The Humdrum Life of a Hero

Chapter 19

"I still cannot believe my little sexually-shy Sarah went all the way," Bridgette says from the other side of the clothes rack. I peer at her from my side, and mumble, "Could you say that just a little louder? I don't think the cashiers heard you."

Bridgette looks over her shoulder at the two platinum blondes in crop tops and wildly inappropriate short skirts, and she takes my advice seriously and says, "Sarah, I can't believe you and Jay had sex on the first date!"

Everyone in the entire store looks over at my red-headed fog horn of a friend with gaping mouths, and then their gazes turn to me. I'm definitely blushing as I calmly and quickly walk around the circular rack and grab Bridgette by the arm. I drag her out of the store all while she laughs her head off at my expense.

I deposit Bridge on a bench just outside the storefront, and as soon as she falls onto the bench, she lays across it, laughing hysterically the entire time. I cross my arms over my chest and tap my foot against the tiled floor irritatedly.

She snorts rather obnoxiously and finally pulls herself upright. Her straight, red hair has partially come out of its elaborate bun, and her perfectly ironed, sheer blouse is now a wrinkled mess, but she doesn't seem to mind.

In fact she hasn't seemed to care much about her entire outfit being perfectly matched recently, which I've come to conclude is because of the magic spell Heather has put over her. Usually Bridge will fret and fuss about her outfit, hair, make-up, and all that jazz, but recently she hasn't put too much thought into keeping her appearance picture perfect all fourteen hours she's awake a day.

Just earlier when we got to the mall an hour ago, Bridgette Valencia, the girl who swore off sweatpants sophomore year because they "just weren't working for her anymore," went into the first store she saw and bought herself a pair. When I questioned her about it, she simply said, while handing over her credit card, "Heather told me I looked good in a pair of hers the other day."

"Well, Jay told me I looked good in one of his button downs last week, but you don't see me going out and buying one," I had replied, which got me thinking about Jay for the fifty-fifth time today.

When Jay came back over last Saturday night, he was welcomed by all members of our house. We all had a wonderful dinner of pizza and breadsticks, and we all vetoed Nick's vote of which movie he wanted to watch and ended up watching some testosterone-filled movie where they drive a bus around a city for two straight hours, but I never caught the name of it, and even if I did, I wouldn't remember it because I was too enthralled by the blonde beauty sitting awfully close to me the entire movie.

Afterwards, everyone went to bed, except Jay and I, who stayed up until the wee hours of the morning doing anything but sleeping. And just a few hours of sleep and a large breakfast spread later, Jay and I said our goodbyes for a week because he was going to Washington with his family for Thanksgiving. "I don't want to go, Sarah, but I have to."

"They can't make you do anything," I said as I pressed my lips against his. I had led him over to the side of the house, just inside the tall, white-picket fence so we could have some privacy to say our goodbyes. He hadn't mentioned this whole leaving for a week thing until that morning around two in the morning. I'm still peeved at him for that, yet again reverting to old habits and keeping secrets from me.

"Actually, they can. They threatened to revoke my freedom, threatened to give me a bodyguard like my parents and Annalise," he looked me in the eye. His eyes were heavy with sleep, and he had a few emerging pimples up on his hairline. Not even my Jay is perfect. "So, unfortunately, they can make me do just about anything they want."

"Well, I guess we'll just have to tough it out," I said with a faint smile. He pressed me into the siding of the house and kissed me a while longer, until it became obvious him and I weren't just having a spirited conversation about air travel, which was what we were doing when we exited the house. A few minutes later he let go of me and flipped the lock on the gate and walked to the curb. He gave me one last little wave and drove off.