Chapter 19

Georgina

After a week of wallowing in self-pity and swimming in gallons of cookie dough ice cream, I know Jake is getting bored. He has been amazing, though.

My dad hovered over me for the first couple of days too. I know he was worried about how I would react to my deepest secrets being broadcast to my classmates.

Jake’s dad was worried too, but his way of coping with things is to keep his distance but provide tons of sugary treats. Hence the piles of candy on my bed that Jake has been sneaking.

I slap his hand for the twentieth time, and he shoots me a hurt look while rubbing it.

“So... AJ wants to know are we going back to school tomorrow?” He scoots himself further up the bed so he can lean against the headrest next to me.

“I don’t know.” I lean my head on his shoulder and link my fingers with his. “I don’t even know who’d I’d be at school anymore.”

“You’d be George. My little Smidge.”

I smile wistfully at him.

“You’d get to be yourself again. Not this weird plastic Barbie girl version you’ve been pretending to be.”

I sigh. “I guess you’re right. I would never have changed myself so much if you’d been with me the whole time. Stupid boys on my first day, making me feel invisible.

You know it’s AJ’s fault, right?” Jake laughs and shakes his head.

“Yeah. I tried to approach the three of them because they reminded me of you, of our friendship, the way they were so relaxed with each other, and I overheard AJ making fun of the new dyke.

“I was devastated when I realized he meant me.”

“I’m one hundred percent sure he no longer feels that way.” There’s a mischievous glint to his eye.

I felt better for telling my side of the story, even if it was AJ fucking McGabe who I told it to. He was actually surprisingly cool about the whole thing.

It made me feel a little bit better about my horrible past being dragged into the present by those nasty blonde bitches.

I drag myself out of bed early the next morning and do as much of my yoga routine as I can with one leg in a cast, and then I get washed up.

Pulling open my wardrobe, I gaze with disdain at my clothes. Jake is right. I should make the best out of the shitty situation.

No more Gina, I was going to go back to being George. Tomboy. Habitually dressed in beat-up Vans.

I pull out my favorite Hook Ups t-shirt, one with a cute girl on the front and a cat sitting between her open legs.

I layer it with a white long-sleeved T-shirt and pair them with light denim cut-offs, which stop mid-thigh, and my one green Van trainer, so it at least kinda matches my cast.

Pulling my hair back into a ponytail, I run a chapstick over my lips, and I’m done.

I’m greeted in the kitchen by a very excited Jake and my dad, who pulls me in for a big hug and whispers how proud he is into my hair.

Outside, AJ beeps the horn of his truck, and Jake practically skips out the door. As I pull open the back door of his Jeep, I catch his eyes widening and a slight blush coloring his cheeks.

He stutters out a hello. ~Am I missing something?~ ~Jake looks like the freaking Cheshire cat the way he won’t stop grinning.~

When we get to AP English, first period, AJ follows me to the back of the classroom and plonks himself down in the seat next to me instead of in his normal desk in the front row.

Craig, who normally sits next to me, tries to argue with him but is met with a glare that sends him running to the open seat in front.

~Poor guy, he uses this class to catch up with his sleep usually.~ I look at AJ quizzically, but he just grins at me.

I stick my earbud in and scroll through my music till I find the Kurt Vile collection Jake had loaded onto my phone.

AJ proceeds to do the same in the next two classes too. There are no shitty comments made to me or that I hear about me.

A couple of guys try to compliment me on my “new” look, but AJ glares at them until they shut up and walk away.

We stroll to the canteen in silence, but I keep catching him looking at me from the side of his eye. We stand in line to get some food when Macy and Robyn walk up to us.

“I see you’ve retreated back to the land of dressing like a dyke, huh, Gina?” Macy titters.

I feel tears prick my eyes and try to blink them back. I’m not going to give her the satisfaction of seeing me cry again because of her.

“Oh, why don’t you just fuck off and work on your collection of STDs, Marcy,” Jake says tiredly, walking up behind them, grabbing my hand, and pulling me over toward the table where PJ and Drew are sitting.

I see Macy scowl, her face turning red. AJ stays in line and starts talking to her. Jake sits me down with my back toward them, so I don’t see what happens next.

“Hey, George. Day goin’ good so far?” Drew flashes me a smile, a small dimple popping in his cheek. PJ nods at me, his mouth too full of pizza to talk.

~Oooh, pizza.~ ~Dammit! Jake pulled me away before I got any lunch.~

“Yeah, okay so far. AJ has been acting weird, though.” Jake snorts with laughter.

I frown at him. “What?”

PJ and Drew start bickering over whether or not PJ can borrow Drew’s car for another date with Katy after Drew found a pair of her panties shoved down the side of his seat the last time.

I lean in closer to Jake. “What! That’s not the first time you’ve acted like that when I’ve mentioned AJ.”

“Smidge. You are so fucking blind.” He shakes his head slowly, a grin still playing on his lips.

“My boy has it bad for you.”

I push him, feeling my cheeks grow hot. “I bet you anything he notices you have no lunch and brings you something over.”

“Okay, fine! I bet you your Xbox he doesn’t.” I hold out my hand. He wraps his long fingers around it.

“Cool. If I win, you have to ask him on a date.”

I only shake because I’m completely sure AJ is still an asshole.

The table moves slightly as AJ sits down opposite us and slides one of two portions of pizza across the table to me with a smile.

“What’cha talkin’ about?”

Jake cracks up.

I kick him under the table as AJ looks between us with confusion. I flash him a smile. “It’s nothing, AJ. Just Jake being a moron as per usual.”

I hesitantly pick up the slice of pizza. “Thanks for this, by the way.”

“No problem.” He smiles, and I notice for the first time that he has faint dimples in both cheeks. ~Maybe it’s because he’s never really actually smiled at you before?~

~

***

Katy explained to me that she completely stopped talking to Macy and Robyn. “I’ve even unfollowed them on ~all~ ~social media. And I quit cheer.

“It wasn’t the same without you there, and listening to that nasally hose beast was just, ugh!”

I laugh at her disgusted face.

“Seriously though, if I knew they were planning anything like that, I would have told you right away.”

“It’s okay. I know you would’ve.” I stop braiding her hair and lean forward to wrap my arms around her. She pats my arms in front of her chest.

“I do kinda feel responsible, though. If I hadn’t mentioned your mom being dead in a rail accident, Macy would’ve never started digging.

“And then she said she’d overheard Drew talking to you about your dressing different when you first transferred here.”

“Hey. It’s not your fault she’s a psycho.” We both giggle.

We are hanging out in her bedroom, waiting for the guys to come over with some Taco Bell.

She admits to me that she also felt like she had to change a little in order to stay friends with the rest of the cheerleaders.

She is the youngest of four, having three older brothers who are all into extreme sports. She changed a few of her posters from cheesy pop stars to hunky, half-naked surfers.

She also relaxed her clothing style a little. She is still very girly, more so than me, but her tight tops are now all Roxy or Fox brands.

Her bedroom door bangs open, and the boys pile in. Drew is halfway through a bag of churros, a bag of cinnamon twists in his other hand.

PJ sits down next to Katy and hands her her food. I scoot over on her bed to allow Jake and AJ to sit down. Jake positions himself on the end of the bed, so AJ has to sit between us.

I am acutely aware of the heat from his thigh pressing against mine.

Since Jake planted the idea in my head, I can’t stop thinking about stupid AJ McGabe, with his stupid mop of black hair, always styled so perfectly, and his plump lips and deep chocolate brown eyes.

I realize I’m staring at him and look away, only to find Jake grinning at me. I mouth ~fuck off~ at him, and he chuckles.

***

Jake is finally going on a date with Layla. She is being dropped off at our house, and they are going to a midnight showing of some sci-fi film I’d never heard of.

He has spent more time in the bathroom getting ready than anyone I’d ever met. There’s a knock on the front door, and he yells at me to get it.

“Hi, Layla. Jake is just finishing up. Do you wanna come in?” The mini Winona Ryder look-alike scowls at me and shakes her head.

~What the fuck is her problem!~ ~

~

“Hey, what is with the attitude?”

“You expect me to be nice to you when you have been nothing but a bitch to me the whole time I’ve been at school with you?!”

I feel my mouth drop open.

“I tried to hang out with you all when I was a freshman, but because I wasn’t a skinny cheerleader, you all thought it would be fun to keep inviting me out places but never show up.”

I feel my face grow red.

“I don’t know why Jake likes you, I really don’t. You’re nothing but a shallow attention-grabbing…”

Jake chooses this time to bound downstairs, his usual grin on his face.

“Hey, Layla! You two getting on okay? Ready to go?” Without waiting for an answer to any of his questions, Jake plants a quick kiss on my cheek and walks out with Layla, pulling the door closed behind him.

Wow. Was I really that horrible to people? I guess I was. I guess I just went along with what Macy wanted.

~That’s a lie. I was the one who thought it would be funny to invite people places we weren’t going to.~

~

I don’t remember Layla, though. God, I really am such a bitch that I don’t even remember the people I have messed with in the past.

Another knock on the door pulls me from my depressing reverie. I pull it open to find AJ standing on the doorstep.

“Hi! Is Jakey around?”

I shake my head no.

“Oh…okay then.” His shoulders slump a little, and he turns to go.

“You…you can come in and hang out if you want?” ~What the hell am I doing?!~

~

AJ turns back to me with a smile. ~There’s those dimples again.~

~

“You sure?” I nod and step back to let him past. We walk up to Jake’s room in silence, and I switch on the Xbox, handing him a controller. Settling on the edge of the bed, he flashes a grin.

“You ready to get your ass beat tonight?”

“As if! In your dreams, McGabe.”

After two hours of gameplay, we are getting more relaxed with each other. I can actually see why Jake enjoys hanging out with him so much.

AJ has a really dry sense of humor, and once we started playing online, I discovered he has brutally hilarious put-downs too.

James and my dad came home from the bar they have their weekly pub quiz in, bearing boxes of pizza. They exchanged a look between them when AJ followed me downstairs.

They quickly excused themselves to the living room with plates piled high with steaming hot slices and left me and AJ sitting at the counter.

“So hey, thanks for letting me hang with you tonight. PJ and Katy have set Drew up with Katy’s cousin, and I didn’t realize Jake had his big date tonight. I thought he was going on Saturday.”

“Yeah, he was supposed to, but then he noticed the date was different online than on the flier he’d seen.”

I sigh, frowning as I recall my conversation with Layla before they left.

“What’s up?” AJ bumps my shoulder with his.

“Layla had a go at me when she got here. Apparently, I was a complete bitch to her when she started high school.” I sigh again, slumping over the marble countertop.

“One of many, I fear, because I didn’t even recognize her. I wish I’d been stronger when I moved here.” I mumble the last part into my arm.

“What do you mean?” He swallows his mouthful and turns toward me.

I take a deep breath and sit up straighter. “My first day, I looked like, well, me, I guess. The first people I saw were you, Drew, and PJ. You all were goofing around, throwing a football, joking about Call of Duty.

“It made me homesick for Jake, so I thought I’d try and make friends.”

AJ raises his eyebrows. “I tried to make conversation with you, but you laughed at me, practically looked right through me.

“Later on, I heard you joking with your friends, and Macy and Robyn too, about the new little dyke who thought she could just talk to the alpha group.”

AJ cringes, his cheeks heating up.

“I’m so so sorry, George.”

~What the hell? He called me George!~ ~

~

“I was even more of a dick back then than I am now.” His mouth twists into a smile.

“I kinda remember you from that day. But I definitely remember you when you came back to school the next week. Well, actually, I thought you were another new student.”

I laugh at him.

“When I walked back into school the next week with my contact lenses in, full face of makeup and girly clothes, I remember seeing your face.”

He’d looked me up and down, sending a shiver of excitement down my spine that day. “You walked straight over to me and asked for my name and number.”

“And you shot me down so hardcore.” He chuckles. “Of course, now I know it’s because you knew how much of a shallow bastard I was.

“You were the first girl to turn me down. Even at that age, I was something of a lady killer. And then you just had to go and be smart too.”

“Yeah. You being smart made me hate you even more too.” We smile at each other, standing and dumping our plates in the sink. “But you’re not so bad, McGabe.”

“You either, Evans.”

“But your sisters are both ~way~ ~cuter than you.”

AJ chuckles and pulls me into a hug. I can feel how solid his muscles are underneath his hoodie, and he smells like cinnamon and wood.

We pull back a little, and his eyes flicker down to my mouth. He moves a little closer, and I feel my spine start to tingle like that day he looked at me like he really saw me.

~Am I really about to let AJ fucking McGabe kiss me?~

~

A throat clears from behind us, and we spring apart, both our faces burning red. Jake is standing grinning, as usual, in the doorway.

“No, no! Don’t let me interrupt, please.”

I flip him off and stalk past him back to my bedroom.

I think I ~was~ going to let AJ fucking McGabe kiss me.

~Because I’m really fucking disappointed that he didn’t~.

~

~