GAINESVILLE, On Friday, Jessica was happier than she had been in a long time.
How could she not be? Her friends had finally pulled through for her. Tomorrow they were all going to Atlanta!
Jessica was super excited. She was almost tempted to skip to work.
Actually, she did skip for a few steps. She felt silly, but sometimes it was sort of nice to feel that way.
Frankie greeted her with a nod and a weak not-quite smile when she walked into the yogurt shop.
"How're you going?" she said cheerfully.
He was able to translate her Australian. "I'm doing well," he said. "You?"
Before she could answer, a small crowd entered the shop. Some came up and stood at the counter, looking at the choices. Others lingered by the door.
One customer said, "I thought this was going to be one of those serve-yourself things…you know with tons of toppings."
One of her friends replied. "It's less germy this way."
"I like lots of different toppings," the first girl said; then asked Frankie. "Can I have more than one topping?"
"Yes," Frankie said, "But—"
"Do you have to pay extra for them?" she asked
"Yeah."
The girl sighed loudly and crossed her arms over her chest. "I hate having to pick one topping. It's hard for me to make decisions."
One of her friends said, "Don't be such a Drama Queen."
The girl replied, "Shut up, Bitch."
Jessica braced herself for a bad scene.
But then both girls laughed. The picky, indecisive one playfully bopped her friend on the head.
Thank Goodness. Jessica and Frankie looked at each other with relief. He smiled at her, and it was a much better smile than the one he gave her when she first came into the shop.
The customers all ordered. The picky one put herself last so she could have more time to study the toppings.
Frankie whispered to Jessica. "I have an idea. I think it will be okay."
"Go for it," she said.
He said to the picky girl. "How about this? We can give you a small amount of three toppings, enough to equal one topping."
The girl jumped up and down, squealing with delight. "Really! Really? You'd do that for me! I love you! I love you so much. Thank you!"
Her friends laughed and, in unison, a few called out "Drama Queen!"
Still, it took the poor girl another five minutes to choose the three toppings.
***
Finally, they left. Frankie and Jessica were alone.
"Wow," Frankie said. "She's a character."
"You can say that again." It had been a long time since they had a fun conversation like this.
Jessica decided enough was enough. "I miss you," she said.
"I'm right here." Then he said, "No, I understand. I've missed you too."
It was crazy how you could miss someone who was with you everyday. Now that she thought of it, the same thing happened with Taylor.
Jessica wondered if she was cursed. "I didn't mean to make you feel awkward," she said. "I was just asking you out as a friend, because I've been lonely this summer. I'm homesick. I like you…as a friend. And I thought we could hang out sometimes. I didn't mean to scare you or pressure you."
He looked at her with a mixture of blankness and bewilderment.
"What?" she asked.
"I'm confused," he said. "I mean I didn't feel scared or pressured."
Now she was confused. "You didn't?"
"I liked that you asked me out. I thought it would be fun. It's just that I was busy that night."
"But then why have you been so weird with me?"
His eyes widened in shock. "Me weird? You're the one that got all quiet."
"No," she said. "You did." But she was actually not quite sure.
"I thought you were disgusted with a guy who'd want to hang out with his mother."
"What!" she said. "No!" She couldn’t believe he believed that. But looking at his face now—she could believe he believed it. "I would never think that!"
So you thought I was upset you asked me out?"
She nodded.
"Never. I thought it was awesome."
"Then why didn't you ask me?"
"Ask you what?" he asked.
"Out."
"I was waiting for you to ask me," he said.
"Why should I ask you? I already did that."
He looked lost.
"Since I asked you first and you said no, it's up to you to ask the second time."
"Really?" he said, looking fairly embarrassed. "Is this like a rule?"
"Sort of."
He looked sheepish. "Sorry."
She smiled at him.
"I can be kind of dumb when it comes to stuff like that."
"You can say that again," she said as more customers entered. These were much more straightforward than the last. All three of them wanted chocolate and vanilla swirl in waffle cones. Frankie and Jessica worked together to serve them.
When they left, Frankie said "Hey…so…can I ask you out now?"
"Sure."
"How about tomorrow night?"
"Well," she said. "I can't. I'm going with some friends to Atlanta."
"Oh!" he said. "Awesome."
"But since you asked me out, and I said no, it's up to me to ask you out the next time."
"When will that be?" he asked
She laughed. "I don't know."
"I'm not doing anything this weekend," he said "So would it be against your rules for me to invite myself to Atlanta with you and your friends?"
"Actually, it's very much against the rules," she said. "It's very rude to invite yourself along."
"I apologize then. I'll get a hang of it someday. Or probably not."
"I'd love for you to come," she said. "Though I'll have to see if there's room in the car."
"I can drive myself," he said. Oh yeah. She had forgotten he had a car. "You can ride with me if you want," he said.
"Okay." She kind of liked that plan.
Then again, what if her friends were offended?
Jessica decided that was their problem. She was still kind of annoyed with them for abandoning her these past few weeks. Though she did forgive them. For the most part.
"Are we staying at a hotel?" he asked.
"Yeah."
"Is it against the rules for me to ask if you want to share a room with me?"
"I'm actually not sure about that one," she said. “ I can only afford the trip if I pay for a fourth of a room. So I probably need to stay with my friends." Even then it was stretching things a bit. "
I'll sleep on my own then," he said.
***
It turned out that driving with Frankie made things easier on her friends. It meant they didn't have to stop in Gainesville to pick her up.
They planned to meet in Atlanta.
The five hour drive wasn’t completely wonderful. Frankie's driving made her a little carsick and also a little terrified. At one point, she screamed.
"Are you okay?"
"It's a miracle we didn't hit that car."
"Do you think you could do better?" he challenged.
"Actually, I think I could. And I don't even have a driver's license."
"And you guys drive on the wrong side of the road."
She glared at him. Playfully.
"You really don't have a license?"
"I was planning to get one in Australia but mostly I used public transportation. Or walked."
They almost hit another car.
"I should let you get back to driving," she said. "Concentrate."
She got a FaceTime alert and answered it.
Jesse said, "Tell your friend to stop driving like a maniac."
"I can hear you myself," Frankie said.
"Good. Then I'll say it to your face. Please be more careful with my niece." "
Your niece?" Frankie said. Then after a moment. "Oh, is this your EB uncle?"
"Yeah," Jessica said. "Frankie, this is Jesse. Jesse, this is Frankie."
"I'm afraid we'll be meeting face to face…ghost to ghost," Jesse said. "Really you need to be more careful."
"I'll be more careful," Frankie said.
***
And he did try…it seemed. But then they had a few more near misses. And they got lost.
It was almost 4:00 by the time they got to the hotel. She expected her friends to be annoyed at having to wait in the lobby for them, but they had waited for less than five minutes. They didn't get lost too, but Nora had a hangover from the night before, so they had a late start.
They all hugged in the lobby. Well, not Frankie. He watched; then Jessica introduced him to her friends.
Mindy had met him before when she had bought frozen yogurt.
Jesse FaceTimed Jessica. For the Disney trip, he had kept away, but this time it seemed he wanted to be included. He stayed on the line as they walked to the room and hung out with them as they did some basic unpacking. She put the phone down on the dresser, and he entertained them with jokes and singing.
"Hey Jesse," Melissa said. "We love you, but we do need our privacy. I think we're going to have to have a rule about you being in the room with us."
"Certainly," Jesse said. "I'm a cool uncle, not a creepy one."
"I love his accent," Mindy whispered to Nora.
"And I love your accent!" Jesse said back to her.
Mindy and Nora giggled.
Jesse said his goodbyes and signed off.
"How do we know he's really gone?" Melissa asked.
"I guess we just have to trust him," Jessica said.
"Do you trust him?" Mindy asked.
"For the most part."
"I bet he'll see us naked," Nora said.
"I think you want him to see you naked," Mindy said..
Nora didn’t deny it, and they all laughed.
"Think about how many EB people have seen us naked through the years," Nora said.
"It's scary," Melissa said, looking disturbed.
"It turns me on a bit," Nora said and then called out to the room. "Any ghosts in here? Want to see me naked?" She lifted up her shirt and flashed (at least the living) with her bra.
"Let's get going," Melissa said. "We need to do the Coke thing.
***
The World of Coke was amazing. At least, Jessica and Frankie thought so.
Nora found it boring. Melissa said it was an overpriced tourist trap. And it turned out Mindy didn’t like soft drinks.
They watched an adorable short film about polar bears using Skype to talk to their OS relatives while drinking bottles of coke. One polar bear was embarrassed because her dead friend was a penguin rather than a polar bear. The other bears made fun of her, but, in the end, they all realized it was okay to have a penguin friend.
When the lights came on, Jessica saw that Frankie had a little redness in his eyes.
"Are you crying?" she asked.
"Of course not." But his voice was a bit husky.
She couldn’t help but laugh at him. Though she couldn’t blame him. The movie was touching.
After the movie, They walked around the museum. They looked at an exhibit where various OS and EB people came on a computer screen and talked about their favorite Coke memories. They also answered questions from the living audience. Some of the living people were extremely excited about the exhibit.
Jessica realized that some people didn’t have the frequent contact with ghosts like she did. Still, it was actually fun for her too.
Her favorite thing, though, was definitely the free soft drinks. Jessica, her friends, and a crowd of strangers swarmed the room,trying soda samples from around the world.
***
The only problem with drinking a lot of soft drinks was her bladder went into hyperactive mode. She peed before they left. Then on the drive back to the hotel, she had to pee again. Making things worse: Her friends had to pee as well.
They fought over who got to go first.
Jessica didn’t win.
She decided to see if she could borrow Frankie's toilet. Yes, he said. She could. After he used it. Again.
He peed. She peed.
They sat on the edges of the beds and talked. Then she peed again, and he peed after.
They went on and on like this, until there was a knock at the door.
It was Melissa. She carried Jessica's mobile. "You left this in the room."
Jessica hadn't expected to be with Frankie that long.
"Jesse's been trying to call you."
***
She called Jesse from her room after telling Frankie they'd meet him a little bit later for dinner.
"You know where I've been?" Jesse said.
"No. Where?"
"I went to see Taylor," he said.
"Oh!" She had totally forgotten that Taylor lived in Atlanta. "Did you talk to her?"
"No, I just observed."
"You mean you spied on her."
"Call it what you want." Jesse said. He sounded more serious than usual.
"Okay."
"I think you should go see her," Jesse said. "I'm worried about her."
She thought it was actually sweet that Jesse visited Taylor and that he was worried. But no. She didn't want to see Taylor. She couldn’t help but feel doing so would ruin the whole trip.
"Please," Jesse said.
"I'm here with my friends. This is supposed to be fun."
"Taylor's your friend."
This annoyed Jessica. "She's not my friend. And, why is this any of your business, anyway? " She hated the way she sounded. Leave it to Taylor to cause the first rift between her and her uncle.
"She was your friend, and she's still your roommate."
"Well, I'm actually thinking of moving back on campus." She said it like she had been thinking about it for awhile, but the idea had just popped into her head at that moment.
"Jessica, please do this. For me?"
She didn’t answer. She didn’t want to.
"Remember how you felt when you thought your friends abandoned you?" This worked against her. He won.
She sighed. "Fine. I'll ask Frankie to drive me over there."
Jesse groaned.. "Oh great. Now you’ll probably be visiting Taylor as a ghost."
***
Jessica called her ex-friend; told her she was in town; and asked if she could come over. She expected Taylor to reject her and then the whole thing could be over.
That didn’t happen.
Taylor said she wanted to get together, and yes, she was fine with Jessica coming late at night. She understood that Jessica and her friends still had to eat dinner.
Later, while eating a burrito, Jessica wondered if she should have invited Taylor to dinner.
No, it was better she met with her alone.
She hoped it wouldn’t be a long visit.
***
Frankie dropped her off at Taylor's enormous house around 10:00. "Call me when you're ready to leave."
"It shouldn't be too long," she said, dreading the whole thing. Though maybe it would be fun to see the inside of such a huge house. She wondered if it would be considered a mansion.
She rang the doorbell, hoping Taylor was right about her parents not minding a late visit.
Taylor's dad answered the door. She had met him once before when they came to visit Taylor at school. "Jessica! Our favorite Aussie! It's so wonderful to see you again!" He mispronounced Aussie, but that was okay. "How have you been?"
She chatted politely with him for a moment. Then he called up the stairs to Taylor who came down wearing her trademark gym clothes. She had lost more weight. Her legs looked like Kermit the Frog's.
"Hi," she said, rather shyly.
Jessica felt a bit shy herself.
"I'm sure you two have a lot to talk about," Taylor's dad said. "I'll let you get to it."
They stood there awkwardly near the stairs.
Jessica broke the silence. "Your dad's very nice."
"Yeah," Taylor said. "Thanks."
"So…." They both continued to just stand there.
This was such a mistake. Jessica wanted to smack her uncle.
"Do you mind if we talk upstairs?" Taylor asked. "I was sort of in the middle of doing the treadmill."
Oh, so now Taylor didn’t have to pace. She had a treadmill. Jessica thought it was rude and pathetic to exercise while a friend was visiting. But, oh well. "Sure," she said.
She followed Taylor upstairs and sat on the edge of Taylor's bed while Taylor stepped on to the treadmill.
Taylor walked. Jessica watched.
When could she leave? This was so boring, and a waste of time.
Then Taylor started running.
"You're really into that," Jessica said.
"I guess so," Taylor said. Then she ran even faster. She also increased the incline. "How was the coke thing?" She was out of breath.
"Fine." Jessica said. Was she really expected to have a conversation like this?
Good," Taylor said, panting. "How are things going?"
"They're fine. I've been—
Taylor increased the speed again. Was she even listening? At all?
Jessica couldn’t take it anymore. She stood up. "Look, I'm leaving."
"What?" Taylor said; then stumbled backwards. The treadmill stopped automatically, and Taylor fell off.
"Oh my God!" Jessica went to her ex-friend on the ground. "Are you okay?"
Taylor started giggling.
"You didn't break anything?" Jessica said. She took Taylor's hand and pulled her up.
"Sorry about that," Taylor said. Then she climbed back up on the treadmill.
"No!" This had gone way too far. She pulled Taylor off the treadmill and forced her to sit on the bed.
"What are you doing?" Taylor said, somewhat protesting. Though she didn’t offer much resistance.
"You’re going to be a normal person for five minutes and have a normal conversation with me," Jessica said.
Then Taylor started to cry. Jessica wasn’t sure why Taylor was crying, but then she started to cry as well. The both of them sat there crying together.
"I'm sorry I'm not normal," Taylor said in a teary voice.
"Taylor, I'm sorry I said that. Normal is a stupid word. But you know…." She tried to find the right words. She couldn’t. "You're just really fucked in the head lately. I miss the old you." She decided then that she really did. She liked Nora, Mindy, and Melissa. Sure. But she liked all three of them less than she liked the old Taylor.
I am really fucked," Taylor said.. She laughed a bit through her tears.
"What happened to you?" Jessica asked
"I don't know," Taylor said. "I wanted to lose some weight."
"Well, you lost plenty."
"My parents are so proud of me."
"They shouldn't be," Jessica said. "It can be dangerous to lose that much weight. You know people die from it."
"I do still eat," she said. "I mean I'm not totally starving myself."
"So you're just sort of starving yourself?"
"No. I really do eat. Today I had 900 calories."
Jessica sighed "I'm not an expert on any of this, but I'm fairly sure you're supposed to eat more than that...especially if you exercise all day."
"I know," Taylor said. "I'm just afraid I'll get fat if I stop."
Jessica didn’t know how to respond.
Taylor continued. "Sometimes, I'll go off my diet. I don't weigh my food. I eat what I want to eat."
"That's good!" Jessica said.
"No," Taylor said. "It's not. It's like I lose all control. I eat so much. It's disgusting. Like one day I ate two whole boxes of Girl Scout cookies."
"So, you're bulimic?"
Taylor shook her head. "I don't throw up. I just exercise more. One time I stayed up all night exercising."
"That's not good," Jessica said.
"I still gained weight that day."
"And your parents are proud of all this?"
"Yes, they think I have excellent willpower, and they're so proud of me for exercising so much. Especially my dad.”
Oh…goodness. "I think you might need some help," Jessica tried to be gentle.
"I really don't think I have an eating disorder, or anything like that."
"I think you might."
"No, I checked the symptoms of anorexia, you know because I was a little worried. You lose your period. I haven't. And I haven't lost the right amount of weight yet." She lifted her arm up for Jessica to see. "Anorexic people also have weird hair growing on their body. I don't."
"Well, as I said. I'm not an expert on any of this. Maybe you don't have an eating disorder. I don't know." she said. "But I'm worried about you, and I miss the old you."
Taylor burst into tears again. Jessica puts her arm around her friend and pulls her close."At least try eating a little more. Okay? And you can exercise but do stop once in a while."
Taylor nodded.
"I won't insist you get help. That's your business. For now. But I am going to talk to you a lot. I'm going to make sure you're not going crazy with the exercising. And the dieting."
"Okay."
"And don't think you can lie to me," Jessica said. "I'm going to send Jesse over to spy on you."
"Is he the one that told you to visit me?"
Jessica considered lying but then decided to be truthful. She expected Taylor to be offended, but she wasn’t."Tell him thanks for me," she said. "It was really sweet of him. He's a nice guy."
***
They talked more...for a long time. About other things. Fun stuff.
They reminisced about their favorite Offspring moments; gossiped about Taylor's hot celebrity brother-in-law; and Jessica told her about Frankie.
"So is he a friend or more than a friend?" Taylor asked.
"Definitely just a friend," Jessica said. "I'm not at all attracted to him. But when she was in the car with him on the way back to the hotel, she started to wonder if the answer she had given Taylor was the truth.
Continue to Chapter Twenty-Nine
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