No Judgment Zone

***READERS: Thursday's post will be pushed back to Friday this week***

“No girlfriend stories!” I warned Jonah.

We stood at the end of the security line at the airport. Jonah was on his way to LA for one last week of interviews and promoting his new show before it premiered. We'd done a few trial interviews and every time he teasingly added in an embarrassing story about me.

“I can't make any promises!” He smiled as he leaned down to kiss me one last time.

“Jonah, we need to get going” Priyal, Jonah's assistant, called out to him from the line.

He picked up his carry on and went through security. We waved goodbye once he'd finally gotten through.

I sighed, already missing him. I looked over to see a couple of other girls standing behind me. They'd just waved off their significant others, and like me, were standing still staring at the space where their lover was once standing. I shook myself back to reality when I realized I was being 'one of those girls'. Not that there was anything wrong with being so in love, I just never pictured myself as someone who publicly displayed my emotions.

I spent the rest of my day locked up in my apartment studying for midterms.

That is until there was a knock on my door that night. It was Jaime.

“Lynn!” He shouted.

My eyes widened and my arms flung around him as I embraced him into a hug. “Jaime!”

It had been a while since we'd seen each other. We always kept in touch regularly through text and calls, but with the crazy hours he was working at the hospital and my school schedule, we were rarely ever able to find time to hang out.

“What are you doing here? It's a weekend night, shouldn't you be out partying?” I asked as we went into the living room. He laid out on one couch while I did the same on the other.

“Oh my God, Lynn! I have so much to tell you!” He cupped his hands over his mouth as if he'd already spilled a secret.

I propped myself back up on my elbow and looked over at him. “Tell me!”

He swiftly sat back upright, “Okay, but no judgment!”

I held up my hands, “No judgment.” I agreed.

“Okay, so remember that guy at the hospital I told you about?”

“The one who keeps messing up the charts?”

“Ugh, no! Not that dumbas...don't remind me of him. My blood pressure skyrockets whenever I think of how brainless he is.” Jaime held his finger tips to his temple.

“Okay, then the guy who says he isn't gay, but you know he is because his scrubs are two sizes too small?”

“Yes!” Jaime clapped his hands together. “Martin!”

I giggled at Jaime's enthusiasm.

“Turns out Martin's college roommate's cousin's best friend is Rebecca, one of my old friends from school.”

“Okay” I nodded my head, trying to keep up.

“Well, Rebecca has this lame ass 'Welcome to Fall' sweater parties every year for as long as I've known her. I usually skip out on it, because what the fuck?” He shook his head. “But when I heard Martin talking about it, I was like 'Oh hells yeah I'm going!'”

“Of course” I continued to nod.

“So skip to the middle of the night when I spot Jebrone. I had no idea what he was doing there so I started spying on him. Apparently he knows Martin.” Jaime smiled mischievously.

“Oh God. I don't know if I like where this is going..”

“Well, as I'm watching Jebrone and Martin get a little cozy, which is another story I'm gonna have to get into later, I noticed Jebrone get a text and walk out of the party. I followed him out into an alley where a blacked out suburban was parked. The window rolled down and I saw Poppy sitting inside...”

Jaime continued to stare at me, waiting for my reaction. “Okay?” I didn't understand what was going on. “That's Jebrone's boyfriend's cousin”

“Uh, uh, uh” Jaime waved his finger back and forth. “That's what I thought. Until, and here comes the no judgment zone, I texted a picture of Jebrone and Martin to Henry to piss him off. He told me they'd broken up weeks ago.”

I sat quietly as I thought about why Henry hadn't told me about him and Jebrone breaking up. Then again they were off and on almost every other week. Or maybe he had told me, but I'd blocked him out. I was starting to get pretty good at that.

“And, if I remember correctly, Jebrone hates Poppy. Even if the two were still a couple, why would he be meeting her in a back alley?”

We sat quietly and stared at each other. Jaime brought up a valid point. Jebrone had spent many nights dodging dinners and parties when Poppy was in town earlier this year, but why the sudden change? And especially after he was no longer with Henry?

After Jaime left that night, I went back to studying. At least I tried to go back to studying. I couldn't stop thinking about what he'd told me.

It was Monday morning when I walked into school. The lobby was a little more crowded than usual since the hospital attached to our building was holding a career fair.

I spotted Henry and Sarah from across the room and made my way over to them.

“Hey!” They both greeted me.

“Henry, why didn't you tell me you broke up with Jebrone?” I cut straight to the chase.

He looked at Sarah confused and then back at me. “I told you mate, thanks for not listening.” He rolled his eyes and continued walking through the crowd. “I'm sure that bloke Jaime sparked your sudden interest.”

“Well” I said as a passerby ran into my shoulder. I grabbed it and gently massaged it, angry that they hadn't even turned around to apologize. “I'm more interested in why Jebrone is meeting with Poppy.”

“What?” Henry and Sarah both stopped and looked at me. Something was telling me they had no idea about the situation.

“Yeah, Jaime said he saw the two meeting in an alley way.”

“He doesn't know what he saw. Jebrone hates Poppy. I tried for years to make those two play nice.” Henry said

“Lynn, maybe Jaime just made it up? He is a bit of a drama queen isn't he?” Sarah shrugged her shoulder.

“Jaime is a lot of things, but one thing he isn't, is a liar.”

Henry turned towards me again. “So then you believe him?”

“Of course I do! A lot of strange things are happening since Poppy's been in town, and I'm going to get to the bottom of it!” I turned around abruptly, but ran right into someone walking by.

I knocked over some papers and bent down to pick them up. When I stood back up I dropped the papers again at the shock of who was standing in front of me.

“Oh....” Connor spoke quietly as he stared back with an equal reaction.

“...shit” I mumbled to myself.


***READERS: Thursday's post will be pushed back to Friday this week***