Stuck In An Alternate Dimenson?

The plan for the night was to go to the pub where Jordan and Nicky had their birthday, grab something to eat because the pub had some really great food. We were just going o hang out there for the rest of the night, talking, dancing, and playing pool or whatever.

We arrived at the pub about ten minutes after Josh picked me up, Jordan and Bella weren’t there yet and I couldn’t help but wonder why. “But he left to get her before you came over, they should’ve been here by now,” I told Josh when he tried to suggest reasons why they weren’t there yet.

Josh shrugged and said he didn’t know. I repeated that he should be here. “Maybe they are making out and lost track of time,” he finally snapped at me.

“That’s not funny!” I glared at him, “Jordan wouldn’t do that.” I happened to look towards the door in time to see them walk in. “Oh! There they are.”

Josh mumbled something that sounded like, “Oh happy day.” But when I asked him what he said he pretended that he didn’t know what I was talking about.

I wish I could say the night went better once Jordan and Bella got to the table but it didn’t. I was told after wards that I was making a complete fool of myself as I directed all my conversation to Jordan, completely ignoring Josh and Bella.

The mood around the table was pretty intense and I was oblivious to why it was as bad as it was. The conversation kind of stopped and everyone was just looking around but not at anyone else at the table. I figured it would be a good time for me to excuse myself to go to the bathroom before the waitress brought our food.

In the bathroom, I was washing my hands and looking in the mirror at the same time. I noticed that my lips were looking a little dry, so I pulled my lip balm out of my pocket and went to apply it thinking that Josh wouldn’t want to kiss me like that. Wait, I frowned at myself, my hand was frozen in mid swipe across my lip with the balm; he hasn’t even tried to kiss me tonight. I put away the balm and went to join the table. Is he mad at me, I wondered.

As I approached the table I noticed that the lull in conversation seemed to have vanished, all three of them looked like they were having a very serious conversation, they were all leaning in over the table and neither one of them looked happy.

Josh was the first one to spot me coming back; he glanced up, looked back for a second then did a quick glance back at me before he leaned back in his chair. When I gave him a smile, he turned his gaze elsewhere. What the hell?

“Hey guys,” I smiled at them as I took my seat next to Josh again. Neither one of them looked at me or said anything, “Guys?” My smile faded as I glanced around the table.

Leaning back in my chair, I kept glancing at all of them, neither one looked back at me but they did glance at each other. The silence that settled over the table was horrible. I tried to start some conversation but no one responded, I was starting to feel really terrible and I didn’t even know why everyone was giving me the silent treatment. I kept screaming, what the hell did I do? Over and over in my mind but I couldn’t think of anything.

Since there was no conversation at my table, I tuned into the music that was playing. I started to sing along in my head but I really just wanted my friends to start talking again. Or start talking to me! I started to watch the people on the small dance floor as they moved to the faster song that was just ending. When the opening notes of a slow song started, I turned to Josh. “Do you want to dance?” I figured if I got him alone, he might tell me what was going on.

Josh’s head snapped up, his eyes were focused on Jordan, his jaw was set. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Jordan staring back at him. I didn’t know what that was all about, I glanced at Bella but she was also staring at Josh. I’m not sure what happened, I think Jordan kicked Josh under the table because he jumped and finally looked at me. “Oh, you were asking me?”

“Of course I was!” I shot him a confused look. “Who else would I be asking?” I don’t think he meant for me to see it but he gave Jordan a quick look before he told me he would dance with me.

Unfortunately by the time we got to the floor, there was very little time until the end of the song, so we didn’t end up dancing. I turned to go back to the table but Josh stopped me, “Do you think we could go outside for a moment?”

“Sure,” I told him and then mentioned I needed my jacket. He told me he would get it, left and soon he was at my side with both our jackets.

It was cold outside, not freezing your butt off cold, it was surprisingly warm for January here where I live, it was only -10C. The second Josh stopped, I stood in front of him and went to move in close to him, I thought he might have wanted to kiss me but he stopped me before I got too close. “What’s going on Josh?” I couldn’t hide the hurt in my voice as he pushed me away.

“I was about to ask you the same thing,” he told me.

“Why would you do that?”

He stared at me for what seemed like forever, his jaw had dropped open a little. “You have got to be kidding me!” He half chuckled as he spoke. When I shook my head, he sighed. “You spent most of tonight ignoring me as you hit on Jordan in front of me and his date and you have the nerve to ask me what’s going on.” His hands were rammed deep into his jacket pockets, I thought he would poke a hole through the material as he gestured while he spoke. “Anna, I have no idea what the hell is happening here, and by the sounds of it, Jordan doesn’t either. He told me that you were acting strange at the house but he just figured it was that time for you.” Josh held up a hand when I went to speak. “Now I know it isn’t. So the only thing I can think of is that you are jealous that Jordan is out with Bella.”

“Josh that’s –”

“Don’t Anna.” Josh sighed and pulled his hands out of his pockets. “Just be honest with me, right now. Are you jealous of Bella? Are you wishing you were here with Jordan instead of me?”