Date/Not Date Date night....NOT!

It was Friday night, and everyone was going to be out. Darry was covering an extra shift for a co-worker, Pony was at a track meet, and Kit was out bothering her usual crowd....except Jelly, she was going to be with me.
There was always something about her, something that I couldn't quite grasp a hold of. Ever since we were kids, I was always drawn to her. Back then it was best friends/ brother sister type thing, but now it was different, it was something more. But I didn't want to put a label on it, not yet anyway. Labels are so specific, so limited, and with still trying to figure out what 'this' is, I didn't wanna impose any limits on it. Besides...how would everyone react? Dating my sisters best friend? How would Dallas feel about me dating his cousin? I wasn't ready for that. The 'oohhs' and 'awwws', the jokes, the expectations. We often chose to date outside our gang, because when everyone is connected, and when you date inside the gang you end up telling your best friend about things in your relationship, then they tell their other best friend, and they their best friend, and before you know it, the entire gang knows that she gave you head in the bathroom during science class at school...you might as well have a gang meeting and tell em all at once. Right now, I just want to make the best of it.
The doorbell rang and I opened it to find Jelly standing on the porch.
"Hey!" I said, pulling her into me and greeting her with a soft kiss. I noticed a bruise beginning to form on her collar-bone... "What did you do?"
"Oh!" She looked down, "you know clumsy me..walked into a shelf."

I cooked spaghetti, which I knew very well was her favorite, and after dinner we decided to pull out the home movies and re-live our childhood.
"Remember this?" Jelly said enthusiastically. "Our little play that we made all our parents watch...and you and I were married and Dallas, TwoBit, and Blair were our kids?" Jelly laughed.
"Don't forget our dogs.." I said pointing to Audrey and Bre on the television screen. "Let's hope our kids don't turn out like TwoBit and Dallas though." I joked.
Jelly looked at me intensely, "We're having kids?" she looked puzzled.
Uh oh! There I went assuming, and imposing a status on our undeclared relationship.
"Well...I mean possibly..someday." I blushed.
Jelly giggled, and rose from the couch.
"I have to go to the bathroom." She informed, while heading down the hallway.
I turned my attention back to the screen, reminiscing a simpler time. Our bathroom stands in the middle of the house, so awkwardly you can hear just about everything that goes on in there, so when I heard gagging and choking, I became worried, and thoughts of last week flooded my head...Jelly wouldn't eat anything when we'd go out with the gang or even at parties. If she had been feeling sick she would have told me, I knew exactly what she was doing..because like I said, she couldn't hide anything from Sodapop Curtis.
"Jelly let me in." I said, tapping on the door.
"No, I'm fine." She answered.
"Let me in Jels, you can't do this to yourself."
She didn't respond...
Being an older house, I knew that if you jiggled the door knob the right way, it would open. I opened it, revealing Jelly sitting on the floor leaning against the bathtub, with tears streaming down her face. I sighed and crouched down beside her, getting at eye level.
"Jels," I said softly. "Why are you doing this?"
She hesitated for a minute. "Because, I'm not pretty enough." She said between sobs.
I was confused, we couldn't possibly be talking about the same Jelly. The Jelly I knew was gorgeous, they way her hair flowed against her porcelain skin, the way her clothes hugged her body in all the right places, they way her eyes gleamed behind her hypnotizing smile. Who was she referring to?
"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked.
"I'm not pretty enough!" Her voice rose, "I'm not tan enough, my hair hangs awkwardly around my face, my ears stick out, I'm not skinny..." she trailed on, describing things that were apparently invisible, because I couldn't see them anywhere. "I want to be like.."
"Like who?" I interrupted. "Like those girls in your silly magazines? Jels, that's not real. If they were standing in this room right now I guarantee they wouldn't look anything like they do on those pages. Their hair would be frizzy from the humidity, the make-up they put on this morning would be half gone, their skin wouldn't glow because it isn't coated with tan shimmery lotion...because that isn't reality Jelly.....this is." I motioned to her. "You are beautiful....hell, you're fucking gorgeous......no one is perfect, you are so beautiful just the way you are now."
"Even with make-up running down my face?" She asked.
I laughed. "Jelly, you could walk into my house with your hair all matted, wearing dirty, nasty rags...and I'd still think you were the sexiest thing in Oklahoma."
"Really?" she looked up at me.
"Of course." My forehead met hers. "Promise me you'll stop this?" I said, kissing her nose.
She shook her head yes. "I promise."
I pulled her to her feet and wrapped my arms around her. I believed her, because even though I didn't exactly want or have a label for our relationship...I knew Jelly wouldn't break a promise to me.