Chapter Five: Please Say No

 

I had eaten breakfast the next Monday morning and thought it was odd that Star hadn’t showed up. I had tried to call her several times since my date with Rosamund on Saturday but she had never answered her phone. I went into the kitchen to put my plate in the dishwasher and was surprised by Mom.

 

 

“Hey Jeff, where’s Star?”

 

 

“I’m not sure. I’ve tried calling her several times this weekend and her phone gone straight to voice mail.”

 

 

“Did you all have a fight?”

 

 

“Mom, it’s me and Star. We hardly ever have a fight.”

 

 

“I know; but it seems odd that she isn’t here and hasn’t returned your calls. Have you ever wondered if she. . .I don’t know, might be upset with you and Rosamund dating.”

 

 

“Mom, we’ve been on one date. One date is not dating; dating implies more than one time. Anyway, I don’t see why she’d be that upset. And even if she was, it’s Star; we tell each other everything.”

Mom gave me a quizzical look. “All right; but you might want to talk to her about it since something’s obviously up.”

I rolled my eyes and sighed. “It’s fine, Mom.”

 

 

I walked out of the kitchen and out the front door. As I stood by my car I thought about what Mom had said. I couldn’t deny that Star had voiced some concerns about Rosamund, but after my date with her, I didn’t see anything that gave me concern. Rosamund had been nothing but nice and was easy to talk to.   At this point, I figured I had spent more one on one time with Rosamund than Star had and therefore was a better judge of her character. As much as I respected and usually sought Star’s advice, in this case I wondered if she was the best one to judge Rosamund. I definitely didn’t want to lose Star’s friendship and I didn’t want to let someone I was dating or could date get in between our friendship. Perhaps this was one area that we were going to have to agree to disagree.

“Penny for your thoughts?” I turned around and saw Star. She looked a little tired and seemed a little down.

 

 

“Well, for one, I’m wondering why you didn’t call me back this weekend and why you didn’t show up for breakfast.”

 

 

She looked down and put her hands in her pockets. “I had a lot of homework this weekend and when I wasn’t doing that, I was helping Mom around the house.” I could tell instantly she was lying.

 

 

“Star, I can tell when you’re lying. What’s going on?” I had never seen her like this. I was really starting to worry about her.

She looked up at me with a blank expression. “I. . .how was your date with Rosamund?” I saw what she was doing and changing the subject wasn’t going to work.

“It was fine, but you didn’t answer my question.”

 

 

She sighed. “Jeff, you know what’s wrong. I’m not the biggest fan of Rosamund and I’m concerned about you two dating.”

 

 

“Why does everyone keep saying Rosamund and I are dating? It was one date; and honestly, there wasn’t anything that happened during the date that sent up any red flags. I know you think that there’s something. . .I don’t even know what. You haven’t ever given me an example of a time that you saw Rosamund do anything wrong. You claim she’s a certain way but you can’t provide any proof.”

 

 

“Well, what about the way she acts when I’m around.”

“What are you talking about?”

 

 

“She acts like she’s upset that I’m around. She acts like I’m a threat to her. Ask Peter, even he’s noticed.”

 

 

“Star, I can tell you exactly why she’s been acting like that. You were right; she has liked me and from what I gathered from our date, it’s been awhile. She asked me about you and me and whether we were dating. When I told her we were just friends, she explained that to everyone on the outside of our friendship, it looks different. So she hasn’t known how to interact with you. In her mind, she’s been trying to figure out if she’s had a shot at going out with me or if you and I are involved.”

 

*****

 

 

Is he for real? Is he really taking her side and being so blind to what she is doing?  “Okay, so if that’s true, then why didn’t she just ask? Why did she feel the need to ignore me? It doesn’t matter if we were dating or not, don’t her actions speak for themselves?”  I felt confident that he would see things my way with this logical argument.

“Star, not everyone is as confident as you. When people don’t have a lot of confidence in themselves, they sometimes act mean to each other; especially girls.”

Wow. He really is blind right now. How has she been able to do this to him? We were like a broken record. For the last several weeks I had tried to get him to see Rosamund for who she really was and he kept trying to stick up for her. I had no idea what to do.

 

Then there were my feelings toward him.  That was just complicating things even more. I had spent all weekend trying to convince myself that I was just upset that my best friend was spending time with someone else and that it was nothing more.  It didn’t’ work, though. When I had seen them holding hands it had felt like my heart had been ripped from my chest. I had never felt anything like it before. I had held out hope all weekend that maybe things had gone south on their date after I had seen them and that he really wasn’t interested in her. That clearly wasn’t the case.

I prayed that the answer to my next question was  going to be what I wanted to hear. “So, do you think you’ll go on another date with her?” Please say no. Please say no. Please say no. I kept repeating over and over in my head.

 

 

“I had planned on it. We had a really good time, Star. She was easy to talk to and I’d like to get to know her better.”  It felt like a rock had fallen into my stomach. I began to realize that I had waited too long to realize that I really did have feelings for Jeff.

 

 

“Star, I can tell you’re upset, and I’m really trying to understand.  We’ve been best friends forever. I don’t want anything to come between us. But at some point, each of us is going to date someone and we’re going to have to figure it out. I’m sure down the road, you’ll date someone that I’m not thrilled about. Maybe we just have to try to see what the other likes in the person they’re dating and sometimes agree to disagree.”

That made sense to him, but he didn’t know the real reason I was so upset.  I had a choice to make; I could tell him how I felt and hope he would stop this nonsense with Rosamund, or I could be a supportive best friend and hope that this run with Rosamund didn’t last very long.

“I really think that if you gave her a chance Star that you’d really like her.” I looked at him and he had such a hopeful look on his face. I hated what I was about to do but I had no choice. . .

 

 

“I’ll give her a chance. I just want you to be happy Jeff, if that means that dating her makes you happy; then I’ll try to see what you see about her.”  He looked so happy.  I had never seen him like that. He reached over and pulled me into a hug.

 

 

“Thank you so much, Star! I know that after you get to know her you’ll like her!” He continued to hug me and I closed my eyes wishing that the hug was for different reasons.

************

Sorry this chapter is short and it's a lot of conversations. I'm trying to make a transition and I couldn't think of any other way. Hope it wasn't too boring. =D