- Hawaii lust - Jenna Ortega

047

The longer they play, the easier it all gets. Dahlia starts to loosen up, and Jenna starts to smile more, and they all end up joking around with each other by phase 9. Well Jenna is on phase 9, while Dahlia and Maddie are still stuck on phase 7. But still, Dahlia feels a huge weight being lifted off her shoulders regardless of losing the game. She's gotten pretty used to losing to Jenna, anyway.

They finish that game (Jenna winning, of course), and then end up playing Uno afterwards. They play countless rounds of that, and they're all genuinely having a goodtime; not just pretending to so that it'll make it less awkward.

But one thing Dahlia does notice (but tries to ignore the nagging from) is that she hasn't made one rude or teasing comment towards her. Not at all, not even a little. It's weird, and it feels wrong, and she's worried that it's not even going back to their annoying banter like it used to be, like she thought they would. They're moving to a place that she doesn't like, which is a place where Jenna is too scared now to mess with her, because she doesn't want to hurt her worse than she already has. But Dahlia wishes she could tell her that she can tease her and she can mess with her about stupid stuff, because all she wants right now is normalcy again. If she can't be with her, she at least hoped they could just fall back into their routine of what it was like before they left, andduring the vacation, but now at least knowing that they don't actually hate each other.

And Dahlia knows that with time it might get back to that, but right now it all feels out of sorts and strange. And she hates it.

It's almost eleven when their seventh game of Uno ends, and Jenna finally stands up and calls it a night.

"Thanks for the invite and everything," she tells them, before grabbing a leftover piece of cold pizza and sticking it in her mouth.

"Yeah, it was fun," Maddie nods, smiling at her. Then she looks at Dahlia, then back at Jenna. Dahlia wants to tell her to stay, but she already knows what she's about to do. "I think I'm gonna go to bed. Goodnight, Jenna!"

Maddie obviously hurries away into her bedroom and shuts the door, leaving them alone together. The instant tension is unbearable.

"I'm guessing you told her?" Jenna asks, keeping her voice even and unreadable. Dahlia nods.

"Not everything, but...some. Enough," Dahlia replies, nervous about how she's going to react. "Sorry."

"Don't be," Jenna waves her off, taking in a breath and glancing over at their door like she wants to make a run for it. "It's fine. I understand why you did."

Then silence. And Dahlia can see her itching to leave, but she knows she has to say something first before she just takes off.

"I guess I'll see you at school," Jenna replies, nervously rocking back and forth on the heels of her feet.

"Yeah, definitely," she forces a smile, and she knows it looks forced, but it's at least an attempt.

"Okay," Jenna nods, backing up slowly. "See ya."

And then she opens the door and leaves.

Dahlia actually doesn't see her at school like she said she would. She doesn't show up at their spot for lunch for the next three days, and she knows she's doing it on purpose, but she understands. It just really sucks, and after the game night they had, she thought things were finally turning around. But she should have known it wouldn't be that easy with Jenna-she needs time. And understandably so.

They end up running into each other at one of the campus coffee shops. Well, not really running into each other; it was more like an awkward wave from across the room before Jenna walked out the door, but still. The bags under her eyes are worse now, but Dahlia's pretty sure she can't talk, because her's are probably worse.