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“Anyway. Eighteen! Man, I can’t believe my little sister is an adult. You’ll always belittle sisterto me, though. I love you, kiddo. Hope your birthday is awesome. Talk to you soon.”Click.
I listened to my brother’s voicemail for the fifteenth time since my birthday. I’d missed his call while I was at school and was pretty bummed about it, too. I still hadn’t been able to catch him. We were playing one epic game of phone tag.
I’d already applied to one of the three schools he’d mentioned, but I still had to finish the other two, though I wasn’t sure I wanted to go to any of them. I wasn’t sure about college in general. I wasn’t sure about anything, really.
Maybe I’d just go ahead and follow my mother into a career of professional escorting.
Joking.
I put these contemplations on hold and quickly got dressed for work, heading out the door ten minutes later than I probably should’ve.
Oops.
Kidding. I didn’t actually care.
The actor’s mouth was moving on screen, but I could only hear a muffled version of what he was saying through the projector window since it was closed. I folded my arms and stared at the screen anyway, eyes narrowed, trying to lip-read the character’s dialogue.
Something about blankets or blank checks, or blagetagetah for all I knew.
I heard the projection room door open and close at the far side of the room and stepped away from the window. Jax was casually making his way toward me, passing half of the projectors on his way.
“What’s up, girl?” he greeted when he reached me.
“Not much,” I responded. “Just waiting for these last three movies to finish up, so I can shut them down and get out of here. What are you still doing here?”
He leaned against a sound tower and slid his hands into his pockets with a shrug. “Just waiting on my date to pick me up.”
That immediately got my interest. My brows rose of their own volition. “Date?” I stepped closer to him, nudging him in the ribs with my elbow. “Date with who?”
“Just some guy I met at church this weekend,” he said, all feigned detachment.
“Get. Out.” I laughed, and then he broke character and followed suit.
“I know. Guess that’s where all the good boys are these days,” he commented with a wink.
“No shit.” I smirked.
“What’s up with you and Neil anyway?” he asked the question I already suspected was coming.
Now it was my turn to shrug. I threw my shoulders up uncaringly and let them fall. “Hell if I know,” I told him honestly.
“Well, I know for a fact that I saw one deceased Romeo and Juliet kissing a whole lot the night of my party, so I’d saysomethingis going on.”
“Obviously,” I quipped. “But I think we’re just… having fun.” I shrugged again. I didn’t know what Neil and I were doing, and I was over trying to analyze it. I was having fun with him; that’s all it had to be. Right?
“Hmm.” Jax looked at me thoughtfully, and I turned my attention elsewhere. Back to the movie playing on screen. There were particles of dust floating through the beam of light between the projector and the screen, and they were a lot more fascinating than the look Jax was still giving me. I couldn’t actually see it, but I could feel it—his eyes tattooing a pattern on the side of my face.
One of the last three projectors running released the end of its film with an audible snap, and a sigh of the projector shutting down echoed after it.
Saved by duty.
“I have to go get that,” I said.
His eyebrows rose as he smirked. “Oh, I’m coming with you,” he tossed in, and I rolled my eyes, which only made him laugh. “Relax, I just want to ask you something.”
“Oh, yeah? What’s that?” I asked. I walked over two theaters and began wiping things down and shutting switches off.
He followed right on my heels. “I was wondering if maybe you and Neil would want to double date with me and Pax.”