A Story to Tell Your Friends

Thirteen.

“So?!” Lisa squealed over her cup of coffee. Jack and I had met her and Alex for breakfast at the same diner as last week, though this time we’d separated into girls and boys at the end of the meal. Jack and Alex had plans with the rest of the band for most of the afternoon, so Lisa had taken it upon herself to take me out shopping, which I’d promptly invited Tammy to.
“So what?” I chuckled nervously. She gave me a ‘are you really going to make me say it?’ look, which I grinned sheepishly at. I had more than just a slight feeling she knew what had happened between Jack and I the night before, though I was choosing to be as oblivious as I could. We were sat in a small corner of Starbucks, away from the majority of people, though I still felt a little unsure discussing last night’s activities in such a public place.
“’So’ how was it?” Tammy asked bluntly. I laughed as Lisa grinned at her, nodding. Before I could open my mouth to pretend to be oblivious some more, Tammy continued. “And by ‘it’, we both mean the sex.” I felt my cheeks burn a little, looking behind the two of them to make sure no one was listening. Neither of them flinched, both looking at me expectantly.
“Incredible,” I sighed, giving in.
“I knew it!” Lisa shrieked. “Didn’t I tell you, Tammy?” My eyes darted behind her again, seeing a couple a few tables over turn to look at her briefly before falling back into their own conversation. I should have felt a little more insulted that the two of them believed I’d had sex with Jack after only two weeks, but everything about him had made me feel so comfortable that it just felt natural.
“I really wish the two of you would stop gossiping about me. You act like you’ve known each other forever.”
“What else are we supposed to gossip about? My marriage to the man I’ve known half my life or Tammy’s job?” I laughed lightly, accepting her logic. “You two are new and cute and we love it. It’s like our own personal rom-com.”
“’Rom-com’?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.
“Well, you two are basically overgrown children, which can be quite funny, but you’re cute too. Rom-com.” I laughed at her, acknowledging once again that she had some logic behind her sentiment.
“How did you even know?” I laughed, looking at the pair of them.
“Well, we guessed from you staying at Jack’s last night instead of your place.”
“And the fact you wore your nice underwear,” Tammy interrupted. Lisa nodded. I rolled my eyes, remembering running around the apartment half naked yesterday looking for my jeans with Tammy laughing at me. Of course, this was clearly something the pair wanted to discuss at length. I wanted to tell them I hadn’t worn it with the intention of having sex, but more of a ‘just in case’ scenario, based on the fact that Jack and I would be alone all night at his place. On purpose.
“Oh, and the lack of that sexual tension that had been radiating off the two of you for the last two weeks. Alex and I both noticed it at breakfast.” I rolled my eyes once again, wondering how the two of them had even managed to discuss that before we went our separate ways. I heard Lisa’s phone ding with a text alert. “Jack’s just admitted it too.” I shook my head, laughing at her.
“You’ve gone from Middle School friends to High School friends in less than two weeks.” She looked at me puzzled and I realised I’d never told her my initial thoughts on the group. “I used to think you were like Jack’s Middle School best friend. You know, arranging a relationship with someone he barely knew and rarely spoke to.” Lisa nodded, cracking a small smile. “Now you want all the dirty secrets and sex scandals, which was definitely Tammy’s High School forte. You two were made for each other.” Lisa let out a small laugh and Tammy pretended to look offended, while knowing that she was always the one who knew everyone’s business way back when. “So, what did Alex say?” I asked, referring back to Lisa’s text message.
I KNEW IT.
I laughed out loud at Alex’s text to Lisa. She’d played innocent and replied back ‘you knew what?’ but we all knew what he meant, despite the fact he hadn’t replied yet.
I took Alex’s phone off him. Tell Lisa.
“I think Jack found out Alex was gossiping about him,” I told Lisa, showing her the text, before swiftly typing back to him.
It’s okay. As long as he’s only texting Lisa, she already figured it out. There’s no sexual tension, apparently.
Trust me, there’s still plenty of sexual tension. ;)

I heard Lisa’s phone ding with a text notification at the same time as mine, knowing Jack had indeed given Alex his phone back.
“You two are making me feel like a third wheel and there’s no boys here,” Tammy grumbled, glaring at me as I fired another text back to Jack.
“Okay, okay, no more texting boys,” Lisa told her, throwing her phone back in her bag and ignoring the dinging coming from it already, while I did the same with my phone. “Besides, it’ll be funny to see who ends up with the most missed calls.”
“You. Always you,” I said. “You and Alex text each other constantly. You can be in the same building, texting each other because he left your side for two minutes.” Lisa muttered something under her breath, pretending to glare at me.
“You aren’t much better with Jack. He left our apartment the other night to buy you pizza, and you were glued to your phone texting him the entire time.”
“He was getting me pizza, Tammy. What if he had gotten my order wrong? It’s too soon for him to see me flip out like that.”
“Like if he had asked for pineapple on your pizza or something?” Lisa asked. I clutched my chest, pretending to have a heart attack at the insinuation.
“I hadn’t even thought that was a possibility. I meant like if he forgot my double cheese, or got salami instead of pepperoni.”
“You’re such a drama queen,” Lisa laughed.
“Trust me, you don’t even know the half of it.” Tammy rolled her eyes and I grinned proudly. “She’s a nightmare to live with, and she really doesn’t care.”
“If you aren’t careful, I’ll go to see Blink without you,” I told her, grin dropping. “Then what would you do?”
“Hit Lisa up for tickets. I bet she can get me better tickets than you have anyway.”
“I don’t think you appreciate me anymore, Tammy.”
“That’s because I don’t. I’m abusing you for your famous friends.”
“They’re not my friends; I’m abusing them to get close to Mark.”
“Jack is planning on that exact thing,” Lisa interrupted before Tammy could respond. My head snapped around to look at her. I swear, any faster and my neck would have broken.
“Sorry, Jack’s planning on what now?”
“He’s planning on you meeting Mark and the guys when they’re back in town,” Lisa shrugged. My eyes doubled in size and my jaw dropped. This must be a joke.
“Hey, Lisa, I imagine Clara warned you about how I was a crazy fan girl over your husband and his bandmates before I met you, right?” Lisa nodded. “And you were probably imagining something way worse than you got, yeah?” Again, Lisa nodded. “Times what you imagined by twenty and lemme introduce you to Clara. She’s in love with Blink and more than willing to embarrass herself and Jack over meeting Mark Hoppus. You shoulda kept that one to yourself.”
“No, no, I’m fine, Tammy. Promise,” I let out, my voice a higher pitch than I had counted on. “You had a few days’ warning and you calmed down enough. I’ve got two months before they’re anywhere near California, I’m sure I can get over myself by then.” Tammy snorted.
“If you say so.”
“It’s okay, you won’t be any worse than Alex and Jack were when they met him. Look at them now, he’s a friend and they’re touring together like it’s no big deal,” Lisa told me.
“See, Lisa gets it,” I nodded. “I’m going to be reasonably calm and Mark and I will get along like there’s no tomorrow. Don’t take this from me.” I added the last part quickly as Tammy went to open her mouth, promptly shutting it again.
“I didn’t say you were going to be calm,” Lisa countered. “Just that Mark’s used to it and won’t judge you too much on it.” Lisa’s phone started to ring as we all finished our drinks, Tammy telling her she was okay to answer it. “Hey, Lex… Yeah, we’re just finishing up at Starbucks. I’ll be back soon… Okay, yeah, hold on, I’ll pass her over.” Lisa pulled her phone away from her ear and passed it over to me. “Jack wants you. You haven’t answered your phone.” I laughed, realising my phone was on silent and I hadn’t bothered to check it in nearly an hour now.
“Hey, cutie pie,” I grinned, putting Lisa’s phone to my ear. I heard Jack laugh.
“Well, at least I’m cutie pie this morning and not douche bag. I guess I did something right,” Jack replied. I heard Alex groan in the background.
“Don’t use my phone to flirt with Clara, Jack!”
“Shut up, Alex, I’ll do as I damn please.” I laughed at the pair of them, waiting for Jack to come back to our own conversation. “Why weren’t you picking up?”
“Lisa and me made Tammy feel like a third wheel texting you and Alex, so we put them away. My phone’s on silent, so I didn’t realise you’d text back.”
“Yeah, text,” he snorted. “You’ve got like 10 missed calls.” I let out a short laugh as I slung my bag over my shoulder and followed Lisa and Tammy out of the building and toward Tammy’s car. “Listen, I was thinking we could binge on video games today. I’m finished here for the afternoon and figured I’d bring the PlayStation over. I just need you to grab a game or two you wanna play.” My eyes lit up at the suggest, nodding vigorously.
“Guys, we need to stop at Target on the way home!” I called to the girls, who turned to look at me strangely. Jack laughed again.
“I’ll take that as a ‘yes, Jack, I’d love to play video games with you.’”
“Oh, that’s definitely a yes. Did you doubt it would be?”
“No, not really. We’d best give Alex and Lisa their phones back now. I’ll just head home and grab some stuff and meet you at yours in about an hour?”
“Sounds great.”
“See you soon, gorgeous.”