The Middle | ✔️

Chapter 22

Jamie

Saturday night. Saturday night of Freshman week, to be exact. And I'm sitting in my back yard wearing sweats, a t-shirt, Patrick's old hoodie, and a pair of fluffy socks (with a fetching cupcake pattern on them) messing around with one of my acoustic guitars while Benji sniffs around the garden. Rock and fucking roll, huh?

Aubrey and Kim tried to convince me to go out with them and Nikki again tonight, but I declined. Aubrey accused me of wanting to stay in because I'm nervous about seeing Noah again, but I told her she was totally wrong. I wanted to stay in to write some music, before things get hectic with school next week. That's the reason. It has nothing to do with what happened between me and Noah last night. Nothing at all...

Okay, so it kinda does. I put on such a cool exterior when I talked to him this morning, I was so proud of myself. Im pretty confident that he left here thinking 'wow, she was so cool about this. Yeah, she's not crazy. Were gonna get along just fine. Pride and prejudice, come at me!' when in reality, I was fucking freaking out about what happened between us. It was intense, and so so good. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't totally fucking crushed when he left me hanging last night... I was so close to climax, and then he just stopped! I could have kicked him in the fucking face. But, I don't wanna act like a psycho. So, I didn't. I told him everything was fine, and we can just forget about and move on and get our assignment done together. But, fuck me. I won't be forgetting about it anytime soon.

So, yeah. I guess I didn't wanna go out again tonight incase I saw him again. I can't trust myself around him, I'm so drawn to him. And when I have alcohol in my system, forget about it. I need to keep a safe distance from that boy from now on. Besides when we meet up to work on this essay. Christ, I am not looking forward to that. Mainly because I really am looking forward to spending time alone with him.

Jay, Patrick and Joel are going out again tonight. They tried to convince me to come too, but when I assured them that I'm happy enough staying in tonight, they were fine about it. My guys are cool, they never try to push me on anything, which I appreciate. They're having a few beers at the palace (Jays place) then heading out from there.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I see the three of them walking through the gate at the bottom of my back yard, talking to each other and laughing happily.

"Uh, what are you guys doing here?" I set my guitar down on the picnic bench next to where I'm sitting.

"We had to leave the palace unexpectedly." Patrick tells me, crouching down to pet Benji. "Ronnie showed up."

"What?!" I am actually shocked. 

"Yeah." Jay's scratching the back of his neck nervously. This thing with Ronnie really is bugging him, and I don't blame him. "We were sitting out back, by the pool, and she just walked in like it was totally normal. I lost it, a little." 

"You did?" I laugh at this. Jay is the most laid back person I know, I can't picture what losing it would look like with him. 

"Well, I asked her what she was doing. She said she thought we could hang. I told her that was weird, she said she would have called first if I'd given her my number this morning, which I said only backed up my argument for how weird she was being." He sighs, "she seemed a little hurt, but I mean, that is fucking weird, right?"

"Yes, yes, yes." I nod my head enthusiastically, "it is beyond weird. I'm glad you told her so. You don't want a stalker."

Joel sits down beside me and rubs his forehead with both hands, his elbows resting on his thighs. I remember he's extremely hungover today. "Joel, why are you even going out again tonight? You aren't coping with life today."