The silence that followed was as uncomfortable as could be, and when Curtis picked up on all the negativity, he stood and walked to the restroom. Once the door shut behind him, I grabbed a couch cushion and threw it at Jack’s head. He ducked and stared up at me, murmuring, “What the…?”
I told him to leave Curtis alone. He protested he hadn’t done anything. I reminded him he’d been calling him by the wrong name on purpose. He just chuckled, and Naya told us to lower our voices. I told him he was scaring Curtis, intimidating him, making him feel uncomfortable, and to hurt my feelings, Jack responded, throwing the pillow back at me, “I don’t know, he seems to like me better than you.”
“Does not!” I protested, hurling the pillow back.
“He said he was my fan!” Jack responded.
“He’s just being nice. Your YouTube videos, your movie, I’ll bet they’re all trash!”
He threw the pillow at me again as he shouted that his film wasthe shit, and I told him I was going to put it up on the internet where people could download it for free so nobody would bother going to see it at the theater. We continued bickering back and forth until Curtis emerged, holding his phone, and announced, “It’s getting late, I hadn’t realized. Sorry, Jenna, but I need to go. It’s been a long day, and I’m dying for a shower.”
“Sure,” I said, “I’ll send you an email with all of our notes.”
I followed Curtis out, and when Jack tried to stand, I pressed a finger into his chest, hard enough to elicit anouch. He tried to swat my hand, but I dodged him just as Curtis, who hadn’t noticed a thing, said, “Hey, it was nice hanging out with you guys,” and Naya responded, “Likewise!”
Jack rolled his eyes and got one last dig in: “See you round, Curly.”
I smacked him with the pillow again. I didn’t care if Curtis saw. Instead of tossing it back, Jack grabbed it and held it to his face, his shoulders moving up and down with laughter.
On his way out, Curtis murmured, “I’m dying to hear you guys’ full story, just so you know.”
“Buy me a burger and maybe I’ll tell you,” I replied.
“That’s all? Sounds worth it.” He gave me one of his comforting hugs. “We could make it tonight, if you want. I was going to ask you if you wanted to come bowling with the guys anyway. The two of us can hang out after.”
“I’d love that.”
He patted me on the cheek and said, “Cool. I’ll text you.”
I shut the door behind him and stomped back to the living room. Naya looked uncomfortable, Jack looked smug, and I tried to ignore them both, but when I made it down the hall to the bedroom, I couldn’t help but turn around and growl at him, “I hate you.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” he responded. Why was he so good at provoking me, and why was I so bad at giving it back to him?
“You’re a child,” I fired back. “Curtis will probably never want to come back here again.”
“Oh, no,” he said. “Poor Curtis. I’m sooo sad.”
I told him I’d never say anything if he came here with one of his girlfriends. He told me he’d never disrespect me enough to do something like that. I told him that there would be no issue, that I was mature enough to understand the entire world didn’t revolve around me, probably because I hadn’t been raised with a silver spoon in my mouth.
“Loser,” he replied.
“Dumbass!”
“Loser.”
“Dickhead!”
“Loser,” he repeated.
“Moron!”
Jack turned to Naya. “I think she loves me.”
Naya smiled and said, “I promised I wouldn’t get in the middle of this.”
I called him an idiot one more time, and he told me I was breaking his heart. As I slammed the door to the bedroom behind me, I heard him shout: “I love you, too, idiot!”
A few hours later, Naya was sitting opposite me on the bed with her legs crossed and rollers in her hair, which made her hard to take seriously. She was supposed to be going to dinner with Will that night. But in that moment, she was more concerned with digging into my friendship with Curtis.
