Rayne and Alex

Chapter 19

Rayne

I walk into Jenn's house and make my way to her immediately, taking my boots off on the way. I'm trying my best to calm my rapidly beating heart when I barge into her room. She's sleeping, but when the door bangs on the wall and I turn the lights on, she wakes up slowly. She looks over to me as she yawns, and her eyes widen when she sees my face.

"What happened?" Jenn asks me worriedly. "Last thing you texted me was that everything had gone pretty well."

I hop into Jenn's bed and pull her covers up over my head.

"Hey, Ray," Jenn murmurs. She tried to pull the covers away from my head but stops when I keep them tightly in place. "What's going on?"

"Alex just kinda told me something completely insane," I say.

"Babe, I can't hear you under all my blankets."

I groan, pull the covers down so the only thing she can see if my head, and repeat my words.

"Well, what did he say?" She asks me slowly.

I relay the conversation I had with Alex in the car. Jenn jumps in where she can, gasping and sighing where she see fit. When I'm done, she's speechless, staring at me with her big, blue, bug eyes. I give her time to process.

"Holy hell," she says after a bit.

"I know."

"Okay, it's weird that you have the same name as that little girl but to be the same age too? This is crazy. "

"It's fucking psychotic."

"What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking it's a really strange coincidence that I have the name of my boyfriend's best friend as a child."

Jenn takes in my words, "Well, if it helps, he probably isn't with you because of your name."

I narrow my eyes, "What do you mean?"

"I just mean that he found out your name after you'd met and talked a bit. He's not with you as some weird, creepy connection to this little girl."

I feel nauseas at the thought of him using me like that. "He wouldn't do that," I tell Jenn with an edge to my voice. There's no way Alex would do that. The notion hadn't even crossed my mind.

Jenn raises two hands in surrender and then drops them into her lap. "So what are you planning to do?"

I use my elbows to drag myself up into a sitting position. I lay my head on the headboard of the bed. I shrug, "I can't really do anything. I think I just have to pretend like I don't feel super awkward about this."

Jenn nods, "Makes sense, I guess. Did he look like he knew you felt uncomfortable?"

"Nah. I tried my best to act like it didn't really matter much to me - having her name I mean."

Jenn smiles, "Okay, so just think of this as one small problem of your many, many relationship problems to come." I roll my eyes as she laughs. "How was meeting the mom? Is his mom evil? Did she like the cookies? Those cookies are the shit."

I laugh and tell Jenn about the whole dinner. I tell her how Eli's parents were also there and how nice everyone was. At the end of all my talking and Jenn's questions, it's almost midnight and we fall asleep cuddling on her bed.