Cross Your Fingers

“Have you and John been dating for long?” Jess asked Izy while the two of them walked around the mall. The two of them were starting to become good friends. Izy had never really had close friends that were girls. She couldn’t really go on shopping trips and talk about boys with Justin and Stephen.

“It’s been about a month now,” Izy answered.

“The two of you are so adorable. How did you get together?”

“Why do you have so many questions?” Izy asked right back.

“I’m just curious and besides it’s quality girly gossip right here,” Jess answered.

“Fine then it’s not really that exciting,” she started and looked over at Jess who encouraged her to continue. “Well I’ve known Stephen basically forever…”

“I knew it you like Stephen,” Jess blurted out.

“Wait what? Where are you even getting this from?” Izy tried to deny her feelings for Stephen.

“I asked you about your boyfriend and you started out with,” Jess paused to look at Izy. “Well I’ve known Stephen forever,” she said in an obnoxiously girly voice while batting her eyelashes repeatedly.

“Ok first off I do not sound like that, secondly I do not blink that much and thirdly how does that even prove anything. That’s how it happened I went to a party with Stephen and Justin and John was also there,” Izy tried to defend herself.

“Well if Stephen wasn’t already on your mind you would have started with the party and John. Your boyfriend,” she added to emphasize that her mind shouldn’t be on Stephen.

“Ok now you are just reaching you asked for the story. I just tried to tell it to you the way it happened, so you would really get the whole experience. I wanted you to feel like you where there so you would really understand.”

“Now your just trying to cover for yourself and I really don’t need to feel “like I was there” when you and John first hooked up. Anyways it would take an idiot to not notice the way Stephen looks at you and the look on his face when he looks away when you are with John. The boys got it bad.”

“Is it that obvious?” Izy asked.

“For someone like me yes, for someone like John or your brother not so much. Not to say that there are idiots but John is always so focused on you and…”

“You can say it Justin’s just an idiot it’s ok to say,” Izy joked.

“Fine but you said it not me,” Jess said. “So anyways you and Stephen?” she trailed off at the end turning her sentence into a question.

“Are just friends he’s like another brother to me,” she lied there wasn’t really anything brotherly about the way she felt about Stephen. “And anyways I’m with John anything between me and Stephen would just be wrong,” she could say it out loud but everyday it had become harder for her to stay away from Stephen.

“Ok I believe you. Now lets go get some pretzels,” Jess said forgetting everything about Izy and Stephen. She let it go as the two girls went to find the pretzel stand. To keep the conversation off topics about her and Stephen Izy asked Jess about the band her, John and Stephen had been working on.

“Izy I’m so excited for you to be able to actually hear some of our stuff! It’s actually working out,” Jess exclaimed as the two of them sat across from each other in the food court with their pretzels. “We even found a singer and another guitar player.”

“I’m so glad it’s working out. I this much closer to being able to tell people my boyfriends in a band.” She pinched her thumb and pointer finger closer together to show how close she really was.

“You’re still on that?” Jess asked quietly laughing at the other girl.

“Hey it’s not as selfish as it sounds I just want him to be happy, and if being in a band can do that for him so be it,” she shrugged. “But you do seem to be using up a lot of my boyfriends time,” she joked.

“Trust me you don’t have to worry about me moving in on your boyfriend,” Jess reassured her.

“Why is that is he not good enough for you?” Izy asked while trying to keep a straight face.

“It’s not so much that but the fact that he is too young for me, and he is so into you. The majority of the time that you aren’t there he talks about you. It would appear that both the Gomez boys have fallen quite hard for you.”

Izy groaned before she responded. “Must you always bring it back to Stephen?”

“Yes it is my job as best friend to give you a hard time.”

Sunday she met with Stephen again. The two of them met at the library and Izy struggled to focus on balancing chemical reactions when she thought back to the shopping trip with Jess yesterday. She hadn’t known how much Stephen had wanted to be with her. He had told her he liked her but the timing had made her doubt him. If he cared as much as he said he did why would he wait until she was dating someone else before saying anything. But what Jess said made her think he might have been telling the truth. The fact that Jess was still able to guess that he liked her by the way he acted had surprised her. As she packed up her chemistry stuff Stephen went to stand up and leave but she lightly touched his arm causing him to pause.

“Stephen wait,” she stopped him. She looked around and saw the library was mostly empty.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about you and me,” she told him.

“And?” he asked her. “What about us?”

“Well…” she started. She looked at him trying to find the words but she just couldn’t. Instead she reached over and gently kissed him. After a second he kissed back. Their lips moved together with more gentleness then their last two kisses. She pulled away first and the two of them looked at each other before she spoke up. "Well it's official I'm now a slut."

"No you're not," Stephen tried to reassure her.

"Well then what exactly do you call a girl that's cheating on her boyfriend?"