Keep your friends close and your enemies, closer

“And then, he just walked away. I got pissed off then I walked away too. You should have seen his face, Summer. ” I covered my head with Summer’s pillow and let out a muffled scream of frustration.

“There there, Ash.” Summer, who was sitting next to me on her bed, patted my knee comfortingly.

I groaned and turned on my stomach, the pillow still on top of my head. After school had ended that day, Summer invited me over. She wanted to help me dress up for my date with James later on.

Ranger had left before school started. He’d said that Mom and Dad were waiting for him at the airport. I was going to miss him. I’d walked him to the door and hugged him goodbye. He had seemed hesitant before leaving, as if he had something to say. He changed his mind though, because he only kissed my cheek before he walked over to his car.

“Come on, Ash. Get up. Just forget about Kent okay? At least, just for today. Today’s just about James, alright?” Summer held my hand and tried to pull me up into a sitting position.

I pulled my hand away and pressed the pillow tighter over my head. I was so stupid. I shouldn’t have agreed to go out with James. First off, I didn’t even like him like that. Secondly, I was using him! That was so mean.

I heard Summer heaving a sigh. “Ashlynn. Stop it okay? You agreed to James’ invitation. It’ll be bad if you walk out on him now. It’s only an hour and a half before your date. He’s probably getting ready, as we, or I, speak. You should do the same.” I pulled my head from under the pillow to peek at Summer. She was using her ‘stern’ voice. It was never good when that happened.

I groaned inwardly, feeling defeated. I sat back up and placed the pillow on my lap, looking at Summer. “Okay, Summer. You win. I’ll be happy when James takes me out. For your sake, I won’t even be acting. Does that sound good?”

Summer gave another sigh and spoke gently. “Don’t do this for me, Ash. Do it for yourself. If you really absolutely do not want to go out with James, it’s best you pull out now. It won’t be nice to be all moody on a date.”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. She was right. It really wasn’t fair to James. I did agree to go on a date with him. And anyway, how many girls would kill to be in my position right now? A million and one, I bet.

James chose me to ask out, so I should be flattered. I mean, I don’t always get dates from hot, popular seniors. This was a great opportunity, and I was finally beginning to realize it. Summer was absolutely positively right.

“You’re right, Sum.” I got off the bed and walked over to Summer’s closet. I turned back to look at her. “Well? Aren’t you going to help me choose an outfit?” I smiled at her, and she all but squealed and leaped up after me.



“So, how do I look?” I twirled around in front of Dustin, whom had come over just before my date with James.

“Perfect. James would fall heels over head the moment he sees you.” Dustin promised, smiling up at me from the couch.

Summer had loaned me her violet sleeveless top which had a ribbon across its stomach area. I paired it up with a casual black skirt that was just above my knees. Dustin thought it would be a good idea if he played around with my hair a little. I trusted him because he had an older sister who used to make him play with her hair. He was really good at what he did. So in the end, Dustin used a few butterfly clips to clip my hair into these crazy loops.

“Totally. You’ll definitely be breaking hearts, Ash.” Summer high-fived me and sat down next to Dustin. Dustin placed his arm at the back of the couch and Summer sat closer to him.

“Thanks, you guys.” I gushed. “Oh yeah, Summer, did you call James and tell him to pick me up at your place instead?”

She nodded. “No worries, hon. I called when you were in the shower.”

Ding!

My head snapped up at the sound of Summer’s doorbell. “Here I go.” I smiled weakly at them as I walked to Summer’s front door. I opened it and immediately enjoyed the relaxing night breeze which fanned my face.

I faced my date for the evening, and he gave me, what seemed to be a, heart-breaking grin. James was wearing a casual white tee with a black Adidas jacket. He looked… well, hot obviously.

“Wow. You look great, Ash.” His grin got wider.

“You too, James. Not too shabby.” I winked at him, and he held out his hand for mine.

“Ready to go?”

I nodded and turned back to face the couple on the sofa and waved at them. Summer mouthed ‘Good luck’ at me while Dustin smiled and waved back. “I’m ready. Let’s go.” I let James pull me out of the house and into his car.



He had brought me to an outdoor café. It was a really quaint place in a quiet neighborhood. There weren’t too many people there. They were mostly couples, anyway.

James pulled my chair for me and I smiled at him. “Thank you.” He smiled back and walked around the table to sit across me. Almost instantly, a waitress came to our table to take our orders.

She was very pretty, about eighteen or nineteen, only a year or two older than me. Her curly auburn hair hung down her back, looking untamed. Her nametag read out ‘Anne’. Her overall look screamed out ‘girl next door’.

“Hello. My name’s Anne and I’ll be your server today. What can I get you?” She gave me a sweet smile and I couldn’t help giving one back to her.

“We’ll take two mocha lattés, please.” James spoke up, looking at our server. She scribbled down our order on her notepad before facing James. “Would you care for any thing to eat?”

James looked at me to see if I wanted anything but I shook my head. “No thanks.”

Anne smiled at the two of us, and walked away. I could have sworn before she turned away though, I saw James giving her a flirtatious wink. But that was probably me because Anne showed no emotion as she turned.

“So seriously, why did you suddenly ask me out?” I enquired, leaning across the table. James gave me another (beautiful, but not as beautiful as… Oh, I will not think about him, especially not on my date right now) smile and placed his hands on the table, moving closer to me.

“I think you’re really pretty,” He started, raising his eyebrows mischievously, “and I’ve actually had my eye on you for quite a while.”

It was my turn to raise my eyebrow. “Really now? But you were always so busy with other girls.”

“Because every time I see you, you were busy with Kent.”

I blinked at him. Was I always so busy with Kent?

And why? Who oh why did he have to talk about Kent? I’ve been trying not to think about him, and he mentions it. On our date. Why oh why are you such a numbskull, James?

I obviously didn’t voice out that thought. I wanted this date to go well. Hopefully, I’ll be able to forget about Kent. Not forever, just long enough so that I would stop hurting. I could feel it though. James was definitely keeping my mind off things.

“So James.” I had to change the topic. This was my date. “How’s the team this year?” Honestly, I wasn’t all that interested in football, but at least it got him to talk.

His eyes lit up at my question. This was obviously a favorite topic of his to talk about. “Well, last week, we were up against South High. Man, they were tough. But we were tougher. You should have been there…” On and on he went about the game. I didn’t understand about half of what he was saying, but I kept my interested face on.

About five minutes of his detailed explanation on how he body slammed dude number 34, Anne sauntered over to us with our drinks.

She gave us a smile as she set it down in front of us. Geez, this girl really was the sweetest! “There you go. Enjoy.” She threw us yet another smile before she left.

Interesting thing was, James was staring at her retreating figure as she went.

I cleared my throat to get his attention. He turned back to face me with an embarrassed expression on his face.

“Ah… err…” He couldn’t even think of an excuse to say anything to cover up his mistake. I would say ‘at least he had the decency to be embarrassed’ but he shouldn’t even have done it.

We sipped our drinks in silence. He was obviously still very embarrassed, the redness in his cheek still very prominent, whereas I was thinking of the real reason he had asked me out.

“Ashlynn?” I snapped my head up at the sound of my name. James was looking at me with an apologetic glance. “I’m sorry for what I did. That wasn’t cool. You’re my date, not her. I’m glad you accepted and I really don’t want to ruin this.” He gave me a weak smile. “Forgive me?”

His face was so boy-ish and he looked so sincere, I couldn’t not forgive him. I gave him a shy smile and shrugged. “Please?” Another cute expression.

“Fine. I forgive you, but that’s not fair. Using your cuteness to break me.” I laughed.

He winked at me. “If you got it, flaunt it.”

I rolled my eyes playfully and finished up my drink. James was already done with his. He stood up and walked over to my seat. “Ready to go?” He offered his hand to pull me up. I stared at it.

Whoa. Déjà vu much.

I shook away the thought and placed my hand in his as he pulled me up. “Come on. I want to bring you someplace special.” He pulled my hand along as he ran to the car. I laughed at his childishness, but ran along with him.