“What did you mean?” I slowed down just enough to give him a second to talk. He wasn’t fast enough, so I kept moving. I yelled, “I guessed as much. You have nothing to say.”
“Jenn. I just care that you’re okay,” he said.
I looked at him, unsure whether to believe him or not, but he had made one of those faces that always made me smile. Before I knew it, I was laughing like crazy.
“Does this mean I’m forgiven?” he asked, coming closer to me.
“No, Tyler. It means you’re no longer on my blacklist, but you’re far from being forgiven.”
“Come on, Jenn, you know I was only kidding.”
“I know, but I’d like to punish you just a little bit,” I said, smiling and walking past him. He followed me to my bedroom door.
“Hmm, that might not be so bad,” he said.
So many pictures flashed through my mind on how I could punish him. I had to get a hold of myself. He probably didn’t mean for me to punish him the way I was thinking. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Tyler. If you’d excuse me, I do have a date.”
“You’re still going?” Tyler asked.
I looked at him and, without saying a word, shut the bedroom door in his face.
“That means no?” he asked through the door.
“Really, Tyler, go hang out with Stacey,” I said as I headed to the shower. I needed to cool down.
TYLER
I knew Jenn wasn’t really mad at me based on how she had smiled at me right before she shut the door in my face. If only I didn’t want to overstep my boundaries, I would have opened the door and demanded she didn’t go anywhere. But on what basis? She was a grown woman; even my mother had acknowledged that. Granted that my mom was a lot more liberal than most women and sometimes acted like Jenn was her younger sister rather than a daughter, which made it hard for me to really think of Jenn as my sister.
I was not over Jenn’s date with Josh, having waited up all night for her, waiting to hear her car pull into the driveway. It had been nerve-wracking to think she was kissing and making out with some boy who wouldn’t appreciate her after the night ended. That was how these sorts of things went. I was an asshole myself and had broken up with so many girls after one date. Sometimes it was mutual; the girls didn’t want to see me, but most times it was me moving on. I didn’t want Jenn to have to deal with some idiot boy moving on after sleeping with her.
I went down to the kitchen to finish my breakfast, but thoughts of Jenn and Josh kept flooding my mind. She hadn’t liked him much last summer, and I wasn’t sure what had changed since then, but if she was willing to spend all day with him, then something I didn’t want to know about must have happened. And now she was on her way to spend time with Kevin? She should have been spending time with me! She was my stepsister! We used to spend most days together when she was in town, but she’d barely had time for me this time.
I sat there playing with my food, trying to think of what to do. My mom and Jenn’s dad had left for work and wouldn’t be back until the evening. If Jenn left the house, I’d be alone until the evening. All that talk about hanging out with Stacey wasn’t going to happen. I didn’t really feel like spending time with her, at least not today. And I usually didn’t look forward to staying alone at home. In a different situation, I would have called one of the other girls I know, but what I really wanted was for Jenn to cancel her date and stay home with me. But I knew that was not going to happen. I had seen how upset she had been when she saw me and Stacey, and I knew she was doing this to get back at me, possibly because I wasn’t spending enough time with her.
I paced the living room, waiting for Jenn to come downstairs, probably looking hot, and then I’d have to wish her a good date when all I wanted to do was spend the rest of the evening talking and playing games with her.
JENN
The date with Kevin was a disaster; he turned out to be a chauvinist. I don’t know how I had agreed to see him, but as soon we sat for dinner and he tried to order for me, I knew it was time to leave. I had been tempted to come home and spend the rest of the day with Tyler, but I was still mad at him for hanging out with Stacey. Instead, I spent the rest of the day shopping, making sure I didn’t get home until late.
The next morning, I spread all the things I had purchased on the bed and had just stripped to my underwear, ready to try them on, when I heard a knock on my door. Thinking it was my stepmom, as my dad hardly came to my room and I knew Tyler was avoiding me, I asked the person to come in.
“Hey,” Tyler said softly.
“Gosh, don’t you ever knock?” I said, trying to grab a t-shirt off the bed.
“I did, and you said to come in.”
“I thought it was Lauren at the door.”
“Well, it’s me,” Tyler said.