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By: Jess “Talk with confidence. Sound like an expert, even when you’re not.” Outwardly scoffing at the words he just read aloud, AJ peered at me over the latest edition of Cosmopolitan. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Do girls really do this shit?” I shrugged. “Desperate times call for desperate measures.” “Wait,” AJ motioned me, lowering his head as he scanned the page. “I saw that one…” “I wasn’t quoting the magazine.” “It’s in here though.” He flicked at the flimsy pages in his hand, jabbing it with one of his fingers. “Number 8 on this list.” He waved the Cosmo at me, eyebrow raised in appraisal. “No wonder it’s not working out.” I placed a hand on my hip. “You’re supposed to be helping me, not scouring Cosmo for tips,” I chided. One side of AJ’s mouth lifted, mockingly. “But it’s got this quiz on How to Know if He’s the One, Lana. Don’t you want to try it out?” I rolled my eyes. “You’re worse than Hannah, you know that?” “Okay then no more Cosmo -- obviously not helping.” AJ lifted up both hands in emphasis. “Let’s start from scratch.” Untucking one of his legs, he scooted to the edge of my bed. Placing both his feet and that copy of Cosmopolitan on the floor, AJ stared at me expectantly. “Tell me what you’ve done so far to get Carter to notice you.” “Basically everything short of standing in front of him naked and throwing myself at him,” I answered matter of factly. AJ leaned forward. “Exactly.” I leveled my gaze, humor non-withstanding. “Your advice is for me to strip and jump him?” “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” AJ commented dryly. “I’m sayin’,” he emphasized, pointing at me. “Stop doing it,” he advised. That there comment got AJ a skeptic look. Right... “This whole time you’ve done what you think will get him to notice you, right?” AJ clarified before I could even start on what he was eluding to. “Clothes. Hair. Make-up. The way you act? Talk, even?” I nodded mutely, unable to deny that. “So don’t,” he finished with an air of nonchalance. Uh-huh...and this is helpful- how? “But I've done that,” I reminded him of the situation. “I’m myself, and it doesn’t work. I’m someone else, and it doesn’t work. It doesn’t matter if I’m me or not.” “Nope,” AJ immediately disagreed. “Even when you’re being you, you’re still trying Lana, that’s the thing.” AJ’s hand balled in a fist, and he tapped the top of his thigh in emphasis. “The trick is getting him to notice you because you don’t give a shit.” I tilted my head, motioning a further explanation. No wonder us girls had to turn to Cosmo! Boys made no sense. “Know when you see a shirt on someone and you think to yourself, ‘hey that’s a great shirt I want one?’ but before then you didn’t even know the shirt existed?” AJ exampled. “Same concept.” “Alright,” I agreed, though still clueless to the point of discussion. And boys always complained of girls being roundabout... “But exactly how is he going to notice the “shirt”, if he’s been looking at it the entire time?” AJ smiled slyly. “That’s where I come in. We’re going to show him exactly what he’s missing.” He cocked a finger at me. “But first- we got to ditch the brother.” Nice. I broke out into a grin. I suppose some things could be said of being roundabout. I was liking this idea already… 15.
Sleep On It
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