It might not have made any sense and I hadn’t even told Delaney or Cassidy. This was just for me. Yet another small step to getting out from under my parents. One they wouldn’t even know about.
“Dinner’s ready,” I called out as I put the chicken on the table.
I would’ve been content to make a plate in the kitchen, but Mom and Dad insisted that when we ate together, which wasn’t all that often these days, we bring the food to the table so no one would be running back and forth at any time.
We ate and talked for a while. Even after we finished eating. Sometimes when we were together like this, it was easy to forget how overbearing our parents were. Their helicopter parenting of me was one of the reasons I liked to get lost in books.
As we cleaned up from dinner and filled the dishwasher, Delaney asked, “Want to come downstairs and watch some movies?”
“Oh, fun. Yes,” I said right away. “We haven’t had a movie night in a while.”
“Exactly. I just have my good night call with Lily, but that’s not until seven-thirty. We can watch as many as we want and you can sleep on the couch.”
“Perfect. I’ll get changed and meet you down there.”
It didn’t take me long to brush out my hair and pull it into a bun, wash my face—because who wants gross makeup all over in the morning?—and throw on some pajamas. I was ready for movie night.
It didn’t matter that it was only six-thirty. We’d start a movie, pause for the Lily call, and then dive right back in. She had drinks in the fridge, so I didn’t even bring anything with me. We settled on a romantic comedy that we’d both been wanting to see and cuddled down on each end of the couch with our own blankets. It might’ve been summer, but there was nothing cozier than watching a movie snuggled under a blanket with the fan on. She turned that on so we wouldn’t get too warm.
It was our system and it worked for us.
When we paused for Delaney to call Lily, I grabbed my phone to scroll through some TikToks but found a missed text message instead.
Do you really not have Snapchat?
I bit my lips together to keep from howling with excitement. It was Bonham. He’d put his name in my phone when he’d added my number. No last name, though. Weird. And when I’d told him about my run-in with the guy at the bookstore, I gave him a play-by-play. That included me telling him that I’d said I didn’t have Snapchat.
I do, but what am I going to do? Give it to a creepy stranger?
I’m not a creepy stranger, am I? he answered immediately.
I can’t be sure, but… my Snapchat name is JurnieToNowhere.
The three little dots appeared and I knew I shouldn’t have been waiting for his reply, yet I was.
That seems sad. Is it sad?
Depends on the day, I told him. Because it did. There were so many times I’d thought I was going nowhere. The last couple of years not as much, but I’d had this account for a long time.
Check your requests.
I swiped out of text messages then opened up the other app. Sure enough, there was a friend request from DrummerBoy. Clearly, he was the drummer boy but I had no idea why he’d chosen that.
As soon as I hit the accept button, or at least it seemed like as soon as I hit the button, a snap came through of Bonham with the goofiest look on his face. One eyebrow was up and he was biting his lip. Honestly, it kind of looked like he was in pain. His dark hair was messier than it had been earlier and if I could’ve, I would’ve screenshotted the pic. But Snapchat told the other person when you did that, so nope.
The caption read, “I really liked talking to you today. You’re easy to talk to.”
I pulled up my reply, just a picture of me smiling. “You too.”
Another came through of him from the shoulders up. Dang. Now I was wishing he was sending me shirtless pics. I needed to get control of myself here. “So when are you available to go out?”
I bunched my shirt into my hand and lifted it so he’d only see from my nose up. My eyes were my best feature, after all. “Anytime.” Then I groaned and tapped my phone against my head three times and quickly took another pic of me with my hand slapped over my face. I typed out, “Well, I bet that doesn’t sound too eager.”
“Who are you Snapchatting with?” Delaney asked suddenly, done with her phone call.
“No one,” I said, putting my phone to sleep. She couldn’t accidentally see anything over my shoulder.
“That guy from earlier?” she asked. Still, I didn’t answer. “Can you at least tell me if he’s a nice guy or if he’s the kind of guy you might let up your skirt? Or both?”
I slapped a hand over my face again. “Delaney, is that all you think about?”
“Sometimes.” She shrugged. “There’s nothing wrong with liking sex and I feel incredibly guilty that your life has been the way it has because of my mistake.”
“Lily’s not a mistake,” I snapped. For some reason when that was said, it really got me angry.
“Of course she isn’t, but getting pregnant at sixteen was. Jesus, Jurnie. Calm down.”
“Sorry,” I mumbled. “I just… I do like this guy, but I don’t like the pressure to have sex with him.”
“He’s pressuring you already?” Her mom-bear voice came out.
“No.” I chuckled. “You are. Just… It’ll happen when it happens, OK?”
“Message received.”
Delaney sunk back down into the couch and unpaused the movie. That meant I couldn’t be snapping pictures of myself anymore or she’d ask more questions.
While trying to be snarky, I opened up my text and sent Bonham a quick one. Sorry, my sister started the movie we were watching again and she was asking questions. I can’t take pics to send snaps right now.
I also switched my phone over to vibrate so hopefully, Delaney wouldn’t notice.
So does tomorrow night work for you? he asked.
Sure does, I told him.
Pick you up at seven.
Holy shit, I had a date with possibly the hottest guy I’d ever seen.
If only tomorrow evening would get here already.
6
Bonham
Fuck, I wished I could’ve screenshotted one of those pictures of Jurnie. If I had, she would’ve known and while I never tried to be a creeper, after how she and I had met, I was going to be extra careful.
I’d also thought she would’ve been a little hesitant about going out with me, but she didn’t seem to be. Still, like an asshole who should’ve just accepted her out with me, I decided to ask.
That was quick, I told her when she agreed to tomorrow at seven.
Well, I figure if you wanted to do something to me, hurt me, you would have when you had me in your car.
I fucking hated it that woman had to worry about shit like that. Fucking hated it for my mom, Daisy, Jurnie, and every other woman who felt vulnerable when alone with a man. The truth was, most of the time, a man could use his strength against a woman anytime he wanted. We needed more men to choose not to.
There was no way I was getting into that over text, but flirting was still allowed.
Trust me, I typed out, hurting you wasn’t what was on my mind when you were in my car.