The three girls and Jesse all piled into Cali's car headed out. "We'll have him back by 10:00 this time!" Cali shouted to Tanner as she pulled out of the driveway.
"C'mon Cali 10:30" Jesse whispered from the back seat.
"No, Jesse" he gave her the puppy face.
"Please?" Cali lowered her sunglasses and looked right at him.
"Look at me Jess…no 10 it is." Jesse frowned
"You're no fun." Cali ignored his complaining and continued down the street.
"I'll make you a deal, if you and Jen behave and are ready to leave at 10:00 I think I can manage a little frappichino run right now." Jesse's head shot up.
"Starbucks what? That's a deal!" Jen laughed.
"Yea I think I can handle that, its pretty hot out anyways." Jesse turned and looked at her.
"Can I help you?" Jen looked at him strangely.
"No I was just gunna say that you looked hot." Jen looked confused.
"Excuse me?" Jesse shook his head.
" I mean um you looked hot as in…ah…as in Cali should turn on the AC hot…" Jesse buried his face in his hands, Jen laughed.
"You're a strange boy Jesse…but just so ya know…your not looking half bad yourself."
After finishing 4 well deserved frappachinos Cali and Sophie dropped both Jen and Jesse off at the arcade further in town.
"An arcade?" Jesse said disappointedly.
"Hey it's this or curtain shopping." Jesse shrugged.
"You've got a point." Cali reached into her purse and handed twenty dollars to each of them.
"Don't spend it all in one place…We'll be back here at 10:00 and you guys will too right?" Cali eyed them suspiciously.
"Yes mam'!" Jesse said sarcastically.
"No problem, I'll get him back here on time." Jen smirked.
"Hey, I can handle myself just fine." Jen and Cali giggled. Jesse looked at them confused.
"What?" the two girls stared at him for a second and then laughed louder then they had before. Jesse grew increasingly uncomfortable.
"Did I do something?" Jen managed to stop herself from laughing for a brief moment.
"No nothing at all…it was just…something you said…" Jesse started blushing.
"Whatever, I'm goin to play some games." Jesse turned around and headed towards the arcade entrance.
"Jen why did you have to go and laugh at him like that, you made him feel bad." Jen looked at Cali .
"I made him feel bad! You were laughing at him too!" Jen retorted. Cali sighed.
"Whatever! Hurry up and apologize he's leaving." Jen waved to Cali and then turned ran into the arcade after Jesse.
After working her way through the crowds of arcade obsessed 13 year old boys, Jen finally found Jesse playing some sort of shooting game. Jen looked at the game and was a bit frightened by the images of numerous dead people popping up on the screen whenever they felt the need to do so. She walked up beside him in a cowardly fashion and attempted to get his attention.
"Um hey Jesse…whatcha' playin'?" Jesse's eyes remained focused on screen.
"Resident Evil" he said mechanically. Jen looked at him; he was like any other 16-year-old boy when playing a video game or watching sports, completely tuned out to the rest of the world and not very talkative. Jen would have liked to walk over to the nearest Mrs.Pac-man game or DDR console but judging by the looks of things she was just going to have to play along.
"Can I do this too?" she asked.
"Uh huh…" Jesse nodded. "How do I join or whatever do I just press start or something?" She looked directly at Jesse hoping to get his attention, he didn't respond.
"Okay then, I'll just press…", "Shoot the screen, hit the dead guys, don't die." Jen smiled at his slight dorkyness, he really didn't seem to be all that irregular after all.
She recalled spending the last few days with him, and only then just began to realize how much he'd changed, how much more content he was then when she first met him. She wasn't sure how or why he had gone from being miserable to remotely tolerable in such a short time, but she did know that regardless of who or what had caused the change, that there was nothing she enjoyed more then seeing him happy.
After a few moments of hesitation, Jen picked up the plastic gun next to his and pointed it at the screen. She never had been major fan of zombie hunting and as she continued playing found most of the images so repulsive that by the end of the game, Jesse was shooting monsters on both his and Jen's side of the screen while she held her eyes closed and pointed her gun in every which direction. After 10 minutes of chaos, the game finally ended. Jesse looked at Jen and shook his head.
"Zombie hunting clearly isn't your thing." Jen looked at him petulantly.
"You know what? Its not my fault I get nightmares from seeing games like these!" Jesse smirked.
"You're not really scared of that kinda stuff are ya?" he said sarcastically. Jen was silent.
"Are you serious?" Jesse looked at her in disbelief.
"….well it was scary enough for me not to wanna play it again…" she said quietly. Jesse laughed softly to himself.
"What!" she said irritably. He grinned.
"…its cute…" Jen looked at him crossly.
"What are talking about?" Jesse bit his bottom lip and smiled.
"…how you're afraid of little things like that…" Jen blushed a little but then quickly reminded herself that she was still angry at Jesse. She put her hands on her hips and glared at him.
"…well then Mr. High and Mighty what freaks you out?" Jesse looked away,
"…stuff…"he bit his nails nervously.
"Stuff? C'mon you can do better then that" she teased.
"I know" Jesse answered smugly.
"Well?" she pried.
"Well…do you wanna go get a smoothie or somethin?" Jesse dug through his pockets and pulled out a wrinkled 20$ bill. "My treat." Jen looked at him disappointedly.
"Hold up Jess, that's not fair! This is the second time you've done this to me!" Jesse scratched his head."Second time I've done what?" Jen rolled her eyes.
"You always manage to turn conversations around so that you never have to answer any personal questions and I always end up telling you everything about me." Jesse smiled slyly.
"Well maybe I like hearing stuff about you." Jen laughed.
"Riigghtt!"
"No, I'm completely serious, you're a pretty interesting girl…"
"Nice try Jess, but you're still not off the hook." Jen glared at Jesse but when she considered the fact that he might be telling the truth, she couldn't help but smile.
"So…a…how about those smoothies?" Jesse motioned over to a nearby smoothie bar.
"Sounds good." The two left the arcade and walked outside to the ocean side food court. Jesse sat down in front of " Sandy's Juice Bar" and ordered two strawberry kiwi smoothies.
"Kiwi?" Jen said looking puzzled.
"Yea you know, those little fuzzy round fruit things…don't tell me you've never had a kiwi?"
Jen looked ashamed. "…sorry can't say that I have…" Jesse's jaw dropped
"Are you kidding me? There the greatest thing since Starbucks! I promise you'll like them'" Jesse said assuredly. About 15 minutes later, the bar tender handed them two smoothies.
"Here you are that'll be $3.50" Jesse shoved a twenty dollar bill in the man's direction.
"Took you long enough…" he said snidely under his breath. Jen elbowed him.
"What he means sir, is thank you!" The man shot Jesse a dirty look, and then handed Jen the change.
"Thank you mam' at least there are some people around with manners these days" the man then turned and walked towards the back of the shop. Jesse looked at Jen in disbelief.
"What was his problem? Its not my fault he's slow." Jen shook her head.
"Jesse! Five minutes isn't that long of a wait! You're ridiculous.." Jesse rolled his eyes.
"Whatever…I still think he sucks…" Jen crossed her arms and stared at him
"Why are you always picking fights with the world?" she said. he glared at her,
"What are you talking about?" he said defensively.
"See! There you go again! You're always so defensive…you just need to….I don't know…relax…take things a little less seriously…hakuna matata…." Jesse laughed.
"Oh, so now I'm supposed to live my life like a Disney movie…sure thing Minnie Mouse!" Jen scowled at him.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you…" Jesse smirked.
"Do what Minnie?" he snickered. Jen sighed, and picked up her drink.
"Can't say I didn't warn ya." She then took a long sip of her smoothie, lifted up her straw, and pointed it directly at Jesse's face. "Hakuna matata this!" she said deviously and then without hesitation blew as hard as she could into her straw spraying her smoothie all over Jesse's hair and face. He sat upright in his chair, in complete shock. He shut his eyes tightly hoping to avoid getting bits of frozen smoothie into them. Jen laughed uncontrollably at the look of shock and disgust on Jesse's face. While she was doing so, Jesse took off the top of his drink and poured nearly half of it into his mouth. By the time Jen noticed what he was doing it was too late.
"Jesse n-!" Jesse spat cold pink smoothie all over the place. Jen screamed as chunks of strawberry-kiwi flavored ice landed on her face and in her hair. Jesse was laughing so hard he nearly fell off his chair. Jen considered pouring the rest of her smoothie on Jesse's head but was laughing so vigorously that she couldn't manage to bring herself to do it. While the two sat in front of the bar enjoying themselves, a short, balding, middle aged man wearing a brightly colored smock and glasses approached them.
"Excuse me…" They both ignored him and continued laughing. The man cleared his throat and then tapped Jesse on his shoulder.
"Excuse me sir…" Jesse glared at him.
"Can I help you!" he said rudely.
The man was taken aback by Jesse's impoliteness.
"I'm the manager here and I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave, we've had some complaints about you disturbing the other customers." He said authoritatively.
Jesse glared at him. Jen quickly noticed how Jesse was ready and waiting to get into an argument and decided to intervene and end the conversation before things got out of hand.
"We're very sorry sir, we'll just clean up our mess and get go…." Jesse interrupted her.
"What do you mean other customers? Nobody else is here except for that loser of an employee you've got lurking around in back! Was he the guy who complained!" Jesse said heatedly. Jen took hold of his hand and pulled him away from the manager.
"Once again sir, please forgive us, we'll be on our way." Jen apologized to the man and then walked Jesse as far away from the smoothie bar as possible. Just before they were out of ear shot Jesse turned back around to face the smoothie bar.
"Your smoothies make a better face wash then they do drink!" Jen slapped him across the back of his head.
"Ow! What was that for?" he asked.
"What do ya think? Good behavior? Jesse, he could have called security or something." Jesse laughed.
"He's the one who should be arrested for serving crap." Jen shook her head.
"I don't even know how to respond to that, what am I gunna do with you?" Jesse smiled slyly.
"I can think of a few things…" Jen glared at him.
"Whoa there cowboy, Jesse James here is getting a little daring…" she said sarcastically. Jesse made a Clint Eastwood type of face and stuck his thumbs threw his belt loops
"Well then lil' lady I'd love to continue this conversation but I'm awfully sticky and I smell like a kiwi so if you don't mind I'd like ta stop over therr at the water hole and freshen up…" he said in a mock southern accent. Jen laughed at Jesse's awkward sense of humor "Alrighty partner will do, will do." The two walked over to a near by vending machine, Jen stopped and bought two Dasani's. She opened her bottle, poured some water into her hands and then splashed some on her face. Jesse looked at her strangely.
"…Excuse me mam' looks like you've still got some of that strawberry stuff on you're face…", "Really? Where?" she said self consciously.
"Right about there, hold still and I'll get it off for ya, give me your water bottle." Jen handed it to Jesse. He grinned.
"Gotcha" Jesse took the bottle poured it over top of her head. "Jesse..." she whined. After a few minutes of Jesse laughing at Jen's girly complaints about her hair, Jen shot him a mischievous look.
"…Jesse your hair looks a little sticky too let me help you with that..." Jen on impulse snatched his full bottle away from him and poured it over his head. "
Oh missy you've done it now…" Jesse chased after Jen spilling his half-full water bottle everywhere as he ran, leaving " Sandy's Juice Bar" and all its problems in the dust.
