Cassie
Jake was angry. Not just angry, super angry. He looked at me like I was a Yeerk.
"Jake if you'd just calm down," I said standing up and walking towards him. "You know it's alright to express your feelings."
I don't know what I expected his reaction from that would be. I just know I didn't expect him to do what he did next.
"Damn it, Cassie," he shouted. Secretly I thanked God my parents were out. "You might be into this emotional crap, but I don't buy it, so just back off!"
I was stunned and by the looks of my friends around me I knew they were stunned as well.
I walked back to my bale of hay and sat back down. I felt like I was going to cry. Jake had never treated anyone that way. It wasn't like him.
((She was only trying to help, Jake,)) Tobias said softly.
"Look, if you want to be all emotional, that's your business, but do it in your own time!"
Tobias remained quiet. I felt bad for him. He only meant to help me and he had been with Rachel's cause.
"Jake, we were just thinking that maybe you might need a break," Marco said, sheepishly.
Jake shot him a deathly stare. Marco looked shocked but didn't falter.
"After what happened last night and yesterday," he let that sink in, then continued. "It seems only fair that you take a break from all this…stuff."
"Don't tell me what I can and can't do," Jake snapped.
"You know I sympathize with you and all," Marco snapped back, "but you need to stop acting like a jerk."
"If I remember correctly, Marco, you were not only a self centred jerk when your mother died, but you expressed your emotions freely."
I looked at Marco and could literally see his insides crumble. I felt so sorry for him. I couldn't believe what Jake just said and neither apparently could Jake.
He looked around him like he'd just awaken up from a dream. He grabbed a bunch of his hair and looked like he was attempting to pull it out. He looked at Marco like he was seeing him for the first time.
"I'm so sorry, man," he said. "I didn't mean it."
"Don't worry about it, man," Marco said, slapping his friend on the shoulder in a kind of happy way, even though I knew he had taken it personally. "I know you're having a hard time, so don't think too much of it."
Jake still looked troubled and I had a terrible urge to run over to him and comfort him, but then there was a ringing. Jake reached in his pocket and pulled out a brand new mobile. Jake looked at it with disgust. Pity gifts. I would have despised it too. He flipped it open and spoke in it.
"Hello?" he said dully.
He listened intently for a minute. His expression changed from dull to confused then to excitement, which I thought was extremely unnecessary considering everything.
"Okay, thanks, bye," he hung up and turned to face us.
"That was Erek," he said.
Erek was a Chee.
"Hey, how'd he get your mobile number when I don't even have it?" Marco said suddenly, obviously trying to keep up Jake's sudden change of behaviour.
"He's a Chee," Jake said simply as though this solved the problem. "He thinks that there's been another underground infiltration Yeerk pool."
((Do you really think we should bust their party now?)) Tobias asked, uncertainly.
"Why not?" Jake demanded.
"Well because Tom…" Rachel started to say, but Jake cut in.
"I am not spending my life grieving over something I have no control over,' he said this as though he was convincing himself more than the rest of us. "We can do this tonight."
"Where is this infiltration?" Ax asked.
"Beneath the mall," Jake said, looking at Rachel with something like humour.
Rachel was a mall freak.
"As long as you're sure about this Jake," I said, quietly, not wanting another outburst.
"I'm sure," he said, looking anywhere but at me.
