Jesse looked off over her shoulder, and this time it was his eyes that changed. Obviously he saw someone or something that interested him. Abby followed his gaze and her face changed again. It wasn’t curiosity so much as it was hurt. I was still confused.
Abby snapped at Jesse again, something about kick ball which I didn’t quite understand. And then Jesse wisely changed the subject, asking about my vacation. I was easer to tell them both about the canoeing we had done, how excited my dad had been when I could handle a canoe on my own; The idea of going out for something like crew gave me hope that they might be something me, a way to be more in Abby’s eyes.
Before I could tell them too much about it, a girl walked over behind Jesse and said hello. Her name was Sarah. I was curious, since I couldn’t figure out how Jesse would have met her, but he explained that her family was a client in the lawn mowing business. For some reason, it made Abby really mad. I could tell that.
The bell rang and everyone surged forward toward the doors. Abby stayed close to me, and I knew she was making sure I didn’t get knocked over by the bigger kids. We found out lockers and I was able to work mine without any problem. Abby was grumbling at hers, and then she turned to me.
“Where’s Jesse?”
I shrugged. We had lost him in the crowd. But since he and I were in the same homeroom, I was pretty sure we’d catch up to him later.
Sure enough, he was just about to go into the classroom when we got there. Abby snapped at him again, and he seemed embarrassed about the fact that she referred to Sarah as his girlfriend. Before they could get too far into this discussion, I saw that the teacher had risen from her desk and was beginning to take attendance. I pulled Jesse into the room with me, and turned just in time to see Abby wave to me before she shot Jesse another dirty look.
Jesse and I found two desks next to each other, and he flopped down in the chair. “What’s her issue, anyway?” he grumbled.
I shrugged. “I guess maybe she just didn’t feel like getting teased today. Maybe she’s nervous about the new school.” I waited a beat and then went on. “She did look really pretty today, though.”
“Yeah,” Jesse conceded. “But she was acting like—I don’t know. Girls are just crazy sometimes, I guess.”
I thought about it for a long time as the teacher went through the typical first day of school spiel. Abby had seemed all right when she was with me. It was only Jesse that was bothering her. And she had clearly been hurt when he didn’t compliment her the same way I had.
A new thought dawned in my mind, more troublesome than I cared to admit. What is Abby really didn’t feel the same away about me that I did about her? What if she was in love with someone else? And worst of all, what if that someone else was Jesse?
My palms began to sweat, and my heart pounded again. These were my two best friends. What would I do if Abby was going to break my heart?
Chapter 8: Abby
Eighth grade was a special kind of hell for me. Things were changing, and I didn’t like it.
First there was Jesse. Jesse had always been the more popular one of our little group. His looks and his sports ability gave him more of an in with the other kids than Nat and I had. It had never seemed to make a difference between the three of us, but now it did. Suddenly Jesse wanted to go to school dances. He wanted to hang out with the other kids, and although he always invited Nat and me along, both of us knew that it wouldn’t work.
And then there were the girls. It seemed as though Jesse was always surrounded with a bunch of giggling, smirking girls who flirted and teased him, wanted him to eat lunch with them, walk home with them. . .it made me insane. Couldn’t he see how much this was hurting Nat and me?
Something else was going on with Nat. He had taken to calling me every night, just to talk and check in. The problem was that we spent most of the school day together, and there just wasn’t much to talk about at the end of the day. So I dreaded those phone conversations with their long and awkward silences. What was more disconcerting was that I often caught him staring at me the same way that Jesse stared at other girls. It made me uncomfortable.
One December day, I came home from school and threw my books on the kitchen table. My mother was standing at the sink, and she turned to give me a look.
“Sorry,” I mumbled.
“Tough day?” she inquired, drying her hands as she came to sit next to me.
I sighed. “School was okay. But it’s so hard, Mom. Jesse is just –he’s just weird now. He likes all these girls, and he hangs out with them, and it seems like he just doesn’t have time for me and Nat anymore. It’s not it used to be.”
My mother reached over and smoothed my hair away from my face. “You’re all growing up, sweetie. You can’t expect everything to stay the same forever. So Jesse is making some new friends. That’s okay. You could do that too.”
“I don’t need new friends,” I cried. “I like the ones I have. At least I did when they weren’t acting like idiots.”