by August Arrea
“It’s okay Mrs. Braukoff, you can call off the hounds. He’s with me,” Ty announced as he swaggered his way over to where they stood. It was only while grinning self-assuredly at both Mrs. Braukoff and Jacob that Ty suddenly clued in to the fixed expressions on both faces—one unamused, the other perplexed, yet amused—and realizing the double entendre of his words that a look of swelling anxiety swept over him.
“Not to mean Jacob’s with me, with me,” Ty quickly attempted to explain before Mrs. Braukoff had the opportunity to aim a verse from the Book of Leviticus at him with both barrels. “That is, he’s not my date. What I mean is we’re not—you know. Which I’m sure is probably obvious—I hope. But in this day who’s to know for sure who’s dating who. And how great is it that our society is becoming more tolerant of one another and who they choose to want to be with? Not that there’s a need for tolerance right now at this exact moment because I can tell you truthfully Jacob and I have not chosen to be together. At least not in a tolerating sort of way—”
“Ty,” Jacob whispered calmly in an attempt to halt the snowballing vomit of his friend’s words. However, it was as if Ty had lost all control over his mouth.
“Not to say I wouldn’t take Jacob to a dance. If he were my type—which he isn’t—but if he were—I mean, what guy wouldn’t consider himself lucky to be able to go out with someone like my man Jacob? Not that he’s my man. Even though as close as we are as friends it could almost seem as if we’re dating—”
“TY!” barked Jacob. Finally he managed to break through his friend’s rambling trance before adding calmly, “We get it.”
Mrs. Braukoff stood staring at both boys with a wilting look. It was one of the rare moments she had been struck speechless.
“I will give you five minutes, Mr. Parrish,” she eventually conceded much to Jacob’s relief. “Make sure you stay in my sight in the light, or you needn’t bother trying to come back inside, understand Mr. Wrenwood?”
“Make sure you stay in my sight in the light,” mimicked Ty in a dead-on, pitchy impersonation of Mrs. Braukoff, once she had retreated safely from out of earshot back inside the gymnasium, that is. “Handled that pretty brilliantly, wouldn’t you agree?”
Jacob nodded. “If by brilliant you mean you managed to convince her you’re a closet case in desperate need of the spiritual cure to get back on the straight and narrow, with emphasis on the word ‘straight,’ then yes, I agree,” he remarked sarcastically. “Although, the jacket you’re wearing alone was enough to do that.”
It wasn’t every day Jacob got to see his friend dressed in anything other than what had become a regulation uniform of jeans, T-shirt and sneakers. To suddenly see him dressed to the nines, or at least sevens, with a pressed shirt and dress pants (and was that the shine of polished shoes laced to his feet?)—it was just weird. The pièce de résistance, however, was the jacket. For starters it was plaid. And it was orange. Bright, glow in the dark orange that Jacob surmised could quite possibly be visible from as far away as space itself.
“What’s wrong with the jacket?” asked Ty with genuine perplexity.
“Nothing,” answered Jacob. “If you’re sharing a wardrobe with Elton John.”
Ty stood patiently with his eyes fixed skyward for the expected ribbing to come as Jacob leaned in closer with his squinted eyes focused on Ty’s usually untamed shag of hair which he now noticed was swept back from his face and coiffed neatly into place in what looked to be a hard, shellacked helmet.
“Is that gel you have in your hair?” asked Jacob.
“Yes it’s gel if you must know, thank you very much.” Ty replied with annoyance while trying to bat away the insistent finger coming at him trying desperately to give his noggin an investigative poke. “And I’d appreciate not having my head thumped like a cantaloupe. Took me an hour to get it all to stay in place, and I don’t need you turning me into a troll doll for my date.”
Carefully he tapped lightly the top of his head making sure the sculpted strands of his hair were still frozen in place.
“What are you doing here anyway?” he asked. “Last I heard you had planned a very festive evening alone at home.”
Jacob turned his attention back to the dance to look for Wray and to his surprise found her standing in the doorway listening. More importantly, she looked like some ethereal vision of loveliness encompassing everything and all that was good in the world that, for a single blessing-filled moment, fulfilled every last wish and desire Jacob could ever want from life if he were to never draw another breath again.
~~~
“What’s going on?” she quietly asked looking quite puzzled at seeing Jacob there.
Jacob opened his mouth to answer when he noticed Yul lurking right behind her and his mood instantly darkened once more. In that moment, all he could see in undulating shades of red was Wray being groped by the blonde jock and a familiar hatred inside him began to rapidly percolate. The same hatred that had him ready to storm the dance floor until Mrs. Braukoff placed herself squarely in his war path and quashed his attack.
“That’s quite the outfit you’re sporting there, Parrish,” Yul remarked snidely. “You have that tailored especially for the dance tonight?”
Again with the clothes, Jacob thought to himself. Wray was quick to hush Yul and pushed back his smug face which craned itself over her left shoulder.
“Even your boyfriend here had the good sense to put on a tie, though good taste is a whole other matter,” continued Yul, who couldn’t keep himself from getting in one more dig.
Thankfully Ty didn’t launch into an encore performance of “I’m not gay, but if I was.” Jacob, too, held his tongue, hard as it was to do so.
“I need to speak to you,” Jacob said to Wray in a cool collected voice. And when Wray complied, stepping out into the night with Yul still close to her heels, Jacob was quick to add in a most unyielding tone, “Alone.”
“It’s a free country, Parrish,” said Yul. “Besides, Wray and I have no secrets. What you say to her you can say in front of me.”
He was knowingly goading Jacob; even Ty could see in the subtle way Jacob’s eyes narrowed while fixed on Yul that his friend was close to exhausting the last bit of patience he was grasping.
“Here’s an idea,” Ty suggested. “What say you two wrestle over it, you know, like you did earlier today during tryouts?”
Yul’s toothy grin vanished in an instant. It was apparent Yul hadn’t shared with Wray, who looked quite confused by the suggestion, his humiliating defeat on the wrestling mat at the hands of her best friend.
“Why don’t you go have your talk with—him,” Yul said as calmly as possible while his eyes aimed fire at Jacob. “I’m just going to go back inside and get myself some punch—or something.”
“What was that all about?” asked Wray once Yul disappeared back inside, but not before giving Ty one last threatening scowl.
“Just a little inside joke between the three of us,” answered Jacob.
“And boy does it have one hell of a hilarious punch line,” Ty added with a chuckle.
~~~
Once Jacob had finally managed to find himself alone with his two friends, he was suddenly struck by a halting thought. It came at him like some shadowy assailant lurching from behind a cloaking hedge to pounce upon an unsuspecting victim. What would he tell them? What could he tell them? Certainly not the truth. How could he, when he himself wasn’t one hundred percent convinced of what the truth was, despite the barrage of things he had been told; not to mention seen with his own eyes in such a short amount of time.
“What’s the matter?” Wray eventually asked in the nurturing way she had whenever she noticed something was weighing heavily on Jacob despite his attempts to hide it.
“N-nothing,” Jacob replied unconvincingly. “Let’s go sit down over here.”
He walked Wray and Ty over to a concrete bench a short distance away, ever mindful of Mrs. Braukoff’s occasional glances coming from in
side the dance to make sure they remained in sight within the reach of light where she could keep tabs on them.
“So, what exactly is so urgent?” asked Ty.
Oh, nothing really, except I just found out I’m a Nephilim, that’s all, Jacob’s voice echoed sarcastically inside his head. Or how about ‘You know those humps coming out of my back? Funny thing…they’re wings.’
“You’re starting to scare me Jacob. What is it?” prodded Wray.
Jacob did his best not to look at either of his friends in the face. The weight of their anxious stares fixed on him made it all the more difficult to try and come up with some explanation of why they wouldn’t be seeing him for some time. Yet no matter how hard he tried he just couldn’t seem to come up with a viable alternative to the truth—that is, a believable version of it.
“I’m—I just wanted to make you aware of the fact that I’m…” he began awkwardly. At the same time Ty and Wray leaned in closer as if to aid him in helping drag out the words which seemed caught in his throat. “That is…I wanted the two of you to know…”
I’m leaving. LEAVING…
The words repeated themselves loudly in Jacob’s head, but he just couldn’t bring himself to spit them out. Because to do so would mean explaining why he was leaving, and that was just something he didn’t have an answer for—at least one he could share with them and expect them to understand, much less believe.
“Um, okay,…Mr. Sajak’s, I’d like to buy a vowel for my friend here, ” Ty remarked impatiently. “Know what?”
“Just how much I’ve appreciated how the two of you have been there for me the past couple months,” Jacob eventually said with as much sincerity as he could muster.
“Seriously? That’s why you dragged us out here?” replied Ty completely unaffected. “What exactly were you doing tonight at home, binge-watching the Hallmark Channel?”
His insensitive remark quickly earned him a slap to the shoulder by Wray. “Don’t be a jerk,” she scolded.
“It’s just…it’s been a hard time ever since my mom…you know,” said Jacob. It may not have been the original intent he went to the dance in such a fiery way in search for his two closest friends, but nor was it any less truthful. “I just realized I never made it a point of thanking the two of you for being there for me. I don’t think I could have made it through it all if it wasn’t for you. That’s all.”
“Hey, it’s no problem. That’s what best friends are for, after all, right?” said Ty, giving his friend a warm squeeze of his arm now that he understood the depth of Jacob’s gesture.
At that moment, a screeching cry rang out for Ty. It was his date Stacey Ballard, looking so much more lovelier than the ear-splitting voice she used to beckon him from the entrance to the gym.
“Well, well, well…you lucky dog, you!” remarked Jacob, giving Ty a friendly jab with his finger.
“Oh, lucky isn’t quite the word I’d use,” said Ty. By the look on his friend’s face, Jacob guessed the discomfort of having to get all gussied up for the girl Ty couldn’t seem to stop talking about in the days leading up to the dance hadn’t been quite worth it.
“Trouble in paradise?”
“Paradise?” said Ty. “From the second we got here she’s had me on the dance floor. You try dancing two hours nonstop in these shoes and talk to me about paradise. This has been the first moment my feet have been able to rest.”
The shrill call echoed again even louder into the night, and with great reluctance Ty started back toward the dance, but not before Jacob called out to him one last time.
“If it’s any consolation,” he said, “you look like a regular Tony Manero out there.”
The puzzled look on Ty’s face when the “Saturday Night Fever” reference skidded completely over his head only tickled Jacob more.
“Hey, we’re still on for tomorrow? Penuel Point?” Ty yelled back.
Penuel Point. Jacob had forgotten all about the plans he had made with Ty to head up to their favorite spot high in the mountains for a little cliff jumping.
“You think you’re going to be up to it?” Jacob answered jokingly and feeling every bit the heel knowing full well he would be flaking big time on his friend.
“You kidding me? I’ve been looking forward to it all week,” said Ty with a renewed boost of energy.
Jacob waved in return and chuckled to himself as he continued to watch as Ty, walking with noticeable discomfort, was pulled back into the dance by the unwelcome enthusiasm waiting for him from his date. His smile then slipped away when he turned to Wray and found her solemn expression staring back at him.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she said. “I just thought…I mean, it seems as though something else might be bugging you.”
“No,” said Jacob with a simple shake of his head. How he hated lying to Wray, even when the lies were harmless little untruths. Only tonight he had not really told her a lie, little or otherwise. He’d just purposefully kept the truth from her, and that somehow felt much worse.
~~~
As he sat there next to her, Jacob couldn’t stop noticing how beautiful she looked that evening. Yes, she was the kind of girl from whom beauty never strayed too far. This night it looked as though it had been given a little extra polish. The curl of her hair, for instance, usually a tousle of summer gold left to dance carefree in the breeze hung in perfectly poised ringlets down across her shoulders. What little makeup she wore served only to accentuate the loveliness already there, like the emerald stones glistening in her eyes. They alone were enough to keep any admiring gaze from wandering further and completely overlook the beautiful dress she wore. Not Jacob. Wray’s eyes may have held his gaze in their spell, but he noticed plenty the graceful cut of the elegant gown and how the black velvet fit seamlessly her lithe figure and contrasted sharply against the glow of her white skin.
“What’s wrong?” she asked when she noticed the intense look fixed her way.
“Nothing,” Jacob was quick to reply. “It’s just…you look so different…than usual, I mean. You look beautiful.”
Even before he saw Wray’s eyebrows rise up on her forehead, Jacob’s expression dropped like a stone the moment he heard the words leave his mouth.
“I mean…uh…oh boy, that didn’t come out right did it?” he stammered. “Not saying you’re not always beautiful, cause you are…it’s just tonight—dressed like that—you’re…you’re…”
“Even more beautiful?” offered Wray.
“Stunning,” Jacob one-upped.
They both turned away at the exact same time to watch the dance through the towering wall of glass for different reasons: for Wray it was to hide her delight at witnessing Jacob’s appreciation through his boyish awkwardness, and for Jacob it was to shield from sight the sudden reddening he felt begin to burn his face and ears and leave him awash in nervous sweat.
“I’m glad to see at least your mood has changed,” said Wray after a long pause of silence.
“What do you mean?” asked Jacob.
“I saw you earlier, right before Mrs. Braukoff stopped you at the door. You looked furious, like you were going to kill someone.”
“Oh that,” Jacob replied, slightly embarrassed she had caught a glimpse of him consumed by the green-eyed monster. “I wouldn’t really say kill. More like dismember. Your boyfriend, actually.”
“Yul?” Wray sounded more surprised that amused. “I told you before he’s not my boyfriend.”
“It’s not the way it looked from out here watching the two of you dance.”
Even now, Jacob could feel the familiar stirring rising up from the pit of his stomach as he recalled the sight of Wray and Yul on the dance floor.
“How can you let that meathead paw you like that—”
“Let him?” Wray was fast to question Jacob’s choice of words.
“You know what I mean,” said Jacob, trying to temper his cool by squeezing his molars together tightly. “God, how I c
an’t stand that guy. And to see the two of you together like that just…”
He stopped himself from going further, realizing he was beginning to sound as jealous as he felt, but he had said more than enough.
“Well, you only have yourself to blame, you know?” Wray retorted.
Jacob gave her a baffled sideways glance. “Me?”
“Do you think all of this was originally for Yul?” answered Wray, gesturing to her gown with a sweep of her hands.
“I’m sorry…I don’t know what you mean,” said Jacob, looking every bit the clueless boy he was at that moment.
“Of course you don’t,” said Wray with a sigh of tired disappointment. “Goodness knows I dropped you enough hints. I did everything but ask you to the dance myself, and you can call me an old-fashioned snob, but…well, frankly I’m too pretty to have to resort to asking a guy for a date.”
While she giggled at her unintentional narcissism, Jacob felt his face grow flush with a renewed shade of red.
“I’m sorry. I really had no idea,” he said, feeling like a brain-dead chump. “I guess I’ve just had other things on my mind lately.”
“Why do I have a feeling something is going on with you that you’ve been keeping from me,” Wray remarked suddenly from out the blue.
There came a marked quiet. Even the music coming from inside the gym paused. Jacob continued to stare off straight ahead, not saying anything in return. What could he say? He had always in the past shared his most personal secrets with her. And the times he didn’t, she seemed to have an almost clairvoyant way of figuring them out; but this secret—even she wasn’t able to unlock the box which held it. And even if he wanted to, how could he even begin to explain what he himself found inexplicable?
~~~
Just when the silence was becoming unbearable, it passed and a familiar melody suddenly spilled its way from inside the gymnasium and grabbed Jacob’s attention by both ears. He gave Wray a sideways glance out of the corner of his eye.
