Ch. 19: Friday Morning

CHAPTER NINETEEN:
The next day was Friday. I woke up still giddy over my date (dates?) with Sean the day prior. I was in an amazing mood. Not even Meg’s snapping words could bring me down or get me to retaliate. She was super weirded out by it. She could normally rile me up in the morning. Loving sleep, hating mornings, and comments about the acne on my face were a dangerous combination that Meg always seemed to light a match to. But today my giddiness from spending so much time with Sean worked as a fire extinguisher.
“God, you’re weird today,” Meg announced as I exited the shower.
She went into the bathroom after me, probably to put on make-up. Meg and her best friend had recently started playing around with makeup and if she wasn’t so mean to me all the time maybe I would help her out with it. Today mom started at work early so she was gone. It was my responsibility on Fridays to walk Meg to her friend’s house by the elementary school, where her friend’s mom would be waiting for her. Meg would come over, share breakfast with the family, then get driven up the hills to the middle school, while I walked the rest of the way to the park and took the bus. It was a little before 6am and we had to go. We were going to need to walk quickly for me to catch my bus in time.
I had a wonderful dream last night. I was firmly wrapped in Sean’s arms as we looked out at a sunset. We were on a cruise somewhere tropical and he and I spent the evening dancing. We danced and danced until the stars came out, and he named a constellation after me. Between the happiness of my first real date, and the comforting hug of the enchanting dream, I felt absolutely on top of the world.
We grabbed Pop Tarts from the freezer, walked up the creepy staircase, and down the hill while eating our ‘breakfast.’ We passed the elementary school and went up to the yellow and cream house across the street from it. Meg walked up the stairs and knocked. I waited down below to make sure someone answered the door. After a few moments her friend answered and gestured inside. Her friend waved. Meg didn’t even glance back. Well, too much to hope for I guess. I shrugged it off and continued down the remaining blocks to the park. I glanced at my watch and picked up my pace just a bit.
I put my earbuds in and crossed the last street, into the park, just as the bus turned the corner. I looked for Angela and her crew and found them near the front of the crowd. As I walked to them, who other than Jake would step in front of me mid power walk.
I mumbled, “Sorry,” since I nearly ran him over, and tried walking around him as the first people stepped onto the bus.
Jake reached out an arm to get my attention, and I took out an earbud while still walking a few more steps. I turned to him while Angela stepped on the bus, I would follow June and Melanie.
“You weren’t on the bus yesterday,” he stated, then after half a second, “after school.”
“Ah, yeah. I had some other plans,” I said back.
The crowd around us was getting closer and louder, June was following Melanie on the bus and it was my turn to start on up. I put my foot on the first step, body at an angle.
I motioned up at the bus, “Uh, it’s my turn - sorry.” And I climbed on up.
I walked to where Angela and June were sitting, thinking I could maybe share seats with them. But I was disappointed when I saw Melanie sitting with some guy right behind them. They were holding hands. Oh, she must’ve started dating someone. I quickly took the seat across the aisle from June and Angela and put my backpack in the spot next to me by the aisle. I looked over at June.
She wiggled her eyebrows at me, “Looks like love is in the air, huh?”
I just about snorted while Angela added, “Yeah well it’s not in my air!”
I shook my head and put my second earbud back in. I thought about Sean as I glanced over at Melanie and her guy. I wondered if we looked like that to other people. Smitten. Sweetly gross. In a cute way. It was still really early so I held back from texting Sean. Instead, I opened our thread and fangirled over our messages from yesterday and last night. Yesterday had really changed our relationship beyond chemistry and flirty banter and it was a little scary. Exhilarating really. I really like him.
It looked like Jake was the last one on the bus when he lifted my backpack and tried to hand it to me. No one else was standing. I almost told him to sit somewhere else, but I was caught off guard and had music in, and didn’t need to go around accidentally yelling at people. I closed my phone screen and took the backpack and put it in my lap, giving me the illusion of protection against whatever was going on here. I was starting to remember what Ally said a few days ago and my worry about Jake starting to develop feelings for me grew. He couldn’t do this to me now, could he? After all this time?
He sat down gently next to me, which couldn’t be easy for such a big guy. While Sean was really tall and lean, Jake was bulky. As my dad used to say about these overly large ants that ended up in our house in Belmar, Jake and those like him had ‘beards and shoulders.’ The bus departed the curb, and at first all he did was sit there, backpack in the aisle, his knees touching the back of the seat in front of us, head towering over the chair backings. He could probably see all the way to the back row if he turned his head. I looked out of the window as we pulled out on the main street that would take us to the freeway, and I started to lose myself to the speedy cars zooming on the 101. I could feel him there, next to me. Stiff and uncomfortable. I glanced back at him to find him looking right at me. Caught, I took out the earbud closest to him.
“Muse, right?” he asked. My music must be playing louder than I had thought. I nodded in response and tried to put the earbud back in after a few moments of silence. He lifted his hand to stop me and I gave him a confused look. He stopped, dropped his hand, then went back to staring at nothing straight ahead. Brushing off the awkward encounter, I put my earbud back in once more and tried to space out. I wish I could text Ally about this but there would be no way he wouldn’t see what I was writing, looming over me like that. My phone buzzed.
<< From Sean to Rachel: morning sunshine >>
I read the message from my home screen without opening it then quickly closed it off. I didn’t need Jake reading my messages with Sean either. Before I turned back to the window, I saw Jake on his phone typing something. I turned away - at least the tall guy could get some privacy.
Suddenly there was a glowing phone screen in my face open to the Notes tab. Jake had his phone in my face, he gestured at me to go ahead and read it.
Sorry, I don’t have your number. How are you?
I looked back at him, confusion written all over my expression, and was about to take out my earbud again when he shook his head ‘no’ and prompted me to use his phone. Odd. I took it and wrote back.
I’m good. You? Any reason we’re chatting like this?
He took the phone back, reading it and deleting our words. Then he typed back.
Good, Glad to hear it :). It’s just hard to have a real private moment on this bus. Well on any bus, but especially on this one. Where everyone knows everyone and everything about them - small town stuff.
He handed it back, and I nodded when I read it. Yeah, Melbourne sure was a tiny place. We only had about 65 kids in our 8th grade graduating class in middle school. By 8th grade the number of people who had dated other people had made the whole place nearly incestuous. Yes, overdramatic explanation, but really. There were only so many people who could date other people. Not me though, although this guy Eldan had repeatedly asked me out in 7th and 8th grade, he asked many girls out and I always said no. Mostly because he asked many people, and secretly because I had had only eyes for Jake.
I wrote him back.
Do we need a private moment? I initially wrote, then tried to delete, before he tried to yank it out of my hand. I regretted writing something so flirty sounding. It seemed Jake and I were falling into old habits.
He had already seen what I wrote. The playfulness of grabbing things from each other reminded me of our afternoons together all through 7th and 8th grade. It made me a little sad and nostalgic. He was grinning at me while he held on to his phone, and he stilled at our contact.
What is going on? I felt my heart quicken its pace. Our hands had brushed against each other when he took it from me and it lit me up inside.
I panicked and pushed the phone into his hand, turning back to the window. He didn’t write back.