LOTF: Before and After

Phase 3: Chapter 63

"Jack!" Ralph turned to him with an outraged look on his face. He and Jack both knew damn well that was the closest thing to the truth to come out of Jack's mouth in the last few minutes.

Jack and Ralph continued to talk to Ralph's classmates about Jack's injuries, about school, and about the stupidly hot weather. They all sat down in a circle on the ground of dusty pebbles beside the swingset. Jack noticed that Bella would playfully slap Ralph's arm or laugh a little too loudly at his less-than-stellar jokes. He looked around Ralph at the bubbly, rather annoying, peachy girl as she subtly vied for Ralph's attention.

"So Bella, Henry" Jack cut the other three off in the middle of a conversation he zoned out of. "Are you two like together or what?" he bluntly asked.

"Oh, god no!" Bella laughed dramatically. "Our moms are best friends, have been since we were in third grade I believe it was. We've been friends like forever" she laughed again.

"She's more like an annoying little sister" Henry agreed.

"I'll say" Jack mumbled inaudibly under his breath. "So she's younger than you then?" he raised his volume to ask.

"Four months" Henry shrugged, "still counts."

"Mhm, yeah, I can tell" Jack sarcastically agreed. Ralph shot him a confused glance but quickly turned his attention back to the others as Bella playfully slapped him across the knee. Ralph and the others failed to notice the intense glare Jack shot Bella for a split second after his eyes had wandered back up to hers from where the girl had her hand on Ralph.

"You're funny!" Bella smiled widely at Jack before letting out another laugh. Jack already determined that he'd likely have to scrub his ears out with a toothbrush to get the sound of the girl's belly laugh out of his head. He simply nodded sarcastically in response to her comment. Jack didn't trust himself not to say something that'd too obviously come off as rude. Bella was either too plain stupid to sense Jack's obvious sarcasm or she was just good at acting like she was.

Jack thought it obvious that the ditzy blond girl had a crush on Ralph. What he couldn't determine was whether Ralph really didn't know it, or if he was just pretending not to in order to avert the awkwardness around it. It could've very easily been either one, Jack concluded. Ralph wasn't exactly the most well-socialized person he'd ever met. The brunette admitted to being the last kid in his grade at his old school to develop a crush on anyone. But he was also good at diverting tension; suppressing awkward situations in the name of preserving the feelings of people like Bella. As annoying as she was, Ralph would've been too nice to flat out reject her.

"We should get together and study before Friday!" Bella declared when Jack zoned back into the conversation again. "Like during lunch break or something? We could go out and eat together off campus maybe?" she suggested to Ralph.

"I'm always in the fitness room during the lunch break" Ralph informed her. "But we could maybe meet before school."

"Super!" Bella enthusiastically agreed. "It's a date!"

Jack raised his eyebrows as he glanced around Ralph to look intently at the overbearing girl. Jack sensed the sudden awkward tension between the three of them. Ralph shifted uncomfortably, smiling at her in an unclarifying way. Jack looked at him, sensing the deliberate effort Ralph was making not to look him in the eye before the moment passed.

"We should get going soon" Henry piped up as he checked the time on his watch. "My dad'll kill me if I miss curfew on a school night."

"That's always a ball" Jack chimed in, intensifying the energy with his blunt, dark humor. "Better hope it doesn't leave a mark" he added before the misinterpretation would bite him in the ass.