the time you sat and looked up at the stars.”
Jared looked away and I wondered if he was remembering our ‘non-date’, the way I was.
He cleared his throat. “Katy… do you… see yourself… with me?” he looked up at me with those long black lashes framing his brown eyes.
“Y-yes,” I stuttered.
He took a deep breath and looked… relieved.
“Good,” he said, softly. “That’s really good,” he said a little louder. “Because I see myself with you.”
I didn’t really know what to say.
Jared cleared his throat. “I’ve –uh- never,” he squirmed in his seat, “dated before. So, I don’t really know the proper way to go about this,” he looked at me. “But I want to be… exclusive with you.”
I snorted and his cheeks flamed. Oops. “Sorry,” I said, “it’s just… I don’t date.”
“Oh, right,” he opened the wrapper of his second biscuit.
“No, Jared, what I mean is, you don’t need to have the ‘I want to be exclusive’ talk with me. It’s not like I’m hanging out with any other guys. Except for Rollo, but he doesn’t count,” I winked.
“So…”
“So,” I blushed. “I think you’re saying you want to date me.”
“Yes,” he chuckled. “I’ve never had a girlfriend before so you’ll have to bear with me, while I learn.”
“I doubt that you’ve never had a girlfriend,” I scoffed.
“Never,” he said, with a chuckle. “What about you? Any jealous ex boyfriends I should know about.”
“I’ve only ever dated one guy,” I whispered.
“Oh,” he said.
“We dated all through high school,” I took another bite of my bagel. “It –uh- it didn’t end well,” I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear.
“You wanna talk about it?” he took a sip of his drink.
“No,” I answered.
“That’s fine,” he said, balling up his trash and dropping it into the paper bag.
He waited until I was done eating to drive to my condo.
Every time I pulled up to the building, I always hated how stark it was. It was far too modern for me, but since my mom was paying, I had no input.
Jared followed me up, and I let him in first.
I motioned to the lumpy white couch in the living room. “Make yourself at home, it shouldn’t take me long to pack a couple of things.”
“You better pack more than a couple,” he said. “At least a week’s worth.”
I gulped. A week? At Jared’s house?
There’s no way I’d come out of this unscathed.
I grabbed my green and navy striped duffel bag from the top of my closet. I had all the new clothes I bought, in Jared’s car. So, all I really needed to grab was pajamas, underwear, and my bathroom stuff.
I dropped my sweatpants and sleep shirts into the bag and then attacked my bathroom.
Finally seeing myself in a mirror, I did a double take.
Oh hell.
I leaned out into the hallway and called to Jared. “I’m going to take a shower!”
I closed and locked the door, and I swear, not two seconds later there was a knock.
I opened it and said, “What?”
“Your cast, you can’t get it wet,” he pointed at it.
“Crap, I hadn’t thought about that,” I put my head in my hands. “I want a shower so bad. I smell disgusting and it would just make me feel better.”
“Do you have something else you can do in the meantime? I can run down the road to the drugstore. I know they sell something you can put over a cast,” he crossed his arms over his chest.
“You’re a life saver!” I cried.
He chuckled. “Glad you think so, I’ll be right back.”
“Get some money from my wallet,” I told him.
“I don’t think so, Katy,” he chuckled, walking away from me.
While he was gone, I finished packing my stuff and left my bag by the door.
Still hungry for some reason, I made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I was rinsing my plate when Jared knocked on the door. I let him in and took the bag from him.
I pulled out the box of cast protectors and laughed at something else I saw in the bag.
“Tampons?” I asked, pointing to the box in the bag.
Jared laughed. “Karlie needed some.”
“I thought guys were afraid of the feminine aisle?” I raised a brow in question.
“Only guys that are insecure in their manhood are afraid of tampons. They’re just weird little cotton things. It’s not like they’re going to eat you,” he pointed to the bag.
I laughed and handed him the bag.
I opened the box and pulled out the plastic thing I was supposed to wrap around