Bringing Back Hallie

Bringing Back Hallie: Chapter Eight

A/N--Pic on the side is of Jeanie and Fred. Hope you all like and can comment/vote for me :)

"This is the most relaxed I've been in ages," Jeanie says next to me, causing me to look up from my lawn chair and over at her. She's the opposite from me, lying on her back and tanning the front of her admittedly perfect body. She looks the epitome of calm and relaxation, even though there are two hormonal guys swimming in the pool just feet away, laying eyes on her every chance they get. 

I'm sure she's used to the looks from Fred; I mean he is her boyfriend, but even Jesse's been looking at her. But I guess with that kind of body and confidence, she's used to it. Me, though, not so much. When she called earlier and asked if she and the guys could come over and my mom said yes, I was super excited. I hadn't spent time with my friends in over a week. 

But then when they showed up, the guys wearing shirts and swim trunks while Jeanie's bikini top straps peeped out of her black Nirvana tank top, my stomach kind of twisted. I love swimming, lying out in the sun to get tan. Just being in the sun. Absolutely love it. Only when I'm by myself or with family though. I do not like being in a swimsuit in front of people who judge me, though, and I feel like that's what has been happening since they got here. 

I haven't let my discomfort show, though, thank God. I'm pretty good at keeping things bottled up inside so that I don't look stupid. I've mastered that art since I went through my chubby phase in middle school and got called a pig by some bitch named Penny Masters. 

So I just say over my arm, "Right?" 

Through her black Ray ban rip-off sunglasses I see her eyes flit over to me, and she gives a light smile as she says, "Even with the twin jerk offs in the pool being loud as fuck I'm relaxed. Says something." 

I peer away from her and instead towards the swimming pool, laughing quietly to myself when I see that Jesse and Fred are having a contest to see who can hold a handstand under water for the longest time. Jesse's obviously winning because Fred can only use one arm due to the fracture in his collarbone, but it's still fun to watch. 

It's cute in that immature boy way. 

She cuts through my fond looking when she asks, "So where's that guy whose living here? I haven't seen him." 

Feeling that same unsettledness in the pit of my stomach at the mention of Ethan meeting my friends-namely the gorgeous Jeanie-I tell her truthfully, "In the studio with my dad. They've been working on some duet for a week now." 

She asks me bluntly, "He hot?" 

Fuck yes, I want to answer, but I know better. If Jeanie knew that I had a teensy crush on the guy-and I mean teensy in the tiniest of ways-she'd go out of her way to interview him to make sure that he was "worthy" of me. And, well, every time she's done this in the past, the guy thought that Jeanie was interested in him for herself, and ended up falling for her instead even when she told them no. 

And, well, I'd be kind of upset if Ethan fell for Jeanie. I'm really not going to lie. It may sound petty of me, but I like having him to myself. I really do. Besides, he's definitely not Jeanie's type. Jeanie loves the bad guys like any other girl on the planet; but unlike every other girl on the planet, she thinks that any semi-decent guy is gay or a mother lover or something. So if she met Ethan and realized that other than the harmless teasing, he doesn't exactly have a mean bone in his body, she'd think he was ridiculously lame and would make fun of me even more for saying I have a thing for him. 

So because of all of these reasons, I tell her, "Eh, he's alright," even though every fiber of my being is crying out that he is so, so much more than alright.