Chapter 14

The next week made Alex a lady in waiting. She waited for the phone to ring, alternately hoping it was Stacy with an offer of companionship or Ian with an offer of employment; or even points east (NYC/London) with news of her "extended family". Stacy had called back after the surf contest, but only to let her know apologetically that he was going to have to work overtime this week to put together the money to enter the Del Mar contest. She unpacked some more and shopped around the second hand stores hoping to furnish her house a little more on her limited budget. When she finally did come across a comfy black velvet couch she liked, she realized she had no way to get it home. I'm gonna need a car; and to get a car, I'm gonna need a job, and to get to that job I'm gonna need a car…her thoughts went round and round like a Z boy in a pool. Thinking of that budget crunch, she found herself sitting on the curb outside the second-hand store scanning the want ads in the newspaper.

"Look at this, only a little while in Dogtown and you're already hanging out in the gutter, I'm proud of you girl, I knew you'd fit in."

Alex knew it could be only one person; "Good morning Jay, is this your personal gutter or can anyone park here?"

"Mi gutter es su gutter," Jay said magnanimously, rolling to a stop and neatly popping his skateboard into his arms as he sat down next to her.

Alex went back to looking at her newspaper as Jay leaned into her shoulder to see what she was reading.

"There's your problem, you gotta start with the funnies, maybe Hager the Horrible, forget the want ads. Hager's cool, always raping and pillaging and shit, Charlie Brown's a pussy, I mean if someone kept moving your football every time you went to kick it-wouldn't you just kick 'em in the head? And Family Circle, who lives like that?" Jay gave his reviews of the comics.

In spite of her better instincts, Alex felt cheered up by Jay's commentary, especially looking right over her shoulder into Jay's remarkably amiable smile. "Yeah, the Family Circle kids never seem to sit in the gutter, Mom and Dad are always looking out for them. Snoopy, now he's seen his share of gutters, especially when he's the WWI flying ace."

Jay held his skateboard at arms length in front of him like an airplane rudder and made plane sounds, "rrrgghh, ready for takeoff!"

She nudged him with her elbow and smiled, "Unfortunately, I can't fly away now that we're done with the comics, I gotta go back to the want ads."

"Bummer" said Jay sympathetically, "I gotta find some way to make money too so my Mom won't have to work the stupid factory jobs she always gets."

"Nah, you still gotta be thinking "Family Circle", you know, Mom and Dad taking care of you, I mean, how old are you anyway?" Alex questioned, thinking about her life-until recently.

"I'm gonna be 16," Jay stated, subconsciously sitting up taller, "How old are you?"

"Oh I'm 18," Alex said, nodding definitively.

"Bullshit"

"How can you say that? You don't know!" Alex sputtered.

"Yeah, I can, I'm pretty damn good at reading chicks-you're not 18, you're not used to not being in the Family Circle kind of life, you're not as tough as you pretend to be, you're not a virgin and you're not telling the whole story about what brought you to Dogtown," Jay said looking both sure of himself and pretty self satisfied with knocking her for a loop. "I could guess your weight too if you'd like."

"I wouldn't like! Maybe you should get a job as carnie, making up fortunes about people, because you got no insight into my life!" Alex hissed, starting to get up.

"Chill out!" Jay said holding her shoulder firmly down preventing her from getting up, "If I'm so wrong, there's no need to get so upset huh? You're an 18 year old virgin, tough as nails, ready, willing and able to take care of herself. OK? Now what kind of work are you looking for?" Jay's face betrayed nothing but interest in her plight.

Alex exhaled deeply and stared daggers at him. How could one 15 year old brat be so annoying, so perceptive, so right, so repellant and so exciting all at the same time? "Bartending- my parents put the money they had earned into buying a pub in New York. I know how to do it, and the money's usually pretty good." She looked challengingly into his eyes.

Jay leaned back into her shoulder and picked up the discarded want ads, "I think you'd be good at bartending, Alex, let's see if there's anything promising in here. If there isn't we could talk to Skip, I mean if anybody knows drinking around here, he's the man."

Alex was beginning to get whiplash from Jay's attitude swings, but what he said made sense, and he seemed remarkably sincere while scanning the ads.

He dismissed a few ads with brief comments like "dive bar, just for kooks, only dirty old men" and Alex had to admit it was good to have some local insight. "Ooh-titty bar-what do you think?" Jay smirked, recoiling from the punch he knew was coming.

Once again, Alex found herself smiling despite herself, "You are an asshole, you know that right?"

"Is this how you won over my buddy Stacy, with sweet talk and compliments?" Jay pushed.

"Oh, so you're saying I won him over?" Alex raised her eyebrows.

"Ummmm, I'm saying let's go talk to Skip about bartending jobs," Jay demurred, sensing he had crossed the bros versus hos line.

"Probably a good idea," Alex flashed him a smile, knowing she had at last gotten the better of him temporarily.

"115" Jay burbled as she walked towards the Zephyr shop.

"Huh, oh guessing my weight, right?" Alex answered; amazed she was on the same wavelength as him.

"You know it girl." Jay smiled smugly at her.

"Not a bad guess about the weight, but Jay, believe me I am 18 and… I never claimed I was a virgin" she stuck her tongue out at him and kept walking.