Everything I Didn't Say

e l e v e n

This chapter is dedicated to powderr for being awesome and voting and commenting her lovely thoughts on my previous chapters! x

ELEVEN

"AW, LINK YOU shouldn't have!" Jenna cooed, eagerly accepting the haphazardly-wrapped present he was extending to her.

"It's the least I can do for a friend" he told her with a smile, taking my hand in his on top of the table.

Jenna grinned back at him before ripping into the present quickly. The pile in front of her was rapidly decreasing what with her enthusiastic unwrapping. Everybody watched on with envious and glimmering eyes.

It was the 19th of November, my best friend's seventeenth birthday. Jenna decided she didn't want to do anything big and frivolous for this birthday (she wanted to save it for her eighteenth next year), so she instead made plans to just go for a fancy meal at Suzanne's with a group of friends.

Link and I were obviously a part of that group (in fact, Link was the only guy there) and so were some of Jenna and I's friends from Geography: Ali and Colette and some of her friends from her algebra class: Emma and Sal. The other girls were cool and all but I noticed that a couple (and by a couple, I mean all of them) couldn't stop flirting with Link.

It was like some sort of instinct that they kept doing. I don't know if they were doing it on purpose or the fact had skipped their mind that I was dating him. Either way, it was beginning to irritate me and also make me feel incredibly self-conscious.

Of course, it didn't help that Link was completely oblivious to this. He couldn't keep the easy grin off his face or the compliments from slipping from his mouth. I definitely wasn't bitter or anything! It was Link's second nature to be flattering and carefree.

"Link! Oh my god, these are amazing!" Jenna exclaimed. She pulled out from the wrappings a cute, stuffed polar bear and also a picture in a frame. "Isla look!" she pointed at the picture, waving it at me.

It was of the three of us at the spring carnival last year. We all had cotton candy in our hands and were laughing at some joke Link had told us. I didn't even know Link still owned that picture.

He shrugged. "It's nothing."

"You guys are such good friends" Jenna scooted around the table to wrap her slender arms around us both tightly. I grinned in her embrace, smelling the perfume she'd gotten from France and apples.

I'd already given Jenna my present for her last night, just the two of us. It was a huge scrapbook I'd took a lot of time and effort over the summer at camp to make for her. It was full to the brim of photos of us since we were ten onwards. I also got her a mug (because she collects them) and a huge box of her favourite chocolates (which we coincidentally ended up eating afterwards).

As Jenna opened the remainder of her presents, conversational chatter quietly filled the empty spaces of our table. I discussed rehearsals with Ali (who was also in my drama class and was playing the role of Anita in West Side Story) and about how hot stage makeup could get under the lights.

The show's debut night was barely less than five weeks away and I was really beginning to get nervous. All I kept dreaming of was tripping onstage or stuttering my lines or literally dying in front of everyone.

"Now, it's time for cake!" Jenna cried excitedly.

I perked up at the word 'cake' although my stomach felt like it could hold no more.

When the cake arrived, I took note of just how glorious it looked. It was chocolate with a layer of white icing and precise writing on top saying: happy birthday Jenna!