“Hey, wait!” Payton called out.
I stopped and turned around. “What?”
He jogged over to the door. “What about the ticket?”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Dude, the one for Jordan? What are you going to do if we don’t take her?”
Hmm. I hadn’t thought about it. “I don’t know. Take Jarom maybe.”
Payton made a face. “Okay, but don’t tell him yet. Wait and see if things work out first with you and Jordan.”
I ran my fingers through my hair and sighed. “Payton, I don’t think-”
“Promise. Please. Just wait. See what happens?”
I could tell it was important to him so I agreed. “Fine. I’ll wait. But I don’t think anything will change between Jordan and me.”
Payton grinned. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that, man.”
“Okay, weirdo. I really have to go.” I reached out and ruffled his hair which I knew he hated and hurried out the door before he could catch me.
Payton
I had to do something. As much as I might not always show it, I loved my sister. As far as sisters went, I probably had one of the coolest. How many guys could say they had a badass sister who played hockey on a guys team?
Not many.
And she must be pretty or a guy like Asher wouldn’t look twice at her. I could only dream of being as cool as him.
So, I figured, I’d better fix the part of them that broke because of me. I owed it to Asher and if I’m being honest, I owed it to Jordan. Asher told me what she’d done. How it had been her idea for him to mentor me. At first, it kind of made me mad, like he was only being my friend because of my sister, but then I realized I didn’t care. I loved playing the guitar and I also didn’t suck at singing. Whatever his motivations were in the beginning, I knew he was my friend now.
So, I needed to tell Jordan what happened that night and if she still wanted to be mad at Asher, well, at least, it wouldn’t be because of me.
After dinner I knocked on Jordan’s bedroom door. The cold air from under her door chilled my bare toes. Man, she had it bad.
“Jordan, come on. I need to talk to you.” I knocked again.
“Hang on. I’m coming.” She opened the door and I laughed out loud.
“What are you wearing?”
Her cheeks got red and she folded her arms over the unicorn onesie costume she’d worn for Halloween a couple of years ago. “I was a little chilly.”
I gave her a knowing look and walked into her room. “I wonder why.” I closed the window and pulled the curtains shut over it.
She frowned. “What are you doing?” She started to move toward it, but I stopped her.
“He’s not there. One, it’s freezing. And two, didn’t you two used to make out out there?” I shuddered just thinking about it. Gross. “He’s not going to sit out there and be reminded of that.”
Her shoulders fell.
“This is cute, though.” I touched the arm of her costume. “You should wear it to school.”
She shoved my hand away. “Shut up, you punk. What are you doing here, anyway?” She dropped onto her bed, snuggling into her pillows and blankets.
I sat down on the edge beside and reminded myself I had to do this. I owed it to Asher. And I owed it to Jordan. If I’m being honest, I should go downstairs after and tell my parents, too. Hmmm. Maybe not.
“I have something I need to tell you. About that night when I texted Asher.” Now, I had her attention. Jordan sat up and scooted back to lean against her headboard.
“What? Why? Did he tell you to?” she asked.
I shook my head. “No. Of course not.”
“Then why are you doing it?”
I exhaled a deep breath. “Because, it’s the right thing to do. You ready?”
She nodded.
“Okay, so you know I was supposed to spend the night at Tyler’s that night?” She nodded again. “Yeah, well, um,” I hated admitting this to her, because it meant she’d been right all along, not about Tyler, about me. “So, you know we’ve been buds forever, but he’s been getting into things he shouldn’t and trying to drag me down with him. I told Asher about it one day when we were at mentoring and he told me to cut Tyler loose. He didn’t say it like that, but that’s what he meant. And I was going to. That night when he asked if I could spend the night. My plan was to talk to him and say we couldn’t be friends anymore if he didn’t straighten up. When we talked that night, he was like, yeah, cool, fine. And I thought, whew, you know. Because, I didn’t want to lose my friend.