Casually Cruel

"you walk around with my heart on your sleeve"



Jenna-Lee closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling of the warm Alabama breeze fluttering along her exposed skin. The sun was high in the sky with not a cloud in sight. The breeze was the only thing keeping the heat at bay. She crossed her legs at the ankles, letting feet dip into the lukewarm pond. She could hear Lisa, Colton, and a few of their friends laughing and splashing a few feet away from her.

“Hey Jenna-Lee!”

The blonde cracked one eye to see her cousin’s boyfriend looking at her. “C’mon in! The water’s great!”

Letting out a small sigh, Jenna-Lee closed her eye again and rested her weight on her elbows. “Maybe later,” was her short reply. Colton shrugged, turning his attention back to her friends.

When Lisa had arrived back at her house the morning after the party, she had apologized profusely to Jenna-Lee for leaving her. Jenna-Lee had waved away her apology, but secretly was still a little sore about the entire subject and had been avoiding spending too much time with the couple. So that following Sunday, when her aunt suggested that the two girls head out to the lake for the afternoon, Jenna-Lee really had no other choice but to agree to go.

She had done her best, however, to spend as little time with the group as possible. While Lisa, Colton, and their friends, Taylor, Mack, Kai, and Annalee, splashed and laughed together in the water, Jenna-Lee rested on rock, letting her already sun-kissed skin soak up the heat. For just a moment, she let herself think about her ex-boyfriend, Liam; she wondered if he had decided to go on the road trip, swapping her out for the redhead that she had caught him with on the night after their high school graduation. Jenna-Lee clenched her hands into fists as the vision of seeing Liam with his body pressed against another girl clouded her mind. She let out a breath that she had not realized she was holding.

Jenna-Lee shook her head, pushing all thoughts of her ex out of her mind. She would not have to worry about Liam anymore. By the time she returned home to Georgia, he would have left town to go to trade school. Jenna-Lee planned to spend the next year attending the state college in the next town over while she figured out what she actually wanted to spend her life doing, something that her mother wasn’t exactly thrilled over, but had agreed to.

A small gasp escaped the blonde girl as she felt a warm hand on her shoulder. Her eyes snapped open and she yanked her sunglasses off her face to look over her shoulder, and found herself face-to-face with the boy who had walked her home the other night.

“Hey,” he said, an easy smile forming on his face.

Jenna-Lee sighed before slipping her sunglasses onto the bridge of her nose and tilting her face towards the sun. “You shouldn’t sneak up on people like that.”

Drew chuckled softly. She felt his hand leave her shoulder as he sat himself next to her. “It keeps people on their toes,” he replied, “you should never be too comfortable, Miss Lee.”

“Jenna-Lee,” she corrected.

“Sorry,” Drew said, though his tone lacked apology. “So, about that dinner-”

“I don’t think so,” Jenna-Lee interrupted before he could even get the question out.

Drew squinted at her. “You don’t even know what I was going to say.”

She turned her face to him and even though a pair of dark sunglasses were covering her eyes, he could still feel the intensity of her stare. “I’m sure I could guess.”

“Before this summer is out, we will share a meal together, Miss Lee. Mark my words,” Drew promised, shooting her a quick wink.

“Jenna-Lee!” The couple sitting on the rock turned to see Lisa had dragged her friends out of the water. “I’m getting hungry! Let’s go get some food!” her cousin called.

“Okay!” came the blonde’s reply. She turned her attention back to the tattooed boy sitting next to her. “That’s my cue. Bye Drew.”

Drew rose to his feet as Jenna-Lee gathered her bag and offered a hand to her. She sighed softly, taking the boy’s hand and pulling herself to her feet. “Come to the bar tonight,” he murmured as he kept his grip on her hand.

“W-what?” Jenna-Lee’s cool composure cracked at Drew’s surprising request.

“I’m working tonight. Drop by. It’s always dead on Sundays,” he said to her.

“I’m not even of age,” she replied, taking her hand back. “Besides, I have plans.”

Drew sighed. “Eventually you’re going to stop denying me, Miss Lee.”

Unable to stop a smirk from flitting across her lips, Jenna-Lee responded, “well, today is not that day.”