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The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.

2: The Stupidest Things Ever Said

Katie

I couldn't help but smile back. There are just some people that have dazzling smiles, the kind that are infectious. And this guy, Jack, had one of them. I couldn't help but notice that all of his teeth were straight, as if he'd had braces in the past, and they were white in the dim light of the room. They also looked slightly purple, but that was because of the black light bulbs that had been screwed into the occasional lamp. Or, maybe, they were just reflecting plaque build-up that haunted dentists in their darkest dreams.

But I would assume the former.

I could feel the paper towel absorbing soda. Looking at it, I tossed it into the nearest trashcan, almost missing, and called out, "I really am sorry about your shirt."

Jack just shook his head. "I know how to do laundry," he told me, flashing that easy grin of his. Was it so wrong of me to feel a little flutter in my chest as I realized that I had a hot guy's full attention? His gaze never wavered from mine, giving me the chance to look at his deep brown eyes, almost the same color as his chocolate brown hair. He was taller and broader than me, but not by much. He was bigger than Garrett, though, who'd I'd been told was hot in the nerdy way. Jack blew Garrett out of the water.

"Um," I said, struggling to think of anything to say. I usually had Demi at my side whenever we talked to guys. And when that happened, it was usually her that did the talking. My conversations were strictly academically related. I hadn't even had to work to snag Garrett. He was in almost all of my AP classes, and we were often paired together because our last names – Carlisle and Carlton – were right next to each other. If we hadn't been valedictorian and salutatorian and were just sitting in the crowd of graduates at our graduation ceremony, we would have ended up sitting next to each other anyway. That's why I always said it was like our relationship had been orchestrated by the powers of the universe. "I do laundry, too."

Okay, floor, go ahead and swallow me up. I'd like to be invisible again. Please.

He cocked an eyebrow at me. Oh, God. Why did I have to be so weird? But instead of crossing his fingers at me in the general witch-be-gone type of way, he just smiled a little wider. "Yeah? We've got something in common, then."

Did it make sense that I sort of wanted to burst into tears? A single person could only take so much embarrassment before she spontaneously combusted. Or something. I just let out a nervous laugh, trying to think of something to say to him that wouldn't make me sound like some sort of idiot. Or a Neanderthal. I could almost imagine myself saying, "Me Katie. Me like cute boy."

Thankfully, someone collided into me. I turned to give them a glare and was relieved to see Demi instead of another drunk. "There you are, mamacita." She said, looping an arm around me. "I thought I'd lost you. You know, buddy system and all that." She continued, almost as if she didn't see Jack standing in front of me. But then she turned her gaze from me to the taller, broader, fine specimen of the male species. Her eyebrows immediately rose and she gave him her trademarked sultry gaze. "Hel-lo," she said, her "seductive" voice was ruined by the thumping of loud music. "I'm Demi, Katie's best friend. And you are?"

"Jack," he said with a grin. I suddenly realized that this was the type of thing that happened to genius, socially awkward girls like me. They introduced their gorgeous roommate who looked like a Taylor Swift clone to the cute guy that was nice to them, and suddenly she was alone. They would hang out all the time, and Demi would exile me from our room so the two of them could make out in peace, and then they'd get married and I'd be invited to the wedding. And then they'd have two point five children, and I would be the godmother that would look at Jack and think that I'd seen him first….

Okay, it was melodramatic, but I couldn't help but think of the way the two of them would look good together, him with all of his darkness and her with her lighter color palette. It was ridiculous, but I was a little jealous. There was just something about him that I liked. I decided that there must be something wrong with me, and that I should be happy for Demi if she hooked up with Jack. But instead of paying attention to her, his gaze returned to me and he said, "You weren't lying. She does look like Taylor Swift."

"Aw, you were talking about me?" Demi interjected. If I was being honest with myself, even though there was a majority of me that was glad for her presence, there was also a small part that wanted to tell her to get lost. Demi had mourned over the loss of her boyfriend for a few weeks, but then she was back in the game. All cute guys were up for grabs. I guess she just thought that I wasn't going to be paying any attention to them, since I obviously didn't partake in her boy crazy tendencies.

"I was trying to find you." I yelled in her ear. She looked like she pretended not to hear. Her eyes, though, looked between my proximity to Jack, his empty cup, and the wet stain on the front of his shirt. She was smart enough to put the pieces together. She'd realize that I'd made my grand debut by spilling his drink all down the front of him. But that didn't stop me from speaking, of course. "I, um, ran into Jack."

Demi seemed to be assessing the information in her mind. She looked like she was confused on whether or not I wanted a moment with Jack alone. Or maybe that was just the look of a female lion before she decided that she was going to steal away the male. But my mind immediately assumed the former, because she was cocking an eyebrow at me. That made sense, because I didn't know myself. I was one that was going to err on the side of caution, which meant close to zero on the alone time with unknown males. But there was a part of me that wanted me to spend time with him, despite the fact that I didn't know anything about him other than his name, and just his first name at that.

"Well," Demi finally said. "It was nice to meet you, Jack. Be nice to my roommate. I'd be lost without her." She turned and looked over her shoulder. I followed her gaze and caught sight of Marcie's big hair, and, nearby, Julia's cat ears. "There is a hot piece of pure muscle that I need to introduce myself to over there," she called out. I was jealous of the fact that she didn't look embarrassed at her own lack of inhibitions in the least. She turned to leave, but as she passed she reached over and pinched me hard on the tight skin over my shoulder.

I turned sharply. "Ow!" I hissed, glaring at her as she pushed her way through the crowd. She paused a few feet away from me, giving her trademarked smirk. She waggled her fingers at me and pointed to my boot, where I'd hid not only my key to get back into my dorm room, but also my phone. I wondered, momentarily, if it would stop working because of all the sweat gathering there. Before I could even ask what she meant, she was gone.

I turned back around and faced Jack, forcing what I hoped was a clone of Demi's easygoing smile on my face. I fully expected Jack to try to talk his way out of a conversation with me. I was actually sort of looking forward to the interesting excuses he could come up with just to get away from clumsy me and my crazy roommate/best friend. But instead he leaned up against the wall, the stain on his shirt coloring the spot darker. He gave me a smile that said he wasn't about to be scared away from me. It also said that he found me interesting. Interesting enough to stick around and see what I would do next.

I nervously tugged on the hem of my orange and black tulle skirt. I wiped my hands across the fabric, which also helped to get rid of some of the sweat that was gathering on my palms. I was aware of the fact that the corset didn't met the skirt fully, so there were patches of bare skin on my hips, and there was more of my chest showing than I'd ever allowed before. I suddenly felt like one of those skimpy girls. My dad would have a coronary if he'd found out that I'd worn this at all, much less in public, in front of guys. I felt like the makeup that Demi had caked onto my face was melting off, and my hair was starting to fall out of the tight ringlet curls that Demi and Marcie had worked on, despite the fact that they used half a can of hairspray on me.

"So," Jack said, "do you come to these types of parties often?" He wasn't even looking at me as his eyes scanned the room. The music continued to pound, shaking the foundation of the house. The air felt even hotter, muggier.

"God no," I answered. Then I paused and swallowed hard. What if he did come to these types of parties a lot? What if he was offended by my obviously disgusted tone? "I mean," I started, "not that it's all that bad. It's just not… my scene."

Jack just smiled down into his red cup. I figured that it was mostly empty by now, but he just shook the cup in a circular motion, sloshing the drink on the inside. "What is your scene, then?" He asked. I'd heard the words, but barely. I took a few steps forward and leaned on the wall next to him, hoping that I didn't look like a girl that was trying too hard.

Once again, without thinking, I spouted, "The library." As soon as the words were out, I wished that I could reach out and take them back, like they were physical things. But once they were said they were out there. And it was far too late for me to try to fix it, because he'd already heard me.

The miniscule smile already taking place on his lips grew wider, and he looked up at me. Our eyes stayed locked for a second. It was almost as if I couldn't look away. Finally, I swallowed hard and forced myself to look in the opposite direction. My cheeks were probably flaming. I reached up and brushed my hair out of my eyes, my fingers getting tangled in my stiff-because-of-hairspray locks. "The library?" He echoed, sounding amused.

I immediately felt the need to defend myself. I didn't want to just be some nerdy girl that was obviously out of place at a party, even though that was exactly what I was. My stomach clenched with a thousand butterflies, and I swallowed hard, trying not to let my eyes water. I didn't want or need to cry, but I was frustrated and embarrassed, and that meant that I was prone to tears. It was a normal human reaction. It happened to the best of people. I just forced myself to keep my voice as strong as possible. "I'm here on a scholarship." I said pointedly. "If I don't keep my grades up, they're going to take it away from me, and I've got to do really well if I want to get into the med school." Maybe if he thought that I was a genius, he would try to keep from making fun of me.

He just nodded. "You kind of remind me of my brother." He said all of a sudden. "He's always studying, never takes a break for anything." He still didn't meet my gaze as he stared out over the "dance floor." It was just a part of the house where all of the furniture had been shoved against the walls to make way for the grinding bodies. He looked up at me again and plastered a smile on his face. I could tell, though, that it wasn't the same, honest smile that he'd given me earlier. "So, pre-med?"

I nodded. I didn't feel like a pre-med student in my skimpy costume. I felt like Miranda.

"I'm in business, myself. Don't really know why – I'm not a very good student." He looked up at me and smiled again. This time it was the real smile, his eyes crinkling at the corners. I blinked; for some reason, it was hard to breathe. "Though I'm guessing you are."

I just shrugged. At least I didn't spout out that I was salutatorian, that I'd gotten immediate acceptance because of my stance in class rank. My full-ride scholarship was dependent on the fact that I stayed in my dorm and befriended my books instead of other students. When Demi and Marcie and Julia ventured out in the world, I usually had some reason to stay behind – a research paper, a test, a stack of homework….

Jack grinned and leaned forward. "You want to get out of here?" He asked. I was sure my eyes grew to the size of teacup saucers. Did he really just ask me that? I know I wasn't the most experienced girl out there in the world, but I'd seen enough movies to know what that usually meant. It had the same general meaning as your place or mine? He must have seen my shocked expression because he coughed loudly and said, "Not like that, God. I meant out of here, this room. This house. Like, outside on the front driveway or something."

I glanced over my shoulder to where Demi had disappeared to. I knew that Marcie was probably with her. Julia might have been with her, too, if she wasn't off with Marc. As I shifted, I could feel my dorm key and my phone in my boot. My dad would think that stepping out of this house with this guy would be stupid. Demi would probably be telling me to go for it with all of the seriousness that she could muster. Julia would probably be hooting in the background if she could see me now. I bit down on my lip and finally said, "Sure. We can go outside."

Jack just grinned and motioned for me to follow him. He squeezed through the crowd, and I struggled to stay caught up. I figured that it was due partly because of Demi's ridiculous boots, but there was also a part of me that knew it was because I really was that uncoordinated. I had never been particularly graceful or sporty. I was a nerd from the start, all the way back to first grade when I aced every single one of my spelling tests. My life was practically predestined.

He glanced over his shoulder momentarily, as if making sure that I was still behind him. Eventually, I got so far behind that he paused and waited for me to catch up, not bothered in the least that he was standing in the middle of the dance floor. Gyrating bodies covered in sweat didn't seem to make him bat an eyelash. I caught up to him, my ribs heaving underneath the corset. Demi had really tied it tight. I took another deep breath, trying to cool my lungs. Jack held out a hand.

I looked down at it. He had a pretty big hand. Not that it was very surprising – he was tall, and broader than Garrett, but that didn't necessarily account for anything. Still, he had a big hand and long fingers. Pianist fingers, my mom had once said. She'd tried to teach me a piano at an early age, but we learned pretty quickly that the only thing I was ever going to be good at was academics. I couldn't carry a tune to save my life. I couldn't help but examine his fingernails – clean crescents cut down to an acceptable length. There was a bit of curly hair on his knuckles that I could see, a dominant trait, I learned in my biology course. Nice hands.

He didn't seem bothered by the fact that I was just staring at his outstretched hand, either. Finally, I raised my own and set it gingerly in his. I couldn't remember the last time I'd ever held hands with someone. Garrett wasn't really one for public displays of affection. We rarely held hands, much less kissed. He had been a sweet guy, though, never forcing me to go any further than I wanted to. In fact, I was usually the one that wanted to start a make out session, which was almost out of character for me. I had the feeling that Garrett was sort of afraid of girls. It was a possibility.

Jack's hand was warm, enveloping mine entirely. His fingers squeezed mine briefly before he took off again, his long legs giving him an advantage over me. I wasn't necessarily short, but I wasn't tall, either. I wasn't technically a midget, but I wasn't going to be a model anytime soon. Demi had said that my height added to my cute factor – guys had a need to take care of me because I looked like a damsel in distress. She hadn't said that in so many words, but she'd hinted at it. I was pretty sure that she was just trying to avoid hurting my feelings because she knew I didn't want to be the girl that couldn't take care of herself. Still, Jack dragged me behind him as I struggled to keep my footing.

As we reached the front door, I happened to look over my shoulder and catch a glimpse of Demi standing off to the side, water bottle in hand. Her eyes lit up when she saw me trailing behind Jack, my hand still securely set in his. She immediately raised her thumb and pinky and mimed a phone, mouthing something at me from a distance. I squinted, trying to figure out what she was saying, but by that time Jack had opened up the door and pulled me out onto the front lawn.

The moment we were out of the crowd, he dropped my hand. I nervously brushed my palm against my skirt like I had been doing earlier. Oh, God. Please tell me that he hadn't thought my hand was clammy and gross. Trying my best to avoid his gaze, I looked out over the front yard of the frat house. When we'd first walked up, the party had already been in full swing. The only way we'd known that, though, was because Marc lived here and Julia knew the house like the back of her hand. And the music shaking the windows helped. But now, the party was evident in the trash covering the wildly growing lawn. The music still thumped out of the house erratically, but at least out here it wasn't deafening as much as annoying. Jack motioned to the entire lawn, and I sighed before taking a seat right where I was standing – on the pathway leading up to the house. There was no way I was going to sit in that grass. With my luck, I'd end up sitting on a broken bottle and having to get a tetanus shot.

Jack, looking amused, plopped down next to me. He sat cross-legged while I tried to fold my legs underneath me. The skirt was far too uncomfortable. Now I remembered why I usually refused to wear them. It didn't help that Demi's boots squeezed my calves, cutting off blood circulation. I started to feel a little inferior just because I couldn't get settled. Finally, I kicked my legs out straight in front of me and smoothed my hands over the tulle. The sidewalk was chilly underneath my legs, goose flesh rising on my skin. In the lights coming off the house and from the streetlamps, I decided that my knees looked particularly knobby.

"It's so stuffy in there," he said suddenly. Outside, he didn't need to yell out to me. The windows behind us kept flashing with strobe lights and different colors, and I could still hear the music, but it was muffled almost to the point beyond recognition. He didn't have to yell to be heard out here. In fact, he said the words very quietly. It gave me a chance to really listen to his voice – warm and bright, like the sun. He sounded like someone who was usually very happy.

"Tell me about it," I replied. "Demi asked me to come with her. I thought about skipping out on it, you know, but…." I trailed off. I didn't need to delve into Demi's past. It was hers, not mine, and I had no rights to talk about it. "But she convinced me to come anyway."

"You looked a little out of your league in there." He commented.

I wasn't sure if I was supposed to have heard that, since he'd said it so quietly, but I still answered. "Yeah, well, it is. I have this contract with my dad, see." I began. I wanted to tell myself to stop, because no one, especially hot guys, wanted to hear about a girl's overprotective father. "Basically, it says no parties, no boys, no drinking, no drugs… the majority of it I wouldn't have ever done in the first place, but he's covering the basics."

Jack leaned back on his hands. "Overprotective?" He asked.

"Very." I said, pulling a long piece of grass from the lawn. I rolled it in between my thumb and forefinger. Almost like Demi, Jack had that quality that just made me open up and tell him everything. I'd already hinted at my dad, and if I wasn't careful, I was going to start spilling my life story to a guy that I barely knew. "This is like, my first party ever." I admitted.

"Even throughout high school?"

I nodded. "Even then. I was invited to ones, sure, but rarely. Everyone knew that I was probably going to be locked in my room on a Friday night with my school books. And my dad always wanted to know where I was going and who I was going to be with. Once, I told him that I was going to a party, and he asked if the guy's parents were there, 'cause he wanted to meet them. It was so horrifying that I decided not to go."

"That must have sucked."

I looked up at him. My friends back home were like me for the most part. The majority of them were AP students like myself. A lot of them had been taking college courses since their sophomore or junior year. Sure, some of them thought that my dad was a little overbearing, but after meeting Miranda, they all agreed that he had reason to be. None of them had really come out, though, and said that my lack of social skills and the reason behind it sucked.

Almost as if he was reading my mind, he said, "No offense, or anything."

"None taken. I think," I replied. I leaned back, copying Jack. I bit my lip and looked up at the sky, into the stars dotting the expanse. There was so much light around that it was sort of hard to see them, but I knew they were there. I continued to search until I found a little of the moon, bright against the night. If I squinted, I could see the shadow of craters on the surface. Sometimes, I really did think that the moon looked like cheese.

We sat quietly for a moment, and I almost felt… at peace. It was weird. It was a type of calmness and content that I couldn't remember all that well. It was one of those moments where you sat there and everything felt almost surreal. Jack spoke, but instead of his voice breaking the silence, it just accompanied what I was feeling, almost like it belonged there. "What are you squinting at so hard?"

I couldn't help but smile a little ruefully. "The moon," I answered softly. Almost like I wasn't speaking at all. At least I hadn't said anything else embarrassing. "Do you think they ever really thought it was made of cheese?" Well, never mind then. I seemed to pour every ounce of stupid in my body to every reply that I made.

Jack snorted. At first, I thought he was laughing at me. I glanced over at him, fully prepared to see his handsome face sneering at me. Instead, he looked very serious. "I thought it was made of cheese when I was a kid. I don't know if I would have ever believed that it wasn't until my sixth grade teacher sat me down and handed me a piece of moon rock. Now, I think it was one of those souvenirs you get from museums. But it was the only thing that made me believe differently."

I couldn't help it; I broke out into a laugh. Jack smiled. He didn't look bothered by the fact that I laughed. In fact, he looked pleased. Maybe he was the type of guy that liked to laugh and joke, even at his own expense. I shifted in my seat a little bit and brushed a small pebble off my leg. "Thanks," I said suddenly, sincerely.

"For what?"

"For making me laugh. And for not being one of those crazy drunks in there." I pointed to the frat house with my thumb, throwing it over my shoulder.

Jack shrugged. "I don't drink. But my friend needs someone to drag his sorry butt back to his apartment, so I'm the designated driver."

I opened my mouth to answer him when my phone vibrated in my boot. If I was inside, it probably wouldn't have been heard. But out here, I could hear the sound of it against the leather of Demi's boots. I stopped before even saying a word, my eyes shooting down to it. Jack must have heard it, too, because he looked down at the shoe. "My, uh, phone," I explained, reaching down to grab it. It was wedged between my ankle and the boot. The surface of it was almost slick with perspiration. Gross.

Finally, I managed to pull it out. I tried to inconspicuously rub it across my skirt. Moving my thumb across the screen, I found that I'd gotten a text message… from Demi. Without thinking about it, I opened it up. SEE, she wrote, I TOLD YOU SOMEONE WOULD TAKE YOU HOME. I immediately replied that we were just talking out on the front lawn. When I looked up, Jack was looking at me with a cocked eyebrow. It only made my cheeks flame even more.

"You didn't read that, did you?" I asked.

"No," he answered. He seemed sincere. "Why?" The smile that grew on his face was more like a smirk. "Was it about me?"

"No," I said, a little too quickly. We both knew that it was a lie. I sighed heavily and looked away from him. "Demi wanted to know where I was, that's all." This time, the lie was smoother.

Jack just shrugged and returned to gazing out on the street. The area the frat house was located was predominantly for college students – apartment buildings and houses that were almost always up for rent. The good thing about a neighborhood like this one was that we knew the neighbors wouldn't complain about a party. The bad thing was that the cops knew this was a college-populated area, so they tended to concentrate their patrols a little more heavily around here. But then again, if you were a law-abiding citizen like me, there wasn't anything to really worry about.

The front door opened behind us. We both turned to look and see who it was. It was past midnight, now, so there were people that were just now arriving. What I hadn't expected to see, though, was Julia being held up between Marcie and Demi. Her cat ears were falling forward over her eyes, and she had an easily drunk smile on her face. I hadn't expected her to get plastered that quickly. Demi caught sight of me and Jack sitting on the walkway. Her eyes flashed with momentary confusion, but then she plastered a smile on her face and slyly brushed some of her curly hair out of her eyes.

I scrambled to my feet, trying to keep my too-short skirt covering everything as I rushed forward. Even though Julia was sometimes the mean one, she was still my friend. And she would definitely hate herself in the morning. The least I could do was help make sure she got to her dorm room. I might even feel saintly enough to leave some ibuprofen on her desk, since we all knew she'd be nursing a pounding headache in the morning.

"She did a keg stand," she explained. "Several times. After that, she threw up on some skanky junior." Demi seemed a little amused. As she spoke, I could smell the alcohol on her breath. I knew when I got into this, of course, that I was going to be the designated driver, just like Jack was, even though we hadn't driven over here. I suddenly realized how much harder it was going to be to maneuver three other coeds to our dorm, even if Demi only had one drink. Marcie seemed to be pretty intact, too, which was a good thing. The more coherent my collection of friends, the better.

Julia groaned, and I glanced over my shoulder. To my surprise, Jack had gotten up and was standing right behind me, looking like he was about to offer his assistance. I forced out an awkward smile and said, "Come on, let's get her home." I stepped aside so Demi and Marcie could maneuver Julia down the sidewalk. As they walked past, I turned to look at Jack. "Thanks for hanging out with me," I said. "You can get back to the party now."

Jack looked like he was going to say something, but I brushed past him and hurried to catch up to Demi and the others, tottering on the boots for a moment before catching my balance. As I walked away, I realized that I'd never gotten Jack's last name. For all I knew, this would be the last time that I ever saw him. I debated turning around and telling him to call me or something. But as I looked back, I couldn't see him on the front lawn. Maybe he had gone back inside, after all. Maybe he didn't really even want to keep in contact with me.

That made sense; we barely knew each other. So I was going to accept it – thank God I hadn't actually turned around. That would have been a momentary lapse in judgment. My dad had always said to never give random guys my cell phone number. This could be the last time I'd see Jack. I couldn't care less. At least, that's what I told myself.

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