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Not A Possibility
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All Grown Up Not My Life
AudreyI wandered into a late breakfast on Wednesday morning. Annabelle was already at work at the bookstore, and I’d kind of been hoping that Mom and Clayton would leave as well. It wasn’t like I was trying to avoid the two of them. There was no avoiding them when we all lived together in such a small space. But I’d kind of been hoping to have a quiet breakfast by myself. A breakfast that my dietician would approve of, too.As it was, I was already starting to feel the effects of eating unhealthy food since I’d arrived here. I’d tried to limit myself, but there was only so much that I could do without offending Mom. I couldn’t seem to get it through her head that I couldn’t eat like I used to when I was a teenager. Not while maintaining the level that I wanted to maintain to go back and get the sort of roles that I wanted to.Of course, part of the trouble I was having at the moment was just motivating myself. Homesickness had sunk in hard, and I couldn’t help but want to be anywhere
All Grown Up Have To Get Back
AudreyI had to get out of the house, I decided. I couldn’t sit here wallowing, or I was going to drive myself crazy. What did I used to like to do around town when I was younger? I thought back.Then, the perfect idea came to me. I headed to Annabelle’s room. I thought about it as her room now, even though the queen-sized mattress had been temporarily removed and twin beds had been put back in, just like when we were kids.I perused the shelf of books that she had on display. There were tons of them. She said she got a lot of them for free for working at the bookstore. I hadn’t heard of half of them, but finally, I found one that I vaguely remembered having wanted to read at one point in my life. I grabbed that, dropped it into a bag, and headed into town. Even with my ankle, it wasn’t far to walk, and I used to do this all the time.I looked down main street, which looked different in the daylight than it had when I had gone out to Gabby’s the other night. I hadn’t really been payin
All Grown Up Only Friends
JesseI was going through one of the delivery slips, checking it against my order slip and making sure that we had gotten everything that we had ordered when Joe came behind the counter and nudged me in the ribs. “Well, would you look at that,” he said, nodding toward the window.I grunted but didn’t say anything, even though I knew that, in itself, was probably damning. The truth was, I had seen Audrey already. She had walked by the shop not that long ago on the other side of the street. I had found myself hoping that she would stop and turn, that she would come inside. But why the hell would she do that? She probably didn’t know the first thing about hardware, and it wasn’t like she was going to suddenly decide to build something for her mom’s place.Although come to think of it, she was probably bored out of her mind here in Aberdeen. It would probably do her some good to have a project to work on. Not that I would ever suggest that to her. I didn’t know what she would think of the
All Grown Up It Slips Out
JesseIf I went anywhere else in town, I’d not only be leaving the shop in Joe and Chance’s hands—and who knew what might happen then—but everyone in town would wonder why I wasn’t there in the middle of a workday. Joe would probably be more than happy to tell them why I was gone.Besides, there was a part of me that wanted to use this as the excuse to go and talk to Audrey. She might not like me like that, but I still liked her, and she was my friend.I slowly walked over toward the park.Audrey saw me coming and put her book down, smiling up at me. “I was wondering if you were actually going to walk over here, or if you were just going to stand there watching me,” she said teasingly, and I realized abruptly that while my whole inner struggle had been going on, she had been sitting there watching me.I ducked my head, kicking at the grass. “I didn’t want to disturb you,” I muttered. “You looked, I don’t know, peaceful.”“Honestly, this book is terrible,” Audrey said, holding up some
All Grown Up Digging A Hole
AudreyThe minute the words were out of my mouth, I wished that I could take them back. Was there any possibility that Jesse hadn’t heard me clearly? From the shocked look on his face, he clearly had. Oh brother.“I mean, maybe not the biggest crush,” I immediately said. “I don’t know if it really was a crush at all. It was more like, you know, we just spent a lot of time together, and everyone I knew who spent a lot of time together with a member of the opposite sex, they were basically dating, right? And everyone I guess sort of thought that you and I were, you know, an item. That’s all. I never really thought that we were. I mean, it’s not like I wanted to be with you or anything. I just thought that we’d be good together. That’s all.”I realized that I was digging the hole deeper and deeper, and I felt mortified. My cheeks were burning, and I wished that I had never brought up that day in the first place. Hell, I wasn’t drunk now. Why even start rehashing all the times that Jesse
All Grown Up Not A Date
AudreyI knew that the original plan was for six months here, but the longer I was here, the more certain I became that I’d be able to go back sooner. I was coming up with hobbies and exploring other interests just like the director had asked. I had done the research that he wanted me to do. And my ankle wasn’t bothering me at all anymore, really. It was feeling pretty darn good. Mom still wanted to get me in to see a doctor about it, but I had a feeling I was going to be cleared to start training again sooner rather than later.It was a good feeling to have, but it meant that now wasn’t the time to start something with Jesse, who was clearly going to stay here in Aberdeen for the rest of his life, working at his father’s store and driving the same truck that he’d had since we were teenagers.There was nothing wrong with that, either—not for him—but I wasn’t going to be sticking around here. No sense in getting attached on either of our parts.Finally, I decided to put on a simple bla
All Grown Up Bowling
JesseI smiled over at Audrey as we pulled out of her mom’s driveway. “It must be nice to get to spend a lot of time with your family. Even if you did have to leave Paris and come back here for six months to do it.”Audrey cocked her head to the side. “I guess,” she said slowly. “I mean, it’s great to see them. I just can’t help feeling like, I don’t know…” She trailed off, and I could tell that whatever it was that she was feeling, she was reluctant to talk to me about it.“Come on, you know that you can tell me,” I told her.She sighed. “This might sound bad, but I just can’t help feeling like there isn’t a place for me here anymore. I mean, things have changed here since I’ve been gone. That’s for sure. But I can’t help thinking that maybe I’ve changed more than everyone else.” She paused. “God, that makes me sound so full of myself, doesn’t it?”I frowned, thinking about that. “To be honest, I kind of understand that feeling,” I told her. I took a deep breath. I hadn’t really talk
All Grown Up The Night is Young
JesseWe finally paused to grab food, although with the score tied at one game each, we were already promising one another more rounds of play afterward. “God, I forgot to ask if you were still on a dancer’s diet,” I said suddenly as we looked over the pizza menu.“It’s fine,” Audrey said.“No, seriously, I’m sorry,” I said. “I should have thought about that.”“And taken me where?” Audrey asked, raising an eyebrow at me. “I don’t think Aberdeen has any low-fat, no-carb, whatever-whatever places where I could stick to my diet. I knew what I was getting myself into.” She took a deep breath. “I’ve been pretty lax on my diet since I got here. And I mean to be better. I don’t want to give it all up. But at the same time, well…” She trailed off again, looking embarrassed.“Well what?” I asked her.She gave me a tentative smile. “The director gave me a challenge when he was sending me here,” she said. “He told me to treat this like a research project. To find some hobbies and, like, figure o
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