The Heart of Nine

Chapter Sixteen

He shrugs and looks at the clock on the wall, “That’s cool with me. I’ve gotta go anyway.”

“Where are you going?”

He hesitates and looks down at the floor before he mumbles, “I’m meeting up with a girl.”

I’m confused by his reaction since ‘meeting up with a girl’ is not unusual for him, “Who?”

He shrugs, “Just this girl I’ve been seeing for a couple of weeks.”

“You’ve been going out with a girl for a couple of weeks?” I ask, shocked. The most he’s been with a girl is about three days.

“You don’t have to sound so surprised, it’s not a big deal.” He replies, still looking at the floor.

“Uh yes it is a big deal, since when do you actually go out with a girl for a longer period of time than a day?”

He finally looks up at me, but doesn’t say anything. He has this look in his eyes that I’ve never seen in him before.

My mouth drops open in realization before I grin so wide I’m surprised my face doesn’t split in half, “You like her!” I practically scream in his face.

He blushes a little under my excited gaze, which only confirms what I just said.

I run up to him and take his hand, “Tell me everything! Who is she? Does she go to our school? How did you meet? What does she-”

He holds up his hand, cutting me off mid-question, “Calm down and let me tell you.”

I immediately stop talking and wait expectantly for him to tell me.

“Her name is Hena. No she doesn’t go tour school, she goes to Middleton High same one as your friend Danny. We met at some party and got to talking. The party was pretty lame so we left and just hung out after that.”

I stay quiet waiting for him to continue but he doesn’t, “And…? C’mon Jase give me some details here.”

“What else do you want to know?” He asks, looking at me like maybe he shouldn’t have said anything in the first place.

“What’s she like? Is she pretty?” I ask, not caring that I may be a little over bearing. Jason liking a girl for real, is a big deal.

He grins at me happily, an almost dreamy look in his eyes, “She’s gorgeous. She’s got long black hair and big brown eyes. She’s Pakistani and Native American mix, so her skin is a gorgeous russet color…” He trails off, obviously thinking of his new found beauty.

Then he looks back at me, almost as if he’s realizing that I’m still here. “As to her personality, she was a little hard to understand at first, but you know me, I like a challenge and well, it was worth it. We can talk about pretty much anything now. I can make all the perverted jokes I want and she’ll just laugh instead of thinking I’m gross. Oh and she loves COD too.”

I can’t help but laugh at his cheeky grin, “Well, I hope it works out. You seem to really like her.”

He gives me a small smile, “I hope it does too.”

Before I can say anything back, he nudges my shoulder and jerks his chin, gesturing to something over my shoulder.

I turn around to see Tristan coming down the stairs with an uncomfortable look on his face. Before I can walk over to him Jason nudges my shoulder again, “I’ll see you later okay? I’m gonna head out.”

“Okay, have fun with your girlfriend.” I reply with a teasing grin. He rolls his eyes and walks away while I skip over to Tristan’s side, “What happened?”