Go Around

“And she was dancing like this,” Jack exaggerated as he jumped up onto Alex’s parents coffee table and started to grind on an imaginary person standing behind him.
Alex, Rian, and Zack all laughed.
Alex wrapped his arm around a tall, thin brunette and leaned down and kissed her forehead and she and her friends joined in the chorus of laugher.
“It was awful,” Jack concluded and jumped off the coffee table. “Anyway, there’s another party tonight if anyone wants to go with me,” Jack said and started wiping his hand back and forth to pretend that he was spanking some girls’ butt.
“And have to drive your drunken ass home? I don’t think so,” Zack said and, yet again, everybody laughed.
“I would have to second that motion,” Alex said and threw his free hand in the air.
“Okay, I’m not that bad,” Jack protested and pointed his finger at both Zack and Alex.
“Are you kidding me? You didn’t remember trying to make out with Lauren’s mom, I’d say you got pretty drunk,” Rian said, finally giving his opinion.
“I don’t think Jack would be that bad of a drunk,” the tall brunette, Lisa, chimed in.
“You’ve never seen Jack at a party,” Alex told her and she just shook her head and laughed. All of Lisa’s friends who were with them whispered amongst themselves and didn’t include any of Alex’s friends.
“Whatever guys, whatever,” Jack held his hand up like he was a stereotypical ghetto black woman.
“You dance like a drunken chicken,” Rian said under his breath.
“I’m sorry, what’s that, Mr. I-work-at-the-local-ice-cream-store?” Jack asked, holding his hand up to his ear.
“At least I get money,” Rian commented back.
Lisa looked up at Alex and started fiddling with a necklace that was around his neck, “I’ve never seen you wear this before,” she commented.
He looked down at it and didn’t know what to say for a minute, “Yeah, it was a gift from a friend,” he said and shrugged it off and tucked it back into his shirt. Jack caught his eye because he was one of the only people who knew that it had previously been Kennedy’s necklace that she’d once left at his house.
“Didn’t Kennedy give you that necklace?” Rian asked just because he had never liked Kennedy.
Alex cleared his throat, “Yeah, she did,” he answered shortly.
“Did either of you finally get a hold of her?” Rian asked and all the chit chat stopped in the room and focused solely on Alex and Jack.
“No, we didn’t,” Jack said because he knew that it still pained Alex to talk about her. Because he still loved her.
“Who’s Kennedy?” Zack asked because he had never had the opportunity to meet her.
“She’s just an old friend we met at the beginning of our high school year,” Jack said, once again taking the heat off Alex.
All of a sudden Alex’s doorbell rang and Jack jumped up, “I got it,” he said, assuming it was the pizza that they had ordered a half an hour ago.
Alex and Jack both welcomed the ringing doorbell because it was always so awkward whenever they talked about Kennedy since Alex would always be in love with her and Jack would always care for her but more like a sister. They were both so mad at her for abandoning them and never telling them goodbye. They felt like they meant nothing to her.
Alex bent down to Lisa and started kissing her, “I love you,” she whispered when he pulled away.
“I love you, too,” he whispered back and a smile broke out over his face and it was true, he really did love her, but not the same way he loved Kennedy. With Lisa it was safe and normal but with Kennedy he had let himself fall, now he was a little more cautious.
“Alex,” Jack called, “I think it’s for you.”
Alex turned and saw Kennedy standing with her purse on one shoulder and her sun glasses on top of her head just like she used to look; only now she’d chopped off a lot of her hair and it was barely collar bone length, but she still wore a pair of skinny jeans, a cut up band t-shirt that hit her mid-waist and a tank top underneath it with a motorcycle jacket and a pair of black stiletto boots. “Hey, guys,” she said and gave a seductive smile to Alex.