Chapter 20
“Hale! You ready?”
“Coming!” I yell back down to Jake, grabbing one of my long cardigans and running down the stairs, “Claire?”
“Yes Sweetpea?”
“You haven’t seen any ankle boots lying around, have you?” I ask, sifting through the mess of shoes piled in the closet under the stairs.
“Are these it?” Jake asks holding up the shoes I was looking for.
“Thanks.” I say, hopping from one foot to another as I put them on.
He leans against the wall, “Nice top.” He grins.
“Yeah, it’s one of the tops I ‘altered’.”
I turn my back to him so he can see what I mean just as Claire walks in from the kitchen, “Wow Sweetpea, that’s a cool top.”
I smile proudly as they check out the back of my black tee, “Yeah, it’s an Adam Saaks inspired t-shirt. You like cut through bits of the material and you kind of weave them together.”
“You’re going to have to teach me that,” Claire says. She puts her hands on her hips, “Now, what’s the plan?”
Jake shrugs, pulling me towards the door, “We’re going to get something for Hailey’s art project and then we’ll probably have lunch out or something.”
She nods as we start to dash out the door and down the steps, “Ok then. Have fun, but just be back before 6. You’ve got school tomorrow.”
I wave over my shoulder, “Yep, see you later Claire.”
She waves back as she comes out onto the top step, “Remember to stick together, ok?”
“We’re not in preschool mom.” Jake says heading towards the garage.
“Keep your phones on, ok? Stay safe.”
“Love you, Claire.”
She smiles, “Love you too.”
She goes back inside as Sam starts to call out that he can’t find any pants to wear. I turn back around to see Jake leading his motorbike out.
“Hell no. There’s no way I’m getting on that again.”
He laughs, “Hailey, how many times have you been on it while I’m driving?”
I rub my arm uncomfortably, aware of where this is going, “I don’t know… 10 times?” he gives me a look, “Ok, quite a bit…”
He grins, “Exactly. You’re still alive right? Nothing’s happened. You should know by now that you’re safe with me.”
“But my hair actually looks nice for once.” I whine, swapping tactics.
“Don’t be such a drama queen.” He says, handing me a helmet. I sigh and get on behind him. “Put the helmet on Hale.”
With another sigh I do as he asked and soon we’re off…. And once again, I’m plastered to Jake back. Now that I’m not hating him as much for being a complete ass, I’m suddenly much more aware of, well, Jake in general. For goodness sake! I can feel his amazing abbs through his white t-shirt. There’s seriously something wrong with me.
Memories of the pool party come running back to me with open arms; Toned bodies seem to run in the family, just my luck.
Once we get to the store we have a look at everyone’s costumes, order mine and leave. It takes 10 minutes. Once outside I put my cardigan on and stuff my hands into the pockets, “So what now?”
Jake checks his phone, “Well it’s going to be 12 soon. You hungry?”
I shake my head, “Not really, but if you are we can go grab lunch now.”
He looks at his shoes for a bit, “Um, do you want to go see what’s playing at the movies? We can grab lunch afterwards, I’m not that hungry at the moment either.”
I smile, “Sounds good to me.” We start to walk but I grab his arm, “No horror movies whatsoever though.”
He grins putting his arm around my shoulder, “You can always use my chest.”
“Get lost.” I push his arm away a little too roughly but he just laughs it off and puts it around me again. This time I don’t complain because it is pretty cold... and yes, he is very hot. (In more than way...)
We stroll down to the cinema’s and check out what’s playing as we wait in the queue to pay for tickets.
“What do you want to see?” Jake asks over the chatter of people milling around.
“JUSTIN BIEBER IN 3D!” I squeal like a school girl.
Jake eyes widen considerably, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
I shake my head, widening my eyes too, “No way! I love JB!” Jake looks like he’s debating on whether he should just ditch me now or not and I laugh, “I’m kidding Jake. Anything’s fine with me. But apparently Red Riding Hood’s not that great. It’s made by the lady who did the first Twilight movie...”
Jake grins at me, “I know the perfect movie.” We’re called forward to the next free register and Jake pulls out some money, “Two tickets to the Scream 4, thanks.”
I pull at his sleeve urgently, “No way. You promised we weren’t going to watch horror!”
He winks at me, “Who says I ever promised anything?”
“Jaaaakkkeee!” I whine.
He laughs, “Fine, fine, what about Limitless? That sound good?”
I nod my head quickly before he can list some other dumb horror movie and the confused ticket girl gives us two tickets, “Have a nice time.” She says with a smile.
We buy a bucket of popcorn to share and I grab a sprite for myself. Once in the actual cinema I start to have second thoughts on seeing this movie. It seems like it’s couples day today because just about all the people who are sitting around us are either making out, getting really close and personal or are just simply looking really sweet together as they hold hands. The latter breaks my heart, reminding me of the nice times I had with Linc while the rest just make me feel... uncomfortable.
Jake sees my apprehensive expression, “Wanna try that out?” he asks tipping his head towards a couple near the back who are entangled together like a pretzel.
I punch him in the arm and turn to stare ahead at the screen, “This isn’t even meant to be a romantic film.” I grumble.
As the lights go down and the movie starts up Jake lets out an almighty yawn and before I know it, he has his arm around me. “Really Jake?” I whisper at him, “You’re seriously going to try that cliché move on me?”
In response he just pulls me closer. I start to protest but about a million people turn around and tell me to shut up so I stop.
After a few minutes of struggling as the first scene of the movie opens Jake lets go of me. I sit up straight and grab some popcorn from him, “I hate you so much.” I hiss quietly.
“Love you too.” He says, slurping at my lemonade. Wait. MY LEMONADE!
I’m surprised I don’t get kicked out of the theatre with the amount of noise I make as Jake seems to do everything he can to piss me off. Halfway through the movie though he seems to get into it and I’m left in peace to watch it as well. And in the last half an hour or so, I actually find my regret of coming here with him disappearing.
“Where are we having lunch then?” I ask as we briskly walk out of the cinema before anyone can approach us and tell us off for all the noise we made. For some reason the mall is really crowded. I bump into a couple of people, “Oh, Sorry...”
Jake grabs my hand and pulls me closer to him and we move through the crowd till we’re in the food court. He sweeps his hand out in front of him, “Where would her majesty like to dine?”
I roll my eyes but smile all the same, “I’m fine with anything. Surprise me.”
He points over to a table in the corner, “How about you sit there and I’ll come back with our feast.” He points his finger at me, “You aren’t allergic to anything are you? Because I only have a limited amount of cash and if it turns out you can’t eat it I probably won’t be able to buy you anything else because I’m that stingy.”
I roll my eyes again and wave him off with my hand, “Just go get the food, genius.”
I wait at the table feeling slightly awkward that I’m sitting alone. I’ve always hated sitting alone. I mean, heaps of people do it every day... but I guess I’ve just always felt awkward and embarrassed... and a little bit sad…
I take my phone out of my pocket, grasping at something to distract me.
I feel eyes on me and I glance behind me to find a table of boys staring at me curiously.
I look back down at my phone, letting my hair fall around my face, Why do I always seem to attract trouble when I’m with Jake?
I’m startled when a tray is set in front of me. I look up quickly to see Jake sitting across from me, “Why do you always do that?”
“Sorry?”
He waves at his hair, “You know, that thing you do with your hair. It’s like you’re trying to shield your face or something.”
I roll my eyes, taking in sushi and assortments of other Japanese food, “I don’t know. I just do it when I don’t want to attract attention.”
He hands me some tuna sushi, “Well you’re actually doing the opposite. Your top is attracting more attention now that your hair isn’t covering it.” He winks at me, “Not that your top isn’t attractive though.” I take a bite out of my sushi, ignoring his comment, “You like the food?” he grins.
I pout, “There better not be any seafood in this because I blow up like a beach ball.”
Jakes eyes widen for a second and I crack up laughing, “You are so gullible!”
He shakes his head and rests it on his hands, watching me crack up, “Just eat the food Hailey.” He says smiling at me. I start to cough at his gentle look in surprise.
“Well what have we here?” we look up to see the boys who were watching me before standing over us, “Who’s the hottie?”
Jake’s expression immediately turns stormy, “Piss off Roster, I don’t want to do this today.”
Roster pulls up a chair and sits down on it while his goons stand around, their arms crossed, “Awww, does Jakey-wakey want to have a romantic date with his girlfriend?” his eyes scan across me and I feel like socking him one right then and there.
I see a muscle twitch in Jake’s jaw and I slap away Roster’s hand as he reaches towards me, “Can you just leave us alone? We haven’t done anything to bother you.”
He leers at me while his goons laugh, “Maybe I should say that to your boyfriend, I wouldn’t mind being alone with you.”
I roll my eyes and get up, “Come on Jake. Let’s go.”
Roster grabs my arm, his thumb tracing circles across my skin, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let’s not get all flustered now.”
I see Jake raise his fist out of the corner of my eye and strike out. I move to block him and he misses Roster’s nose by inches.
By now people are staring. I grip at Jakes arm, “Come on Jake. Please don’t make a scene.”
Roster looks furious by now, “You’re going to regret you even tried that.”
That’s when I start to run, Jake in tow. “Let me go.” Jake growls at me.
I grip onto his arms even tighter as we dash through the crowds and into an underwear shop. I drag him behind a display for out of Season Valentine’s day bra’s without batting an eyelid.
Jake tugs at his hand, “Hailey. Let go.” He says between clenched teeth.
I see some of the goons rush past, glancing looking into the store and then quickly jogging by as soon as they see the special of today displayed in the window.
“Please Jake, just leave them. Let’s just go home.” I beg, now holding him around the middle as he tries to entangle me.
“Are you blind? Or did you not see the way he was looking at you –”
“Please Jake.” I whisper, “I really don’t want to do this right now.”
He looks down at me for a while and I stare pleadingly back, straight into his deep eyes.
“Um, can I help you two?”
I leap away from Jake and turn to the surprised shop assistant who’s obviously using the stores wonder-bra’s or she’s just gotten a boob job.
I take Jake’s hand, “No thanks. We were just looking around…”
She nods her head, a watchful expression on her face but leaves all the same.
Jake tugs at my hand, “Come on.” He says gruffly.
This time he does the dragging as we hurry through the mall, keeping an eye out for Roster and Co.
We’re soon on the road again and my mind is overloaded with questions and worried thoughts. What was that whole thing about? Who is Roster? How does Jake know him?
We race past buildings, houses, parks and onto a highway. Jake takes a sharp turn into some trees on a hidden dirt path to end up on the beach he took me to.
He stops the bike and I get off, taking off my helmet and handing it to him. I watch him wearily as he lifts the seat of the bike up and grabs the rug I remember from the cemetery. I let him lead me out onto the sand where he lays it out in front of the bench we sat on what seems like years ago.
Jake kicks off his shoes and I do the same, sitting down and burying my feet in the sand while he lies back on the rug. He tugs at my shirt and pulls me down too though and we lie next to each other, in silence. The waves, the only thing that seems to fill my ears for a long time.
“Are you going to tell me what that was all about?” I suddenly ask.
“Are you going to tell me if you got to second base or further?” he counters, his angry mood seeming to have disappeared while we were on the road.
I hit his arm, “I’m being serious Jake. What’s with that Roster guy?”
He puts his arms behind his head with a sigh, “It’s nothing really.”
“It’s nothing, my ass. Spit it out McLane.”
He turns his head towards me,“You know, you always call me by my last name whenever you’re pissed off at me.”
“Don’t change the subject.”
He lets out another sigh, “He’s just this guy who’s hated me for ages… Do you remember Harry?”
I think for a while, “You mean that idiot who was always pulling my hair?”
“That’s Roster.”
I sit up in surprise, “You’re kidding! What’s he on? Last time I saw him he was a scrawny little kid! That guy was a friggin giant! Did you see his biceps?”
Jake rolls his eyes, “What’s wrong with my biceps? Can’t you say something like that to me for once?” he rubs his upper arm, “I named this one Lady Killer and my left one’s Ecstasy.”
I flop back down on my back again, “Ugh! You’re hopeless!”
He rolls over slinging an arm across me, “You love it.”
I struggle away, clawing at his arm, “Oh, go away!”
“Baaaaaabbbbbeeee” he whines, holding my closer.
“Let go.” I mutter into his shirt. “You’re changing the subject.”
He does as I ask and rolls back to his spot, “You’re no fun.”
I sit up properly, smoothing my hair back, “And you’re a jerk.”
“Would you respect the fact that I don’t want to really talk about my past with Roster?” I look at Jake as he stares up at the sky, all humour now gone. “It’s kind of like me asking you about Trent.” I tense up as soon as I hear his name and Jake laughs softly, without mirth, “Still haven’t killed that bastard.”
I wrap my arms around my knees, “Sorry.” I murmur.
He lets out another sigh, “Actually I should be apologising. I thought we could have a semi-normal date- I mean time… but I guess I sort of screwed that all up.”
I look at the waves as they fall against the shore, not really registering his slip up, “You didn’t. I had a good time today. I really did. And I now declare that this beach is now one of my favourite places.”
“Sorry, it’s already mine. Go find your own.” He starts to get up but then collapses… right onto my lap.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I exclaim, pushing his head off.
He grips onto my legs, closing his eyes, “But you’re so much more comfortable than the ground.” He whines.
I continue to push him away, “What the hell Jake?”
His eyes snap open to stare right into mine and my heart starts to do a little jig on the inside of my ribcage, “Just for five minutes. Please.” He murmurs, reaching up and brushing his hands through my hair.
I pull back, blushing, “For five minutes.” I say gruffly.
I see his cocky grin out of the corner of my eye and I cross my arms looking out to sea. That’s how we stay for five minutes – I count every single second.
“Um, Jake? It’s been five min….” My unfinished sentence hangs in the air as I realise that he actually is asleep… I lift my hand to shake his shoulder but let it drop. He looks so…. Peaceful. His hair glints in the sunlight and I have this sudden urge to touch it.
Hailey, I’m going to slap you if you keep thinking weird things.
I ignore my inner voice, threatening to cause me self-harm, lift my hand up again and slowly reach out to push some of his hair off of his forehead.
I pull my hand back quickly as he stirs, “Don’t stop.” He mumbles and I blush even harder.
You are so weird Hailey. What’s wrong with you? Jake’s supposed to be the stupid one!
I look down at him to see that he’s actually wide awake and grinning from ear to ear. “Tool.” I mutter shoving him off of my lap and getting up.
He cracks up on his back, “You, Hailey Parker, are one interesting girl.”
I kick at the sand, “Shut up… There was something on your forehead.”
I sit down on the bench, crossing my arms, now glaring into the distance.
All in a rush Jake grabs me around the waist and starts running for the ocean with me slung over his shoulder.
Everything seems to go in slow motion as I try to understand what’s going on, “JAAAAKKKE!” I scream as he chucks me into the ocean.
I wait for the freezing cold water, the thwack of my body breaking the surface, but it doesn’t come. That’s when I realise I’m clutching onto Jake while he stands in the ankle deep water, cracking up, “Your face! That was the funniest thing!” he crows.
I let go of him and step down only to have the bottom of my jeans soaked by the water. I roll my eyes, “Ugh, why do you do these things!?”
He winks back at me, “Because I can b–.” Before he can say babe, I barrel into him, knocking him over...Or at least trying to. He stumbles but rights himself quickly. “Oh you did not.”
I don’t know if it’s the glint in his eye or the hand that shoots out to grab me, but I know that I have to run. And I do exactly that.
We run back and forth screaming, yelling, laughing, chucking water at each other, trying to throw each other off balance. At some point Jake takes off his shirt and throws it back onto the sand, but even his [more than well-developed] chest doesn’t deter me from my mission to dump him right into the waves. Unfortunately he does this to me.
I come up in the waist-high water, spluttering and coughing. He pulls me up, a worried expression on his face, “Whoa. Are you ok?”
“I cannot believe you just did that.” I gasp.
I double over; breathing heavily and I feel him lean down too, “I’m so sorry Hailey. Are you ok? What’s wrong?”
That’s when I strike. I’m laughing so hard when Jake comes up that I start cough all over again.
He sits there, glaring up at me, “That was so dog, Hale.”
I wink seductively at him, “What’s wrong big boy? I’m too much to handle?” I say huskily.
He shakes his head, laughing, “Never try that again.”
I glare but soon join in with his laughter, “Now what are we going to do?” I ask, pulling my wet top away from my body, shivering slightly. I sneeze and Jake gets up, sheparding me back to the rug.
“This was a stupid idea,” he mutters as I break out in more sneezing.
He grabs his shirt off of the ground, shaking the sand off, “Here, take your shirt off.”
“E-excuse m-me?” I stutter, trying to stop myself from shivering.
He points towards the trees, “Go change behind there, I won’t look.”
I stamp my foot, trying to stop my uncontrollable shivering, What’s going on with me?
“W-what about you? What’re you going to wear?”
He shrugs, “I’ve got my jacket.”
He gives me the shirt and I tentatively take it, “Thank you.” I say softly.
He turns around to look at the ocean and I take it as my cue to go change.
When I walk back he’s still standing in the same spot and hasn’t moved an inch. “Um, you can turn around Jake.” I call out.
He grabs the rug and our forgotten shoes and brings it up to me and the bike, “We’ll wrap your t-shirt in the rug, put your shoes on and we’ll head back.”
I hop around on one foot, pulling my boots on again, “What’s up with you? You’re all serious all of a sudden.” Despite my nonchalance I feel uneasy.
He slips on his converses, “I shouldn’t have chucked you in. I swear, if you get sick… I am so sorry.”
I laugh, “Who knew Jake McLane could actually be serious?”
He shrugs, handing me my cardigan, and his old grin comes back, “Aren’t I always serious though?”
I roll my eyes as he puts the seat down and clicks it into place. He pulls on his leather jacket and gets on, “Come on. We–” he’s cut off by his phone which starts belting out ‘Only Girl in the World’.
“I’m going to kill Dylan.” He mutters fishing it out his pocket.
“Nice ringtone.” I smirk as he hurriedly presses the answer button.
“Oh. Hey mom. Yeah, we were just heading back … Um, now? We’re kind of…Yeah. Ok.. yeah, yeah we’ll go get it. Ok, bye mom. Bye mom. Yeah, I know. Bye mom.”
He rakes his hand through his hair, stuffing his phone back into his pocket, “Um, we need to pick up some things for mom on the way home… do you think you can survive in wet jeans for just a little longer?”
I shrug, “Yeah I’m ok.”
He coughs, looking away “Um, you might want to close up your cardigan or something… My shirt’s kind of going see through.”
I look down quickly to see that it actually has and I hurriedly hold together my cardigan.
Why didn’t I take the button up one today? Why?
I get on behind Jake, putting on the helmet he hands to me, “Thanks.” I say softly, referring to his surprising thoughtfulness rather than the helmet.
He starts the engine and we speed off.
Have you ever gotten off of a motorbike after speeding down a highway at around 50 to 60 miles per hour in saturated skinny jeans? I can tell you right now, it’s not an easy task and it’s pretty damn uncomfortable.
“I’m really regretting this now.” I mutter as Jake helps me off, “I can barely lift my legs anymore.”
He laughs, “Come on, it’s only a few things. It shouldn’t take too long.”
I follow him into the supermarket, feeling hyperaware that we look really strange in our dripping wet jeans, our straggly hair [which Jake seems to be able to pull off quite nicely…] even though it’s been sunny all day. Add in our random assortment of see-through shirts, bare chests, jackets and cardigans that don’t button up and you could probably say we look like we’ve escaped from Azkaban or something.
Jake picks up a couple of things and it takes less than 5 minutes for us to find everything else before we start heading up to the counter.
Please don’t let anyone we know see us like this. I silently pray to a God which I’ve been doubting exists.
Obviously he doesn’t as two guys looking very at home in sweatpants, singlets and thongs [flip-flops or rubber sandals for the faint-hearted] wave, “Jake! What’s going on, man?”
“Please tell me they’re not going to try and beat you up.” I mutter at Jake before they descend on us with their fist-bumps, bro hugs and surprised looks in my case.
Jake introduces them as Jack and Jeremy. And I fight to control the urge to laugh at the amount of J names there are in my vicinity.
“Hi, I’m Hailey.”
They nod their heads, “The new girl, right?” Jeremy says looking me up and down, probably wondering why I’m wearing Jake’s shirt and he’s not wearing one at all underneath his jacket. Whatever he’s thinking, it’s probably not good.
I cross my arms over my chest self-consciously and Jake nods, “Well we’ve got to go.” He holds up some of the stuff we’ve picked up, “Mom wants these home soon. Um, see you guys tomorrow.”
Jake’s friends nod, now grinning in a knowing way, “Yeah, we’ll see you two later then.” Jack points at him as they walk down to the chocolate section, “You better tell me how it is on Monday!” he calls out.
I groan, “Oh God, please tell me they don’t think we’re doing it.” I wipe my hands down my face; rumours are the last thing I need just after I’ve just broken up with Linc.
Jake though, is all smiles as we head over to a check-out chick, “What can I say? I’m just way too gorgeous for you to deny me.”
Once we’re home questions and curious looks are directed at us as we lope into the house carrying Claire’s groceries. Jake then takes it upon himself to explain what had happened. I quote, “We were taking a shortcut through the park when this rabid squirrel thing tried to chew off Hailey’s finger and then she started running and the squirrel chased after her because it could smell her fear and I was running after them and the next thing I know, Hailey’s jumped into the mini lake – you know, the one we used to feed the ducks in – and I had to jump in and save her. One thing led to another and because I’m just bursting with chivalry, I let her have my shirt, uh, which I took off before I dived into the lake.”
I stand there absolutely gobsmacked, there is no way everyone’s going to believe him. But then again, these people aren’t your average family.
Claire laughs, “You two really had quite a day! Didn’t you?”
“I’m going upstairs.” Jake announces, leaving me to deal with the situation he’s royally screwed up.
The boys of all people, actually buy the story and go back to doing whatever they’d been up to. It’s John who’s the hard one to convince.
“Oh stop it.” Claire snaps, pushing him out of the kitchen, “You know the story now go watch the game.” I start to help Claire unpack the groceries but she waves me away, “Go get out of those wet jeans Sweetpea, they must be really uncomfortable by now.”
“Thanks Claire.” I say before heading upstairs quickly, eager to shower, my damp black tee balled up in my hands.
Once in my room I grab my stuff and half-jog to the bathroom. My legs have started to itch now and I burst into the bathroom, dumping my stuff on the ground and quickly unbuttoning my jeans.
That’s when I realise that someone’s already in the shower. Or just got out of it. That person turns around, a towel loosely wrapped around his waist, his hair tousled but still damp, “Awww, you should have come earlier, Hale! I just finished!”
My face goes beet red and I stumble out of the bathroom apologising repeatedly over my shoulder. I rush into my room and slam the door.
I fall to the ground covering my mouth with my hand as my mind trys to figure out what just happened while also screaming at me to breathe. I groan, I think I’m falling for Ecstasy and Lady killer.