One Day at a Time

I was floating on air the whole next week of school. Jenn and I weren’t in contact for a few days because of family issues that rose up again. I had hoped to catch her in class, but I was glad when I saw her sitting in the student center during my break. She was on her laptop, as usual, with her headphones in her ears. I ran over to the seat across from her and sat down, staring at her with a huge smile until she noticed me.

“Hey!” She exclaimed and pulled the headphones from her ears. “Look at you! What happened? Did you get ‘scrooged’ or something?”

“Oh, you’re funny,” I said sarcastically. “And, no. I just happen to have some news for you.”

“Me too, but I want you to go first.”

“Is yours bad or good? Mine is good and bad news should go first if you have bad news,” I argued because I didn’t want to go first.

“Ugh, fine. I’ll go first;” she gave in. “My father met up with me the other day. He saw me as I was pulling into my apartment complex the night of yours and Joe’s date.”

“So, even though I kind of see this as both good and bad news, what is it to you?”

“I don’t know,” she scratched her neck; a habit of hers. “I haven’t seen the man in a few years and he comes out of nowhere to try and start a relationship with me again. It didn’t even feel right to call him ‘dad’.”

“What happens now? Do you want a relationship with your dad?”

She stared out into the space between me and the chair next to me and finally shrugged her shoulders as her response.

“I’m not really sure what I want from him other than for him to go to hell. But, enough about me,” she looked back into my eyes. “What about you? What happened on your date? Tell me everything! We need to catch up.”

“Well,” I began and was quickly interrupted by Jenn.

“Uh oh,” she gasped. “Alexa, what did you do?”

“Hold up, why would you think it was something I did? I was gonna be all geeky about it and say that my relationship status is now ‘taken’, but you never give me the chance to say stuff.”

“For real?” She gasped again. “Aw! That’s so cute. How’d it happen? Tell me, tell me, tell me!”

“Calm down, woman,” I held out my hand to signal her to stop her little ‘happy dance’. She stopped and placed her hands in her lap and sat up straight.

“Sorry.”

I laughed and continued.

“Well, he asked me. It was pretty lame at first, but I thought it was cute. And I obviously said yes, so yeah. We’re together.”

“Aw! I’m kind of jealous of you now,” she teased. “But I’m happy for you. He’s good looking and he’s a nice guy. That’s, like, a good combination, considering your luck with past boyfriends.”

“Yes, thank you Jenn,” I laughed. “Anyway, quick question: do we have that math class today? I know he said we were gonna get an e-mail about whether or not there was class today.”

“No class. Wanna do something? I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve seen you. And I’m in desperate need of being with my best friend. My dad gets me so down in the dumps.”

“I’m supposed to go over to dinner at Joe’s family’s house. You wanna come? I don’t think they would mind.”

“Really?” She gave me the puppy eyes. “I wouldn’t want to intrude on you all or anything.”

“No, no. I want you to come.”

Jenn smiled and gathered her stuff, and followed me back to our cars to drive over to my apartment. She ransacked my closet, like she always did, to find an outfit that would look good on her when she met Joe’s family.

“I don’t know what to wear.”

“Jenn, it’s not like you have to meet your boyfriend’s parents. They’re my boyfriend’s parents.”

I stopped. Boyfriend. It felt a little out of place when I said it. We only made it official the night before and it still felt weird. Jenn snapped me out of my day dream state and back into reality.

“Uh, hello? Focus,” she snapped her fingers in front of my face, again. “I’m still a little nervous. They’re famous; I wanna make a good impression.”

“Oh, please don’t treat them like they’re famous. Joe doesn’t like it and I don’t think the rest of his family would either.”

She nodded her head, still lifting shirts up to her body to see if they would look good. Surprisingly, it only took her an hour to get ready; that’s a record. We were on the road and at their house by 7. She held my arm as we walked up to the front door and I rang the door bell. Denise answered.

“Alexa! Joe told me last night; I’m so happy for you two.” She pulled me into a tight grasp and I could feel my face turn red a little.

“Denise, this is my best friend Jenn.”

“Hi,” Jenn said nervously. It was too adorable to see her nervous. Denise pulled her into a hug, as well, which made Jenn smile.

“Lovely to meet you, Jenn. Come on in.”

Denise opened the door more for us to go in. I introduced Jenn to the rest of the family after greeting Joe with a kiss.

It suddenly felt right as we sat down to dinner and began to eat like we were a regular family. My family rarely had dinners together and I really felt at home. Everything was just, for lack of a better way to put it, right; for once in my life. Even Jenn seemed to feel right at home, being that she rarely had family dinners like me. She even looked as though her Nick were hitting it off.

Friends. Family. What more could I ask for?