Eternity

There was continuous knocking at my door that was driving me crazy, even after I yelled out that the door was open. I walked out of the kitchen, holding a bottle of water, and opened the front door to see Jenn standing with a shocked look on her face.

“Um, are you okay?” I asked, moving aside so she could come in. She gradually waltzed into my living room and plopped down on the couch, not bothering to answer me. “What seems to be troubling you, my dear?”

Her eyes were still a bit wide as I sat down in the chair diagonal from her.

“Seriously, Jenn. You’re starting to scare me a little here. You look like you’ve been Petrified or something.”

Finally, she looked to me, her face contorted and her eyes squinting in disbelief at me.

“Who are you? Harry Potter?” She asked in a terrible English accent.

“Shut up. I just finished reading the second book the other day,” I retorted. “Now, seriously. What’s up? Because usually when you say you’re going home; you actually go home.”

“Yeah, yeah; I know that. But I needed to talk to you about something.”

“About what?”

“Nick,” she spoke barely above a whisper.

“Uh, what about Nick?” I stared at her and it finally hit me during her hesitation to answer. “Oh my gosh…you’re totally going out with him, aren’t you? Spill it, woman! Tell me!”

Her cheeks started turning red and my jaw nearly dropped to the floor.

“So I’m right, aren’t I? You’ve got a date.”

“Yes, okay? Goodness. Yes. I have a date with Nick tomorrow night.”

“Aw. How’d he ask?”

“He just asked to get a bite to eat,” she explained. “He’s so much like Joe; only asking me for a bite to eat or something. Can’t deny they’re brothers.”

“Yeah, well. Who cares? You’ve got a date tomorrow night. What are you gonna wear? Where’re you going? Give me the details!”

“Alexa, shut up.”

“Gosh, Jenn. Don’t be so touchy about it. This is what I like to call ‘payback’ for all the times you teased me about Joe in the past year and all that good stuff. So don’t be such a jerk about it,” I fretted. Her eye brows scrunched together and I did the same back to her. “Besides, I’m only messing with you. Grow up.”

“You make me so angry sometimes.”

“Same here.”

We sat in silence, not even looking at each other. I didn’t want to fight with her again. I hated this.

“So,” I looked over at her. “Excited?”

She couldn’t keep her angry face on for much longer and she nearly jumped off the couch with exhilaration.

I let Jenn spend the night, seeing that I didn’t want her excitement to cause a car crash or anything. That would be terrible; especially when she was going on a date with Nick. I was thrilled about it, like I was the one going on the date.

Jenn woke the next morning on the left side of my bed –I preferred the right side– and followed the smell of pork roll and eggs with cheese into my kitchen. We both had class in two hours, so I thought this would at least bribe her to go. She hates that math class.

“Are you making pork roll, egg, and cheese on a roll?” Jenn asked, dreamily, and sniffed the plate of pork roll on the counter. “And coffee; perhaps?”

I rolled my eyes as I hit the ‘on’ button on the coffee pot and started slowly boiling milk on the stove. Café con leche; coffee with milk.

“Yes, Jenn,” I answered and started scrambling the eggs on the frying pan. “And no sneaking any bites before everything is done.”

She looked at me innocently with a piece of pork roll hanging in her mouth.

“Sorry,” she mumbled and continued to chew. I shook my head and continued to cook the eggs. “Can I ask you something?”

I didn’t turn to look back at her. I shrugged my shoulders and then nodded my head for her to continue.

“Were you nervous?”

This time, I turned around with a confused look on my face. I could feel my eyebrows scrunch together as I looked at her.

“About what?”

“Dating Joe.”

“Why?”

“Well, I mean, like, weren’t you nervous in the beginning?”

I thought back to when I first started dating Joe. Sure, it was a little nerve wracking at first, but that was because I was coming out of a crappy relationship and still didn’t want to jump into a new one. I don’t regret it, though.

“At first, yeah. But it wasn’t as awkward after we made it official. Why? You still feel nervous about tonight?”

Before she could answer, she sprinted from the kitchen and into the bathroom. I’ve seen her nervous before, and that was only because she had to give a speech in front of the entire student body in high school. I then looked down at the scrambled eggs that I was piling into a bowl.

“No eggs for her, I guess,” I said and prepared a plate for myself.