April 18th, 2008

It was dark; really dark. I liked it. I liked being surrounded by this darkness, even though it was still light outside. I was just under my covers, but it was so much more comforting than all the sunlight outside.

It hadn’t felt like I had moved in years. My whole body felt stiff, but it wasn’t like I was about to move a muscle. It was uncomfortable, but I kind of liked it. I knew that once I got to moving again, stretching would make me feel a whole lot better than I did right then.

I heard footsteps coming up the stairs, but I couldn’t tell who they belonged to. It could have been my mom or dad, or it even could have been Austin. It could have been some burglar or killer and I wouldn’t have known. And right then, I wouldn’t have really cared either.

There was a knock at my bedroom door, but I didn’t move or even make a sound to acknowledge that I had heard it.

“Jordan,” the familiar voice of my brother said from the other side, but I still didn’t make a sound. I didn’t even move. I just wanted my covers to swallow me whole and never let me out of my bed ever again. “I’m coming in, Jordan.”

I didn’t stop him, because I knew there was no point in doing so. He was older and stronger, so it wasn’t like I could hold the door shut. He would have just taken me down without even having to try.

“Go away,” I groaned, not even looking up from my pillow.

“So you come home bawling yesterday, refuse to go to school this morning, and then Dallas asks me if you’re okay but refuses to tell me why he was asking. Is there something that you need to tell me?” he asked, and I could see him crossing his arms out of the corner of my eye.

“No,” I denied, still not looking at him.

“Jordan.”

I didn’t want to have to tell my brother what had happened the day before. It was disastrous and embarrassing. I didn’t want to think about it ever again. Not only had I broken up Dallas and Trinity, but I probably lost Dallas forever. And all because of Jesse.

“Does this have something to do with Dallas and Trinity breaking up?” Austin now guessed, and I wanted to tell him that he was getting warmer. “Dallas wouldn’t tell me why they broke up, but he just said that Trinity broke up with him at the mall. That really sucks considering his prom’s tomorrow…”

And it was all my fault. I had to tell Lexi what Dallas had done while he was drunk without checking who was around us. If I had, I would have seen Jesse and I wouldn’t have said anything to Lexi until I knew he couldn’t hear us anymore. I had been careless and now all hell had broken loose.

“Go away,” I repeated, really no in the mood to talk to him right then. Or ever, for that matter.

“Jordan, talk to me.”

“I don’t want to.”

My brother wasn’t the type of person to just leave me when I was in this kind of state. It really made me wish that I had a lock on my door so I could keep him out. But knowing him, he’d either get the key or pick the lock. My brother wouldn’t stop until he got what he wanted.

“Okay, so obviously something is up,” Austin sighed, now sitting down at my desk so he wouldn’t have to stand. Great, that meant he was going to be here for a while. “It obviously has something to do with Dallas and maybe even Trinity. It had to have happened at the mall, unless you lied about where you were and you were somewhere else. But why would you be upset if Dallas and Trinity broke up? That’s what you’ve wanted for the past four years…”

I could hardly believe it. He was actually trying to figure it all out on his own. But there was no way he was going to figure everything out by himself…

It was kind of hard to believe that Dallas didn’t tell Austin what had happened. I mean, they were best friends and had been ever since we were kids. I guessed that he didn’t tell him because Austin was my brother, and he’d probably kill him for making me cry. Dallas probably thought that Austin didn’t even know that I liked him…

I was going to have to get Jesse back for this somehow. I was finding it harder and harder to keep up with him when it came to the feud that we were in. He would prank me, and then I would prank him right back. Sometimes it would be small, and sometimes it would be big. I considered this one a very big one.

“I don’t want to talk about it, Austin,” I finally told my brother, rolling over so I didn’t have to even face him. “Just leave me alone and let me sleep.”

“You’ve been sleeping all day,” Austin sighed, reaching over and ripping my blanket from around me. I squeaked when the cold air suddenly swept over my once-warm body. “I want you to tell me what’s bothering you right now. You have the entire weekend to sleep after this. Just tell me what’s wrong.”

“Dallas knows that I like him!” I snapped, sitting up in my bed and snatching my blanker from my older brother’s grasp. “He knows that I like him and Trinity found out about how he kissed me on his birthday! So she broke up with him, and then stupid Jesse Jacobsen went and told him that I liked him and all of his friends laughed at me and Dallas did nothing about it!”

Austin stared at me with wide eyes for a moment, as if he was trying to register everything I had just said. I wiped at my eyes with the back of my hand, not about to let any more tears fall. I had enough with crying over a jerk like Dallas.

“Okay, explain it to me again, but slower this time,” Austin told me slowly, still looking a little confused from what I had just said to him.

I let out a deep breath, telling him everything that had happened. I told him how it was all Jesse Jacobsen’s fault, and if it wasn’t for him, everything would be different and I wouldn’t have been so depressed. I told him how Trinity had broken up with Dallas because she thought that he really loved me.

“I’m gonna kick his ass,” Austin threatened, standing up from his seat and heading toward the door.

“Whose?” I squawked, jumping forward and grabbing onto his arm before he could leave the room. “Dallas or Jesse?”

“Dallas,” he snapped, ripping his arm from my grasp but not making a move toward the door again. “He can’t just go and treat a fourteen-year-old girl who’s liked him for pretty much all her life like this!”

“I’ll turn fifteen next month,” I grumbled stubbornly, but I don’t think he heard me.

Austin snorted. “Doesn’t matter.”

I puffed out my chest defiantly. “It does to me.”

Austin rolled his eyes at me now. “Why did you stay home from school when there wasn’t any possibility that you’d run into Jesse or Dallas?” he asked.

“I didn’t feel like getting out of bed,” I shrugged, which was only partly the truth. I didn’t want to face my friends and tell them what had happened. They might have already known, but I couldn’t have been sure. I hadn’t talked to any of them since the day before, and my phone had been blowing up all day from texts and calls from them.

“I’m gonna kill him,” Austin threated once more with a shake of his head.

He left then, slamming the door behind him and starting down the stairs. I didn’t stop him, because I knew there was no point in doing so. Right then I felt so numb that I didn’t think it would have even bothered me if he really did end up killing Dallas. But I knew that once this numbness wore off, I would care. I would care too much.

My door reopened then, and a very unamused Austin stood in the door way. I was kind of afraid of what he was going to say next.

“Look who decided to show up.”

My eyes widened when Austin took a step to the side to reveal Dallas, who was sheepishly smiling at me. This was so out of character for him, and I didn’t think I had ever seen this kind of look on his face before. It almost made me feel bad.

“Get out of here,” I warned, moving back on my bed to get farther away from him.

“Jordan, listen…”

“Get out of here!”

Dallas looked almost defeated, and Austin stood there and waited for what was going to happen next. I bit my lip, thinking of something else I could shout at him to get him to leave me alone. Maybe I could tell Austin to get him out of here…

“Aus,” Dallas sighed, turning toward my brother, who was only a few inches behind him, “can I talk to her alone for a minute?”

Austin looked over at me, and I shook my head so he would say no. But Austin only nodded, backing out of my room and shutting the door behind him.

Traitor!

“I know you’re probably angry at me right now…”

“I’m not angry,” I informed him, a serious look plastered on my face the entire time. “I’m devastated, depressed, embarrassed. That’s different from angry.”

Dallas looked down at his feet, ashamed. I said nothing more, waiting for him to man up and say something else to me. I was almost daring him to now. I wasn’t the one that was going to break down this time.

“I’m sorry,” Dallas apologized, not even looking back up at me as he said this. “I never even thought that you… that you actually… you know, liked me.”

I wasn’t about to say that I really loved him, because I knew that that would have been the wrong thing to do. For some reason, Jesse only told Dallas I liked him, and nothing more than that. I wasn’t going to screw anything else up by telling him how I really felt about him.

“You’re an idiot,” I snapped, turning away from him and fixing the blanket that was lying on my bed. Anything to avoid looking at him… “We’ve known each other for fourteen years. You never noticed it, not even once. Not even with how obvious I was being. Only an idiot wouldn’t notice how I really felt about you, even when I was being completely obvious about it!”

It was almost unbelievable that he never noticed that I liked him. Dallas might have acted like a complete idiot sometimes, but he was actually really smart. But then he acted like a total dumbass and never realized that I really loved him! He didn’t even realize that I liked him! 

“Do you want to go to my prom with me?” he asked, finally looking back up at me.

“What?” I asked, my eyes going wide.

“Do you want to go to my prom with me tomorrow?” he repeated, his brown eyes never leaving mine.

“You think that that’s going to make everything better?” I demanded now, suddenly growing a hell of a lot angrier. “That isn’t going to make it better, Dallas. Just because you don’t have a date for the prom tomorrow now doesn’t mean I can just be your second choice!”

The nerve that bastard had! Asking me to his prom after everything that happened? And all because he didn’t have Trinity to go with anymore!

“No!” he denied, shaking his head and standing up from my desk chair. “That’s not why I asked you. You’re right, Jordan, I am an idiot. I’m an idiot for never noticing how you really felt, and… and I’m an idiot for not realizing how I really felt about you.”

My eyes widened even more now, not believing what I was hearing. Did Dallas really just say what I thought he just said? There was no way he actually said that he really liked me, right? That just wasn’t like Dallas!

He couldn’t have really liked me… I mean, it was Dallas. Dallas had been crazy about Trinity for the past four years. He wasn’t going to admit his feelings for me only a day after she broke up with him… right?

“So?” Dallas asked, looking hopeful.

I found myself nodding, my brain telling me to stop but my heart telling me to continue. I wanted to go to the prom with Dallas, especially after he had told me that he really liked me… But I couldn’t trust him one hundred percent just yet.

“Yes, I’ll go with you,” I continued to nod, and I felt like slapping myself for saying that. But for the first time in the past day, I was happy. I was so happy that it was almost ridiculous. Because Dallas had said that he liked me, and he asked me to go to his prom with him. A prom, with a bunch of other seniors.

Just wait until the girls heard this!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

At first, I was scared to tell the girls. I was afraid to tell them what Jesse had done at the mall the day before, and I was afraid to tell them how Dallas had asked me to his prom. But they were my best friends, so they had to know. And I also needed help with my hair and makeup…

After I had told them what Jesse had done, they looked confused at why I was so happy right then. I mean, I was supposed to be upset, right? I was, and that was why I hadn’t gone to school that day. But after what had happened with Dallas, I couldn’t have been giddier.

“Are you going to tell us why you’re so happy?” Aimee asked as we were at the park, a smirk forming on her face. “You nearly gave us all a heart attack by not coming to school and not answering your phone. We thought you were dead or something!”

I couldn’t help but smile at my four friends. Would they believe me if I told them what Dallas had said and asked me earlier that day? Austin didn’t believe it when I told him, and neither did my parents. Austin looked like he was going to punch Dallas’s lights out, but I definitely didn’t want him to anymore. Because he liked me. Dallas actually liked me!

“Dallas asked me to go to his prom with him!” I squealed, nearly jumping up and down in excitement. This was the best thing that had happened to me since before I met Jesse Jacobsen. I was just so happy… “He just came right up to my room and asked me!”

“This is so amazing!” Lexi smiled brightly, just like she always did. “It’s finally all working out for you, Jordan!”

It finally was. I was actually going to the prom with Dallas! He wasn’t going with Trinity, he was going with me… I would have loved to see the look on her face, especially after she had learned about Dallas telling me that he loved me on his birthday.

“We’re going to have to do your makeup and your hair,” AJ told me, playing with a piece of my hair as she said this. “You’re going to look so amazing!”

“You can borrow one of my dresses,” Aimee smiled as well.

“I’d let you borrow a pair of my heels, but they’re all broken,” Chelsea informed me now, and I had to roll my eyes at my glasses-wearing friend. When she saw the looks that all of us were giving her, she shrugged. “Not very surprising, huh?”

I laughed. “No, not really.”

“I’m going to have to teach you how to walk in heels without breaking them, Chelsea,” Aimee laughed, placing a hand on our friend’s shoulder. “You’re always going to be the shortest one out of all of us if you never wear them.”

Chelsea rolled her eyes at the redhead. “I’m looking forward to it.”

Aimee grinned. “I can tell.”

“You’re going to show everyone at that prom up, Jordan! Especially that skank Trinity!” Lexi now squealed.

“Prom, eh, Emery?”

At the sound of this new voice, all four girls and I jumped in surprise. We turned toward the voice, and my eyes widened when I saw who the voice belonged to.

“Are you following me?” I shrieked, actually scared since he seemed to be almost everywhere I went. If I went to a school that allowed boys and girls, I was sure he would show up everywhere there as well. That was just the kind of person that he was, I knew.

Jesse smirked. “I didn’t follow you across the country, did I? It’s not like I’m leaving you notes or anything that tell you I’m watching you and your loved one’s every move, right? We do live in very a small town, Emery.”

I hated to admit that he was right.

Chelsea glared at Jesse, her hand on her hip as it cocked out to the side. My friends didn’t like Jesse at all anymore, and I was glad that they didn’t. I hadn’t ever liked him, and I wished that they were the same way. They now helped me with getting revenge on him, and it was the other way around with Jesse’s friends as well. I didn’t know if the boys thought it was fun, but it definitely wasn’t for us.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, her eyebrows furrowing down at the boy who stood before us.

“It’s nice to see you too, four-eyes,” Jesse smirked, causing Chelsea’s eyes to go wide in anger. She hated it when people made fun of her for her glasses, maybe even more than people making fun of her for her clumsiness. Jesse now turned toward me, that smirk of his still on his face. “So what were you talking about a prom for?”

“For your information, Jordan got asked to the prom,” Aimee snapped, sliding in front of me before I could even say anything to him. Jesse’s eyebrows rose. “It really isn’t any of your business.”

“Really now, Emery?” Jesse asked, completely ignoring Aimee as he looked over her shoulder at me. “And who would ask you to their prom?”

I stepped forward, pushing Aimee out of the way just enough so she wouldn’t tumble over. “Dallas did,” I spat, having enough of having to deal with Jesse.

For only a second, all the color in Jesse’s face disappeared, along with his usual smirk. But as soon as it was gone, it was back, but his eyes were different. They had the same look as they did the day before when we were at the mall, after he had heard what I had said.

“Really, he asked you to his prom?” Jesse asked, cocking his head to the side. “That asshole doesn’t know when to quit, does he?”

“He isn’t the asshole,” I snapped, taking another step forward and poking Jesse in the chest as hard as I possibly could. “You are.”

Jesse rubbed where I had poked him, still smirking. “You sure about that, Emery?”

Oh, I was sure. Dallas may have now known that I liked him, but it was Jesse’s fault that it had happened. It was Jesse’s fault that Trinity had broken up with Dallas; everything that went wrong was always Jesse’s fault. I was sure that all my problems in the future would be because of Jesse Jacobsen.

“I’m sure,” I glared.

Jesse laughed, taking a step back while brushing his hair out of his face. “Think what you want, Emery,” he sighed, still grinning at me like he always did. Was he about to leave? I sure hoped so. “But I’m sure I’m not the worst person you’ll ever meet.”

My glare only hardened. “I’m sure you are.”

“Even if you come across some kind of obsessive murderer or something?” he asked, his head cocking to the side once again. “I’m even worse than a murderer or a kidnapper?”

“I’m never going to come across a person like that,” I told him.

Jesse’s smirk suddenly vanished. “Are you sure?”

Okay, I didn’t want to have to deal with him anymore. He was the most annoying person I had ever met, and I really didn’t think that I would ever meet someone as bad as him.

No, I didn’t think. I knew.

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And you all know what ends up happening. :( Poor Jordan... The next chapter's going to be hard to write...

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