TEENAGE FEVER

17

The main ballroom was decorated to look like it was night time. The room was dark, with fairy lights draped over the ceiling and men dressed in tuxes serving food. The room was chilly, but invitingly so, and I leaned towards Jaden to keep warm, trying to get rid of the coldness in my chest first. I still couldn't believe that he had refrained from telling me the truth, but I didn't want to let that ruin the night.

He stared ahead, obviously not yet ready to face me after brushing off my questions. I tapped my fingers against the side of my hip. The music was low, classical, and I shut my eyes for a moment, almost believing that I was back in New York. For some reason, that comforted me.

"Jaden!" His mom called. He smiled at her before his eyes moved to the person she was standing with. I noticed that the humor in them had dimmed considerably. I squeezed his hand, trying to show him that I had noticed and he tilted his head to look at me.

"Watch my mouth for me," he told me. We walked towards the man, slowly, like maybe if we didn't get to him Jaden wouldn't say something he'd regret. But of course, we got to him. He smiled at me first, weirdly. I clung to Jaden. In response, his grip around my waist tightened and my stomach swirled.

"Hello," the man told me, extending a hand. He was a balding grey haired man with the lightest brown eyes I had ever seen and light brown skin. He smiled at me, his gold tooth glinting at me. I shook his hand and had to force my hand out of his. Jaden kept his gaze on the hand shake but didn't say anything until it was his turn to receive a hand shake.

"It's nice to see you, Paul," he lied, nodding at the man. Paul, the man, nodded back at Jaden.

"It really is," he answered, his voice stiff, "I see you found yourself a girlfriend."

Aisha spoke up then, reminding us that she was there. "This is Maddie. She moved into town about a month ago," she said, her hands waving in my general direction. "Maddie, this is Paul. An old family friend."

"The oldest one probably," he joked. "I was Jaden's dad's best friend."

Jaden tensed up beside me. His mother quickly spoke.

"Until you moved to New York. Which is coincidentally where Maddie moved from," she said, her facial expression tense. I tried not to show my confusion and smiled back at the man when he gasped in surprise.

"My years in New York were the best of my life!" He exclaimed. "Don't you find this small town of theirs too boring?"

Involuntarily my eyes moved to Jaden and he looked back at me, smiling. I felt him relax. "Actually," I said, forcing myself to look at the man again. "This past month has been the best of my life."

Despite the constant worrying that I wasn't good enough to be friends with my friends and whatever I was to Jaden.

"Friends can do that to you," he nodded in agreement and for that second, I could see that he was actually a man who had experienced things in his life and not just as someone who had been staring me down as we'd approached him. His face adopted a sad expression and he looked up at Jaden. "I'm really sorry about what happened with your dad, Jaden. After not hearing from him for so long.....finding out what happened, what he did-"

"It was nice catching up, Paul," Jaden suddenly said, his hand moving from my waist to my own hand. "I'll see you some other time."

Aisha didn't say anything as we walked away. Paul's puzzled expression morphed into one of understanding when he saw the confusion on my face. He had realized that I didn't know. Despite the anger in his face, Jaden's grip around my hand wasn't tight at all. I let him lead me away from the two people and into the dance floor, where people were waltzing.