Young Annabelle Series: Young Annabelle, the Truth About James, What My Heart Wants (39 page)

She gave me a look that’s best described as, ‘I’m a genius, bow down to me now!’

“I don’t know about that.” I said, worried.

“We needed to spice up your Facebook account anyways. Your pictures are all old! We need to take a hot picture of you, make things sizzle a little!” Jenna said. “Then….BAM! Friend requests galore, hello boys! Goodbye James!”

“I still don’t understand what you’re proposing.” I told her.

“Enough questions! We have a night out to plan and we have to make you hotter!” Jenna stated firmly.

“A night out, well Dean texted me earlier about going to the movies with his friends, told me I should bring friends too.” I informed her.

She snapped her fingers and pointed at me. “Yes! That’s what we’re going to do tonight. We’re going to the movies with Dean and his hopefully just as hot or reasonably hot friends. We’ll fix ourselves up and take lots of pictures. Then we’ll put it up on Facebook!”

“Will you quit it about this whole putting up a million hot pictures on Facebook thing! It sounds ridiculous!” I grimaced.

“Anna, the craziest ideas are usually the most brilliant. So sit back and let the genius do the thinking tonight! It’s going to work!” Jenna exclaimed.

“You think James’s going to see those pictures?” I asked her.

“He will once those girls see the hot and new Anna step out for the first time in all her glory! They’ll be like a pack of hyenas out for fresh meat. Guess who you play?” Jenna giggled deliriously.

It was contagious, because then I started to giggle. “You’re crazy you know that?”

“Really?” She giggled some more.

I nodded.

“Thank you! Nicest thing you’ve ever called me.” Jenna said then clapped her hands loudly. “Alright, first order of business, text Dean, tell him tonight is on like Donkey Kong or whatever the saying is!”

“Then what?” I asked.

She puts her hands on her hips and tilted her head to the side, exuding attitude from every pore in her being. “Then we turn into hot bitches! Then it’s photo time, get your poses ready, girl!”

CHAPTER 31

“One more!” Jenna pleaded after checking the last hundred pictures we just took on her iPhone.

I shook my head. “No, I’m tired of posing!”

“Please!” Jenna snorted. “You love seeing the brand new you, looking all fabulous in every frame!”

After going home and grabbing a few items for tonight, Jenna quickly came back and we spent the last couple of hours choosing an outfit that would showcase my new figure in all its glory.

“I don’t know about this?” I stressed, getting up in front of the mirror for the millionth time. She absolutely insisted that I wear her short A-line black skirt. I shimmied, flouncing the fabric, and then cringed seeing the amount of leg showing as the fabric bounced into the air. I wasn’t even shaking it hard. If I actually wore this outside, I probably couldn’t do more than walk or else risk giving everyone a show.

“I’ve never shown this much leg before.” I confessed, eyeing her through the mirror. Jenna ignored me and grabbed the hair spray, sprinkling her newly wavy hair.

For the thousandth time.

I rolled my eyes and plugged my nose. “Don’t you think you’ve had enough?”

Jenna snorted, shaking her head. “No! In fact your waves need a little touch up too.” She moved the can towards me abruptly and sprayed like a madwoman.

I coughed and waved her away. “I’m choking!” 

“Good, that means you have just the right amount on.” She smiled and placed the spray can down on my desk.

“My room is a gas chamber!” I choked.

“The price you pay to look hot Anna.” Jenna informed knowingly.

It was my turn to snort. “Hot? I’m decent at best.”

“Shut it, you look hot as hell, in fact don’t move, I need to take another picture.”  She reached for her phone on my bed.

My eyes rolled. “Haven’t you already taken enough?”

She ignored me and positioned her iPhone. “Give me a hot pose, something that screams, come and get me boys!”

I laughed. “What? I’m not a stripper!”

“No, but in that skirt, you could be…..so scandalous!” Jenna grinned slyly.

Instantly my hands pulled at the skirts hem. “You said it wasn’t that short!” I stressed.

“Yeah, I lied.” She said nonchalantly. “And no, you can’t take it off, it makes the outfit complete.”

Completing the outfit?
I stared back at my reflection as Jenna took photos of me from every angle. She paired the short skirt with the black top I wore to Peter’s party last month. The tank top elongated my newly thin waist even though it was a little loose from the last time I wore it, but that was understandable.

Let us not forget the boobs. Yeah I
’d lost weight, but the ‘girls’ only decreased in size from the sides.

No more side boob fat for me!
I grinned remembering.

My phone beeped and Jenna stopped taking pictures. “Is that him?”

I checked my phone and nodded. “Yeah, he’s outside.”

“Let’s go, we have a whole night of pictures to take!” Jenna announced, showing me her phone. “I’m making this picture your profile pic.”

The picture was of me sitting on my bed right after she had put the final touches in my makeover.

Great!

*~*~
*

“Wow.” Dean murmured scanning me up and down as he rounded his car in the movie theatres parking lot. “Anna, where have you been hiding?”

I looked away shyly. “I’m still the same girl.”

“Only hotter, “Jenna stated as she got out of the backseat of Dean’s Honda. She smoothed the back of her black sundress. She looked so good. Her long dark hair was in a high pony tail, minimal makeup on, unlike mine which she happily slathered with all the trimmings, making me look like a bratz doll. I didn’t know how I felt about that. I’d never looked this shiny and put together, even though I paired the outfit with my Denim jacket and black chucks.

There was no way I was wearing high heels to the movies. That would have been stupid and impractical, especially with all the stairs.

Dean leaned against the hood of his car, smiling at me. I smiled shyly back at him.

“Don’t move!” Jenna ordered, pulling out her
iPhone and pointing it at us. “Annabelle, sit next to Dean.”

My eyes rolled and I slid next to Dean, eying him apologetically. “Sorry, she’s trying to spice up my Facebook page.”

“That’s cool.” Dean grinned, putting his arm around me.

“Smile guys.” Jenna ordered, snapping the photo. “Got it!”

Dean lowered his arm and pulled out his phone.

“What are you doing?” I grinned, extending my arm back to lean on it.

“Friending you.” Dean said, playing with his phone.

I blinked. “Really?”

“Yep,” Jenna answered for him. “Just got it and I’m accepting him for you right now!”

Jenna had my account open on her phone so she could add pictures as she saw fit. My profile pic was the first thing she changed. It was a far cry from my original profile pic, a photo of me when I was fourteen in a witch’s costume for Halloween.

“Just uploaded the photo, and Dean, totally just tagged you now!” Jenna confirmed.

“Great.” I muttered, feeling my face heat at an accelerated rate. Her enthusiasm was killing me. “Can we go now?”

Dean laughed. I could feel his eyes on me. “You two are funny.”

“And hot.” Jenna added as she pulled me off the hood and linked her arm through mine. We headed to the theatre’s entrance.

“That’s for sure,” Dean said smoothly, right behind us.

“What else have you been adding on my page?” I whispered to Jenna.

“Oh nothing really, just a few updates on your timeline, accepting a few friend requests.” Jenna answered.

My jaw dropped. “Who? Y
ou didn’t say anything about friend requests.” I hissed.

“Relax, it’s no big deal, it’s just a few people from the swim team.” Jenna explained, looking straight ahead.

“Like who?” I pressed.

“Like, Don, Tina, Jerry, Sally, Dana,” Jenna said. “And Latisha.”

“Latisha!” My jaw dropped, again. “Why would she friend request me, we don’t talk.”

Jenna snorted. “You think she cares about that, she just likes having a lot of ‘friends’ on Facebook, and also because she’s nosy. I put our pictures up on my timeline and that’s how she found you.”

“That’s it, log out of my account.” I ordered her.

“You’re no fun!” Jenna pouted, tapping her phone. “There, all logged out.”

My eyes rolled. “It might be too late, the damage is already done.”

“You should be kneeling before me, praying for my thanks. I saved you!” Jenna exclaimed dramatically, then chuckled.

“Whatever.” I muttered then twisted my neck catching Dean’s amused expression.

“You guys,” Dean chuckled. “Are interesting.”

“And you love it!” Jenna snorted.

“That too!” Dean grinned, jogging up to us. We crossed the parking lot and entered the crowded theatre. The excitement of everyone around us was contagious, even though I still felt slightly hollow. The last time I came to the movies was with James. It was supposed to be our thing, he’d promised that. He didn’t keep that promise for too long along with all the other ones, always having his reasons for doing things that seemed sketchy.

I took a deep breath and casted away the thoughts that came with being at the theatre.  I shouldn’t be thinking about him anyways, it wasn’t healthy. I was out with my friends, especially with a boy who was interested in me. I needed to focus my attention on that instead of something that clearly just wasn’t meant to be.

We followed Dean as he led us to the waiting line at the Box Office.

“Joe!” Dean called at a tall, very familiar figure busy staring up at the movie time board. His dark brown hair was smoothed back and he was wearing a dark blue button down with black jeans.

Joe? Then it came to me, he was Dean’s best friend. The last time I saw him was at the park where he got into a fight with James.

Joe faced us with a huge grin. He slapped hands with Dean, who then introduced us. Joe smiled at me for a second as he remembered who I was. When his eyes scanned over to Jenna, they twinkled, seeming mesmerized.

“Hey.” Joe said to her, seeming captivated, his eyes never leaving hers.

I stared at her, amused at her
just
as captivated expression. Jenna gave him a small smile. “Hi.”

Well look whose boy struck now!
I thought, stifling a huge smile.

“Let’s get tickets!” Dean said loudly, breaking their stare off. He eyed me and I could see that he’d caught on and thought it was funny too.

Joe broke eye contact first. “Yeah, tickets.” He coughed. We got in line, the boys in front, Jenna and I behind them. I shoved my shoulder playfully into hers, eyeing her like ‘I know’.

“Shut up.” She muttered, rolling her eyes.

“Wait, let me get my phone out, I can take a picture of you two and you can put it on your Facebook page! Then you can friend him and tag him in it.” I giggled, pretending to reach for my phone. Her hand shot out, stopping me.

“Don’t you dare.” She hissed, her face turning red. This was new. Jenna didn’t get flustered this easily. I guess someone’s got a crush.

Today will go down in the books. The day Jenna turned red over a boy that had nothing to do with being angry.

I quietly laughed as she seemed to be having a hard time breathing. I wanted to yell out congratulations to her, welcoming her to the world of crushing on boys.

But because I was a good friend, I decided not to.

She should totally learn from me.

When it’s our turn to buy tickets, the boys pushed themselves forward and crowded the front register. Jenna and I tried to squeeze through to pay for our own tickets, but the boys weren’t having it, barely acknowledging us as we pleaded with them to contribute. The boys paid and the ticket agent slid over four tickets. Dean took two and Joes took two.

Jenna and I gave each other bewildered looks, like we couldn’t believe that had just happened.

Dean handed me a ticket. “Here you go.”

I took it from his hand, his fingers grazing my skin purposefully. “Dean,” I murmured. “Thank you.”

He waved me off like it was no big deal, but looked away embarrassed.

I glanced at Jenna who was taking the ticket out of Joe’s hand slowly. Clearly he’s worn her down. They stared at each other longer than normal.

“Hey, let’s get snacks!” I yelled, breaking their trance. “Jenna and I will buy the snacks!”

*~*~*

Half way through the movie, my phone vibrated. I had my phone in my jacket pocket, which was resting on my lap. For some strange reason, I had a feeling ‘who’ it could be.

I knew it wasn’t mom or dad, they were out with their friends, and I told them I was staying over at Jenna’s tonight.

Besides Jenna and my parents, there was only one other person who actually called and texted me.

James.

My heart started beating faster. I wiped my sweaty palms against my jacket. It started vibrating again and the sound was more noticeable because the scene on was a quiet one. I felt Jenna nudge my shoulder. I glanced at her questioning glare.

“Who is it?” She mouthed. I shrugged. I glanced to my right at Dean, he was really into the movie but quickly noticed me staring at him. I gave him a small smile before turning back to the movie. My arm took up most of the arm rest and I felt his fingers rub at my skin, taking my mind off the vibrating phone on my lap.

My phone continued to vibrate for the next few minutes. Jenna got up and grabbed my arm.

“Bathroom.” She whispered to the boys. Joe was sitting next to her and nodded.

She dragged me to the bathroom and pulled out her hand. “Phone please.”

I handed over my phone without looking at the screen. “Who is it?”

“Who do you think?” Jenna smirked, tapping away.

I blinked. “James?”

“You got that right, golden boy has been texting and calling you like crazy!” Jenna sneered.

“How many?” I asked.

“He’s called you twice and sent you five texts in the past ten minutes. Do I have permission to read your texts?” Jenna asked.

I thought about the type of texts going back and forth between James and me. I didn’t know if I wanted her to read the intimate details between us. That’s if they even were intimate. He could have sent me
a text saying that he wasn’t interested in me and that last night I was just a matter of convenience for him. I’d rather her read the harsh words than me.

I nodded and she opened the texts, quickly scanning them.

Jenna snorted. “Well will you look at this! Mr. Smarty pants wants to know where you are right now.”