Disclaimer: I own nothing except for the things you don't recognize! Song credit to Green Day.
"Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test, and don't ask why
It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time"
Good Riddance (Time of your life)
Kenny and I had done this for years, but this year seemed so much more different, more significant. It was June 1st, my Dad's birthday. He would have been fifty five today, but he never even made it to his forty seventh birthday.
After his death, Kenny had suggested that I visit him not on the anniversary of his death, but on his birthday. The first year I went alone and cried for hours, so from then on it became a tradition that the both of us go, telling no one where it was we went for the entire day.
So when Kenny came to pick me up, I shot a glance over my shoulder at Jake who was watching me expectantly.
"Um…Kenny and I have to go somewhere." I stated trying my best not to sound rude.
"We'll be out the whole day." Kenny added.
"Like they always are on June first." Scott piped up from the recliner in the living room. "Come on Jake, let's watch ESPN."
I silently thanked Scott; I knew he knew where it was we went, but he never said anything. In fact I was pretty sure that he had already visited Dad's grave this morning before any of us were up.
We were silent on the way to the cemetery, lost in our own thoughts. The silence continued until we sat cross legged on the grass besides Dad's tombstone. I never sat over where I thought his coffin was laid; that freaked me out. Kenny always laughed at me and sat there anyway; claiming that Dad wouldn't get pissed we were sitting on him.
"I think your Dad would be happy to know that we're going to college together." Kenny began. "Someone has to keep you out of trouble."
I rolled my eyes.
"Or keep the boys away from you."
"Yeah right. In case you didn't notice, I only had one boyfriend and I don't even like to count that."
Kenny sighed and sent me one of his 'don't give me that' smiles, "Here's the truth Silvy, you're hot. I never told you this because I didn't want you to freak out or something, but we had some interesting conversations in the locker room about you."
My eyes grew wide, "What do you mean!?"
"Well for one, they all thought I was 'the man' because they thought we had sex; because a guy and a girl can't be just friends of course. After I told them that it wasn't like that between us, some of them wanted to make a move on you, but I put a stop to that."
I was about to protest, but he held up a hand.
"Liam Fisher, Silvy, really?"
"Oh…"
"Yeah, they only wanted in your pants. So I lied and told them all you had an older boyfriend."
"Aw thanks Kenny!"
"But about this Jake guy…I've got some weird feelings about him."
Little did he know that Jake changed into a freaking werewolf! For a moment every fiber in my being shouted at me to tell Kenny, but I couldn't. I had made a promise to Jake, and I was also afraid that Kenny would laugh in my face.
"What kind of feelings?"
"He looks at you…" he sighed and ran a hand threw his hair before he finished, "I don't know how to explain it. All I know is that my Dad is completely in love with my Mom, and I have never seen him look at her like that once."
"What are you saying?"
"I actually don't know what I'm trying to say."
"Look, I've talked to him about it, Kenny. I think he just feels that he owes me for taking him in, so his payment is watching out for me." Bad lie…but when he didn't question me further I assumed that he had bought it. I couldn't very well explain that his compulsion to protect me was because of some werewolf instinct he had.
We ate before we returned to my house and found only Mom and Jacob camped out in the living room. Kenny greeted my Mom before he ducked back out of the house and to his waiting car.
"Where's Scott?" I asked curiously as I sat down on the recliner that was usually occupied by Scott's skinny butt.
"Kari dropped by and made him go to dinner with her." Mom replied with an eye roll.
"Poor Scott."
We sat in a weird silence for a while, the three of us pretending to be interested in the weird commercials on TV. Seriously some advertising people didn't have a sense of humor at all. I could make better commercials than that.
"Hey, why don't you take Jake out and show him around?"
I scuffed, not because I didn't want to hang out with Jake, but because there wasn't anything to show him in town. I lived in a ridiculously small town; so small that my graduating class had been seventy three and the high school was also the junior high.
"There's nothing to show him."
"I come from a smaller town than you do." Jake grinned. "So let's go."
"Fine."
My Mom shot me a happy look before I dug into her purse for the keys to her little Chevy Malibu. I led Jake into the garage and slipped inside the driver's side, paying no attention to him. I should have realized that being around the same height as Scott, but definitely more man, (Let's face it Scott is lanky) would make getting into my Mom's little car a bit difficult.
I laughed as he held down the little button that pushed the seat back and continued to chuckle as he awkwardly bent his body to get inside. He mumbled something about a 'rabbit' before he buckled his seat belt and turned to me expectantly.
"Are you all situated now?" I asked with a raised brow.
"Yup." He said, exaggerating the 'p' sound.
"So I decided that we'll drive through down town and then we'll go to the movies in another town okay?"
"I don't have money."
"I do."
We rode in silence for a while until we came to the only stop light in town, which also happened to be the biggest waste of time in town. Of course it was red so I sighed and turned to Jake while we waited.
"Sorry to leave you with Scott all day."
"He's not that bad." He shrugged. "Do you…can I ask where you went?"
No one had ever come out and just asked me to tell them. I knew that both my Mom and Scott knew but they never said anything about it. It had just become a silently accepted thing. June first they didn't expect anything from me at all, and didn't question me either.
"Today was my Dad's birthday." I replied slowly.
"You go and visit him?"
"Yeah, Kenny and I always go."
He started to say something before the light turned. I hit the gas and waited for him to say more, but instead he just cleared his throat. There was this strange compulsion in me, to just tell him everything. And I wasn't going to try to fight it either.
"My Dad fell asleep at the wheel and hit a tree when I was ten years old; a month before my brother graduated high school."
"My Mom died too."
"It's really hard, but at least Mom had Scott to help take care of me and raise me. We're a lot closer than other siblings."
"My twin sisters left home; it's been me and my Dad for a while."
"So your Dad is all alone?"
He looked extremely guilty and in that moment I wished I hadn't opened my mouth at all. But I couldn't take back my words, so instead I placed my right hand on his knee and squeezed gently.
"Let's not talk about that anymore."
"Alright." He agreed his gaze on my hand that still rested on his knee.
I quickly pulled it away and back to the steering wheel while my face burned. I didn't just touch guys; Kenny was different and when I touched him I usually smacked him, I didn't squeeze his knee. I kept my gaze on the road afraid to look over and see him watching me. I could tell he was; his eyes burned into the side of my face. Usually I become extremely uncomfortable when someone stared at me for too long, but although it was a bit weird I wasn't uncomfortable; I just didn't want to meet his eyes because I knew I'd blush like a twelve year old on her first period.
There were only two options when we arrived at the movie theatre. Everything else had already seated, leaving us to decide between the newest kid film and the suspense/thriller movie. The choice was obvious; I wasn't about to watch singing carrots and celery.
Over the past few days I had noticed how much Jacob could eat. Well, it was hard not to notice. I had always thought that Scott was the master of packing food away, but I was wrong. Jake surpassed him. So with this is mind, I bought him the largest size popcorn, drink, nachos and only bought myself a bag of cotton candy and a small drink.
I snagged a few nachos before I handed them over to him and just watched as he practically inhaled them.
"We're not even in the movie yet!"
He looked up at me sheepishly, his cheeks full of nachos and I just rolled my eyes at him and went to fill our cups.
By the time the movie started half the popcorn and his drink were gone, and the nachos were history. I hugged my cotton candy to my chest, afraid that he'd devour that too. That was something that I would never let happen; I loved cotton candy too damn much. I hardly ever shared with Kenny, so why would I with Jake?
"Pss Silvy." He whispered.
I turned my attention away from the movie and to him.
"Can I have a taste of cotton candy?"
What exactly was a taste to him? The whole bag? Sadly I wasn't strong enough to resist the puppy eyes he was giving me. Yes it was dark, but there was light enough to see the look in his deep brown eyes and the hopeful little smile on his lips.
I sighed and broke off a large chunk for him which was gone in 1.3 seconds if even that.
***
Yet again Scott was lying on my bed when I walked in, his feet touching the floor. He was dressed in a pair of slacks and a nice button down shirt, but his hair was all messed up. That meant one of two things: he had either been running his hand through his hair repeatedly or things with Kari had gotten heated. I was hoping for the former.
"So you and Jacob went to the movies huh?" He grinned.
"You went to dinner with Kari?" I countered.
"Touché sis." He chuckled as he sat up. "Kari wanted to take me back, but I said no."
"Why's your hair all messed up?" I questioned with a quirked brow.
"Not what you're thinking."
"Good."
"So back to you."
"I took him to the movies, nothing big. I go to the movies with Kenny all the time."
Scott smiled, "Kenny isn't exactly a potential cover model for GQ, and Kenny doesn't look at you like he wants to-"
"I'm about to take off my shirt, I suggest you leave unless you want to be scared for life." I smirked.
"I see how you play; dirty. You may have won this time, Silvia."
I laughed at him until he was down the hall and I heard the door to his bedroom shut. Potential cover model for GQ? It was true, Kenny wasn't exactly anything special, but he wasn't bad looking. He had pretty green eyes and his hair was adorably messed up all the time. However, I could picture Jacob on the front of that magazine. With his long black hair, white teeth, and chiseled chest.
"Can I come in?"
I jumped and spun around to see Jacob hovering at the threshold to my room. Shit, I had just been imagining him practically naked and now here he was before my eyes half naked! His hair hung down past his shoulders in tangles and I wondered how he would look if he got it cut.
"I've got a bad tangle in the back." He said sheepishly.
I smiled and went over to grab my hair brush. He sat down on the bed with his back to me and I started to pull the brush through his tangled dark locks. I'd been at it for a minute of two when I heard a deep rumble coming from him. Was he purring? No, it sounded more like Brewster when I was rubbing his belly. I cracked a smile, but didn't say anything.
"You should get it cut."
"I really should." He agreed.
"I'll take you tomorrow. I'd offer to do it myself, but I don't think you want that."
He chuckled, "If you wanted to, I'd let you."
"And risk looking like the kid that always gets beat up on the play ground?"
"Yeah, but I'm not exactly a wimp like the kid on the play ground."
"No, you aren't; that's for sure."