by Emily Camp
He glanced down at himself, he rarely wore t-shirts, but right now he had one on even if it seemed like he’d ironed it. “I look human to me.”
I giggled and wacked him with the limp towel. “Maybe you’re in disguise.”
He splashed me and grinned.
“You should do that more often.”
“What?” He wrinkled his brow.
“Smile.” I rubbed the dish with the towel even though it’d been dry for a few minutes. I watched it as if I was concentrating hard. “You have a nice smile.”
“Huh.” Was all he said. I wasn’t sure whether to be offended because he didn’t thank me for that compliment or relieved that I didn’t have to explain further. I wasn’t sure what I would say. That even though he was a pain in the butt, he was cute.
Why did that thought even enter my brain? Now I felt my face flush. Hopefully, he wasn’t looking at me.
I needed to text Cody.
“You want popcorn?” I asked before we started the movie.
He patted his stomach. “Can’t.”
“Now I know how guys feel when girls refuse to eat,” I said.
Jack nudged me with his shoulder. “I don’t think I’m fat. I have to be under a certain weight to wrestle next week.”
“You play football, but aren’t any good at it.” I took the dvd out of the case and replaced the Star Wars one with it in our DVD player.
“Way to make a guy feel good about himself.”
“Hey, that’s what you told me.”
“You could at least lie.” He said, cracking another smile as he stretched and sat down on the sofa. His long legs bent high.
“Are you any good at wrestling?”
“I’m okay.”
“Have you always been on the wrestling team?” I’d spent so much time with him over the last six weeks and I hardly knew him.
“Since I was a freshman.”
“And you like it?” The previews began.
“Gives me something to do.”
The movie started up and I hesitated before sitting on the sofa. I sat as far away from him as I could. I sent Cody a text to tell him I was thinking of him, so I didn’t feel like I was cheating on him with Jack, even though I wasn’t. I also made sure I kept the overhead light on. I was not sitting in the dark with Jack Landry, especially while watching a romantic movie.
At first, I sat with my shoulders back and stiff, both feet on the floor. The credits started up. I folded my hands on my lap and glanced toward Jack, who seemed completely at ease, for him anyway. As usual, he showed absolutely no joy on his face, but he was relaxed. By the time it was on the fish tank part, where Romeo and Juliet first discover each other and my favorite part, I let myself loosen up.
***
“I thought you didn’t like sad stories?” Jack said, as the credits ran. By now, I had my legs curled under me and leaned against the arm of the sofa half asleep.
“Who doesn’t like this version of Romeo and Juliet?” I asked.
“It’s okay.”
“Okay? Okay? It’s easier to understand than the original play. You’re the one who brought it.”
“I mean if you ignore the fact that they call their guns swords and they still talk like the play but seem to be living in the 90s.”
“But it’s a good story.”
“Tell me then,” He turned toward me, propping his elbow on the back of the sofa and bending his jean-clad knee between us. “Why don’t you like Annabele Lee, but you like Romeo and Juliet? Both are sad.”
“Two words, Leonardo Dicaprio.”
“You know he’s like your mom’s age, right?”
“Not in this movie.”
“But they still die at the end.”
“No, Romeo and Juliet die at the end. Anabelle dies at the beginning, big difference.” Our eyes met for a second and we just looked at one another, an then I said, “Why did you really come here tonight?”
He looked away from me, scratched the top of his head and said, “I didn’t feel like being alone.”
“You were alone?”
“My parents are doctors. Been at the hospital all weekend.”
“Even Thanksgiving?”
“People still get sick on the holiday.” He looked around. “At least you can write your compare and contrast paper now.”
“We’re on break,” I tossed a pillow at him. “I don’t do homework on break.”
He laughed. It had to be the first time I’d heard a genuine laugh come from him. It was deep and … I liked it.
“Well then you’ll be ready to work on it on Monday. If you don’t get out of educational support soon it’ll hurt my reputation.”
“Do you want me to be done?”
A hint of a smile crossed his lips and he said, “Not really, but I’ll still be around if you need help.”
“Thanks,” I said, almost a whisper and for a second, the thought of never seeing him again made me sad.
As if he woke from the trance, Jack lifted his phone. “It’s late. I should ...” He pointed toward the door.
“Yeah.” I had to agree with him, not that I was trying to be rude or anything, but there was this new awkwardness that I didn’t know what to make of.
Just as we were standing up, I heard my mom barreling down the stairs. No matter what she always sounded like she was in a hurry even if she wasn’t.
When she turned the corner, her hair piled on her head in a tank top with no bra, she saw Jack and said, “I didn’t realize you were still ...” Covering her chest with her arms.
“I was leaving,” he said.
“Stay as long as you like.” She pointed toward the kitchen. “Just need a drink.”
“Really, mom, we’re done,” I said.
“Well, do come back.” She said then stood there for a beat before going into the kitchen. It wasn’t long before I heard her gasp.
He smirked, “Guess she’s not used to that?”
“Me doing the dishes?” I shook my head.
“Seriously mean that, do come back again,” My mom called out just as Jack was walking out the door.
“Bye Becky,” he said, “It was nice meeting you.”
“You too.”
Then he looked at me. “See you at school?”
“Yeah.” I nodded and for a moment, I looked forward to Educational Support.
“I like that boy.” My mom leaned against the stairwell. “I really like that boy. Why aren’t you dating him?”
“Because he’s Jack,” I laughed as if that should explain it all.
Chapter Twelve
“So wait.” Addi’s bracelets jingled when she held up her hand. “Jack was here.” She pointed down. Her long, braided hair swished as she shook her head. “As in your house?”
She missed the entire point. I was talking about Cody and how I wasn’t sure what he meant by ‘I really care about you’.
“Yes, as in my house.” I sat down on my bed, twisting my hair up. “Who cares? It’s just Jack.”
“What did Cody say about Jack being here?”
“What do you mean, what did Cody say? He didn’t say anything.” Because he didn’t know. Why was that? It wasn’t like I deliberately didn’t mention it. It just never came up.
“I mean, because he’s your boyfriend and there was another guy here eating dinner with you, washing your dishes, watching romantic movies.” She wiggled and nudged me with her shoulder.
“First of all, he didn’t eat because my mom’s food was burnt as you know how her cooking is, and second, there is nothing romantic about doing dishes.”
“It’s soapy and wet and there’s skin contact.” She leaned back and popped a chip in her mouth.
“Ew.” I said. “Anyway, we were watching movies for school.”
“Romeo and Juliet.” She sing-songed. Her phone rang with Tyler’s ringtone.
She scrunched her nose and giggled before putting the phone to her ear. “Hey sexy.”
“Virgin
ears here.” I pointed to my head.
She motioned for me to be quiet, turning her entire body away. I leaned back on my bed as she talked to Tyler. I looked at my phone. I didn’t want to text Cody first, but he hadn’t texted me tonight. He usually did by now.
“She has a boyfriend,” Addi’s voice got my attention.
Who has a boyfriend? Was she talking about me?
“No, Ty.” She giggled her high-pitched giggle that was always used on him at least when they weren’t fighting anyway. “It’s different this time.”
“Why are you talking about my love life?” I said.
She turned to me, a smirk on her face. She tilted her chin away from the receiver “Tyler’s cousin needs someone to go to a party with him to make his ex jealous.”
“Why was I the one to come to mind?”
“Stop.” She said into the phone, not losing her smile.
“I’m happy with Cody, thank you very much.” I shouted to her phone, and then looked down at mine again. I should’ve justed text him, why did I overthink it?
***
“We can still be friends, right?” Cody put his arm around me, which was no comfort, because I’d said that same thing many times.
I just wanted to go back five minutes, before I saw him in the hallway. He waltzed toward me with a smile on his face. So the last thing I thought he was going to say to me was, ‘You know Serena? She likes me and I’ve always had a crush on her, so …” I didn’t hear the rest, over the steady rush of blood in my ears. His smile never left his face and I wasn’t sure if that made this worse or not. Sure, last night I had to be the first one to text. Then he only replied one-word answers and sometimes there were big breaks between them. He didn’t want to facetime, which was not like him. I just thought maybe he was having a bad night.
“I mean we were friends before all this, why can’t we go back to that?” He shrugged a shoulder. We were nearing ES now. The last place I wanted to be.
“Sure.” I said trying to figure out how he could go from ‘I really care about you’ to ‘I just want to be friends’ almost overnight. I smiled anyway, because what else was I supposed to do? Have a breakdown right before ES? I’d just gotten used to the idea that he ‘really cared about me.’ I should have known this was going to happen.
“I knew you’d be cool.” He nudged me with his fist before disappearing into the room. How was I supposed to concentrate on anything now? I really liked Cody. I thought we were going to last.
I slid into my seat. Jack wasn’t here yet. Cody was loud, and happy. Greeting everyone like they were his best friend. He must have been pleased about breaking up with me.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and changed my status from ‘in a relationship’ to single on my social media account. It was a good thing I didn’t wear his sweatshirt like I almost did today. I sat the screen face-down and looked at the door. My phone buzzed. I turned it over. A few guys had liked my status already. Addi sent me a ‘WHAT?” in all caps. I didn’t feel like explaining anything, so I didn’t respond. I glanced at the door. Jack was late again. For someone that was so perfect at everything else, he sure had a hard time getting here promptly.
Cody’s voice penetrated my ears as he joked with the person he was assigned to tutor this week. Emma Collins, of course. Her giggles were just as loud as he was as she tossed her long locks over her shoulder.
The room was too small. The walls felt like they were closing in and all I could think about was being under him when he looked me right in the eyes and told me ‘I really care about you.’ Now he was leaning toward Emma, all smiles like he gave me just yesterday. What did that even mean when he told me he ‘really cared’? Obviously, it was a lie. Just like my dad.
I glanced at the clock and the door. Still no Jack. Finally, when I couldn’t take anymore of hearing his voice like he wasn’t even bothered by this. I stood up, my chair scraping the floor. I didn’t want to make a scene, but I couldn’t just sit here. I barreled out the door. My backpack dangled off my arm.
I ignored Miss Deeter when she called out, “Kacey, where are you going?”
I should have been paying attention though, because I ran straight into someone solid. I stopped with a thud.
“Where’s the fire?” Jack, because why wouldn’t this day get worse? He gripped my hips, then his hands fell off me as quickly as they had grabbed hold of me.
“You’re late.” I stared at the lanyard on his chest, the stripes from his shirt behind it. I couldn’t look at his face.
“Like two minutes.” He said and then, “Are you okay?”
I just wanted to go to the bathroom and hide. I shook my head, and swiped the stupid tears from my cheeks. Ugh I hated that I let a boy do this to me.
“Wait here,” Jack said, “I’ll be right back.”
I shrugged, and stared at the floor. I waited because as much as I wanted to be alone, I didn’t want to be either. A minute later, he emerged.
“Follow me,” he said. And we walked together despite me sniffling all the way. I hated that I had to be the type of person that once the water-works started, there was no stopping them. That was why I always tried to stop them before they began.
We finally came to the auditorium, He opened the door and ushered me in. We climbed on the stage, behind the curtains. He flipped on some lights. They came on with a hum, and were dim. The only other time I’d been back here was when I was dating Leo. We made out here once. That seemed like forever ago, but it was only just the beginning of this school year.
Jack sat on the ground against the wall and patted the space beside him. I sat my backpack down with a thud and then lowered myself beside him. His long legs stretched out in front of him. Today his jeans were light brown and his shirt was maroon with stripes.
He didn’t say anything as he rooted through his bag. I hoped he didn’t want to do any tutoring today, because I really wasn’t in the mindset for it. He came out of the bag with a chocolate-covered granola bar. Great. It was his snack time, I thought, but then he held it out to me.
“Thanks,” I sniffled.
“Don’t girls love chocolate?” He zipped his backpack closed.
“Who doesn’t?” I took the bar from him.
That was really sweet of him, but I didn’t feel like eating. I stretched my legs out. They looked ridiculously short and stubby next to his.
“Do you wanna talk about it?” He nudged me with his shoulder.
“No,” I wiped my eyes. But I really did want to talk so I said, “Cody broke up with me.”
“When?” He folded his hands over his stomach.
“Right before the bell rang.” I wished my eyes would quit leaking. I opened the granola bar, broke off a bite, and popped it into my mouth. The chocolate did make me feel a little better.
“It’s stupid we’ve only been together for like a month.”
Jack was quiet. His leg relaxed against mine.
I sniffed again, leaning my head against the wall. “I don’t even know why I’m telling you this.”
“I’m a good listener.” He tapped his temple. “Besides, Cody’s an asshat.”
This made me giggle as I swiped more tears and took another bite of the bar.
“You’ll find someone else,” he said.
“What are you saying?” I leaned away.
“I mean, you’ll move on.”
“Maybe I don’t want to move on.” I handed the half-eaten bar back to him. I wished I didn’t care what other people thought, but I knew the rumors that were going on about me. Especially since Nolan fed into them. I wanted this one to last.
“You …” He began. Confused, looking from me to the granola bar.
“You don’t even know me.” I wasn’t sure what he was implying, but I moved away from him. I didn’t want my leg to be touching his anymore. He was the one who’d told me that he’d heard things about me, now he was coming to this conclusion. Like I was just going to say ‘whatever’ and move on to th
e next guy in line.
“I just mean, you’re pretty. Guys like you.” He held out his hands, palms up. The candy bar balancing on one.
Did he just call me pretty?
“If you want to talk about making assumptions about someone, I seem to remember you saying I’ve never had a girlfriend.”
“Have you?”
He shook his head, making a temple out of his hands, he put them to his chin. “Not like I’ve had a lot of interest.”
His face uber serious. It was hard to believe he hadn’t had a girlfriend now that I knew him. He was smart and he wasn’t bad to look at. He could also be a nice guy once you got to know him.
“You don’t have time for one.” I said, because he was in sports, volunteered, tutored and a straight A student. Just keeping my grades at C’s and keeping up with a boyfriend seemed to be difficult.
“I’m focused on getting into college.”
“Are you going to be a doctor, like your parents or something?”
“Are you going to work at a bank like your mom?”
“No. What are you going to school for?”
“Haven’t decided yet.” He handed me the granola bar again. I took it, because, well, it was good. “Thought about teaching.”
“You’d be a good teacher.” I leaned my head back and let out a breath after taking another bite of chocolate. “I’m probably the stupidest person you know.”
“Not at all.” He bent his knees and draped his lanky arms over them.
“Why do I feel intimidated by you?” I turned toward him. His big brown eyes peered through the lenses of his glasses.
“I’m kind of intimidated by you.” He nudged me again, this time with his knee. He’d never touched me this much before.
“Ha, me?” I put a hand on my chest. “Why would you be intimidated by me? I’m a mess.” Something I would be mortified to admit in front of anyone else. Let’s just say there was no way I would have let any other boy see me cry like this.
“You always seem confident to me. And I don’t believe for a minute you couldn’t be a straight A student if you wanted to be one. I’ve seen the results when you apply yourself.”