Twenty Years Later (NOW PUBLISHED!)

Two

My brain just seemed to get even dumber. And I had no clue what to say. This couldn't really be happening.

"She'd love to go," I heard the voice of Kaileen say.

"W-what?" I sputtered in her direction. "Don't we have, you know, things to do tonight?"

She gave me a look that I instantly recognized... like she was scolding her toddler. "No. We do not have things to do tonight."

"Great," Alex said. "Hey, if you have a second now, maybe we can catch up."

"Um, um," I said. God, I was acting like an idiot. Seeing this god was taking me instantly back to my dorky, insecure teenage self.

"Yes, she has a second," Kaileen said.

Why was she answering all of his questions? "Um, Kaileen, can I talk to you for a minute? Over there." I pointed to a quiet, empty corner.

She nodded, then said to Alex, "We'll be right back."

We huddled in the corner, and now, I really felt like a damn teenager—whispering and giggling with my friends while staring at Alex Hernandez.

She gave me that look again. "What is going on with you, Jayda? Why are you acting so weird all the sudden?"

How could I even explain it? "That guy... that guy right there?"

"Yeah?"

"He was the hottest, and I mean hottest, most popular guy in our whole school."

"So?"

"So... I can't go on a date with him. To my twenty-year reunion, no less."

"Why the hell not?"

"Because..." I sighed in frustration. "Because I get completely tongue-tied whenever I'm around him, whenever I even see him. And apparently, twenty years hasn't changed a thing. You saw what an idiot I turned into."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah. It was hard not to see that."

I felt my right eye twitch. "So you see? There is no way in hell I can go out with him."

She put her hands on my shoulders and stared into my eyes. "Get yourself together, girl. You are a grown woman now, a mom, a hugely successful novelist. You are not an insecure teenager anymore. You owe it to the teenage girl still inside you to go on that date. You are going, and I will not take no for an answer."

I closed my eyes, trying to imagine it, walking into whatever big room and seeing all my old classmates. Oh, God, I didn't think I could do it.

"Did you go out with him in high school?" she asked, interrupting my momentary panic.

"God, no. He never would have asked me on a date. We were friends though and had quite a few classes together."

"Well, as your agent and your best friend, you are going," she said. "You'll have a few drinks, and you'll be totally fine."

I sighed again because I knew there was no way I was going to win this argument, and a part of me kind of did want to go. I hadn't turned out all bad. Plus, didn't a petty side of me want to go to see how all the super popular girls had turned out and hope they hadn't aged well?

"But I don't even have a dress," I realized, mentally going through my suitcase for the writers' conference I was mentoring at this weekend.

Kaileen pointed to an upscale outdoor shopping center nearby. "See that? I'll go there and get a head start shopping while you have your coffee with Mr. Hot and Popular. Then you can meet me there. Okay?"

I nodded.

"You can do this, Jayda. God knows, you really need this... after everything you've been through. You deserve to have a little fun. Just remember who you are now and not that teenage girl you used to be. Okay?"

I nodded again as she shoved me forward in the direction where Alex was sitting at a small table near the back.

"Wait," she whispered. "Should I make an appointment with a hair-ripper?"

"Excuse me?"

Her eyes traveled up and down my body. "You know, to get things taken care of just in case."

I felt my face turning crimson at the thought of what she was not so subtly implying. "No! I just went a few days ago as a little splurge before this trip. Besides, that is not going to happen."

"You never know," she said, wiggling her perfectly groomed eyebrows at me.

I laughed, shaking my head at my crazy friend. "You are unbelievable."

She pushed me back toward Alex, whispering, "You go get that fine specimen of a man."