Jake paced the room, head facing the ground and hands clasped together behind his back. Sometimes he would drop into the chair placed by his desk just to fidget more and eventually get up and begin pacing again. Sometimes he would pause and try to make his sheets look a little less disheveled, or pick something up off the floor. There wasn't much of a point to cleanliness in his room though, and for the most part he didn't care what the room around him looked like.
Where was Marco? He glanced over at his computer. Four-thirty. They should have left almost an hour ago. He tapped his fingers impatiently, thinking he would have been better off if he hadn't wanted to clean up before going to the mall for video games.
The doorbell rang.
He walked quickly to the door hoping it was Marco, but his mother still beat him there by a few seconds. She had already been downstairs, reading the newspaper. It was not Marco, but Tom. Jake tried to act busy, suddenly looking away and paying attention to their dog, Homer. He was still working up to telling Tom about not making the basketball team.
"Cabin fever, Squirt?"
"Nah Tom, just going to the mall with Marco to get away from your face."
Tom threw his sweater at Jake's head, and Jake tried to toss it back but Tom quickly dodged out of the way. Before Tom could ask him anything else about his day he was relieved to see Marco coming up the driveway. Tom pretended to block Marco's attempts to get through the front door, and Marco ducking low to the ground pushed through, pretending to tackle Tom.
He grinned at Jake and shoved him in the arm.
"Ready to go?"
"Am I ready? Are you joking? You're an hour late!"
Marco grinned, punching him lightly in the arm.
"You're so goofy when it comes to catching Cassie at the mall." He pretended to be exasperated and sighed. "Maybe when we're there I can just let it slip -"
"Don't," Jake warned.
"Just the teensiest hint -"
"Marco!" Jake laughed. "Shut up."
He laughed to, and then we started toward the mall. It wasn't a long walk, but he and Marco both had curfews to keep and some of the streets weren't as safe after dark. And for a while they simply spoke about whether Spiderman or Batman would win in a fight with each other. Jake spoke about the basketball team and not making the cut. Marco spoke about not wanting to be at home.
"Seriously though," Marco eventually cut to the topic Jake was avoiding at the moment, "Why don't you simply tell Cassie? Then we could just go as sweaty smelly kids to the mall for playing video games. It's sort of a hassle to go home every time. And Rachel's totally dropped the hints before that Cassie likes you too. This is a mutual like. This is not where I go and ask a girl out and she completely ignores my machismo and witticisms because I'm a few inches shorter than her."
"Marco, please. You always leave any money you have to contribute to quarters at home, so we end up going by our houses before the mall anyway. Plus..."
Neither of them said anything else. The truth was, Marco would have gone home even if Jake hadn't wanted to look clean.
"Yeah, well," Marco said, "I think this is a lot of unnecessary drama."
"Well... Maybe tonight will be the right time. Maybe I'll ask her out on the way home. Especially if you can irritate Rachel for a few minutes so I can talk to Cassie without Rachel witticisms."
"Uh huh. You just say that because you think if Rachel and I don't see you two run away from each other we're gonna somehow not notice enough to tease you two for the next three weeks."
Jake lightly punched his shoulder, and they both laughed as they continued toward the mall.