Southern Boy Charm | ✓

Chapter 31

My house is exactly how we left it right before we left; My rainboots are pushed into the corner, my mom's purse on the couch, accidently left behind. It's my own personal time capsule from the person I was before everything that's happened.

It's nighttime, so my mom and I waste no time wheeling our bags into the house and heading in for bed. My room is plastered with pictures; Bethany and I smiling wide at the camera on the first day of second grade; Bethany, Nathan, Jack, and I posed with finger guns, channeling our inner 007 for our junior prom pictures. They're each captured in polaroid photos and pinned onto my wall, forming a collage of my life, a timeline from elementary school to now. This house, these friends, this town is all I've ever known. Looking at my wall now, this is more apparent to me than ever.

The next morning, waking up in my room feels foreign. I miss the grass-scented wind that wafted through my sheer curtains on the ranch. Instead, I have thick blinds and hot, unmoving air. Even the chirping birds sound different.

A knock sounds at my door. "Someone's here to see you," my mom says.

My heart skips a beat and I scurry off my bed and to my door. Subconsciously, I'm hope that it will be a specific person, but when I swing my bedroom door open, it's just Jack.

"I'm happy that you got back okay," Jack says, his usual smile on his face, and for the first time in what feels like forever, I shoot him one back. I open the door wider so that he can come in. As he sits on my bed, feet propped up on the edge, everything feels so... normal. It's a picture that I've seen over and over again since middle school, and that familiarity makes me instantly comfortable.

"How's the summer been?" I ask, sitting beside him. "Anything exciting happen that I've missed out on?"

"If you consider Nathan getting into two fights last week, then I guess."

My jaw drops. "Our Nathan did that?" Sure, he could get on everyone's nerves like nobody's business, but he was always able to snake his way out of the trouble his mouth caused.

"That was my reaction, too," he says, reclining down next to me. "Some guy that Bethany was seeing cheated on her and the guy started being really disrespectful to Bethany. She wanted us to stay out of it, but Nathan got so mad he just snapped on the guy... and then did it again two days later."

"Jesus. I can't believe that he did that," I mutter. He nods in head in agreement. "I couldn't either, but I'm pretty sure he has a thing for her."

This is news to me. "Does she like him back?"

He shrugs. "I don't know, but they're going to the Summer Fling dance on Saturday together."

Sadness pangs in my chest. So many new memories had formed that I would never be a part of. I had spent so much time thinking about the changed person I had become over the last few months that I never stopped to think that my friends may have been doing the same, just without me. "I've missed a lot, haven't I?"

He pauses for a few seconds before answering. "Not a lot. Everyone's for the most part is the same. Some things have just... changed. Everything does eventually."

I wish so badly that wasn't true.

"Anyway, that is kind of the reason I came here today."

I fake shock. "You mean that you didn't just want to see one of your closest friends without some ulterior motive? The Jack I knew would never." Jack grins.

"Well getting rejected in the middle of the woods can change a person."

My mood instantly sobers. Of course he would still have some animosity towards me, I left him for Nick after he drove hours to see me. Look where that got me now. Jack wraps his arm around my shoulder and pulls me in for a hug.

"Come on Leighton, it's just a joke. I'm a big boy, I promise I can handle rejection." I nod my head, but I still feel guilty.

"How are you two doing anyway? Did you guys get back together?" I try to read his face as to any clue for what he actually feels about the situation, but his face is stoic.

"Yeah, we did get back together," I say, shifting my gaze up towards my ceiling. Glow-in-the dark stickers of stars and constellations dot the surface, and despite the fact that it's daytime, I'm taken back to the beautiful starry nights in Georgia. Jack doesn't seem to react to my news. That's a good sign.

"After you left we made up. But then we got into a car crash, and one thing lead to another, so, at the moment, we're not exactly talking to each other. Jack shifts beside me.

"A car crash? Are you okay?"

I look over at him, concerned etched onto his face. I can tell how much he cares about me. "Don't worry," I smile, "I'm fine. I just took a little hit to my head."

"So, that explains why you've been talking so slowly," he laughs. "I wasn't going to comment on it, but now, with the head trauma, it makes sense." I grab the pillow next to me and whack him as hard as I can.

"I do not talk slowly!" I yell between swings, but it does nothing to discourage his laughter. After a while my arms are so tired that I just give up, throwing my pillow across the room.

"Don't worry, it's barely noticeable. You probably got it from being in hick-town for so long."

I sit up. "Wait, you weren't kidding? I actually sound funny?" I rest my forehead in the palm of my hand. "How am I supposed to go to school in two weeks? Everyone will look at me like I'm some weirdo."

"Easy now," he says, prying my forehead from out of my hand so that I'm looking at him. "You don't need to be embarrassed. I only noticed because I know you so well. Besides, there's nothing wrong with a little change." He's right, I bet barely anyone will notice. But just in case, I am going to talk extra fast from now on.

"Anyway," he continues, "I never did get to explain the true reason that I came here." After he mentioned that night in the woods I completely forgot that he was on some mission as to why he came here. He sits up beside me and he averts my gaze.

Oh no. I know this face. This is his go-to look when he gets nervous. I shift in my seat.

"Well you know how Bethany and Nathan are going to the Summer Fling together, and how we planned to go before you left for Georgia?" I nod my head. That was a simpler time. A time before heartache and emotionally unavailable country boys.

"Well, I know that so much has gone on between us, but I was wondering if you still wanted to go together?" I don't know how to respond. Things between Nick and I are over, I know that much, but does that mean that everything should go back to the way it was before summer? Jack has everything that I wanted Nick to fix, so shouldn't this be a no-brainer?

I must take a while to decipher my thoughts because he quickly adds, "Just as friends of course!" His words come out rushed and connected. "You know, since Bethany and Nathan are already going together. I just thought it makes sense."

Right now, I feel like moping over what happened between me and Nick, so maybe the dance will be a worthy distraction. Plus, besides what happened between Nick and I during the summer, summer is over.

It's time to go back to normal.

"I would love to go with you, Jack," I say, a wide smile on my face, and I really do mean it.

~~~ 

Thank you guys so much for reading! Only a few more chapters left! How do you guys think it's going to end? 

-K