And he had plenty for Zane.
“Do you expect a gold star?” he asked sarcastically.
Zane, though, smiled at him. “I just thought you’d like to know you were right and I was wrong.”
There went Jett’s eyebrow again. I could see he was trying to work out what to come back with. Did he make a scathing comment? Did he make a joke at Zane’s expense? Did he let it go?
“You watched the whole series?”
Zane nodded. “More than once.”
Which wasn’t technically a lie. For the first time ever, I’d actually engaged in the ‘chill’ portion or Netflix and Chill. With Zane. I mean we kept getting distracted kissing and had to rewind or re-watch episodes. Multiple times. I had never been so easily distracted from a TV crush before. It was an interesting turn of events.
“And you enjoyed it?” Penny asked.
Zane nodded. “It was great. Gritty. Like a DC movie, but I could actually see what was happening on the screen.”
Penny laughed at Zane’s poor attempt at a joke. Jett was still not even close to being won over. Which made the world feel like it was right ways up still.
“Any other suggestions for stuff to watch?” Zane asked.
Jett was maybe half a step closer to considering being won over.
“You watch the DC TV?” Jett asked.
“No,” Zane answered. “Talk to me about that.”
I sat in utter disbelief as they talked about books, movies and TV shows that I never in a million years thought Zane would be interested in. I’d been trying to get him to watch Arrow with me for years, and he’d flat out refused.
But one word from Jett and he was ready to skip school and binge the whole series? Ugh. What was happening?
When Zane shot me a small smile, I worked it out.
He was trying to be friends with my friends. He was trying to bridge that gap the only way he knew how – be charming. And for all intents and purposes, it was working. On the surface anyway.
Even Jett cracked a slight smirk at one point at something Zane said.
My world didn’t turn upside down. The apocalypse didn’t start. Acid rain didn’t pour down. No bombs went off. Everything was the same as it had been a minute before. If anything, it felt like maybe everything was going to be a little easier.
They weren’t going to be friends overnight, but if we could all be civil to each other, then maybe everything would work out fine in the end.
When the bell for class rang, Zane had promised Penny that we were going to start ‘Supernatural’ on the weekend and he was even going to read a book that wasn’t class-assigned. I was very doubtful on the book front, but didn’t hate the idea about watching ‘Supernatural’ with him.
He jumped up, nodding ‘later’ to Jett and Penny, and headed for his friends.
“Did Hell freeze over?” Jett asked, looking at me.
“Don’t be mean,” Penny said with a smile, giving him a little shove.
“I’m not being mean, I’m asking a legitimate question.”
“As far as I’m aware, Hell is fine,” I answered.
Jett looked at me and I knew what he was thinking. Penny’s face mimicked it.
My friends could totally tell there was more than just one kiss going on between Zane and me. It was the most obvious in the fact they didn’t say anything about it. Jokes were joked about, real life was sacred.
And both of them were currently thinking that I must have some kind of magic lips to turn that boy into someone happy to sit with dweebs and talk ‘dweeb stuff’.
Chapter 18: Zane
All right, first date. I hadn’t been this nervous for a first date in like three years. I also hadn’t been this excited about a first date in like three years. So, that wasn’t so bad.
I’d been dutiful, I’d tried getting to know the dweebs. Not dweebs. Her friends. I’d been trying to get to know her friends. I hadn’t expected to like it as much as I did, so that had been a nice surprise. Jett still looked at me with some uncertainty and I wasn’t going to like him right away, if at all. That hadn’t been the point. The point had been to get to know Charley’s friends and hopefully make whatever we became easier on her.
I still wasn’t clear on what we were. I didn’t want to put a label on it, really. It didn’t feel like it needed it. But I sometimes wondered if she thought about it, and that made me think about it.
So, in an effort to put some of her possibly imagined concern to bed, I’d asked her on a date. A proper date. A movie and dinner kind of date. Hence the nerves and excitement.
It was something Charley and I had never done before. We’d seen plenty of movies together, but we’d never gone and watched one in public before. We’d also eaten dinner together plenty of times, just never in public. The whole thing was new for us and I was really hoping I wasn’t the only one looking forward to it.
The likelihood of running into people we knew was always possible – kids from school tended to live on the same side of town. But I’d been on dates with girls where I was more worried about people seeing me. I hadn’t been almost-secretly dating my best friend, which felt like it was supposed to be worse… I just couldn’t’ bring myself to think it was.
“That’s the fourth shirt you’ve tried on in as many minutes,” Eden said from my door.
I glared at her in my mirror. “You spend a lot of time spying on your little brother getting changed?”
“I can’t help if I have to walk past your room and you leave the door open. What are you doing?”
“Digging potatoes.” It was our grandfather’s favourite answer to a question like that. “What does it look like I’m doing?”
“It looks like you’re nervous.”
I snorted. “Nervous? I’m not nervous.” I was a little nervous.
“Who’s the unlucky girl?”
“Shut up.”
“All right. Serious then. Tell me. Who is she? She go to your school?”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m just catching up with Charley.”
Eden sniggered.
“What?” I asked, indignantly.
“Nothing. Just, you’re ‘just catching up with Charley’ and you can’t decide what to wear?”
“So?”
“So, why do you want to look so nice?”
“I always want to look nice.”
“Firstly, I’ve seen how you dress yourself and that’s just not true–”
“Piss off!”
“And secondly, you never care what you wear when you catch up with Charley. I saw you head over there with stained trackies and a week-old t-shirt, like, last week.”
“I use plenty of deodorant!” I said.
She shrugged. “Dude, I don’t care if you stink. I don’t have to put up with it.”
“Exactly. So kindly vacate the premises.”