68 Days And Counting

Chapter Twenty Six: Ripping His Shirt Off.

There was a pause and I could see her try and fight the smile on her face. "Yeah I love you too."

She hung up the phone, sliding it into her pocket. "Sorry about that. Hey."

I gave her a much needed hug, the two of his hugging like it was completely normal to do so surrounded by categorized vegetables. "Let me guess? That was Ace?"

"Yeah."

"How is he?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"It seems like the polite thing to ask since we haven't spoken since November. I only knew you were coming home for the break because Drake told me."

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh. Jasmine, what's really going on?" 

"Me? I thought you didn't really want to talk to me after everything."

"I thought you needed space. From everyone."

"I thought out of all people, you were the one I could talk to from back home besides my brother."

And for the first time in the years of Jasmine and mine's friendship, there's a moment of silence between us. There was never usually silence between us. Jasmine and I were the type of friends that could stare at each other for one second before bursting out into laughter.

This-how we're acting right now-isn't normal. Definitely wasn't.

"How are you?" I asked her.

She shrugged. "I'm okay. It's him I'm wondering about. How is Drew?"

"He's getting by," My eyes trail over to the pile of perfectly stacked lemons we were beside and I couldn't meet her gaze when I whispered out the next sentence. "You really hurt him you know?"

"I know and I feel terrible. I'll always feel terrible. I spent almost a year on a great relationship only to end it badly."

"It's not like your relationship was a waste. Sure, the terms you ended it on weren't...the best terms but at least you learned from it."

"Did you just make dating seem like a class lesson? Like we were back in high school?"

I scoffed. "Remember our history teacher in grade ten? He turned every single lesson into a story about his dating life."

"At least from him we learned not to give out your bank card to people you think you're completely in love with."

"Or how to use match. com properly."

"Or tinder."

"Or all the other dating sites and apps."

Jasmine and I laughed. "I wonder if he's married now."

"Only one could hope with his dating record," I grinned and like how it was since we were nine, we looked at each other and started laughing again. "Are you coming to the Cahill's Christmas party tonight?"

She shrugged. "I...I don't think I'll be wanted. It's for the best if I don't go anyway. I'm going to spend it with my mom and Drake instead."

"Are you going to talk to Andrew eventually?"

Jasmine's eyes shifted to the ground before she looked at me with carefulness in her eyes. "One day. Right now? It'll be too soon. Probably in the future."

I nodded, my hands hovering over my camera bag. "We're definitely going to hang out this week right?"

"You and me?"