He laughed and put his hand on my back and rubbed it. "These knuckle heads over here, want to go on spring break.
"No," I said.
"No, what? Jett asked.
“You didn't let me finish. No way, I don't want to go, not with you guys."
“Oh sorry honey, that wasn't the question,” Smith responded.
"Thank God" I replied.
Jett continued..."The guys want to go on spring break and I wanted to know if you would mind if I went with them."
There was an interlude...I regarded Smith with scrutiny and said "Good time for your line now." I contemplated the loaded question, looked at Jett and said "So if you're asking me if you could go on spring break with these guys, then we must not be on a break.” And I put little quotes in the air as I said the word break. “So therefore, you want permission from me, the girlfriend, to go on spring break.” I did the air quotes again when I said girlfriend.
"Yes. Declan told me it was the way to go.” Jett said.
I leaned over to look at Declan and he gave me a wink. I continued slowly and said "Well, if we are now dating and you want something, then so do I...."
"Oh you do, do ya? What do you want?" Jett said laughing.
"That my friend, will have to be discussed in my private quarter’s thank you." And I got up to walk away, Jett stopped me.
“No, you can ask me now.”
“No” I said, “then my answer is no,” and walked away. As I was telling Nic all about it, I looked up and there was Jett, smiling down at me with that glimmer in his eye.
As Jett sat down, Smith came over and leaned on our table. He let his head sink between his shoulders and said with a bite "Well, can he go?"
I replied "Of course he can, I'm not his mother." He stood there a little dumbfounded at first but didn't leave. I looked at him and said "What else could you possibly want? Why are you still here? Are you gonna ask me for permission so he can pick up girls too? If he does, all I'm saying is whatever happens on spring break stays on spring break. And all of you better practice safe sex, buy a box of condoms."
"Dude" he yelled pushing off of the table and punching his hands in the air. "I love this girl!” Then gazed back at me. "Are you sure you want this guy?” Thumbing toward Jett “…for your boyfriend, because honey, I will treat you like gold."
I replied "No you wouldn't, you're a man whore."
He contemplated and then humorously said "Yeah you're right, but I still love ya!" He palmed my head messing up my hair and finally left.
I looked at Jett and took a bite of my sandwich. "So you’re really gonna let me go." He asked.
I looked at him incredulous and said "Yeah, why wouldn't I?"
"Some of the guy’s girlfriends are giving them a hard time," he started.
"Well, what comes around goes around, right? You would let me go, right?"
"Hell no, at least not without me! Spring break is all about drinking with the guys. Plus, girls don't fare well at these things."
"They must fare fine, otherwise no girls would ever go and spring break would be a bunch of guys on vacation and what fun would that be?"
"I guess you’re right. So, you're saying I can go and flirt and if anything else happened you would be fine with it."
"No, I didn't quite say that. You're really going to act like we haven't spoken for the past month?” I asked.
“No.”
“So, are you still mad at me for the Skyway thing?
“No, I'm not.”
“Well that was three words, more than your last statement.” Nic got up quietly and left. “Do you trust me? Because if you don't, that means I can't trust you, people with trust issues are usually the ones telling the lies. And I know this for a fact because 'I know' I'm not lying about a darned thing.”
He looked me in the eye and put his hand on mine. “I actually really do trust you, implicitly. You were right about Brett, Rae pointed that out, and you were right about my blood being low too. By the time I got home that night, I had dark circles under my eyes and I was craving a rare burger – a tell tale signs of getting sick again. So I went to a free clinic the next day and while I was there, I met another doctor who is studying people with my unknown illness. We drove to her office and she took some blood and she gave me a transfusion. She said she can help me and that I actually need a transfusion every 30 days or so to keep me healthy.”
“Wow, that's great! Someone who knows what's going on.” I picked up my tray and dumped the contents in the garbage and returned it, Jett followed and grabbed my hand.
”So we are officially dating again. I'm taking you out this weekend! And, just to re-iterate, you said it's okay that I go on spring break and that I should have fun, I can do whatever.” He said pretty happily and kissed my hand.
“That's not what I said. First, I said I wanted something in return. Second I said you can have fun and I hope you don't go out there looking for anyone or anything... you know with another girl, but whatever happens out there, I don't want to know about it especially if it pertains to a girl and you. And the very worst scenario, if something does happen, I hope you are smart enough to use protection even if the girl tells you she's on birth control or clean. You need to protect yourself against diseases. You may not get another chance to go on spring break, so go and have fun."
"Really, that's it? Have fun and use protection."
"I mean, yeah, we're in high school" I like watching him and his reactions when we’re talking "I really hope you don't meet any…" He interrupted me with a kiss.
"I'm not going for the girls. The guys need enough of us to go to cover hotel costs and gas. Plus, I think it’ll be good for me to get out of town and blow off steam, it should be fun."
"Well then” I said with a great big grin “I want you to buy me a t-shirt.” I said.
“Any shirt I choose?" Jett said with a devious look on his face.
"Sure as long as you wear it and I actually want you to wear it a lot and after you've worn it a while then I'll steal it from you." He looked at me strangely but agreed. I always thought it would be cool to wear my boyfriend’s shirt, so here's my chance. Plus, it’ll be from Florida. He got up to walk away and I said "Hey! That's it?” He turned to me and smiled "I'll give you a ride home tonight and we'll talk more then." He started to walk off then turned “You could ask me for one of my shirts, I have no problem with that.” I smiled.
On our ride home I turned to him and asked “Along with needing blood transfusions are there other treatments for you and what other symptoms are you having?”
“Excuse me?” he retorted.
I re-asked the question I really wanted an answer to. “What other peculiar symptoms are you having? Like, that night in my basement, plus, I noticed you seem to be even better at wrestling; quicker, stronger. If you're sick why wouldn’t you be weak and fatigued?”
He took my hand and was hesitant but then asked... “Can we talk about this later? I am sick to death of my illness right now.”
“Sure.” I said and didn't ask him anything else about it.
CHAPTER 20
I woke up at 3:17a.m., got my pad of paper out and started writing. I had a very strange dream. It was about the Incredible Hulk slamming his hands into the dirt digging a hole, no shovel or anything, just his hands. He was mad, just digging. I can't imagine this one will come true, why would I dream about this? I really thought that maybe I had been watching too much TV, but wrote it down anyway.
It was my dad’s idea to invite our boyfriends over to help him with yard work. When I had asked Jett he seemed to be okay about it but when he got to our house Saturday morning, dropped off by his father at the top of our driveway; he looked like he was in a baaad mood. I was waiting anxiously for him to come over today, but when I saw his face getting out of the car, I was ready to run the other way. I watched him closely from the bottom of the driveway. I started walking slowly toward him, giving his dad a wave as he left, he probably couldn
’t wait to get out of here. I mean he really looked cranky, in a horribly rotten mood, although he still looked hot as all hell. He had on a white tank top that fit him with a t-shirt flung over his shoulder. His tan broad muscular shoulders stuck out, I wanted to touch them and run my hand down his arm. He had on painter jeans that were baggy but no matter what he wore they still showed his very nice butt. He also had on work boots to complete the bad boy look.
Jett met me half way down the driveway and I leaned in to give him a kiss but from the scowl on his face I decided to plant it on his cheek. He didn’t reciprocate and he didn’t say anything. His face was cold and rigid, what did I do now? I guess I'll have to figure it out because I'm not asking him. In any case, he was in a mood.
We walked down to the bottom of the driveway in complete silence where Tori and Alec were standing, I think the birds even stopped chirping afraid they’d rub him the wrong way. Alec was cute but not my type at all, my sister and I don't have the same taste in boys, thank god but at least he was in a good mood. I wondered if she wanted to switch for the day; I looked at Jett again and laughed I knew she wouldn’t nor would anybody else for that matter. Alec was holding a beer, he was 18 so he was legal to drink.
Jett looked perplexed and spoke rigidly, “Alec did you drive?”
“No” he said and laughed. “My parents dropped me off. Mr. Gellar said he’d drive us home, this way we can drink and not have to worry about driving. Do you want a beer?” He said with a chuckle, meaning dude have a beer. He could tell Jett was in a mood, everyone could.
Jett looked at me with mean little eyes and I said “Dude, it can’t make your mood any worse, but if it’ll get you in a better frame of mind please drink.” And Alec tossed Jett a beer. He chugged it in no time but still didn’t say a word.
My dad came around from the front. He's an intimidating looking type of guy, at least my friends tell me so. He has broad shoulders and a belly but it doesn’t distract you from his masculinity. He exudes great confidence and talks with it as well, making him come off very daunting. All of our friends and any kid in general were quiet around him and tended to listen to him intently.
My dad said “Boys, you’re going to help me take down some trees today. Obviously, my girls don’t have the strength it needs, so I recruited you – actually I forced my girls to ask you for your help.” He laughed and slapped, then rubbed his belly “We have beer, sodas, chips and sandwiches in the cooler, help yourselves. The bathroom is just inside the garage, you don’t have to take off your shoes. The first thing I need done is to have the big old birch tree near the road dug up.” He pointed to the street up the hill where the birch rested, he handed the boys gloves, Jett turned around, still agitated, and walked off toward the tree taking very large steps up the hill. I hustled behind him but struggled to keep up without running. “What is wrong with you, are you mad at me?”
“No!” Jett said giving his encrypted answers again.
“Do you want to go home?” I asked.
“Grrrrr.”
“Leave if you want, I don’t care. My dad thinks this stuff is fun to do and if you're gonna be all pissy, it's going to make it much worse.”
“He wants this damn tree out! I'll take it out, but it's going to be a pain because it's still alive.”
“No it’s not. Go do something else – go away. Do you want me to get my mom to drive you home?” He didn't respond.
He stood on the street side, pulled his gloves on and tossed his shirt to the ground. He took one of the tree trunks and grasped it with both hands, pulled back and forth and heaved up on it the whole while I could see every muscle ripple and his face turned brick red, until we heard a loud crack. He looked up at me and said “I told you it was still alive.” It sure looked that way, where it cracked at the base it looked healthy. He let the huge branch fall partially into the street, part of the roots were up-heaved from the ground. I could hear my sister and Alec mumbling with laughter from behind as they walked up next to me to see what Jett had done.
Jett took the tree trunk by one end and rolled it onto our yard.
“You couldn't wait for everyone else? It's more fun to do it in a group, and easier, that’s why my dad asked for your help” Tori exclaimed. I looked at Tori and Alec and in a hushed mumble I told them I had already mentioned that to him, and shrugged.
He looked at us and walked around the other side of the tree. He kept his eyes on me, not saying a word. He raised his arms higher than his shoulders and pulled his arms down hard fast into the barely disturbed ground. Then pulled up, gritted his teeth, veins popped on his face and neck. He repeated that motion again and again, until he had pulled up the rest of the ball of roots. Some of them held fast to the ground and deterred him from pulling it more than knee high. He let it plunge to the ground. I gazed at him; he looked bigger, his tank was messy but also stretched across him like it didn’t fit. I couldn’t look away, his muscles gleamed with sweat.
Alec, behind me, started laughing – Jett stomped on the remaining trunk that was still partially intact, and it too, collapsed to the ground. There was a long long pause, no one said a word. We stood in astonishment for a while.
Tori said “Impressive Jett. Let's get that man a beer.” Alec ran to the cooler parked on the sidewalk, charged back up the hill and tossed Jett a beer. Jett opened it and chugged it faster than the first one.
"Do you feel better now?” Tori asked.
Jett walked up to Alec slowly they held each other’s gaze silently, Jett reached over slowly took Alec's beer from his hand , opened it and took a swig, the two of them started to laugh. Jett took his tank off and I could see his “V” the transverse abdominal muscles, his lines were beautiful, his abs incredible and his chiseled chest smooth.
I was definitely staring, my mouth must have been open because Tori commented sarcastically “Addie you’re drooling – use his shirt to wipe your mouth.” I turned to her embarrassed, still not closing my mouth and said “No thanks, I’ll use yours” and pulled her shirt and pretended to wipe my mouth. Everyone laughed. Jett tossed me his shirt and actually smiled at me – as the shirt flew into my hands I could smell the scent of him on it – he definitely wasn’t getting this shirt back.
Jett and Alec pulled the tree into the yard. My dad came up with chain saws, pics and shovels in his wheel barrow; the boys smiled at that, my dad stared in wonderment. "I guess we won't need the shovels. How did you two do that?” My dad asked bewildered. They both just looked at him and smiled, Alec pointed to Jett.
My dad ordered Tori to get three beers. They cut the tree up and tossed the good parts into one wheelbarrow and bad parts in another. We had two fireplaces in our house so the wood would go to good use, Tori and I stacked it onto our wood pile and we dumped the bad onto our compost pile in the back.
Alec peeled his shirt off too – I think it was a guy thing – and although he had a nice physique I was not as impressed. He was really white and had to catch up on his tan to look as hot as Jett.
It didn’t take long to finish, Jett went up to my dad with the chain saw resting on one shoulder and said “What's next Mr. Gellar?” My dad grabbed his shoulder and explained “The next one will take some doing and pointed to the largest tree on our lot, it also had four trunks but each of them were very large, the whole tree had to be over forty feet high, it was a lot taller than our house.
Jett looked back at him and said “Do you have some rope? We’ll have to use it to make sure it doesn’t hit the house”.
My dad replied “Well, all right then.” And Jett followed him over to the cooler where my dad handed him a sandwich, got one for himself and they paced down toward the garage for some rope. Alec, Tori and I continued to wheel barrow and stock the rest of the wood.
All three of them got along very well, and they included Kit whenever they could. They ate all the sandwiches by noon, so my mom made an early dinner for everyone. We ate at the picnic table in the grass rather than on the deck. The boys
enjoyed another beer and Jett asked me “Aren’t you going to have a beer?”
I replied “I’m not 18 yet."
"Still, jailbait” my dad retorted “...and don’t forget that son.”
“Absolutely sir.” Jett replied, which made us all laugh.
My mom set a beer in front of me and my sister and said “That’s the only one you’re getting, and you don’t have to drink the whole thing either.” I smiled at my mom and took a sip.
When we were done eating Jett and I went inside to the downstairs family room and sat down on our old orange leather couch from the 60’s, it was built so rock solid it just wouldn’t fall apart. Mom said she was going to re-upholster it someday, but the leather wasn’t worn in the least bit. The TV I clicked on was really old I couldn’t believe it still worked but my parents always said things were built to last.
The couch was cool to the touch which felt good after being outside all day. We hadn’t had a conversation to ourselves all day. “I’m glad to see you’re feeling better. Is there something you want to talk about? Are you or were you upset with me?”
He looked at me oddly and said “No.” That was it, another one liner, although he didn’t look mad or anything and I didn’t want push it but I needed to know where I stood.
“Hey, if you don't let me know what’s up I won’t be able to stop myself from ticking you off again. I thought we were friends. Friends are supposed to talk and help each other out.” There was a long pause I just waited and waited. He said nothing I could feel him thinking so I laid down and put my head in his lap and stared at the ceiling.
It wasn’t a comfortable silence but it wasn’t totally uncomfortable either, somewhere in the middle. So I laid there thinking what it would be like if Jett liked me as much as I liked him, but that I was happy to be with him. He started to shift so I lifted up my head and he pulled me up and over so I was sitting on his lap.
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