Chapter 18- Dealing with feelings.
The Saturday morning came with a thud as Alex Parker entered the house. Like a king he lifted his hands and shouted, "I'm back, peasants!" Her brother was the pure definition of an egoistic chauvinist spoiled brat. What they call the bad boy in today's times, safe to say he was the worst of them all.
Almost every two weeks he would come home drunk, sometimes he wouldn't even show up. Her parents forcefully sent him to college when he basically dragged through high school with just passing grades. The number of arguments and fights he was the reason for in the house had become uncountable since he entered high school.
Of course, the noise settled a little when he moved to college. But he was still a pain in the ass of her parents.
"What's up, Al?" He said messing with her hair. Although he was the cause of misery in her family, he still was a good brother and a good person inside.
"Eww, get away from me." He threw his bag on the floor and stretched himself on the couch. Her mother must have heard his loud arrival because she came with striding with a big smile on her face.
"How's my son?"
"Just fine, mum." He replicated the same smile her mother wore. They wanted to hug, she could tell, but they were reluctant. Her mother just stood there staring at her son. Even if he wasn't the best son of the world, but at that moment she was definitely a mother, who had not seen her son for months.
"You're here." Their father came with a slight shade of happiness mixed with resistance. The conversations between Alex and their father were very hard to remember for Ally only recalled their awful arguments whenever they came face to face with each other.
"Yes, dad." He said in a low voice. And they stood their foolishly until her mother interrupted the silence, "Did you have breakfast?"
"No, I just kind of rushed here. So didn't have much time." He replied with all the reluctance gone from his face and only enthusiasm left for which he was known. He was the family favorite. Everybody loved him since he was always very talkative and cheerful with his relatives, qualities that Ally lacked.
She was quiet and reserve kind of a person and only the favorite of her cousins. The older seemed to dislike her because their opinions never matched; or because she never seemed to laugh at one of their lame joke; or because they didn't like the way she talked. She had always been quite jealous of this quality of her brother; he could easily make people like him.
The breakfast was strangely peaceful. No bad comments and taunting came to ruin the wonderful breakfast her mother had made. She remembered this peacefulness only dawned when her brother came. On the first day they would all be friendly and joking, but the real problem always starts on the second day.
Fortunately the coming bad day could wait for Ally had the most important night. She chose to wear a tank top and a jacket with ripped jeans hoping to get Jake's attention. She let her hair open, something she rarely did; it was only a thing for special occasions and tonight was the most special of all.
Tonight was also the first date of Luke and Haley, but they were going to some romantic movie unlike Jake and her. Although she had no interest they were to an action movie that Jake had chosen. She thought she would pretend to like it. She just never liked any superhero crap so it was going to be hard to act like she was really seeing the movie, when all she would really see was Jake's handsome face and his beautiful hair.
They had decided to meet up at the food court. When she reached he was already present there, sitting at a random table. She mustered her courage and hurriedly fixed her hair. She rolled her shoulders back and reached him, "Hey! How long you've been waiting?"
"Uh..." he looked up and actually stopped for a second roaming his eyes all over her. She suddenly felt self conscious. Jake was really looking at her.
She absent mindedly grabbed a chair and sat opposite to him. "Just ten minutes, I guess." He finally said and added "You look good." He was grinning at her.
For a moment she wanted to turn back and confirm that he was actually saying that to her and not some hot girl. When she realized he was really said that, the smile on her face grew extra wide and she shyly looked at the table.
"Thanks. You too look really good." You always do she wanted to add but she couldn't.
"Let's get going then." He said with a smile and they went to buy tickets.
"Here take this." She said handing him out her share of money when he was going towards the ticket counter.
"Oh no. It's on me."
"No, we're not a date you cannot pay for me." She said really confused by his suggestion. She would never let a boy pay for just hanging out.
"Come on its okay Ally." Her name rolled out so sweetly she couldn't refuse him. She couldn't refuse his beautiful eyes and mesmerizing smile. And she couldn't even control the smile that adorned her face.
This boy could make her smile like nobody else. And she loved when he did that for no apparent reason.
*
The movie was crap like she thought, but Jake seemed really interested in it. She tried to focus on the movie but she couldn't with him sitting so close to her. She could even smell his deodorant. Occasionally his hand would bump with her and she could feel the shivers that ran through her spine.
The movie she actually saw starred Jake and her in a private island walking down the beach holding hands. She could watch his face all day especially when he laughed at a lame joke the actors said his laugh made her feel good. She knew she was creepily staring at him but that didn't matter at the moment.
It mattered when the movie ended and the lights were turned on. She quickly wiped away the creepy smile and thoughts she had for like two hours. "It was a good, right?" He asked turning to her.
"Yeah absolutely. Loved it." She lied.
They got up and walked out. He was leading her and at one point he held her hand to help her walk through the crowd. His hand was so soft and warm against her cold skin she couldn't believe it. All her internals were screaming with joy. Her heart rate rose, and a smile came to her face as he dragged her through the crowd.
"So what do we do now?" he asked as he let go and walked along side her.
"Let's get food. But it's on me" She said sternly. He nodded and they went to KFC and ordered for two pieces of chicken and Pepsi.
"Can you please parcel it?" he said to the man behind the desk. She was confused again so she asked him about it.
"I know better place to eat." He simply said smirking at her and she didn't say anything. She just nodded he was just full of surprises.
*
Jake drove to a plain barren ground from where one could see the town lights. If even she didn't want to feel it the place was romantic. The different color lights decorated the whole town stunningly. She always fascinated what one could see only from height. She absurdly wasn't scared of heights, she admired the fact everything went on a standstill when she just looked at it as if it was beautifully painted picture.
"Wow." The words spilled from her mouth and she felt Jake's eyes on her.
"You haven't been here?"
"I have, but every time I see it I'm just like 'Wow'. It is always so beautiful." She said turning to him. He looked straight into her eyes and it felt... weird. She felt strange and conscious maybe because her eyes started twitching. Good thing he looked away, because sure as hell she would have started rubbing her eyes. She almost made a fool of herself. She was supposed to look into his dark eyes lovingly not like a damn pirate.
"Oh shit I've so much pending work to do." He said letting out an exasperated sigh. Thank god he was too busy in his own thoughts to notice how weird she was feeling right now.
"Ah. Don't remind me. I've not even started yet." She said leaning on his car's hood. She took a bite of the crunchy chicken in her hand feeling a bit settled now. He shook his head and muttered curse words as he chewed on the chicken wings.
Minutes passed and they didn't speak anything, she peeked at him, he looked in some deep thought that caused a sorrowful look to appear on his face.
"What happened Jake?"
"We used to come up here and talk for hours." He said in nostalgia. In an instant she knew he was talking about Rebecca. Suddenly interested she quietly listened as he continued, "She didn't know about this place. And when I first brought her, she was so happy. I still.. I still remember the look on her face."
"Why did you break up?"
"I... I kind of... I... cheated on her." He said with his gaze fixed on the lights in front of him.
She was so shocked that she almost choked on her food. Jake cheated on someone? That was possible? He was the nicest guy in she had ever known. "Wh- What?" she shouted. She never expected him to be the reason for their break up.
"But... but it's not all my fault. She never gave me time. Always with those popular friends of hers and they didn't quite like me. She basically pushed me away and she's blaming me..."
"I'm sorry Jake." It was all she could mutter at least her apprehension wasn't fully wrong. Rebecca did have a big say in all of this. She had the perfect guy and she blew it up. "I don't think she deserves you."
"Huh... I don't know. Let's not talk about her."
"Yeah..." She said taking a long breath.
"But Jake... I just wanted to say that you're a great guy and I think you deserve a thousand times better person who isn't embarrassed to be around you." she could see the hurt in his face and it genuinely broke her heart too. He deserved a girl who treated him good, a girl who was there for him, a girl... like her.
"Thanks Ally." He said reaching his arms out towards her. She surprisingly moved back when he enveloped her into a hug. She soon felt light and giddy in his strong arms.
His head loosely fell on her shoulder and he exhaled his warm breath running on her neck. She was happy about their proximity but his sadness outweighed everything else. Boys rarely showed how they feel and he was strong enough to express himself. She admired him as she looked at his back. A sad smile crept on her face she held him so tightly she didn't feel like letting him go.
It was obvious that he still really liked Rebecca. She was in the arms of a boy who wasn't even hers. And she hated that it felt great.
She must've been lost in her thoughts because Jake had to clear his throat to get her attention. "You can let go now, Ally. I'm fine." There was a tone of playfulness in his deep voice sending shivers down her spine.
"Oh yeah sorry there was dust on your shirt." She replied vigorously wiping off imaginary dust off his shirt.
**
A/N: Hey guys! Thank you for reading. I'm sorry if you don't like it. No excuses. HAVE A GREAT DAY! And i changed the title because I don't know this felt more appropriate. SO tell me if you like it or not we can always change it.