The perfect woman - My best friend's mom (GirlxGirl)

Ten - An odd evening

The next time I was at the Baker's house, April acted strange.

It was Tuesday the week after the party. Jasmine and I had decided to study at her house after the lectures. We arrived at 4pm and were met with an empty house. Jasmine said that her dad were with her brothers at soccer practice and her mom would be home in half an hour from work. We kicked off our shoes and headed for the living room to study.

The room was big with a three seat couch in the middle, a coffee table in front and two armchairs at the side furthest from the entry. A big TV was placed on the wall in front of the couch and to the far left were bookshelves and a fire place. The walls were in a light grey shade and had a few family pictures hung on them. I were in one of them, from the trip to the beach last summer. I stood between Jasmine and April in the park beside the hotel we stayed at. Henry had a stranger take the photo for us so that we could all be in it, me included because he see me as part of the family.

I sat down on the couch with my legs crossed, Jasmine took the nearest armchair.

"Do we really have to study?" Jasmine whined as we opened our books. I felt for her, this semester had been busier than any before and math wasn't her strong side which made it even worse.

"Let's study until dinner and then watch a movie," I suggested. I wanted to not study just as much as Jasmine but I was the more sensible one out of the two of us. She agreed to my proposition and we dived into the books.

We heard the front door open and after a few minutes later, April poked into the living room.

"I'm home," April said. "What do you want for dinner?"

"Hmm," Jasmine thought, "maybe pasta with something. Or pizza. Or "

April was wearing her usual work attire; a flowy blouse, a tight skirt and a jacket, which was now folded over her arm. Some days she wore pants but not today. The skirt showed off her legs in a very flattering way and the top buttons of the blouse was undone, revealing the shade of a cleavage. I managed to steer my eyes upwards to her face which looked tired from a long day at work. She had her usual smile on her lips but her eyes seemed distant. Only then did I realise that April hadn't looked at me since she came into the room. She looked oddly professional, not as bubbly as she normally was.

"Pasta then," April said. "It'll be ready in 20 minutes." She walked out of the room still not looking at me.

Jasmine didn't think anything of it and went back to her math problems. She's probably just tired, I convinced myself and tried to concentrate on the schoolwork.

We managed to work for another 15 minutes before giving up. We discussed what movie to watch while we packed up our things and headed to the kitchen for dinner.

"I'd like to watch A Star Is Born. It's been out for a while but I haven't seen it yet," Jasmine said.

"What about The Greatest Showman, I've heard it's good," I suggested.

"What do you think, mom," Jasmine asked as we entered the kitchen.

"Huh?" April looked confused.

"What movie should we watch, A Star Is Born or The Greatest Showman?"

"I don't know, they're both good," she said and put the food down on the table. We sat down.

"You've seen them?" Jasmine sounded surprised.

"Yes, on TV when they came out. It was a while ago though so I don't remember much about them."

Jasmine continued to talk about the movies and later changed the subject to school. I sat quietly and ate my food, listening with half an ear to her. My mind was on April, whom still hadn't looked at me nor spoken directly to me. I tried to get her to look at me a few times during dinner but she distinctly looked away every time. It wasn't like her to do so and I started to get worried. Had I done something wrong, something that upset her? At the party? Was it my present? Or our moment in her bedroom? Nothing had happened so I didn't see how that could've caused April's change in behaviour. I decided that I had to try to talk to her, after dinner, when Jasmine wasn't around.