Free First Kiss (Heavy Influence) by Ann Marie Frohoff

mom’s muffled voice informed me.
    Shit. Are you kidding me? “Alright, tell her to come in.” I threw off the blankets, sat up, and before I knew it Rachel was standing there, glaring at me.
    “What’s up, man? What’s so important that you had to wake me up?” I stood, grabbing a shirt off the back of my chair and pulled it on.
    “Really? Man?” she huffed, shoulders slumping.
    “Dude, what is up with you?”
    “Me? What about you?”
    “Are you kidding me, Rachel? I was up all night, writing.” I turned, holding my arms out pleading. “Come on. What’s up? What’s this all about?”
    “You totally blew me off, Jake. You fuck around with me and then you ignore me?”
    “Ok, wait a second. I could say the same thing about you. You fucked around with me too, Rachel.”
    I knew trying to put it on her was a dick move, but I didn’t even care. I’d had enough of this.
    “Yeah, but I’m not blowing you off.”
    I stood there, mind racing to find something to smooth over our exchange.
              “Look, I don’t mean to blow you off. Come on, I’m just doin’ my thing. You have no idea the shit that’s about to go down – I have to focus.”
    She stood silent as her eyes searched me up and down, then they roamed around my room. Slowly, she began to walk around, searching as if she finally sensed that someone else had been there. My stomach sank. I could still smell Aly’s scent on me and Rachel could probably smell it too. I backed away and went into the bathroom, turning on the water. I rinsed my face. I didn’t want to deal with the drama of it all. I walked out, drying my face as I waited for her to say something.
    We stood there, silently staring at each other. She was trying to read me. I didn’t know what to say.
    She broke the silence first.
    “I don’t want things to change, Jake.” Her voice was void of her usual bitchy tone, which only made this harder. It’d have been easier to ignore her if she was being her usual overdramatic self.
    “Rachel, nothing’s gonna change if we just move past what happened.”
    “What am I supposed to do with that?”
    She moved close to me, taking my hand. Her fake nails raked against my palm. I looked down at her perfectly painted red lips and could only think of Aly. I laughed at the absurdity of the moment, gently pulling my hand away from hers and grabbing her shoulder.
    “We’re gonna chalk up that blurred night to something that just happened and chill. I don’t want things to change.”
    “Then don’t ignore me,” she said, standing on her tiptoes trying to kiss me. I turned my head away, and she stiffened.
    I could hear her breath escape her.
    I backed away. “Rachel, I’m sorry. I have a million things on my mind and it’s got nothing to do with you.”
    Her eyes flashed with disappointment. I waited for her to berate me but she surprised me once again with silence. Sadly, I knew it would never be the same between us and it was only gonna get worse.
    “I’m sorry too,” she said quietly. She kept looking around my room and walked toward my bed. Panic filled me. My eyes dashed around the bed and floor, looking for any trace of Aly. I didn’t see anything.
    “Look, Rachel, I don’t’ mean to blow you off but I gotta meet with Notting. Apparently we got some sort of a licensing deal for a movie or something.”
    Her eyes lit up. “Wow, that’s awesome. Which one, what’s it all about?”
    “I don’t know anything yet,” I said, maybe a little too harshly.
    “Geez. Ok. Grumpy.” She shook her head. “I’ll just talk to you later then. Um, and just ignore those text messages. You obviously didn’t read them yet.”
    “Yeah, ok.” I replied, grabbing the back of my neck and rubbing it. The tension was giving me a headache.
    “Is there anything I can do to help?”
    “No, Rachel, there isn’t.” I sighed deeply, deciding just to lay my thoughts out there. “Don’t worry about helping with anything