“Look,” Susan started, “I know you and Amanda are, like, really close to Jake.” Carly nodded and her eyes narrowed on Susan’s face.
“But, Jake and I decided tonight that we are going to date. I'm his girlfriend now.” The last part was said with a boastful tone.
Carly’s throat knotted up and she felt as if she would asphyxiate right there in front of Susan. But she held her ground and continued to listen to what Susan had to say.
“And since Jake and I are together now, I just feel as if…”
Susan looked at Carly, but only briefly. The blonde quickly averted her gaze. Carly took note of how uncomfortable Susan was and it made her equally uncomfortable.
“Just spit it out,” Carly said, growing impatient.
“I just think you and Amanda shouldn’t be hanging out with Jake as much anymore. It just wouldn’t seem…” Susan fished for the right word, then concluded, “…appropriate.”
Carly could feel the knot in her throat restricting all airflow, and she swallowed hard to hold back the angry tears that were struggling to burst through.
“Sorry, Carly. If you were in my situation you’d probably want the same thing, right?”
“We’ve all been friends for years, Susan. You can’t expect…”
Carly couldn’t finish. She suddenly hated this selfish bitch that was intent on breaking up close-knit friendships that had endured for so long. Jake was like family to her, and she couldn’t bear the thought of someone taking that away from her.
Composing herself somewhat, Carly replied bitterly, “I need some time alone, please."
She turned and walked away, leaving Susan by herself. What she wanted right now was refuge, a place to cry. She figured the cluster of trees at the edge of Taylor’s property would provide her some sanctuary. Her brisk walk soon turned into a hurried jog. The tears had started to fall, and she didn’t want anyone to see her. Susan’s words replayed themselves over and over again in her mind. She just couldn't fathom that Jake would purposely jeopardize their close friendship for a superficial, selfish bitch that he barely even knew. And so much for trying to be friends with Susan and her popular cheerleader clique. That definitely wouldn't be happening now. In her mind, Susan was her enemy.
Carly slowed when she had reached the wooded area and slumped down on a large rock. She buried her face in her hands and tried to steady herself. She was in the process of calming her emotions when she heard the pounding footsteps approaching hastily.
“Carly!”
She recognized the voice and at first decided not to respond. But when the voice called out for her again, she spoke up.
“I’m here, Jake.”
He followed the sound of her voice, and in mere seconds he was standing before her in the moonlight.
“What do you want?” she asked in a small voice, hoping her eyes weren’t red and puffy.
“I saw you take off. You looked upset. So I followed you.”
“I’m fine, Jake,” was all Carly said in that same small voice.
Carly was surprised when Jake chuckled and said, “You’re full of shit. I know when something is wrong with you.”
Carly didn’t immediately respond.
“What’s wrong? You can tell me,” Jake prompted.
She sighed and looked up at her tall, handsome friend.
“Why did I ever think that you would never end up dating some horrible, self-centered bitch. I must’ve been crazy.”
“Is this about Susan?” Jake asked.
Carly’s silence confirmed Jake’s suspicion.
“Are you jealous?” he teased, his blue eyes sparkling even in the enveloping darkness.
Carly groaned and stood up. Her temper was beginning to displace the sadness.
“Jake Harmon, I am not jealous. And I don’t think this is funny at all. I don’t know why you find this all so humorous.”
Carly turned and stomped off, walking further into the maze of trees. Naturally, Jake was able to keep up with her, and he continued his banter.
“I like it when you’re angry, Carly. It’s really sexy.”
“Yeah, screw you,” Carly spat. “No wait, why don’t you go screw that skinny bitch. It’s obviously what you want.”
“Now you’re starting to sound like Amanda, insulting people. Who would’ve thought,” Jake said.
“Yeah, well maybe Amanda and I know what we’re talking about.”
“Oh, come on. This can’t seriously be about Susan.”
“Yes,” Carly replied firmly. She halted and turned to face him.
Jake emitted a huge groan to indicate his frustration.
“I just can’t believe you fell for her superficial ploy. And on top of that, we're all going to lose you. She's going to snatch you away from us."
Prompted by Jake's disbelieving expression Carly added, "Yeah, Jake. She told me that herself. She said she doesn't think it's appropriate that Amanda and I hang out with you anymore."
Carly turned and continued her trek through the cluster of trees. Jake outpaced her. He stepped in front of her and forced her to face him. He held her delicate shoulders with his strong hands, forcing her to acknowledge him.
“I’m not jealous, Jake. That’s not what this is about. It’s about the group, our group, and the friendship.”
Jake tightened his grip on Carly’s shoulders.
“I would never let anyone break up our friendship. I care too much about you.”
Carly relaxed a little at Jake’s comforting words, and Jake smiled warmly at her.
“Alright?”
Carly nodded meekly.
“Just make me a promise, Jake. A pinky promise.”
Jake rolled his eyes.
“Come on.”
“Fine,” he said, somewhat reluctantly.”
They wrapped their pinky fingers together and Carly said, “Promise you won’t let anyone break up our friendship.”
“That’s easy,” Jake grinned. “That won’t ever happen. I’d never turn my back on you.”
She smiled at his reassuring words. She started to move forward to give him a hug when her foot tripped on a rock protruding from the ground. She fell forward and Jake caught her in his arms. She felt his strong grip maintaining firm control of her body, and she dared to look up at his face, which was but mere inches away from hers. She gazed shyly into his clear blue eyes. Jake returned her pointed gaze by perusing her beautiful face. He wanted to take in every arresting feature, which he had become so familiar with. His arms tightened around her as if he were afraid she would slip away from him.
“You okay?” he said in a deep, husky voice.
Carly nodded slowly and replied, “Yeah.”
She couldn’t think of more words to say at the moment. Her hands were planted on his shoulders for support.
“You can let me go now,” Carly finally said.
Jake seemed a bit disappointed and replied, “Well, what if I don’t want to?”
A torrent of electric waves shot through her body, and her stomach fluttered as if a thousand butterflies were trapped inside. She felt something she had never felt before, and it scared her and thrilled her all at the same time. She felt Jake’s hand move to the small of her back, where he applied just enough pressure to coax her closer to him. His face inched closer to hers as if to kiss her. His lips were hovering just above hers now, and she could feel her heart jump with sudden excitement. She wondered at this feeling and wanted to savor more of it. She had often wondered what would have happened that night, the both of them in the woods, their bodies latched in that heated embrace. But before she had had a chance to find out, they both heard the sound of footsteps approaching in the darkness. Their curiosities were satisfied when Amanda’s voice rang out somewhere between the myriad trees surrounding them.
“Are you guys out here? I saw you guys going into the woods! Hello?” Amanda yelled. Her loud and slurred voice was followed by a rustling sound in the underbrush close by. Carly attribu
ted the rustling to some poor animal that had become alarmed by the twin’s booming voice and was intent on finding a new place of refuge. This thought brought about a giggle which failed to escape Jake's notice as he smiled down at her.
“We’re here, Amanda!” Carly yelled back.
She felt Jake’s arms release her, and she could have sworn she felt a strange sense of disappointment. Had Jake really held her that close to him? Had their lips really been but a mere whispered breath away? Carly brushed the thought aside and stumbled in the darkness toward her drunken friend. She could hear Jake treading behind her.
“There you guys are!” Amanda squealed.
“Would you lower your voice?” Carly chided in a whispered voice. Just then another voice rang out in the darkness, and it almost made both Amanda and her cringe with dread. Carly shot a glance in Jake’s direction and could have sworn he cringed as well. The voice rang out again.
“Jake, where are you?”
“I’m here,” he called back hesitantly.
Susan appeared suddenly and pranced toward her new boyfriend. She threw her arms about his neck in an overly dramatic fashion. Susan’s ostentatious display was obviously targeted at Carly and Amanda. The female twin rolled her eyes. Carly anticipated and, thus, braced herself for what was sure to follow. She knew Amanda too well.
“I’m so sick of her! I’m gonna smash her face in!”
With that, Amanda lurched forward and charged in Susan’s direction. The female twin's eyes narrowed, revealing a malicious intent that did not bode well for the skinny blonde. Carly reacted before thinking, jumping forward to try to stop Amanda’s attack. Susan turned to face her attacker, her blue eyes widening with horror. But the horror was not so much the fear of physical harm or pain from Amanda’s fists. It was a much more horrific fate. Amanda stopped dead in her tracks and before Susan could move out of the way, the drunken twin lurched forward and vomited beer down the front of Susan’s top. Carly stifled a gasp as she heard Susan’s appalled screams fill the night air. Carly turned to look at Jake, who was laughing at the entire spectacle. Susan cried out in anger and turned to Jake.
“You think it’s funny?” she screamed. “Take me home! Now!”
Carly put her arm around Amanda’s waist and helped the twin out of the woods.
“I got her good, huh?” Amanda asked while she leaned on Carly's shoulder for support.
Carly grinned and replied, “Yeah. It was disgusting, but you definitely got her.”
With that, both girls looked at each other and couldn’t suppress the inevitable laughter.
Chapter Six
Carly rested her head against the soft pillow and flipped through the pages of a rock-and-roll magazine. At some point, she decided to close her eyes and allow the infectious tunes of the guitar to infuse her senses and send her on a cloud of liberation. Carly’s eyes fluttered open, and she turned to her side to face the source of the music. Jake abruptly stopped playing when he noticed his friend staring at him with a broad grin on her face.
“What?” Jake asked, unable to stop an equally broad smile from forming.
He couldn’t help being affected by Carly’s naturally buoyant personality, and he almost always found himself in a happy mood when he was around her. Carly continued her playful taunting, and she had to bite her lower lip to keep from laughing out loud.
“What?” Jake asked again, the twinkle in his blue eyes mirroring his broad smile. Carly was about to speak, but all rational thought suddenly vanished as she stared at his boyishly handsome face. She momentarily became lost in the depth of his blue eyes. It didn’t help that his smile only enhanced his naturally good looks.
“You should smile more often. I haven’t seen that from you in a while,” Carly remarked, sitting up on Jake’s bed.
“What’s wrong with not smiling all the time?” Jake responded. His cool, indifferent tone made her realize for the first time that Jake probably possessed some form of deep-rooted melancholy that she had never really noticed in him before. And she surmised others weren’t aware of it either. To the outside world, Jake was the boy who had it all. He was the poster child of utter perfection, and it all seemed like second nature to him. But she was beginning to see another side of him that was completely transparent to the outside world, a world that seemed to revere this golden boy.
“When you smile,” Carly started, hesitating before finally continuing, “it really…um…brings out the spirit in your eyes.”
Carly had wanted to say that when he smiled, he looked absolutely handsome. But, she had thought better of it and had quickly improvised to revise the intended statement.
“It really brings out the spirit in my eyes?” Jake asked, dumbfounded by her remark. He laughed then and playfully batted his eyes at her.
Carly groaned and tossed a pillow at him. She made sure to aim for his head, but Jake had no problem dodging the pillow.
“You seriously suck! I’m trying to give you a compliment,” Carly said. She feigned anger by crossing her arms across her chest and frowning at him. She couldn’t hold the frown for much longer, though, and they both ended up laughing. After the laughter had subsided, they continued to gaze warmly at each other. Carly could feel the sudden tension in the room. She wanted so desperately to look away from him but found it difficult to do so. It was as if some powerful force compelled the both of them to maintain this visual grip. Carly let out a small sigh of relief when the telephone suddenly rang and he hopped up to go answer it in the den. She sat with her back against the wall and wondered to herself what had just happened. She thought back to that night in the woods, when Jake had held her in his arms. He had had that same look in his eyes just now. She quickly shook those thoughts away as Jake reappeared with the telephone in his right hand and two cans of soda in his left.
“Thought you might be thirsty,” he said, tossing one of the cans to her.
Carly popped the lid and asked, “Who was that?”
“Susan. She’s going to the studio with me tonight,” Jake said.
“Susan’s going with you?” Carly repeated to herself.
She felt a pang of jealousy. And it was eating away at her even though she tried desperately to suppress it.
“Jake, I thought Susan wasn’t your type? That's what you had said at the diner. So why are you with her?”
She immediately wanted to kick herself for blurting out the thought that’d been incessantly nagging her for the past few weeks. She wondered why she couldn’t just keep her thoughts to herself. She was already dreading his answer to her brazen outburst.
“You and Amanda have been acting so strange lately,” Jake commented while sifting through music sheets on his desk.
You’ve been acting equally strange, Carly thought to herself.
“Come to think of it,” Jake added, “ever since I started dating Susan, you guys have been acting like a bunch of crazy chicks.”
The telephone rang again, and Carly breathed a sigh of relief. Again, the damn telephone had saved her. Jake answered it immediately. But before he could continue the conversation with the person on the other end of the line he mouthed to Carly, “This conversation is not over.”
He left the room, leaving Carly to ponder whether she should escape now. It was a cowardly move, though, and she refused to be a coward. She would just have to come up with a harmless explanation for her outburst. Perhaps she could tell him about her sincere belief that he could do better than Susan. Heck, she would probably be a way better match for him than Susan, Carly thought. There was that dreaded feeling again. That jealousy thing just kept resurfacing no matter how hard she wished it away. She didn’t want to think of Jake as more than just a friend. Or did she? Carly lied down on Jake’s bed. She put her face in his pillow and breathed in the wonderful scent that was indubitably his. She failed to hear him re-enter the room.
“That was Amanda,” he commented, seating himself next to Carly on the bed. “It’s just like I said. You guys are
acting so weird.”
“Huh?” Carly asked. She lifted her face out of the pillow.
“It was Amanda,” Jake reiterated. “She was acting weird on the phone.”
“How so?” Carly asked, genuinely interested.
“I told her I was at the house working on some tunes and that you were keeping me company. Then I asked her what she was doing and she said ‘never mind’ and hung up on me.”
Carly wrinkled her brow in consternation and shook her head. “I’ll call her later and find out what her problem is.”
“You girls. I just can’t figure you guys out.”
Jake then turned to look at her. “Anyway, about our earlier conversation before the phone rang.”
Carly could feel the dread washing over her and her inner coward took over. It prompted an immediate need for retreat. Grabbing her purse, Carly replied, "Yeah, I gotta go. My parents want me home in time for dinner."
“What? It's not even close to dinner time?” Jake remarked.
“We're eating early today." She grinned mischievously.
Then an even more valid excuse popped into her mind and she said, "Besides, your jealous girlfriend is no doubt on her way to see you and I don't want to be around for that."
Jake shrugged and said, "Fine. I'll call you later."
As Carly left Jake's house and walked the short distance to her own house she saw Susan’s red VW Beetle pulling into Jake’s driveway.
I left just in time she thought to herself.
She was thankful for having avoided two headaches, explaining her outburst to Jake and running into Susan. But she also hated the fact that she had to cut back on her time with Jake just to avoid Susan. She prayed that Jake would come to his senses soon and end the relationship. She had the distinct feeling that he would, but it was just a matter of time.
Chapter Seven
It was another Friday night filled with tension and bright stadium lights. Carly and Amanda rode together to the football game. Following the strange behavior the twin had exhibited with Jake on the telephone, Carly confronted Amanda the next day. At first Amanda had been a little standoffish, reluctantly allowing Carly to enter the house. However, after some time reminiscing about Taylor’s party, she had begun to lighten up. Carly still wasn’t able to determine exactly what had caused the twin to react so oddly on the telephone. But Carly felt it was easier to just let it go.
The Road to L.A. Page 5
