Dark Eyed Dreamers

It was late in the morning when Braelyn and I decided to watch The OC. I wasn’t a big fan of the show but Braelyn and Reagan were obsessed with it. I planned on just dealing with an episode of the show before dragging Braelyn out of the house to do something fun. I wasn’t expecting to get interested in the show, let alone fall in love with one of the characters.

“Oh, Seth Cohen! I am going to marry you.” I said staring at Adam Brody’s character.

“Psh! No! Rae and I are sharing him! You can marry Ryan!”

“Okay, Rian and I aren’t even dating!” I exploded. It was all I had been hearing from Braelyn. How cute we were and how attractive our children would be. It was all I could think about other than the child growing inside of me.

Brae’s face was blank, her eyes opened wide, and her mouth slightly ajar. “I was talking about Ryan Atwood...like the character on TV.”

“Oh.” It felt like all the blood in my body rushed to my face. I was probably as red as a tomato.

“Speaking of Rian, what exactly is going on between you two?” Brealyn rolled onto her stomach and rested her chin on her hands. “Has he said anything about what’s going on between you to?”

“No.” I answered chewing on my bottom lip.

“Well, did you ask him what he considers you?” One of Brae’s eyebrows shot up in a questioning manner.

“No.” I repeated. Honestly, I was afraid to ask Rian what I was to him. He had me more confused than ever. He said he liked me, I said I liked him. He said he wanted to call me his, but he never did call me his. Rian never called me his girlfriend. I never called him my boyfriend, even though I considered him one. I had no idea what Rian considered me. I sympathized with Raegan, she was in a similar situation with Alex. I could only envy Braelyn because she had Zack and they were the picture of perfection. “He doesn’t want a pregnant girlfriend. Who would want a girlfriend like?”

“Do I want a girlfriend like that?” Jack’s voice made both Brae and I jump.

“Do you ever knock before you enter?” Brae ignored Jack’s question.

“Nope. Only the bathroom at Alex’s house.” Jack dropped onto the couch next to Braelyn.

“I’m not even going to question that.” Brae commented. “So what brings you here so early?”

“It’s ten.” Jack answered flicking some of his hair away from his eyes.

“And you usually sleep until two, so what’s up?” Jack shrugged but his eyes shot to me and then back to Braelyn. I took that as my cue to leave.

“I’m going to go get dressed.” I said scurrying out of the living room. My curiosity got the best of me, I never made it to my room. I lurked in the hallway listening to everything my two friends said. Sure, it was wrong but I hated being out of the loop.

“Jack, just say tell me what’s bothering you!” Brae demanded, Jack sighed loudly.

“I don’t like that Alex alone with Reagan in Cape Cod. It’s driving me crazy!”

“It’s normal to be jealous.”

“I’m not jealous, I’m just...worried.” Jack paused. “Because Alex isn’t the most loyal guy out there. He could easily break her heart and I don’t want that! She doesn’t deserve that.”

“Jealous.” Brae said smugly.

“I’m not!”

“Jack, don’t try to lie to me...or yourself for that matter.”

“I’m not!”

“The truth will set you free, Jack.” Brae almost sang.

“Fine! Okay! Yeah, I’m jealous! I want to kick Alex in the face! It’s wrong! He’s my best friend and I shouldn’t be letting a girl turn me against him, but she’s not just some girl to me! I had feelings for her before he did. It’s not fair.” Jack was practically yelling, if I actually went to my room I probably would have heard him.

“Calm down.” Brae tried to reason.

“No! I’m not going to calm down because before Alex called claims on Rae I was debating on if I should tell her how I feel about her! For a fucking year, Brae! And then one day Alex tells me that he’s thinking about asking her out, and I have to respect that. It’s like law, you never go after a girl that your best friend has claims on...even if you liked her first! You just don’t do that! If I just said something this whole situation wouldn’t even exist!” It sounded as if Jack was mentally kicking himself and it was almost painful to hear him talk like that.

“Why didn’t you?” Brae asked softly.

Jack groaned, I could imagine him sitting with face in his palms. “We always make fun of Zack, because of how much time he spends with you, no offense...it’s just a guy thing, and I honestly didn’t want to be on the receiving end of all the whipped jokes. So I kept my mouth shut.”

Braelyn was silent and I knew that what Jack said about Zack was probably the only thing running through her head at that moment.

It was my luck that Rian decided to call me then, when silence engulfed the living room. My ringtone echoed through the hall. Brae and Jack peeked their heads into the hallway and I did the only think of.

“Oh, hey! I was just coming to talk to you Jack!” I lied, ignoring my phone. There was something I wanted to talk to Jack about, I just didn’t think I would have to talk to him about it that soon.

Jack titled his head to the side, much like a confused dog does. “Well, I’ll let you two talk...we can finish talking later.” Brae said with a smirk, she knew I was listening. I tried to contain my own smirk while I pushed Jack back into the living room as Brae exited.

“So...what do you need to talk about?” Jack asked much calmer than he was a few minutes ago.

“That party at Adam’s house. When you got me drunk. We didn’t like...”

“Like?” Jack certainly wasn’t making this easy for me.

“Sleep together? Did we?”

“I don’t think so. I mean, I can’t really remember anything because that was a good party.” Jack said with a smile. We stood there in silence for a minute, Jack looking very thoughtful. “Wait! I to remember something! The girl I was with that night had a tattoo on her shoulder!”

“Okay, so we didn’t!” I was relieved. At least I knew Jack’s sperm wasn’t responsible for the aching in my abdomen.