Chapter 22: Considering

The following day, Jen was approached again by Michael but she decided to ignore him. He was being very persistent this time and kept asking her out, but his actions just annoyed Jen and she became even more determined to ignore him. He was dense and made Jen feel very uncomfortable because of how he randomly approached her and how forceful he was being.

She was feeling very frustrated by the time she arrived at the cafeteria. She went straight for the two girls who seemed to have also recently arrived. Michael who was following her decided against following her to her group of friends and left to do his own business.

"Who is that guy?" Nancy asked curiously as she watched Michael's back disappear in the crowd.

"Some guy from class, he started bothering me, since yesterday," Jen said as she sat with the two girls.

"Does he like you?" Leanna asked making Jen shake her head in disbelief.

"No, he hasn't said anything of the sort. Maybe interested but I really can't make such a bold assumption" Jen replied hurriedly making Nancy laugh.

"Right, anyway, did you go on a date with Lucas yesterday? he was all dressed up when he came to pick you up last night" Nancy asked

"No date, he is busy with work nowadays, so I won't be seeing him as often" Jen took an apple from her bag and went ahead to eat it. She was hungry since she skipped breakfast but she couldn't bring herself to eat the food in the cafeteria. It was not bad, it just wasn't to her taste.

"You should have had fun with him when you had the chance," Leanna said flatly. Her statement made Jen feel a bit complicated. She remembered how she said no when he asked for a kiss the previous day, and even though he smiled, he looked slightly disappointed.

She felt a bit bad but she didn't want to behave like they were a couple before she even made a decision on if she was willing to have a relationship at this point in her life. She did not want to lead him on and she felt a bit guilty that she had allowed their situation to get to that point.

Jen's mood hit a new low as she thought about this. She couldn't even taste her apple anymore. Leanna managed to ruin her appetite. Feeling annoyed she gave Leanna a wronged look before she stood up to leave.

"Where are you going?" Nancy shouted after her.

"Home!" Jen shouted back and waved at them as she walked out of the cafeteria. She really did look graceful, no matter what she did.

She would have preferred to stay in the library and study but she wasn't in the mood at all. She briskly walked, since she did not want to be under the sun any longer than necessary. She put on her earphones again and turned on some music as she made her back to her house. She was completely unaware that she was being followed.

She finally arrived home after twenty minutes and threw herself on the couch. She felt so tired it wasn't funny. She laid down for a while before she dozed off.

She woke up again after an hour and decided to fix herself a sandwich as she was hungry again. She went to the kitchen and prepared the ingredients before she made herself two sandwiches. She returned to the couch with her plate and turned on the television before picking up her phone.

She went through a couple of texts she received from her friends back home and replied to the message she got from her brother. She also saw a message from her sister asking her to check her e-mail regularly.

After seeing the message she realised she didn't check her mail since she arrived. She sent a message promising to check it every day, then continued to go through her chats. She noticed that Lucas did not text her at all that day. Had she gotten spoiled by him? She had already become used to his presence that she missed him.

She sighed and put her plate on the coffee table before laying down again. Her mood was down once more. She started to seriously think about dating him. Tyler had really been a bad experience for her and she was traumatized by their twisted relationship.

She thought to herself that it was probably about time she moved on from her past. Even though after being with Tyler made her very cautious of people, she did not want to miss out on life because of him. Jen made up her mind then that she'll accept Lucas' proposal, but another dilemma came up. How was she supposed to bring it up?

Jen was feeling very frustrated with herself. She sat up and picked up her plate to continue eating. Since she had nothing to do she decided on cleaning up her house and ended up doing it for two hours.

She collapsed on the floor from exhaustion when she was done and picked up her phone again. She still hadn't received any texts from Lucas. She paused for a moment then decided to check on him.

[Hi] she sent and stood up to go shower. Lucas had replied almost immediately.

[Hi beautiful how are you?]

[I'm okay, are you still at work?] Jen asked

[Yes, I've been in a meeting for hours already]

[Oh, then let me not bother you. I was just checking up on you] Jen replied finally understanding why he had been so quiet.

[Really? Is it because you missed me?] Lucas teased. Jen paused for a bit before reply.

[Yes.] Jen sent the message and went to shower. She knew Lucas would tease her, so she sent the text without really thinking.

She really wished she could take it back. Lucas enjoyed teasing her but she wasn't used to it. He was probably going to say something to embarrass her even more. She ended up scrubbing herself harder than necessary as she thought of how he was going to respond.