A Whole Lotta Snapping Going On

When I told Zack and Mary that I was going out with Mike and Amy, Zack took me aside and asked for more details. At first I was a little offended by his questioning but once he explained that he was still concerned about the fact that I passed out, I relaxed and told him what Mike told me.

“Promise me you won’t drink,” Zack demanded once I finished. “We don’t know what happened and I don’t want to receive a call tonight telling me that you are in the hospital somewhere.”

Just because I’m a good sister and I wasn’t really in the mood to drink at all, I promised Zack that I’d stick to pop or water all night and then excused myself to go shower and get ready.

It was just a couple minutes after 5 when I pulled my car up parallel to the curb in front of Jordan’s parent’s house that evening. As I stepped out of my car, my gaze focused on the very familiar truck sitting across the road from my car.

“Jordy,” I whispered.

It had been a whole six days since I saw him last and four days since I called him in the middle of the night. I would be lying if I told you I wasn’t a little weary about his reaction when he saw me that night, I knew he was still upset with my inability to just throw caution to the wind and jump his bones - he would’ve called me if he wasn’t.

I had to stop myself from running up the drive and bouncing onto the front steps. Yes, I was weary about his reaction but I was also very excited to see him; I wanted to know if I felt different being around him now that I acknowledged that yes, I have feelings - romantic feelings - for him.

Mike answered my knock on the door with a huge smile on his face; I wanted to ask him if he gotten lucky before I arrived but I didn’t. “Anna!” He grabbed me by the hands, capturing me in his arms as he gave me a kiss on the lips. “Baby if I was straight -”

“You’d be a girl,” I joked.

He thought about that for a second, nodded thoughtfully as he told me to come on in. “We are in the living room, we were just waiting for you to get here before we left.”

“Wasn’t it only going to be Amy, you and me?”

“It was supposed to be but Nick can’t bear to let Amy out of his sight now that she’s about to pop any minute,” Mike informed me. “When Nick insisted on coming, I asked Eric to come with us as well.”

“Oh,” I tried hard not to pout about being the only one without a ‘partner’.
“So Nick and Amy are here?”

“Nope,” he turned the corner and walked into the living room. “We have to pick them up at home before we head to the restaurant. Ok Eric and Jordan, come on, let’s get this show on the road!”

Just after Mike told them to come on, his mom said something about getting him the keys to their van. “Mom, I’m not driving the van!”

“Yes, you are,” Harriet insisted. “The van is a lot easier for Amy to get in and out of and besides, this way you don’t have to take two cars.”

While Mike followed Harriet out of the room, I let my gaze travel over the room until my eyes landed on Jordan; the smile I was in the process of flashing him died on my lips. Instead of the happy Jordan I expected, I found a cranky looking, ticked off man. “Hey,” I offered weakly as my heart sank. I didn’t want him to be mad at me. I hated when I did something to upset him.

Jordan didn’t have time to reply before Mike came back with the van keys dangling from his hand; not that it looked like he was going to say anything anyway.

Outside, by the van, it took all of three seconds for me to realize just how bad this night was going to be, when Mike hit the button to automatically open the van’s dual sliding door, I got in the back seat and Jordan plopped his butt into the middle row.

“What are you doing?” Mike questioned before I had a chance to ask. “Why are you sitting in the middle?”

Jordan shrugged, “I feel like it.”

Mike glanced at me, I looked away. “Okay,” he said slowly as he turned around again.

The drive to Nick and Amy’s was really silent, uncomfortably silent. The whole time I was staring at the back of Jordan’s head, trying to will him to turn around to talk to me. He didn’t of course.

“I’ll just be a minute,” Mike mumbled before jumping out of the van to run up to Nick’s door. I swear you could actually hear crickets chirping as I watched Mike disappear into the house.

I gave it a few seconds before I sighed and leaned forward, poking Jordan’s shoulder. “Are you really going to ignore me all night?”

Turning his head only enough to say he turned but not enough to actually look at me, he replied. “I can’t think of anything I want to say to you right now.”

“Oh.” I was reeling, his cold, emotionless words hurt more than I thought possible. I was glad he wasn’t looking because I didn’t want him to see how much it affected me. I turned to stare out the window, telling myself that it wasn’t bad enough to cry over, even if that was what I felt like doing. Luckily for me, the door to Nick’s opened and Mike emerged with Nick and Amy in tow.

“Hey,” I squinted in the sunlight, trying to get a better look. “Who is with Nick and Amy?” I blinked once and gasped. “Oh my God! Is that Adam?” I turned around to look at Jordan but he was too busy shooting Adam dirty looks to reply.

“Who’s Adam?” Eric inquired as he turned around.

I smiled, I knew Adam very well, although it had been a few years since I saw him. “Adam is Amy’s cousin, he was sent to live with Amy’s family when his mother checked herself into rehab when he was 10; he lived with them until he was 21.”

And he was my first ‘crush’, I thought as the side doors slid open. It was a long time ago, he was six years older than me and I thought he was the cutest thing ever back then with his dark brown eyes, wild curly locks, crooked smile and big geeky glasses but he didn’t know I existed at all.

“Quit drooling,” Jordan’s jealous tone snapped me back to reality. I raised a brow in his direction, he rolled his eyes, mumbled something about, ‘every one but me,” and spun around to brood in his seat.

“Well, well, well,” I turned back in time to see Adam’s crooked smile aimed at me as his eyes travelled down over my body and back up again. “My Anna, you’ve certainly grown.”

Blushing, I said thanks.

“Don’t move,” he said suddenly as he grabbed for the bag that he placed on the seat beside him when he slid into the van. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Jordan trying to see what was going on without being obvious about it. “I think…” Adam reached into his bag as he stared at my face. Pulling out the fanciest camera I’ve ever seen, he fiddled around with it and then pointed it at me. “Perfect,” he told me as he took a series of photos of me, all looking a little confused, I’d imagine.