Handmade: A Series of Short Stories

Story Three: Candy Cane Kiss, prt.6 (final)

 Copyright of KalMoss. All rights reserved.

After pacing in the bathroom for about half an hour Ann returned to her seat on the patio, ignoring the curious looks from her sister and brother-in-law whilst overlooking Jayce completely and refusing to make any type of eye-contact with him.

  She’d been having a furious debate with herself in the bathroom one that, to her frustration had no winning side. In the end she’d just decided to wing it, see how this situation worked itself out, or didn’t.

  Her hands twitched anxiously as she sat there, trying terribly hard to listen to their conversation. Yet no matter how much she tried she couldn’t absorb the words, they merely passed through her without being properly taken in.

  It was exceptionally embarrassing because ofcourse everyone knew something was wrong with her, one person even knew why.

  When she just couldn’t take the humiliation any longer she interrupted rudely and said “The rain has stopped so we should probably go.”

  Jane looked at her sister, somewhat hurt but knew better than to ask, whatever was wrong with Ann she knew it was best to leave her alone right now and not pester her. “Okay.” Jane muttered simply.

  After saying a muffled ‘goodbye’ and ‘thankyou for having me’ Ann planted a kiss on both Noah and Lisa’s cheeks then walked out the door in a daze.

***

Ann’s hands trembled constantly as the dreadfully awkward silence continued to develop between Jayce and Ann. Her body was rigid with tension, her stomach tightening with anticipation and her thoughts were so horribly muddled.

  She felt, she knew, she should say something to break the silence. Continue to act the way she had before they’d nearly kissed and pretend it never happened.

  To Ann’s dismay that was a lot easier said than done, after all how could she pretend when she so desperately wanted it to happen? Yes, deep down Ann knew she couldn’t pretend, if she did than she would constantly be plagued with the question of: would he have said anything if I had of just left it? Since he had to say something didn’t he?

   He wouldn’t just drop her home, drive off and never mention it until he saw her sometime in the future when he’s married to some incredibly beautiful supermodel with beautiful kids and loads of money. Then one day he sees her sitting at a table in a cafe, alone, reading one of Meg Cabot’s new books and says “Oh it’s you; I remember when you tried to kiss me that time all those years ago. Gosh you were so pathetic, practically throwing yourself onto me.”

  Oh god, Ann thought miserably as she put her head in her hands, she had seen the future and it was not pretty.

“Ann, are you okay?”

  Her body stiffened at the sound of Jayce’s voice, she suddenly remembered she’d put her head in her hands. Ann fumed silently; gosh she was stupid she couldn’t believe she’d actually just done such a miserable gesture in front of him. Couldn’t she wait till he drove off to his future supermodel wife and beautiful kids?

  “I’m fine,” she muttered unconvincingly as she sat up.

  Jayce pulled up outside Ann’s house, with a sigh he turned to her, “Ann we need to talk about, well, what happened in the hallway.”

  Ann winced and looked defiantly out the window, “Oh.” She frowned, that was the best reply she could think of?

  “Yes, Ann I,” he sighed uncomfortably, “Look Ann, I know that you probably just want to forget about everything that happened…in the hallway,” That’s all I’m going to be thinking about until I lose my memory she thought glumly. “And Ann, that’s okay, what happened at your sister’s, was just an accident.”