Chapter
24
“Hey,
Jen, is there anything wrong?” Nick asked softly, awhile later. He and Jenna had fallen behind Kevin, Brian,
and Ashalyn, and he had used the opportunity to talk to her.
“No,”
she said. “Why would you think that?”
“Well,
I dunno, but I’ve been wanting to talk to you about some things,” Nick said.
“Like
what?” she asked.
“Well,
first of all, the other day… when you kissed me,” Nick said hesitantly.
“Oh. That,” Jenna said flatly.
“Yeah,”
Nick said. “What exactly was that?”
“I…
I don’t know,” Jenna said.
“Well,
whatever it was, it caught me off guard.
I didn’t know you liked me that much,” Nick said.
I don’t, Jenna thought, but she didn’t say it. “Well… uh… Nick, I’m not really sure what I
feel for you. I… I don’t really know why
I did that. It was just some kind of
impulse, you know?”
“Yeah,
I guess,” Nick said. “So does that mean
you don’t like me?”
Jenna
sighed. She didn’t want to lie to him,
but she didn’t want to hurt him either.
She decided to use the “just as a friend” approach. “I do like you, Nick,” she said. “But I’m not sure I like you in that
way. I like you just as a friend.”
Nick
tried to keep his disappointment hidden.
It was nice to have girls as friends, but Nick wanted Jenna to be more
than just a friend. “Oh,” he said. He paused a moment, then continued. “Jenna, I think I like you. In that way,” he said. “If you still don’t like me, that’s
okay. I… I just wanted you to know how I
felt.”
Jenna
studied him with her big green eyes.
Maybe she really did like him.
Not as much as AJ, of course, but she did have some interest in
Nick. He was attractive, that was for
sure. She had a weakness for
blondes. And if Elyssa was taking AJ,
Nick would definitely be her next choice out of the group. Really, her only choice. After all, Serena was going out with Howie,
Kevin was married, and Brian… well, Brian had been married, and Jenna
could tell that Ashalyn liked him, even though she refused to admit it.
Jenna
decided right then that she needed to come clean with Nick. “Nick, I think there’s something I need to
tell you,” she said. She glanced up
ahead of her and saw that the other three were getting farther and farther
ahead, giving her and Nick enough space to talk in private.
“What
is it?” Nick asked.
“Okay,
Nick,” Jenna started. “To be completely
honest, I like AJ. Or did, at
least. I guess I still do, but he and
Elyssa have some kind of thing going on with each other. I saw them kissing in the back of their taxi
the other night, when we got back from dancing.
I got jealous, I guess, and when you and I were in the hall upstairs, I
heard them coming, and I wanted to make Elyssa feel the same way she’d made me
feel, so that’s why I kissed you. It
didn’t work though, because I’m sure Elyssa didn’t get jealous, since she likes
AJ, and now it’s just made both of us more confused than ever.”
She
looked meekly up at Nick, hoping he wouldn’t get mad at her, and found him
gazing down at her, shock and disappointment evident in his light blue eyes.
“So,
you kissed me just to get back at Elyssa, not because you cared about me at
all. You were just using me?” he asked.
Jenna’s
cheeks grew red. It had not seemed so
horrible until he had said that. She
realized his words were true. “I… I’m
sorry, Nick,” she whispered.
Nick
said nothing, just kept looking at her, making her even more self-conscious.
“But…
but, I think I might like you for real now,” Jenna said quickly.
Nick
scoffed. “If you’re just saying that to
make me feel better, it’s not working,” he said.
“Nick,
honestly, I don’t really know yet. I
think you’re a really nice guy… and if you wanted to, I would like to try a
relationship with you,” Jenna said, choosing her words carefully.
Nick’s
blue eyes got wider, and some of the coldness in them lessened. “Really?” he asked. “I don’t want you going out with me just
because you feel guilty.”
“No,
no, that’s not the reason,” Jenna assured him quickly. “It’s just… I don’t know, when you said you
liked me, I realized I kinda liked you too.”
Nick
relaxed a bit, and a smile tugged on the corner of his lips. This was what he wanted to hear.
“So,
you’d go out with me, if I asked you?” he asked.
She
nodded. “I’d like to give it a try,” she
said. “But you have to ask me first.”
“Okay
then. Will you go out with me?” Nick
asked quickly, smiling.
Jenna
smiled back. “Sure, Nick,” she
said. Suddenly, a weight seemed to be
lifted off her chest, and she felt better than she had in days. She had accepted the fact that AJ was not
hers and probably would never be, but now she had Nick. He was not AJ, but she did like him anyway.
***
