24. Jamie
I spentthe rest of the weekend thinking. I went over my conversations with my mom, Dallin, and even Allie. I confronted my fears about commitment. I took inventory of my feelings for Bailey. And I made some decisions. It hadn’t taken me long to conclude that I was an idiot and a jerk. My job now was to ask my best friend Bailey to forgive me and convince the Bailey I’d kissed and held to trust me enough to be my girlfriend.
But first, I had to talk to Dallin.
“You wanna what?”
We were in my basement, just the two of us because Bailey still wasn’t talking to me. I explained my plan again, slowly. Dallin’s eyes grew wide with each word I spoke.
“So, let me get this straight. You like Bailey?”
I rolled my eyes because I’d just explained all that. Very slowly. “Yes, Dallin.”
“And not just for making out?”
“No. Not just for making out.” Although, I did want to make out with her. “I want her to be my girlfriend. Are you cool with that?” I asked a little anxiously. Not that it would make any difference in my plans, but I didn’t want any issues with Dallin.
“Dude, are you kidding? Bailey’s had a thing for you forever. Tell me what you need me to do. This is the best news I’ve had in years.” The huge grin on his face attested to that fact.
“Awesome. So, here’s what we’re gonna do.” I laid out my plan step by step. When I was finished, Dallin clapped a hand on my shoulder.
“She’s gonna love it.”
“You think?” I was ridiculously nervous. What if it wasn’t enough?
Dallin nodded. “I do.”
“Okay. Well, we have to do it this week. I was thinking Thursday since we get out of practice early and that will give me enough time to get everything in place.”
“That’s cutting it close, but I think it will work.”
It better.
BAILEY
I hated Homecoming.The game was fine. It was all the crap leading up to it. Okay, so mostly, I just hated the dance. I knew some schools didn’t make a big deal about Homecoming dances. It was just something casual after the game. Not our school. It was this huge, horrible thing designed to make me miserable. Fine, I was being dramatic. But the truth was,I hated Homecoming because I was always disappointed when Jamie didn’t ask me to go.
Last year, he even went stag rather than ask me. Yeah, that stung. He’d been getting over the whole Allie thing, but still. And this year, he was Mr. Popular Quarterback, so of course,he’d been nominated to Homecoming Court and needed a date. They’d go to Thunder City together this weekend. What if he decided he liked her? Whoever she was?
Why did I even care? Jamie made it clear he wasn’t interested in me beyond a couple of kisses.
Amazing.
Bone-melting.
Heartbreakingly awesome.
Kisses.
It didn’t matter. He’d gone right back to his NCMO ways, and I didn’t need that kind of drama and heartache in my life. I had to adjust and get used to my life without my best friend, both of them because Dallin usually spent his time at Jamie’s.
Whatever. I didn’t need them.
“Thanks for the ride, Dallin.” The state of his vehicle was much improved, and amazingly, he’d been diligent about keeping it clean after I’d spent a good hour and a half disinfecting the thing. He’d even begun keeping his nasty football equipment in the trunk rather than the backseat, keeping the associated offensive smells out.
“No problem. See you in the morning.”
With a wave, I walked to my front door. Jamie’s car was already in his driveway, but I wasn’t paying attention to that, no matter how much I missed him.
“Hey, Mom!” I called out as I opened the door.
“Hi, sweetie!” She was in the kitchen, so I went there first.
“Smells good in here.” I inhaled the familiar scent of her homemade yeast rolls—my favorite. I reached out to snatch one off the baking sheet on the counter.
She smacked my hand away. “No sneaking. Go take a shower first. We’ll eat in a bit.”
“Okay. Okay. Sheesh.” I raised my hands and backed away from the counter. “I’ll be done soon.”
I headed toward the stairs leading up to my room, but Preston intercepted me.
“Bay-wee. Bay-wee. Pwetty. On you bed.” Preston jumped up and down, his words loud and jumbled.
“What?” I grabbed his hands to keep him still so I could understand.
“Nothing,” Mom interrupted. “He’s just excited you’re home. Go on. Go up.” She hooked Preston around his waist and lifted him while telling him to shush.
Weird. What was going on around here? Shrugging, I decided I didn’t have time to worry about my crazy family. I needed to hit the shower and get myself one of those yummy rolls.
Taking the stairs two at a time, I raced to my room. As soon as I opened the door, I reached around it to retrieve my towel from the hook on the back. But then I stopped dead in my tracks.
“What in the—”
At least two dozen roses spread over the surface of my freshly made bed (which I knew I’d left in its usual mess of blankets, pillows, and discarded clothes). In the center was a single sheet of stationary paper, folded in half, with my name scrawled across it in neat handwriting.
I dropped my towel to the floorand took a couple of steps to reach my bed. With trembling fingers, I picked up the folded paper and opened it.
When simple words won’t do,
It’s actions that will convince a heart is true.
For further proof, go to the spot where we first met.
J.
I glanced againat the beautiful flowers covering my bed and inhaled.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” Mom stood in my doorway, a smile on her face.
“Mom, what—” I shook my head, not wanting to believe this was real or that it meant what I thought it did. This wasn’t something Jamie did. This was something a boyfriend did, and that word gave my best friend hives.
“Don’t think about it too hard, B,” Mom said before leaving me to decide what to do next.
In the end, I took her advice. I still needed a shower, but I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t lose my nerve if I didn’t just go, so that’s what I did.
Racing back down the stairs, I ran out the back door. The spot where we first met.
I remembered it like it was yesterday. We’d just moved into this house, and I’d been feeling lonely for the friends I used to play with at the apartment complex playground where we lived before Mom and Jerry got married. I just knew this stupid neighborhood wouldn’t have built-in friends like our last place had. Of course, I’d been wrong. On the very day we moved in, I found Jamie playing on the big wooden swing set the previous owners of our house had left in the backyard. He’d been surrounded by Star Wars action figures in the enclosed area above the slide.
It had been instant friendship.
This night was cooler than that summer day, and I wished I’d kept on my hoodie as I made my way to the slide. I forgot all about the cold when I saw what he’d done.
“Wow.”
The whole thing had been lit with twinkling white lights intertwined with more roses. Tim McGraw’s song My Best Friend played softly from a Bluetooth speaker I recognized as Jamie’s. I climbed the ladder to the little enclosed area since I hadn’t seen another note outside.
I gasped again when I looked inside. A fluffy blanket lined the wooden floor, and a pillow rested against one side. On top of the pillow, a sweatshirt had been neatly folded. A little card sat on it, saying, in case you get cold. I laughed and picked up the hoodie, one of his. After pulling it over my head, I immediately lifted the front over my nose and inhaled deeply, making the last few days without him seem like forever. Would Jamie be at the end of this scavenger hunt, and what would I do about it if he was?
Beside the pillow was a giant wicker basket like the ones my mom liked to buy from the craft store. It had been filled to the absolute brim with every kind of chocolate known to man—all my favorites. On top of the chocolate was another piece of folded paper.
He’d written the lyrics to the song playing in the background. I cried as I read them, hardly daring to hope he meant what he implied. Below the lyrics were the words-
Best friends first and forever.
Now go to the place where
We began to be something more.
J.
Collectingthe basket and the notes, I made my way back down the ladder. The evening was cool, and I was glad for the sweatshirt as I walked across the lawn to the door to Jamie’s basement. I was nervous, anxious, and hopeful all at once.
I knocked,wishing I could see inside. Jamie opened the door before I could even lower my arm after knocking. Behind him, the room was dim, but he stood there dressed to the nines in a black suit and tie with his hair slicked back. Soft music played in the background.
“Come in.” Jamie held his arm wide as he stepped aside, allowing me to walk past him.
“Wow.” He’d transformed the basement with more twinkle lights and a few lit candles. He’d pushed the sofa to the side, opening a large area between it and the wall where his television hung. In the center of the open space, he’d put the coffee table, covered with a cloth and decorated with more candles, roses, plates of food, and glasses of sparkling cider.
Covering his huge television was a large sheet of paper with the words-
Bailey
Be my date for Homecoming?
Jamie
It tookme two solid minutes to take in every detail. When I finally turned my gaze to Jamie, I realized he’d been watching me, probably gauging my every expression. It didn’t matter. Once our eyes met, I couldn’t look away. I didn’t care what they revealed.
“I’m sorry,” he rushed to say. “I had a whole thing I planned to say, but Bales, I’m just so sorry.”
Seeing him, being in the same room with him, all the hurt came crashing down. It was easier to forget when I was in my room or out at the swing set. I could rely on my memories of the good times we’d had together. But here, in this room where we’d spent hours kissing and being close? It was much more difficult. I knew I had to be strong against the years of loving him and remember he’d hurt me. A single apology would not cut it, even an elaborate, heart-felt one like this.
I set the basket of chocolates down and crossed my arms over my chest. “Sorry for what, exactly?”
His hopeful expression fell a smidgeon. “Right. I deserve that.” His throat convulsed as he swallowed. “Are you hungry?”
“What?” Talk about emotional whiplash.
He gestured toward the table filled with food. “Let’s eat. We have a lot to talk about, and I know I can’t wait to eat one of those rolls your mom sent over.”
“You had my mom make us food?”
He nodded. With his hand barely brushing my lower back, he led me to the coffee table where he’d piled pillows on the floor. He motioned for me to sit on one side while he sank to the floor on the other.
The plates were loaded with lasagna, probably his own mom’s recipe, and green salad with ranch, my favorite. A little basket in the center of the table had beenfilled with rolls, and I understood why my mom wouldn’t let me steal one earlier.
He’d gone to a lot of trouble.
I wanted to believe this was real. Maybe this was a new beginning. But I was afraid.
“This looks so good.” And it did. I’d always been a fan of his mom’s cooking.
“Eat. I’m starving from practice.” He paused to shrug out of his suit coat and toss his tie over one shoulder.
“I can’t believe you dressed up.” He looked amazinglyhandsome, but it was entirely out of character.
“I want to prove to you thatI’m serious, Bailey.” He put his fork down after taking a bite of his food.?
I followed suit but wasn’t willing to relinquish my hold on a roll. “Serious about what?”
“Us, Bales. I’m serious about us.”
“Us.” I glanced at the poster covering his television. “Us going to Homecoming?”
He nodded, his eyes never leaving mine. “For starters.”
Hope reared its ugly head again, and I had to squash it back down.
“I don’t understand.” My voice cracked with emotion.
Jamie sighed. “I know. I didn’t, either. I’ve had to do a lot of thinking. The thing is, you were right.” His direct gaze bore into mine.
“I was? About what?”
The tips of his ears turned red. “About the NCMO thing,” he mumbled.
I raised one brow but kept quiet.
Jamie sighed again. “You were right about a lot of things, but especially about that. Especially when it comes to us. I can’t fix everything in my past, Bailey, and maybe I wouldn’t even want to because I’ve learned a lot this last year, but I am sorry. I shouldn’t have been so careless about how I went about things.” He looked directly at me. “I shouldn’t have been so careless with you.”
He spoke the words I wanted to hear, and more than anything, I wanted to believe him, but I was still afraid. He must have noticed my hesitation.
“I get it. It’s going to take time to earn your trust. And I’ll do whatever it takes. I think the first step is to take you on a real date.” He tilted his head toward the poster. “Will you go to Homecoming with me, Bales?”