Things That Go Bump At Night Part 9

I loved her for saying I'll have YOUR clothes packed...she was probably the best person I would ever know.

"Six thirty is great."

"Okay girly, see you then."

She hung up, I could almost imagine her skipping to practice.

5.

Dinner with Jake's unconventional family -I still wasn't sure who Ryan and Ana were and why they lived in his house- was an interesting affair. Jake actually cooked. I don't think I'd ever even seen my Bob- in the kitchen except to grab a beer. But Jake and Ana actually made a pretty excellent chicken parmesan. However, sitting at the table with everyone was awkward. The scowls from Ryan and Ana were gone I a.s.sumed Jake had fully explained my apparently permanent presence at the "family meeting" in the guest house that I wasn't invited to, but they still didn't speak to me. I wasn't sure if I could do family dinner too many more nights if this was the way it was going to be. Plus I was used to eating fast, since I ate while I cooked for my Bob- and disappeared out of his sight as quickly as I could. I finished before everyone else and felt a little out of place as I waited for Jake to finish as well. He, on the other hand, took his time and had an actual conversation with his dad about football and his day that was a short lived conversation since his entire day was spent with me.

I also picked up on the relationship between Jake and his dad. It wasn't one I'd ever seen before not that I'd seen many, or any at all- it seemed to be based off more of a mutual respect than it did as one of David as the authority figure and Jake as the child.

Then there was Ana. I could not pick up on that relationship. Jake didn't seem to pay too much attention to her, though they did whisper between each other as they cooked. But at the table, while Jake tuned his attention to every conversation that went around the table equally, Ana seemed to only listen to him. I'd catch her looking at Jake as though she adored him one minute, then I'd catch her looking at him as though she could have jumped across the table and punched him in the face the next. She ignored me completely and to be honest, I had several moments myself where I felt like jumping across the table to punch her in the face.

I couldn't wait to address it with Jake...and I didn't. The second we were in his truck and pulling out of the drive way I pounced I couldn't help it, as his new girlfriend, I think I had a right to know. Besides, if I offended him by asking then I could always claim ignorance, since this is the first relationship I'd ever actually been in so I clearly had no idea what the rules were. Or what I was even doing. At all.

"Is there anything between you and Ana?" I asked. I didn't even lead up to the question, I wanted to see what his immediate reaction would be.

It was surprise.

"What?" His whipped his head to look at me for a moment before looking back at the road. "No. Why would you think that?"

"I can see, you know." I tried to raise just one eyebrow, but who was I kidding, I just wasn't meant to be that cool.

Jake sighed, he reached over and took my hand, linked our fingers.

"It's one sided, Remi. I have no feelings outside of friendship for her. She would like more, has asked for more, but I don't want more."

"Why not, she's really pretty." I asked, again just for the benefit of a reaction. He still didn't disappoint; he looked over at me with absolute astonishment.

"What?" He said again. "Where exactly are you going with this? You trying to get rid of me already?"

"No!" I said entirely too quickly. I nearly cringed at myself, clearly he had said that to get a reaction out of me and by the little smile he tried so hard to hide, I guessed he got the reaction he wanted. "I'm just curious, that's all. Just wondering, you know, why before me you had no feelings for her. She is really pretty." And I couldn't let it go, could I?

"There's more to a person than just looks, Remi. And Ana and I would never make a good couple. It's hard to explain it, but trust me when I say I've never felt that way towards her and I never will."

"So you admit, she's really pretty?"

He looked over to me with a fierce frown, prepared for a fight, but when he saw me desperately trying to keep my teasing smile under wraps he laughed out loud.

"You're such a brat." He shook his head and turned his attention back to the road. I leaned up, stretching my seatbelt, and kissed him on the cheek, he leaned into it.

"I do trust you, you know." I murmured before kissing his cheek again and then settling back into my seat. "I don't know a dang thing about you, but I trust you."

He looked over at me for a moment before smiling softly and turning his attention back to the road.

"What do you want to know? I'll tell you anything."

I watched his profile, that strong jaw, those dark features. That was all mine.

"I'm compiling a list." I finally said, smiling myself. "I'll let you know when it's ready."

Kendra was waiting on her porch for us when we pulled into her driveway. Tote after tote stacked in the gra.s.s next to her driveway. Jake raised his eyebrows at me, I could only shrug sheepishly. Kendra pulled me off to the side while Jake loaded them into the back of his truck.

"I got you some jeans, a girl can't live on Capri's alone. Some s.e.xy underwear too, now that your living with a boy." She waggled her eyebrows at me. "Some shoes, boots. I stuck my favorite Louis Vuitton in there for you too."

"Kendra." I said gently. "You really didn't have to do all that."

"Well who else was going to do it? Bob? I should have done this years ago. I don't know why I didn't."

I knew she was feeling inadequate now that someone else had actually come along and rescued me. I knew she was feeling that she'd left me to face h.e.l.l alone while she came home to a loving family, home cooked meals and the security that no one in her household would ever hurt her. But it was a responsibility that I did not want her taking on. She had been so instrumental in keeping me from just quitting; just quitting everything and accepting whatever happened next.

I did something then that I had never done in the years that followed my mother's death. h.e.l.l, I rarely did it when she was alive. I stepped into Kendra and pulled her into my arms for a hug. She gasped and threw her arms around me. The pain in my back had dulled so much during the day that I was easily able to ignore the stabs as she squeezed me tightly.

"Look who learned to hug." She said into my shoulder.

"I had a really good teacher, she was patient while I learned." I told her and she squeezed even harder for a moment before letting me go. When she back away her chin quivered. "Come on Kendra, everything is okay now." I said.

"Yeah, but someone else is taking care of you. It should be me."

"Don't do that Kendra. You've always taken care of me. I'd like to start taking care of myself."

"Now don't you do that." She hissed at me. "What you've been through...most of us would have cracked. You've always taken care of yourself too. I've never met someone with more grace and strength than you have."

I had no idea she'd ever thought that of me; now my chin quivered too. She wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand.

"G.o.d, when'd you get so mushy?" She asked and I laughed, softly. She looked over to Jake, who stood near his truck, patiently. "Remi Dexter living with Jake Wagner. Did you ever, in a million years, see this s.h.i.t coming?" She smiled delightedly at the scandal it could cause.

"Honestly? No. I'd believe it more if it were you." I admitted.

"Nah." She waved her hand airily. "I've got my eye on a certain quarterback; but I want details Rem. You and I will need to hang this weekend and I want to know everything."

"You got it. And...you know we can't tell anyone about this, right?"

"I know Rem, you didn't even have to say it."

She walked back to the truck with me.

"You out tomorrow yet?" She asked.

"Yes." I pointed to my face.

Kendra stood before Jake and looked him over.

"You take care of my girl, Jake Wagner. If you don't, I swear to G.o.d you will wish you had just listened to me."

He smiled, simply said; "I've got her back."

She turned back to me. "It's getting dark and cold, I'm going back inside. Text me tomorrow, okay?"

"I will." We shared another hug, which thrilled her to death, she ordered Jake not to let me get rusty, she'd worked years to get me to the hugging stage and if he screwed up all her hard work she'd kick him the b.a.l.l.s. He laughed. Jake went around and opened my door for me. I saw him scanning the area around Kendra's home before he finally got behind the wheel again.

"Everything okay?" I asked and for some reason I thought of creepy red eyes.

"Fine. Ready?"

I nodded, though honestly, I was nervous. We were going to go home and eventually we'd crawl in the same bed together. What would happen then? I liked kissing Jake, and I knew I'd want more eventually, but I also knew I wasn't ready for that step yet. Would he get upset if I told him that? Is that why he had insisted to his dad that I stay with him? Because he was expecting something more?

We'd been on the road for over five minutes and I was still pondering this, still as confused and nervous as I was five minutes earlier, when suddenly Jake slammed on the breaks, locking the wheels and causing the back end of his truck to swerve into the other lane. I looked up as if in slow motion and saw it. Right there in the headlights. A black beast, I couldn't tell if it was hairy, but its head was covered in horns of all various sizes, its h.e.l.lish red eyes looked right at us before it ran off ON TWO LEGS- into the woods on the other side of the street.

"What the h.e.l.l was that?" I nearly screamed. Jake looked at me.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to slam on the breaks so hard; dog ran across the road. Are you okay?"

Dog? DOG???

"That was no dog Jake!" I was still nearly screaming, and now his eyes widened.

"You saw it?" He asked. He went from wide eyes to frowning fiercely.

"Saw it? How could I miss it? You nearly hit it with the truck! What was it?" I turned to look out my window at the woods where it had disappeared. Was it a deformed wolf? But...on two legs? Maybe I'd been seeing things. But no, I'd seen those eyes before.

"You saw it?" Jake repeated. He took my face in his hands and turned me to face him. "What did you see?"

"What do you mean what did I see? Didn't you see it? You had to have, you slammed your breaks!"

"Remi, what did you see?"

"I don't know what I saw Jake! Some big black thing with red eyes! Was it an animal?"

He let my face go and sat back in his seat.

"Holy s.h.i.t." He whispered.

I couldn't seem to catch my breath. I was freaked out beyond belief.

"Do you know what it was Jake?"

He sprang into action then. He jammed the truck into gear and the wheels squealed as he stepped on the gas. He drove at least twice the speed limit.

"Let's just get back to the house. We'll talk there."

"Talk about what?" But he didn't answer me. At his house he parked, came around and pulled me from my seat and up over the porch at nearly a running pace. He slammed the front door and was calling for his dad as he led me down the hall towards the kitchen.

"In here Jake." His dad called back. Jake spun us around and backtracked to the library. His father sat behind a ma.s.sive mahogany desk. "Everything alright?"

"Another family meeting." Jake shoved me in a chair and went back to the hall to yell for the others. I stood back up I was so not able to sit still right now- as his dad picked up the phone and called for his brother to meet them in the library.

It took less than a minute for them all to a.s.semble. They took their family meetings seriously.

"What?" Ana said, her voice dripping with annoyance when she saw me. "I was in the middle of a bath."

"She can see them." Jake blurted out. He'd come back to stand next to me, but instead of trying to hold my hand like he usually did, he crossed his arms over his chest. Complete silence greeted his statement.

So I spoke up.

"What did I see?" I asked, looking at each and every one of them, but my eyes settled on Jake; he was looking at his dad. Still n.o.body spoke, but slowly they started to move. Like statues coming to life. Mr. Wagner pulled the small wire rimmed gla.s.ses off his face and dropped them on his desk, Ana's hand went to cover her lips, Ryan's lips made a tight little circle and he whistle breath out through them and Uncle Quinn put his hands on top of his head, like a long distance runner trying to catch his breath. His wife, who I hadn't met yet, sat down in the very same chair I had discarded only two minutes earlier. "What the h.e.l.l is going on?" I asked.

"Is this the first time you've seen them?" Mr. Wagner finally asked, his voice calm.

"Yes!" I cried out. But...was it? Jake watched me closely as my face went from incredulous denial to doubt.

"Remi, have you seen them before?" He asked.

"Um," I shook my head, but not in denial. "I don't know. Earlier in the week...I was in the woods behind my old house and I thought I saw...shadows. But not normal shadows so I left the woods and when I turned around I thought I saw..." How could I say this without them thinking I was completely off my rocker? I looked up at Jake who watched me expectantly. "Red eyes. Several sets." Then there was that evening in the parking lot at school when I'd glanced across the hill to the same woods...oh my G.o.d, had that just been yesterday? "And yesterday, when you gave me a ride home, I thought I saw the same thing, but at that distance I could have been mistaken."

"You weren't mistaken. I saw them too." He looked from me to his dad.

"'Saw them'. What is them exactly?" I asked, desperate to know what was going on.

Jake sighed, "Maybe you should sit down." He suggested.

"I don't want to sit down Jake, I want to know what's going on."

Ana finally spoke up. "I don't think-" But Jake cut her off by holding his hand up to silence her, his eyes never left mine; so she turned to Mr. Wagner. "David, he can't tell her." She insisted, her voice an octave higher than normal.

"I think that's up to him at this point." Mr. Wagner answered quietly.

Ana's jaw dropped and she turned back to Jake.

"You can't tell her! She'll freak out and tell everyone else and we'll become the crazy family in town again. We'll have people poking into our business and you know what'll happen then!"

"Ana." Mr. Wagner warned.

"He's going to ruin us over a piece of tail!" She shouted.

"Shut up Ana." Jake turned on her, his eyes filled with anger. "Where would you be right now if we hadn't told you?"

Ana scoffed she was much better at it than I was. "I'm not a basket case." She looked pointedly at me when she said it.

"You're not really proving that point right now." Jake's voice was low, full of warning. Ana stared at him for a time, then shook her head and walked to the other side of the room. Jake turned back to me. I had waited, silently. I hadn't doubted him.