Maybe We'll Pretend Right Now

About two weeks passed where I didn't talk to Vic. Two weeks that, looking back, shouldn't have been wasted doing what I was doing. I'd spend my time distracting myself with other friends, movies, going out to the bar, going to the mall, anything to keep me from thinking about Vic.

I really should have spent that time sorting out my feelings, rather than avoiding them. I didn't know what had come over me to kiss Vic but I had figured that I could just ignore it and it would go away.

Even despite how much I missed my best friend, I ignored his calls. I told myself that I just "needed some time for everything to sort itself out," when really I was just avoiding my problems. That is never the way to go about things.

The day that I finally talked to Vic again was when he showed up at my house in the middle of the night, driving recklessly up the road due to the amount of alcohol he had consumed. It also probably had something to do with the anger he had towards me at that point.

I held the door open shamefully to allow him in. He didn't acknowledge the greeting, though, he just pushed past me in anger and threw himself on the couch.

"What the fuck?!" the angry words escaped his lips before I had even shut the door.

I shook my head, scratching the back of my neck as I walked over to where he was sitting. "Look, Vic, I'm sorry I kissed you, okay? I understand why you're upset but you hadn't really put me in the best position..."

He scoffed loudly and threw his head back in disgust. "You think this is about the fucking kiss? You know what, forget the kiss. I don't give a shit about it. But you could at least have the decency not to ignore me! I thought we were friends, Jaime, and best friends at that. But I guess not! I guess you don't give a damn about me after all!"

I could hear Vic starting to get choked up. I started to regret ignoring him. I was so stupid for trying to push him away like that, over something that I did. The truth was that I was just scared to interact with him anymore. I thought that I had made things awkward and that he wouldn't want to talk to me anymore. Apparently my thought process wasn't exactly correct.

"Vic, I'm sorry, I really am," I tried to remain calm, hoping it would make him stop yelling. "I thought things would be awkward after I kissed you. I thought you wouldn't want to talk to me anymore or something, I don't know. I just wanted some time to work things out in my own head."

Vic held his face in his hands for a minute or two before responding to me. "Jaime, I obviously wanted to talk to you still. I called you like, every day, not that you seemed to care. And besides that, what did you expect to happen to the band? Did you think you could just keep ignoring me and I'd get the picture? Like things would just fall into place, and I would just, I don't know, disappear?"

His voice cracked at the last sentence, and tears began streaming down his cheeks. I sat next to him and wrapped my arm around his shoulders.

"I don't know what I was thinking, Vic. I was confused. I'm still confused. Can we just forget about it and pretend it never happened? All it's going to do is ruin our friendship if we let it linger around."

Vic stared expressionless at the ground while I was talking. I wasn't sure if he was even listening to me at that point. Not that I blamed him. I was mad at myself, too, for being such an idiot.

"I guess," he sighed, his tears slowing down. He rested his head against my shoulder to let me know that he meant what he said.

I turned and hugged him tightly. He hugged me back, clutching me close to him. "You really did miss me," I joked. He nodded furiously and squeezed my waist.

After he finally let go of me, I could tell that the alcohol was regaining its affect on him. His eyes were spacey and he didn't look in complete health. I knew that there was no way he could drive home safely in that condition.

"I think you should crash here tonight," I suggested.

Vic considered for a moment and then shrugged his shoulders. "Might as well," he agreed.

I helped him get settled in the guest room before going to my own room and falling asleep.

The next morning I decided to cook a nice breakfast for Vic to try and make up for the past two weeks. The problem with that was that I wasn't too great of a cook. So I instead took him out to Jamba Juice, a smoothie shop up the road.

When we got there, I noticed how packed it was. I should have realized that it would be that way on a Saturday morning. We walked into the shop, squeezing through the crowd of people that were blocking the doorway.

"'Scuse us, sorry, excuse me, pardon me" the voices of various people filled the shop. I had Vic by the wrist, leading him through the crowd. We were almost to the front counter when I felt an ice cold liquid splashing all over the front of me.

I looked down to see a completely shocked, short, dark-haired girl about my age holding an empty smoothie cup.

"I am so, so, so sorry, oh my god," she said, covering her mouth. I could see a horrified look in her hazel eyes. I just laughed, nudging her shoulder.

"Hey, it's okay," I reassured her.

She looked relieved and began wiping the smoothie off of my shirt with a handful of napkins. "How can I make it up to you? Do you want me to pay for your smoothie?"

I decided to try and start something with her. She was really beautiful, and I was in the perfect position at the time.

"How about you just come home with me," I winked playfully.

She looked confused for a second, and I decided that maybe I wasn't making the right choice.

"Sorry, I just say random things sometimes. Banana, pineapple, I don't know," I tried to turn what I had said into a joke. I could hear Vic snickering behind me while I made a fool of myself.

To my relief, the girl laughed. "No, I get it, trust me," she said, "but I have to go coach a soccer team right now. How about I give you my number and you call me later, is that a deal?"

I smiled slyly at the girl while she wrote down her number on a napkin. "Here," she said, slipping it in my pocket. "I'm Jessica, by the way."

The girl, who I now knew was Jessica, walked out the door without another word.

Later that afternoon, after Vic went home, I decided to call Jessica. I didn't want to seem too desperate but at the same time I wanted to talk to her as soon as I could.

"Hello?" she answered, and I felt my heart leap. There was just something about this girl, she struck me in a way that made me wobbly at the knees. It wasn't really anything I'd felt about anyone before.

"Hey, it's Jaime, the guy from the smoothie shop," I answered.

"Oh yes, the guy who probably smells like strawberry kiwi now," she said with a laugh, "sorry about that."

I shook my head even though she couldn't see me. "Don't worry about it! Anyways, I was wondering if you'd like to go out sometime, like, for dinner or something."

"Dinner? Isn't that a bit classy? I was thinking we could just hang out at your place or something," she said. She was definitely different from most girls.

"Oh, uh, yeah, sure," I stuttered, "how's tomorrow night?"

"Tomorrow's Sunday, that's no good. It'll have to be next Friday or Saturday, sorry for the wait, but I teach during the week and I have to get to bed at some point."

"Ooh, a soccer coach and a teacher, what can't you do?" I teased.

She laughed on the other line. "You'll just have to find that out for yourself."

I felt myself blush, which was stupid, really. I just felt kind of head-over-heels for this girl.

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"But Daddy," my daughter says, "what about Vic? What happened with that girl?"

I laugh, flicking a flower petal at her.

"You'll just have to wait and see."