Bad Enough For You

I texted him back quickly, “We can’t ‘date’ Jack. I’ll fail my course if Prof. even knew we were talking outside of an interview.” I dropped my head in my hands and sighed, what have I gotten myself into?

“Em?” Abel spoke behind me and I all but jumped out of my skin. “Are you alright?”

I took a shuddering breath before turning to my best friend. Abel and I had been through a lot together, I was the first person he came out to. I knew I could trust Abel with my ‘moment of stupidity’ as I like to call it.

“Ya know how we just interviewed famous people?” Abel nodded, a curious look on his face. “Okay, well do you know Professor Kennedy’s rule about too much personal information? Like phone numbers and addresses?” Again, Abel nodded, but realization was dawning on his face. “Jack Barakat has my number, and he wants to date me.” Abel’s jaw dropped and that’s when my dam broke. My eyes overflowed with tears.

“Oh Em.” Abel wrapped his arms around my neck and sobbed into his chest. He knew how deep I was in. “Emmy, I think there is one way to solve this.” My eyes glistened as I looked into his eyes. “Change your number.” I felt like slapping myself in the forehead. Of course!

“Abel, you’re brilliant!” I practically jumped into his arms, but my phone vibrating stopped me. I opened the text and saw something that made my world stop. “If you don’t let me take you on a date I’ll tell Sam you gave me your number.” “Abel.” I showed him the text and he frowned deeply.

“Em there isn’t much you can do. Agree, ask to have it somewhere that isn’t very public, and hopefully Professor kennedy won’t find out. If you don’t she’ll find out anyways, might as well get a meal out of it.” He shot me a goofy smile, and I knew he was right.

“Okay, Abel. Thanks so much. Let’s keep this to ourselves, yeah?” He nodded and kissed my head before going back inside. I texted Jack back quickly, “My place, tonight at seven. That’s the only way I say yes.” I typed out my address and hit send before I could change my mind.
I walked back into the mansion and Abel threw me a look, to which I smiled at. It was a fake smile, but I still smiled and put my best friend at ease, while on the inside I was a raging ball of fear and unease.

That night, I dressed in my best dress and did my hair up for my date with Jack. At 7:05, he knocked on my door frantically. Breathing deeply, I opened the door to see him dressed in the same clothes that he wore for the interview. Suddenly I felt incredibly stupid for thinking I had to get dressed up for this prick that was forcing me to date him.

“‘Sup?” He walked in, plopped on the white couch, and threw his feet onto my coffee table. My anger was rising by the second.

“What? No flowers? Dinner is in here, asshat.” I heard him stifle a laugh and got even angrier.

“Actually,” I expected him to shower on the compliments and pet names at this point, because I was one step away from throwing his lasagna on his lap. “I should get going. You still owe me a date or I tell Sam how... naughty you are.” The last thing he heard from me was a pissed off scream as he slammed the door.

I dialled a familiar number on my phone and heard it ring twice before it was answered. “Abel, do you have a spare phone for me?”