A Good Guy & A Bad Boy

Ch. 12

Friday after school, Jake was at the football field, watching Troy at football practice. Ricky approached him, wearing his football gear.

"Ricky?" Jake asked. "I thought you're in the band."

"I'm just helping the band out," Ricky responded. "I'm the linebacker on the football team. What you doing here?"

"Troy told me he had something to give me. He was about to give it to me at his party, but he never did."

"Okay. You and Nick are gonna join us later on, right?"

"Yeah, it was her idea. We won't be in the way, though."

"To be honest, I wouldn't mind if you was in my way. Meet us at the mall at six o'clock. The movie start at eight."

"Okay..."

Ricky walked away, Jake thinking about what he said with a confused look on his face.

"Hey, Jakey," Troy said as he sat beside him.

"Hey," Jake replied. "Good practice."

"Thanks. I got the present I was gonna give you at the party. Here."

Troy handed Jake the locket with the baby picture and the picture of the woman inside.

"It's a, uh, a necklace," Troy said. "It gave me good luck for a while. I want you to have it."

"Really?" Jake asked. "It seem important to you."

"I'll be fine. Take it. It's yours now."

Jake put the necklace on and looked at it, smiling happily.

"Thanks, Troy," he said.

"You're welcome, Jakey," Troy responded.

The two hug each other, Trina seeing everything as she entered the field. She walked over and had a smile on her face.

"Hey, Troy... Jake," she said.

"What's up, Trina?" Troy replied.

"Just wanna ask you something important. Jake, would you mind?"

"Whatever you have to say, you can say it in front of him."

"Fine... Troy, you wanna go to the homecoming dance with me?"

"Uh... I dunno... I was thinking about going with Jake and his friends."

"Um, can you please tell me when Jake became popular enough for you to wanna hang out with him so much?"

"He don't have to be popular, Trina."

"I gotta go," Jake said. "Thanks again for the necklace, Troy. I'll see ya later."

Jake walked off the field and headed towards the street, Troy watching Jake and Trina watching Troy.

"You gave him a necklace?" she asked. "You do know he got a boyfriend, right?"

"That's not why I gave him the necklace," Troy responded. "He'll find out the true value of it... soon."

Later, at Pender Mall, Jake and Nick were walking around, finding Erica and Ricky at the food court.

"Finally," Erica said. "What took you so long?"

"I was waiting for Bae to leave the damn football field," Nick answered. "What did Troy want?"

"He gave me a necklace," Jake responded. "He said it gave him good luck. I wonder why he gave it to me."

"It look good on you, Jake," Ricky replied.