The Jealousy Bit (Part 1)

Hello, readers!  I hope there are still a few of you out there.  I’ve had a lot of crazy stuff going on lately…

So, as you all know, I’m very… fond… of my friend Peter.  Yesss…. I like him.  A lot.  But he is not my boyfriend.  He likes me too, and we’ve told each other this, but we’re not like dating or anything.  We’re really just not ready for it.  But I guess even though I know he’s not my boyfriend, I sort of think of him as… mine.  I know that may be sort of petty, but I can’t help it!  We have an understanding, and it works well.  Or at least it did, up until recently.

Peter came to me the other afternoon and announced that he wanted to go on a date.  Immediately, I began to blush.  You see, I thought he was asking me on a date.  But he wasn’t.  He was informing me that he wanted to go on a date, so he had asked “a girl we know” to go to the movies with him.  He went on to say that he would have liked to go with me, but his parents said he couldn’t.  My feelings were kind of hurt… I thought his parents liked me.  So I was standing there in the middle of campus, right in front of the library at lunch, trying not to cry as this guy… my guy… tells me how his parents are making him date some other girl.  He said they were worried that he and I spend too much time together… that we’re more serious than we ought to be.  But it’s really not like that.  The most serious thing we’ve ever done is hold hands once or twice and hug.

When we hang out, we never call it “a date,” but he had specifically said he was taking this girl on a date.  It was a double date, actually.  His best friend Anthony and Angela, this girl that he likes, were going as well.  Peter didn’t want to tell me who he was going with, but I had to know.  I didn’t want to know… I had to.  It was twisting my stomach in knots to just stand there and wonder who he could be taking, but he wouldn’t say.  He just kept saying “it doesn’t matter.”  He even told me that I might take the chance to go out with some other boy.  But I didn’t want to go out with another boy.  All the other boys in our grade are smelly and rude.  They’re not like Peter.

By the time I went to my next class, I tried really hard to put Peter and his new girlfriend out of my mind, and I was able to, for the most part.  But when Claire and Marisol walked in the class, Claire was grinning from ear to ear.  They sat down right near me and I heard Claire brag to Marisol about her big plans.  She said she had a date to go to the movies.  She turned and looked right at me and asked, “Wendy, do you think Peter would like me better in my blue dress or my green jumper?  I want to look good for our date.”  My face turned beet red, and I had to move away from her.  I knew I’d say or do something to her and end up getting myself in trouble.  How could Peter take Claire Lozano, the meanest girl in our whole school… our whole city!… on a date?  It made no sense!  Claire has always liked Peter (more reason for her to hate me), but he’s never liked her.  She makes him nervous, but apparently not too nervous to date her.

I got to thinking about how Peter said I should go out with some other boy.  Maybe I’d do just that.  Two could play that game.  So when I went to marching band rehearsal the next period, I just worked up my courage and asked Marco Garza, another clarinet player, if he’d like to go out with me.  Maybe this was kind of mean… Marco is really nice, and I had heard from a few people that he had a crush on me.  I knew I was using him, but I didn’t care.  He said he’d go with me, and we made plans.  It was just a coincidence that I happened to pick the same theater, the same movie, and the same showing as Peter and Claire.  At least that was what I would say.

Anyways, I’m really ashamed to be a part of this, but it’s too late to pull out now.  Plus I just have to know what happens between Peter and Claire!  I’ll update you all with the gory details after the date!