Promises Made, Promises Broken - SYTYCW (Bad Reputation)

Present Day (Chapter Twelve) Tuesday

Joey

Good morning, I texted as soon as I rolled out of bed.

Her reply was immediate. I told you not to call me!!

I'm not calling. I'm texting.

!!!!!!!!!!!!

Was that a virtual punch in the jaw? 

More like a kick in the ass.

Ouch.

I waited for her reply, and when it didn't come right away, I jumped into the shower.  My phone chimed just as I finished lathering up my hair.  I couldn't resist waiting to read what she'd written.

I think Tucker likes you.

I grinned, knowing Tucker must’ve left her phone unguarded.

I think she likes me too. She's always texting me when she know I'm naked.

NAKED?!

And soaking wet, I typed.

You're going to wreck your phone, pervert.

Tucker?

Yeah, that last one was me. The other stuff was my roommate. She's a bad person.

So…You don't like me?

Not like that.

Like what? I teased.

Oh. My. God. Leave me alone.

What? I was taking a shower and YOU texted ME.

Liandra texted you.

So you say.

I have to go to class now, she told me, and I could practically hear her exasperated voice.

Not spending the day ticketing people who don't deserve it?

They always deserve it.

Do you always have to have the last word? I wondered.

SHUT UP.

LASTWORDLASTWORDLASTWORD.

She ignored me, and I jumped back into my increasingly cold shower to rinse out my hair.  

***

Waiting for the day to go by was hard work.

The hours dragged by.  But it wasn't in a way that it would usually happen.  I wasn't dwelling on the past.  In fact, I was truly excited about something for the first time in years.  I knew it wasn't going to be a real date, but that was a good thing.  My dates usually ended in guilt and frustration.

I powered though my morning as best I could, feeling like a kid on Christmas.  

I took notes furiously in each of my two classes, trying to fill my head with facts about muscles and movement in place of Tucker.  But somehow they seemed intertwined.  

Muscles and movement and Tucker.

It was enough to make me shift uncomfortably in my seat.

I headed home and finished a paper that wasn't due for another two weeks in a manic, one hour frenzy.  I went for a run, trying to burn off nervous energy.  I put in ten miles, then lifted weights for a solid thirty minutes.  I ate a carb-ridden plateful of pasta and finally collapsed in my bed, too exhausted to do anything else.

When I woke up from my impromptu nap just after two o'clock in the afternoon, I saw that I had three missed calls.  One from my father, one from Amber, and a final one from Tucker.

I skipped through the messages quickly.

My dad's voice cut in and out, like he was calling from inside a tunnel. "Interesting? Info about the girl…Joey? Dammit."

I hit delete.

"I'm waiting for you to tell me where we're going tonight." Amber sounded vaguely irritated even though her message was punctuated by a giggle. "I hope you didn't hit your head so hard the other day that you think it's actually okay to take me to a drive-thru."

I gritted my teeth and hit delete again.  I relaxed when Tucker's message started.

"Hi, Joey," she said. "It's me. I think I said I'd text you the address, but the last twenty-four hours have proven you can't keep your texts in your pants, so…Anyway. The place is called the Junction Road Community Centre and funnily enough it's on Junction Road. Actually it's pretty much the only thing left on Junction Road, so it should be easy to find. I'll be bussing it out there. I hope five o'clock isn't too early for you."

I heard the clatter of her dropping the phone, then her muffled voice came through again. 

"Dammit. Did I just use the word funnily?"

"I think you did," replied another cottony voice which I was sure belonged to her roommate.

"I should've just sent a text," Tucker muttered.

"Probably. But you needed to hear his voice, right?"

"Shut up. What time does the six-oh-one run to Junction Road?" Tucker asked.

"Ten past four," replied the roommate.

As the message cut off, I decided to forgo the use of my truck and hop onto that bus myself.