The Woods (Original)

Bet You're Lookin' For Somethin' New

Thursday finally rolled around the calendar. Today was the day I turned 17. I slept unusually well that night, I got at least five hours of sleep. It surprised me considering the stress of the nonstop threat notes, and the sadness I felt whenever I remembered Axel and I were no longer friends. I guess life gave me a bit of a birthday present.
As I groggily made my way into the kitchen for some breakfast I noticed a note on the counter.
Dear Jesse,
I can't believe my baby boy is 17 already. You're growing up so fast! I'm really sad to tell you that I got an emergency call in to work, and I can't be here to celebrate with you today...
When I read that sentence I didn't even want to finish reading the note, but a part of me wanted to continue on.
... but I'm leaving you the money I saved up to take you shopping today, maybe Axel can take you to the mall for you to buy some new clothes. Also, I already ordered your tuxedo. You just need to pick it up from the store.
Love, Mom
I couldn't believe it. I can't say I'm surprised either, though. My mom doesn't even realize that Axel and I aren't friends anymore, and she can't even be here for my birthday. I began to question if she was even at work right now.
Behind the note was a thick envelope, and I opened it to find my birthday shopping money. I decided to put it in one of my dresser drawers, I'm not stupid enough to bring that to school.
When I was finally ready for school I walked out the door expecting Petra to be there, but she wasn't.
"Maybe she's just running late... Or is everyone gonna abandon me on my birthday?"
Just then I could heard the faint sounds of a motorcycle in the distance. Deep down inside me I knew she couldn't abandon me ever, let alone on my birthday. It just seems to be my luck that today would be the day she didn't show up or was sick.
The red metallic beast rolled into my driveway, and I was greeted by the face of the one I cared for the most in the entire world.
"Happy birthday Jesse!" She said as she ran in for a hug. "I got you something."
"Oh you didn't have to get me anyth-"
"I know I didn't have to, I wanted to," she interrupted as she handed me a small box wrapped with purple paper and a golden bow. I smiled awkwardly as I began to slowly unfold the paper. The midnight purple encasing concealed a cardboard box. I opened it to reveal a small trinket, a chain with two dog tags on the end. I drooped the chain over my fingers to study them. The first one read:
Jesse Xavier Jones
   4-22-99
   The second one:
Petra Dakota Jackson
   7-30-99
   I turned them both around and they both had the engraving of "4-15-16". The day we met.
I looked up at her and she tugged at a chain from around her neck and pulled two dog tags from out of her shirt. They were identical to mine.
I looked back down at mine and smiled, a small chuckle escaping my mouth. "This is the best present I've ever gotten in my entire life... Dakota."
"I'm glad you like it Jones," she said punching my shoulder playfully with her gloved hand. Her right hand had a fingerless glove, the other a sleeve that covered her forearm. It looked rather nice considering I have OCD and something like this would usually bother me, but it didn't.
Today on the ride to school as I wrapped my arms around Petra to secure my place on the motorcycle I allowed myself to rest my head on her shoulder.
"Maybe this won't be such a bad birthday after all."
When we arrived at school I remembered that I needed a ride to the mall after school. "Hey Petra, I was supposed to go shopping with my mom after school today but... she got called into work apparently, do you think it would be cool with your dad if you took me?"
"Yeah, I bet he wouldn't mind. Besides, I still need to pick out a prom dress," she said.
   As we rounded the corner to my locker so I could get my textbook from it, we were met by Aiden and Lukas. They both wore a scowl on their faces, their arms crossed. Petra glared back at them, and with their eyes squinted they walked away, making sure to bump my shoulder as they went. I had absolutely no doubt they were to blame for the notes in my locker.
   "Watch where you're going, assholes!" Petra shouted at them. They simply kept their backs turned and kept walking.
   Sure enough as I opened my locker another note fell.
This is you're final warning
I studied the note and soon crumpled it up, throwing it behind me.
"It's definitely them. They didn't even bother to use the right your," Petra rolled her eyes.
"Whatever, I don't care anymore. I don't know what they want from me, but today is my birthday. I'm not gonna let them bother me," I said.
"That's the spirit," Petra said as she patted my back.
After what seemed like the longest day ever, the bell finally rang at the end of my eighth period class. I met up with Petra in the hallways like usual, she seemed as excited as me. Before we got on the motorcycle I told her I needed to go by my house to get money first, and she said she needed to do the same.
I ran into my house and grabbed the money from my dresser drawer. Reuben came into my room as I was doing so and I knelt down to pet him. He responded by licking my nose and I chuckled, "Thanks buddy."
At Petra's house her dad pulled the "tough guy" act again, I knew he was joking but I still felt nervous.
"I want her home by 10:00 and if you try anything I will use what they taught me in the military," he said.
"Oh, great, military dad as well," I thought.
"C'mon Dad, stop messing around," Petra said.
"What? I'm just giving the lad a hard time, it's good for him!"
"Well, we had better get going to the mall," she said as she hugged her dad.
"Be careful you two," Diesel said as we exited through the door.
"We will Dad, love you!"
"Love you too sweetheart."
"You ready?" Petra said as we hopped on the motorcycle.
"Yup," I said with a nod.
It was a 45 minute, give or take, drive to the mall. The roads weren't busy and there were no major highways to travel on thankfully. It was a calm, relaxing ride all the way there.
Finally we arrived at the urban city, much larger than our rural town. There were more stores and houses, and it was a lot busier than our small wooded hometown. Finally we reached the mall and Petra propped her bike up on the kickstand.
We walked past all the little kiosks in the middle of the walkways, politely declining their offers of free samples.
"Hey, there's a good store for new clothes," Petra said as she pointed at a store with a round entryway, a place called "Hot Topic". It seemed cool, so we made our way in there.
As we walked in the lady at the cash register greeted us. She had black hair with blue dyed streaks in it, many facial and ear piercings, and a black shirt with rips in the sleeves, accompanied by a red Hot Topic apron in the front. "Can I help you guys find anything?" She asked.
"I'm looking for new clothes," I answered and she pointed me in the direction of the men's clothing section. Petra and I made our way over there, there was a pants rack underneath many ironic T-shirts and flannels that were hung up on the wall. I scanned through some skinny jeans, picking a few different pairs, some shirts and a few flannels, and made my way to the changing rooms.
First I put on some khaki skinnies with a teal flannel striped with blue and green. They fit me perfectly. I walked out of the changing room to see what Petra thought.
"How do I look?" I said with a cheesy pose.
"Nice, I like it," she said with a smile.
I went back into the changing room and gathered up the rest of the clothes I liked, making sure they were all the same size. I put all of my new clothes on the counter, the lady whose name (according to her name tag) was Ashley, scanned and checked out my clothes.
After exiting Hot Topic we decided to go to Zumiez, then Aeropostale. In total today I got six new pairs of jeans, four flannels, two hoodies, three beanies, a pair of burgundy Vans, and twelve T-shirts.
It was a fun day with Petra, laughing as we tried on new things and modeled for each other. We stopped at a few kiosks that had toy helicopters and cars, a couple of them let us test out the equipment. Finally, we decided to make our last stops.
"While you're getting your tux I'm going to go dress shopping," she said rolling her eyes at those last words.
"Ok, have fun," I said sarcastically.
On the way to the tuxedo place I came across a hair salon. "Walk-ins welcome," I read out loud. I still had plenty of money left over, so I decided to get my shaggy brown hair a new style too.
"Hello, do you have an appointment or is this a walk-in?" The lady at the desk asked as I walked in.
"Walk-in," I answered.
"Ok sir, please wait in the seating area and feel free to look through our magazines while you are waiting," she said and then pointed me in the direction of the waiting area.
"Ok, thank you," I said as I took a seat.
I grabbed one of the magazines laying on the table next to me that was full of various hair styles for men. I came across one that I quite liked, it was thin around the sides and had most of the hair on top, the front of it gelled to stay up. As it went from top to the back the hair faded as it was cut thinner and thinner until it matched the rest.
"I can cut your hair now," a female voice said as I looked up. "Do you know what kind of hair cut you want?" The short and frizzy haired blonde asked me.
"I really like this one," I said pointing to the picture in the magazine.
"Ok, no problem. Step over here and take a seat, I'll get right to it."
I forgot how uncomfortable haircuts can be. My neck started to get stiff as she was cutting, and I felt incredibly awkward the whole time. I watched as clumps of brown hair fell onto the floor. Thankfully it was over with soon.
"Ok, how does that look?" She said as I looked in the mirror.
It looked just like the picture in the magazine. "Perfect," I said.
"Alright I'm glad you like it! You can pay up front," she said.
"Ok, thank you," I said as I made my way back over to the cashier. I decided to get a bottle of hair gel too. She rang me up, and now I knew now it was time to go pick up my tux.
"I like the new me."
I walked to the tuxedo place, which wasn't that far from the hair salon. A man with short black hair and glasses met me at the front. "Picking up a tux?" He asked.
"Yes sir," I replied.
"Ok, name please?"
"Jesse Jones," I answered as he began to type lightening fast on his keyboard.
"Ah, here you are," he said as he pulled a tux off the rack.
"Thank you," I said as I walked out of the store.
"Have a nice day!"
The ticket on the plastic wrap of the tux had my name on it, and the date the tux was due back. May 22nd, a month from today, was plenty of time.
I walked into the dress store to see Petra checking out. "What kind of dress did you get?" I asked.
"It's a surprise," she said as she looked up at me. "Nice haircut Jesse, you look handsome."
I looked down and blushed, "Thanks," I said sheepishly.
"Ok, I dunno about you, but I'm beat. I'm ready to go home," she said.
"Yeah, sounds good," I answered.
On the way out we stopped by a huge fountain. It was beautiful. I took out some spare change and handed Petra a quarter, taking one for myself as well.
"Make a wish," I said. I tossed mine into the fountain as I did.
"I wish for nothing else but Petra," I thought as I closed my eyes and her image appeared in my head. Her perfect smile and wine-red hair, covered in a bandana, and her brown galaxy for eyes. She was so sweet and beautiful.
She threw her coin in too. "What did ya wish for?" I asked.
She leaned forward and whispered, "If I told you then it won't come true."
   "Well what if I told you my wish was for you to tell me your wish?" I whispered back, taking in how close her face was getting to mine.
   "Well then I'd say you wasted your wish, because you just told me so it won't come true."
I was blushing madly as she intertwined her fingers completely with mine, and led me back to the motorcycle.