When the doorbell rang, I sighed.

Marie usually doesn't show up unannounced. Unless it is the pizza delivery guy, no one visits my mother. I reluctantly got out of bed and made my way downstairs.

I opened the door.

A man stood on my front steps. His teeth were unnaturally white. Like Ross from Friends, I'm sure that if he was in a dark room, his teeth would glow. He was wearing a simple suit and his hair was slicked back like a used car salesman.

"Can I help you?" I asked him awkwardly. 

"Hello sweetheart." He smiled brightly at me. "Is your mother home?" 

I looked at him disgusted. "First off, don't call me sweetheart. You don't know me. Secondly, of course my mother is home. She never leaves the house." 

"Luna!" I heard an obviously fake voice from behind me. "This is the guy I was telling you about last week." 

"I have no idea what you are talking about." I said honestly.

"I told you," She said with a fake smile that could rip her face in half, "that I was talking to a guy at work while we were eating dinner."

I thought back. I vaguely remember something like that, but I'm still kind of mad at her. "Doesn't ring a bell." I shrugged. 

"It's fine, Cindy." The man said. Is it just me or is it really weird when you hear someone call your parents by their first name. It just sounds unnatural. 

"Well Norman, this is my daughter, Luna. Luna, this is Norman." She introduced us. 

I want no part in this. If she wants to move on and start dating again, I don't care. Just as long as she keeps me out of it. "Can I go back to my room now?" 

My mother clicked her tongue. "I was thinking that we could all have dinner together." I could tell by the tone of her voice that it was an order.

"I actually ate already." I shot back. 

"Well, you are looking a little skinny. Another meal won't hurt." Her eyes narrowed at me and I sighed in defeat.

My mother lead Norman into the dinning room and I trailed behind them. I subtly poked my stomach. I am not too skinny.

"Have a seat, Norman dear." She led him to the head of the table. He sat in the exact spot as my Dad did. I frowned. 

She walked off into the kitchen. 

The doorbell rang again. 

"Luna, could you get that?" My mother yelled.

I rolled my eyes, but stood up from my chair without argument. 

I opened the door and was shocked to see Josh. 

"Hey." I dragged the word out. 

"You forgot, didn't you?" My red haired friend smirked, amused. 

"Of course not!" I exclaimed. "I would never forget such an occasion." 

"The project, Luna." Josh clarified. "You forgot to give me your address, so I got it from Marie." 

"Who's at the door?" My mother walked into the foyer and stopped in her tracks. "A boy."

I almost face palmed. "Yes, mother. This is what a teenager of the opposite gender looks like." 

"Um, Hi Mrs. Ludwig." Josh waved awkwardly. 

"It's Miss." I corrected him. 

"You can call me Cindy." She pushed past me and shook his hand, back in her loving mother role. 

"Cindy, Luna and I have to add the finishing touches to our senior project."

She nodded enthusiastically as if she knew exactly what he was talking about. "Of course! We were just about to sit down for dinner. We have another guest. I would love for you to join us." 

I could tell that he wanted to refuse, but being the nice guy that he is, he nodded. "Thank you. I'm starving."

It turns out that my mother forgot to put the oven on after she put the food inside. Because of this, Norman, Josh, and I were forced to sit at the table and wait. You would think that there would be an awkward silence, no. Norman was not afraid to speak nonstop until dinner was done. 

"So, Lilly," Norman began as my mother finally laid a plate of chicken and rice in front of him.

"It's Luna." 

"That's what I said. Luna. How is school going?" He asked.

"Fine." 

He took a sip of his wine. "Anything interesting happening?" 

Oh, now he wats to talk about something interesting? I've spent the past hour of my life listening to him drone on about printers. Yes, printers.

"I broke into the school and released some ducks a couple days ago." I shrugged. 

He started coughing and my mother glared at me. 

Josh put his hand over his mouth, trying to stifle his chuckles. 

"You have an odd sense of humor, young lady." Norman said when he finally got himself under control. 

At least I have a sense of humor.

This is going to be a long evening.

*

Norman didn't leave until after nine. It wasn't until he drove away did my mother finally let Josh and I work on our project. The finishing touches only took half an hour. Josh and I could have done this before dinner even started.

I honestly do not blame Josh for practically bolting out the door the minute I said that I think we are finished. 

I would never have dragged him into such a dull evening. Hell, I wouldn't even drag Tate into it, and I genuinely don't like the guy. 

Half an hour after Josh left, he texted me: I was supposed to persuade you to talk to Jackson tonight, but because of everything I forgot. If you don't call the guy, I'm going to be forced to rant on and on. After learning way more that I'll ever need to know about printers, you owe me. 

I like how he spelled everything out and used punctuation in his text. It's refreshing.

I agreed to talking to Jackson and let Josh have the rest of his night to himself. 

I'm sick of fighting. All of this negativity is becoming to much and I'm a 'the glass is half empty' type of girl.

Josh texted me Jackson's phone number and I called him. 

He picked up on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Hey, Jackson. It's Luna." 

I heard a shuffling and a door close. "Hey, I figured that you weren't going to call."

I looked at my clock next to my bed. It was after ten. "Sorry that it is so late. I'm not going to bore you with the story of how my evening went."

"I'm sure that it's not that boring." 

"Yeah," I emphasized the 'y',"Trust me, it is."

"I bugged Josh until he agreed to make you call me because I wanted to talk to you." His voice got serious.

I couldn't help but say, "Well, that's what people generally do during calls."

"I mean that I want to talk some things through." He didn't even laugh at my sarcastic comment. He was all business. "I'm sick of having this tension in the air. I just want to be able to hang out with you again. I know that we can't go back to being best friends just like that, but I want to salvage what's left of it."

I hate being seriously honest because it means that I have to hold back all my sarcasm. The fact that you risk getting hurt every time you are brutally honest with someone is also has a small part in it. 

Everything that I've been living by since my Dad left told me to hang up. It told me to never speak to Jackson again, but I couldn't do it. I wanted to be friends with him. I don't want to lose this friendship before we even had a chance to try to repair it. It was against everything I believe in, but I couldn't help but say, "okay."

_____________