Kissing the Shy Guy - Stephanie Street Page 0,47
a grin at me as he spoke into the microphone. I reached for my guitar while Asher teased me. “Wonder what he’s been doing?”
The crowd laughed and cheered and made catcalls.
I moved to my microphone and said, “Same thing you were doing, bro.” Even though it was a lie. Jordan definitely hadn’t denied Asher her kisses like Jenna had mine.
Asher laughed and bobbed his head, signaling that we were ready. I played the opening bar of the next song on our setlist, and the guys didn’t miss a beat. As usual, Jordan and her friends were front and center at Asher’s feet. As for me? I couldn’t take my eyes off Jenna. She’d taken up her spot again at the side close to where I stood on stage. She was with her friends, Lydia and Bella, and some other girls I knew of but didn’t know well. They danced in sync. Jenna was the hottest thing I’d ever seen.
Not for the first time, I thought about all the things people said about her. She hadn’t denied her mean girl reputation when I asked. What had I expected? For her to admit she was a bitch to everyone? That wouldn’t have made much sense under the circumstance since she’d been trying to talk me into being her partner for the stupid scholarship competition at the time.
It wasn’t stupid. I knew it was important to her. However, it hadn’t escaped my attention that it was important to me because of my growing feelings for Jenna. Which probably meant I was stupid.
I half hoped Jenna would change her mind and meet me behind the stage during our next break, but she didn’t. However, I did find two water bottles and a bag of potato chips on my chair with a napkin kissed with an unmistakable shade of red lipstick.
I chugged one of the waters and downed the chips while wondering what I was going to do about Jenna.
“So, why were you late to the party?” I asked her a few days later. We’d been rehearsing for a couple of hours, and Jenna had just pulled off her dance shoes. She sat near my feet, rubbing her own, groaning. Things had been a bit awkward when we first began, but what about this situation wasn’t awkward? We’d quickly gotten over it. “I meant to ask you the other night.”
“Oh, my feet hurt!” She dug her thumbs into the sole of her foot. “I had to stay home with my sister.”
Right. I’d forgotten. Her sister, Melly. “She can’t stay home alone?” I knew Melly was in high school and had Down’s Syndrome, but I didn’t know what precisely that meant as far as what she could or couldn’t do on her own.
Jenna shook her head. “Maybe for a little while, a few minutes. But, no. She’s really smart, and she knows how to do things on her own, but she gets anxiety when no one’s around, and sometimes she has these meltdowns.” She’d been looking at her feet but turned to face me. “That’s what we call them, anyway. She needs a lot of reassurance and help to get calmed back down. Like the night of the concert.”
“The concert? You mean the choir concert?” I was trying to follow what she was saying and failing miserably.
“Yeah, remember? You asked if my family had been there?” she asked.
I nodded because now that she’d said it, I did remember asking about her family. She’d told me that they’d missed the concert.
“Well, Melly had a meltdown when Dad picked her up from her friend’s house on his way to the concert. Once she calmed down, she fell asleep in the car, and Dad took her home rather than wake her up and risk coming to the concert.” I lifted my brows, giving him a look through my lashes. “There’s no telling if that will be the end of it or not. Sometimes, she gets riled up again.”
“I’m sorry.” What else could I say? That had to be hard on all of them.
Jenna smiled, but it was kind of sad. “It’s okay. Really. I love Melly. She’s my best friend. She’s only two years younger than me. We’ve done everything together for our whole lives. It is hard when we can’t go somewhere or do something because—I hate to even say it, because of her, because it isn’t her fault. At all. And she’s just as disappointed as anyone when our plans fall through. She was devastated about missing