Things That Go Bump At Night Part 3

"Hi." He said, as if we hadn't had a less than pleasant interlude at our last meeting yesterday.

"Hi." I mumbled, not looking his way.

"I'm sorry about yesterday." He said. He was looking at me, but I couldn't bring myself to look at him. Besides, part of me was distracted, wondering where Kendra was. I was expecting a full on hissy fit by now.

"Don't sweat it." I mumbled. "I didn't give it a second thought." I did glance at him now, he seemed affected by that statement, and he was frowning at the floor. Good. Maybe he'd leave me alone. But why did that teeny little part of me at the back of my head not want him to? That I was a little scared if I pushed him away too hard, he would actually in fact, go away?

I think I must be the unluckiest or maybe the luckiest?- person in the world.

He did not leave me alone.

"So, I get the feeling you don't like me." He finally said, looking up from the floor and catching my eye just for a moment before I turned my attention back to the book in front of me.

"I don't like anyone. I haven't exactly met the nicest people here."

Jake looked around the cla.s.sroom. I expected him to say something like "Oh, come on. They're not that bad." But he didn't. What he did say surprised me, and it was very hard to surprise me. Kendra seemed to be the only one capable.

"They're blind." He murmured.

"What?" Now I looked at him. Full on. Forgot to be small and unnoticeable for a moment. He took advantaged and seemed to take in my entire face.

"They're blind." He repeated, settling on my eyes. "They see only what they think they're supposed to see. Say only what they think they're supposed to say. They're afraid of being kicked out of the club." His voice trailed off, as if he'd realized he said too much.

I was stunned into silence for a moment. Was he just saying what he thought I wanted to hear? But why would he do that? No, I didn't know what he was up to, but he wasn't breaking down any walls today.

"A club that you are president of." I whispered and turned away from him again.

I didn't look back in his direction, but I could feel his frown.

"So, you don't like me because other people do? Wow. You are the president of your own kind of club, aren't you?"

My head whipped in his direction again, anger I'm sure, spewed from my eyes, but he didn't flinch away. d.a.m.n, I really wish he had, it would have been so satisfying.

"How dare you!" I hissed. "How dare you say something so..." Go ahead, swear. "Disgusting?" I spat. c.r.a.p, still couldn't swear. I could yesterday, what happened? Maybe h.e.l.l didn't count. "You don't know a single thing about me, and you certainly don't know what I've been through. You have never made an effort to ever speak to me, and now that you are, I'm not supposed to be suspicious of that?" He looked slightly surprised. "Maybe you should go find a different seat to sit in." I suggested unkindly.

Jake continued to stare at me for a few more seconds, then settled back into his seat.

"I don't think so." He said nonchalantly. "You're not the seat police."

I gasped at him. Then whipped my head back to my book, letting my hair fall back into its protective curtain.

Dang it if that wasn't actually funny...and dang it if it didn't make me want to grin. What a jerk.

I skipped rushing to my next cla.s.s for my favorite seat so that I could make a stop at my locker, hoping to see Kendra, but she wasn't there. I text her again, but there was no answer. Again. I missed my favorite corner seat and instead had to sit near the middle, in front of some jackhole who kept pulling out single strands of my hair. I ignored him and by the end of cla.s.s, there was a pretty good pile of dark hair on the floor behind me. I felt like crying.

I finally saw Kendra at lunch hour, she was headed for the cafeteria. I risked calling out to her, when she looked my way, her smile to welcome a good friend turned to a scowl.

Wow, she was really mad.

I made my way out to my tree. It was early September, still warm. I knew I had a good six weeks before it was too cold to sit out here. I crossed the street with my head down and unfortunately, didn't pick it up in time to change my route without being obvious.

Jake stood against my favorite tree, his very impressive arms crossed over his very impressive chest.

"Really?" I said, too worried about Kendra to have much fight in me.

He smiled. He actually smiled. b.a.s.t.a.r.d. There it was! A good swearword. I'd call him that to his face the next chance I got.

"Really." He answered. "I think you and I got off on the wrong foot, and I would like to start over." He held out his hand. And wouldn't you know it...I didn't flinch. I didn't flinch. How was that possible? Even Kendra made me flinch and I had almost three years of trust in with her. My eyes went from Jake's hand to his eyes. He must have seen the confusion in mine, so he took a step forward and smiled lightly. "I'm Jake. And this is the part where you accept my offered hand and introduce yourself."

He wasn't going away, was he? I sighed and accepted his hand, letting him do the shaking.

"Remi." I said simply. My gaze fell to our joined hands when he didn't let go, and I wasn't real comfortable with the burning sensation that was crawling up my arm right now. I wondered if he felt it too. I pulled my hand out of his grip and took a step back. "It was nice to meet you Jake." I said, my voice sounded funny. "But I'd like to have my lunch now, so this is the part where I'm very politely going to excuse myself."

Jake cleared his throat. It caught my attention...did he do that because he felt a little electric too? Was his stomach doing summersaults like mine was?

"Do you mind if I join you?" He asked, turning as I stepped past him to sink down to the ground near the tree. I looked up at him.

"Won't your friends wonder where you've gone?"

He grinned. "They know where I am."

He may have grinned, but now I frowned.

"You told them you were coming out here? To have lunch with me?"

He nodded and my frown intensified.

"Did they tell you that you should probably get back on your meds all quick like?"

Now he laughed.

"Well, like you said, I'm the president of the club." He came and sat next to me when I shot him a wry smile. "Look, I know you are suspicious, and I'm sorry. I've wanted to approach you since last year, but...you're rather intimidating."

"I'm intimidating?" I wondered what color the sky was in the world he lived in.

"Kinda, yeah." His grin turned a little sheepish.

"Well, if that isn't the pot calling the kettle black." I only half joked.

"You think I'm intimidating?" He asked, when I nodded, he smiled. "So, is that why you've never approached me?"

I gave a single laugh out loud.

"No. I've never had any intention of approaching you." I had no trouble admitting it.

"Wow. Ouch." He plucked a blade of gra.s.s from in front of me, leaning close to do so. He smelled so good. I took a deep breath. My heart was pounding in my chest, and I prayed that he couldn't hear it. I looked up from where his hands played in the gra.s.s, he was watching me.

"Okay." I stood and stepped away. "This is too weird. I don't understand what is going on here."

Jake stood also.

"I don't understand either. But don't you feel it?"

"Feel what?" The world currently spinning out of control? Yes, I felt it.

"The pull?" He took a step towards me, I took one back. We did this several times before he had me pinned against the tree. Not physically. He was still a good step away, but if he were to step forward, I'd wouldn't be able to step back. "I felt it the first time I saw you last year. Felt it every time since. Do you feel it at all?"

Yes, actually I did. My head felt light. I have never kissed a boy in my entire life, but I had the urge to grab his face and do that exact thing right now. It was almost like a hunger. If that's what he meant by pull, then I was certainly being pulled.

And it scared the c.r.a.p out of me. So what did I do? I went defensive. Good job Remi.

"Well, I'm only going to say this because you already know it, but, you're hot. So, I'm pretty sure most girls feel the pull."

Jake frowned at me and took a step back. My heart constricted. Oh, no. No, no, no, please don't go. Please don't go. I begged in my head.

"You really don't like me, do you?" He tossed away the blade of gra.s.s he'd been playing with, I couldn't see any of the humor from earlier on his face.

I took a step forward. How odd is that?

"It's not that. I mean, I kinda don't know you. It's not that I don't like you...it's just that I have..." Oh Christ. How did I explain myself to him? No one knew me except Kendra, and even she didn't know everything.

"You have what?" Jake asked gently, he didn't step forward, but he did lean.

"Trust issues." It was true; it was vague and only one layer of my many problems, but it was all I felt like admitting to at this point in time. Especially to him.

Was that relief I saw in his eyes? Was he relieved? What the h.e.l.l was he so relieved about? He was apparently feeling some pull yes, I felt it too- towards a girl who was clearly a basket case. How was he still standing here?

"Trust issues." He seemed to say to himself. He made eye contact with me then and smiled. "Alright. Well, I'll just have to prove I'm trust worthy then." He reached out again, and again I didn't flinch. Yes, I watched his hand make for my face and I didn't flinch away from it. What was up with that? He laid his palm against my cheek and smiled. "See, you already trust me more than you did yesterday."

I knew he was referring to my monumental flinch in Calculus. Hopefully he just a.s.sumed it was a trust thing. Knowing my dad beat the c.r.a.p out of me when his dinner wasn't on time wasn't something boys wanted to get involved with.

That should probably remain my little secret.

The bell peeled and I jumped. Fastest lunch ever.

"Come on. I'll walk you in."

I still looked at him warily, but didn't argue. It was one thing to come out to my tree and meet me for lunch, out of sight of the entire student body. But to walk in with me was a whole other matter. I was expecting him to get as far as the street and then to sprint across, leaving me in the dust. But what does he actually do? He takes my hand. My freaking hand! I tried to pull away, but he held fast, almost as if he had been expecting me to do so.

"Jake. Please let go. I can't do this. I can't walk in there holding your hand. It's already going to be bad enough with these girls seeing you talking to me, I really don't want to incur their full wrath."

"What wrath?" He asked amused, looking both ways before letting us cross the street. He still hadn't let go of my hand. And I didn't answer his question, but asked one of my own instead.

"Why are you holding my hand?" It's not like we had just agreed to be boyfriend and girlfriend or anything like that.

"Building trust." He smiled down at me.

"Building...wow." I said sarcastically. "You think humiliating me, or yourself is going to build trust?"

Now he did stop, on the sidewalk just before the school. He turned to me, but had yet to let go of my hand. He looked slightly offended.

"How is holding my hand humiliating to you? Do you find me offensive in some way?"

"Have you not learned anything during your past year here? I'm the humiliating one. Going in there holding hands will only make people ask you if you prefer gender challenged individuals which will humiliate you, and I will be humiliated because they will call me gender challenged. See what a vicious cycle this will be?"

He smiled. What a jerk!

"No one thinks you're gender challenged Remi."

"Doesn't matter what they think. Matters what they say out loud."

"That doesn't really matter much either." He argued.

"Says the guy who has probably never been picked on a day in his life."

Now his smile turned upside down.

"So, why haven't you done something to change it?"

I laughed. Once. I was getting pretty good at that.

"Change it? Really? How do I change a.s.sholes?" Yep. I finally swore.

"Well, you can't really change a.s.sholes, but you can change you. Not that I think you need to." I like that he hurriedly tacked that on at the end; brownie points for b.u.t.t kissing. I gave him my best cynical look, but he didn't smile like I thought he would and I soon found out why; what he said next was pretty critical. "I mean, you're beautiful, Remi. I saw it from day one, but you let people have this perception of you. And while I don't think you should change for a.s.sholes, I do think that you could change for yourself. I can't imagine you enjoy avoiding your entire life."

After a moment of stunned silence I tried to tug my hand from his, but he continued to hold fast.

"Wow, what an excellent way to build trust." I said going for a verbal attack, since simply walking away was out of the question. "Yeah, you and I are going to be such awesome friends. Tell me that I'm beautiful and you feel a pull, but hey, Remi, get hotter and people will like you more. That's such awesome insight. Let me file that mental plumb away for later so that I can enjoy it over and over again."

"That's not what I meant and you know it. I simply want you to enjoy things. Especially me and you and this awesome friendship we're going to have." How nice of him to throw my words back at me. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"There is no me and you, we are not friends."

This time he did drop my hand and I felt panic. But I stood silently and watched him search my face for a moment, sigh, shake his head, then walk slowly to the steps that would lead up to the big front doors, because while I was an A student, I was clearly a moron and I just let him go.

I turned away from him and swallowed back a lump in my throat. Great. I've known the guy all of five minutes and he can already make me cry.

"No." He said and my head whipped back in his direction. "I'm not going to let you do that." He came back to stand in front of me. "This is the easy way out for you, isn't it?" The bell peeled again; we were late for cla.s.s, but so were the several people watching us from the big doors, eating up every moment.

I hope they got detention for their tardiness.

"Easy way out of what?" I wasn't sure exactly what it was he was talking about, but he sounded a little bit like Kendra right now.

"Anything. Everything. You let nothing in. You push everything away, don't you?"

I leaned forward slightly and gave him my best confused slash exasperated look.

"I have no idea what I'm supposed to be letting in here, Jake. Before yesterday I didn't even know you knew I existed, and now, you're asking me to be, what? Your friend, your girl-" No. I couldn't even say that. Why would Jake Wagner ever ask me to be his girlfriend? That was absurd. But my near slip up had his features relaxing, he almost smiled.