrugged, "I told you, just give up."

"No, we're the Rubberband Trio. We don't give up. We jump back up," Megan encouraged.

Jessica made a face, "Are we still calling ourselves that?"

"You guys can be the Rubberband Duo because there's no way I'm carrying our kindergarten tag along," Ben said.

"It's just for our last year at school, Benny," Megan teased.

"Don't call me Benny!"

"Okay, Benny."

Jessica sighed and looked at her phone. Quietly she repeated to herself, "We're the Rubberband Trio. We don't give up," and decided to message the infuriating boy.

Pain In The Ass: Are you free?

With something bordering on vengeance she typed in two quick messages when he didn't reply.

Pain In The Ass: Are you free?

   Are you free?

Her shrewd brain suddenly offered a better alternative and she typed another message.

Pain In The Ass: I'll call if you don't reply.

And sure enough, quick as lightning,

Loner Lawson: What?

Pain In The Ass: We are in the AA thing.

Loner Lawson: Unfortunately

Pain In The Ass: Exactly my thoughts

   But we have to do it.

Loner Lawson: Remind me again....why are we doing this?

Jessica could feel anger boiling up inside her but she told herself to stay calm. Maybe Jacob was just slow on the uptake and maybe all he needed was a patient, polite reminder of the duties of a project partner.

Yeah, she was kidding herself.

***

Will be replying to comments during the weekend so be on the lookout for lil' ol' Zaara in your notifs. Also, I do dedi chapters to readers so vote, comment, follow, eh? ;)