Chapter Five Jakes POV
I walked home with Marco and he told me about Arianna's little spaz attack and then proceeded to tell me how pretty she is and how cute she looks when she does certain things. As if I didn't know.
"Yeah Marco, I get the picture."
"Oh, okay then."
"So you really like her?"
"Yeah."
"You seem to spend more time flirting with everyone but her." I pointed out.
"Yeah, well it's different with her."
"How?"
"Promise you won't laugh or tell anyone?"
"Sure."
Marco was obviously in one of his unusual feeling sharing moods. Unusual but not unheard of, not that I was complaining because at least when he was like this I knew what was going on inside his strange little mind and wasn't basing everything on assumptions.
"Well, you know who mum's yeerked and all, well, she's like the only chick I every really liked cared about and was close to and all. And you know how I was after that, I couldn't stand losing her and if I get close to Arianna and she gets yeerked, I'll have to go through all over again. You know what I mean?"
"Yeah I understand."
Marco grinned "And also big brother Bird Boy wouldn't approve."
I laughed. He was back to being himself and making lame jokes. I left Marco at his place and continued walking. I stopped and waited at a corner where I meet up with Arianna every afternoon. She soon walked around the corner and I walked down to meet her.
"Hey." She said, wrapping her arms around my neck.
I kissed the top of her head, "You okay now?"
She rolled her eyes. "You've been talking to Marco."
"Well I just walked halfway home with him."
"Hmmm…good point. But just because you walked with him doesn't mean you talked."
"True, but we did. Speaking of walking we should probably get home sometime today."
"Yes, maybe we should." She agreed, unwrapping her arms from around my neck and sliding her hand into mine.
We walked along in silence for a while. I was thinking about the conversation I had just had with Marco. I felt a little tiny bit guilty, Marco had just told me how much he liked Arianna and how he didn't want to get close to her incase we lost her. Obviously, he liked her a lot, but wasn't it a case of first in best dressed? And Arianna and I had been doing this since before she was an Animorph.
"What's up Jake?"
"Nothing. I was just thinking."
"What about?"
"How pretty you are."
"Nice try, seriously what were you thinking about?"
I sighed, she definitely wasn't stupid.
"Cassie?" she asked, biting her lip.
I smiled. "Nothing to do with Cassie."
"Well what then?"
"It's nothing. Don't worry about it."
"It's obviously something because your thinking about and you're worried about It and your not telling me."
"I was thinking about the conversation I was having with Marco." Which was true.
"What were you talking about?"
"Guy stuff."
"Okay then." She said as we reached her house. Let's see if my room's been started yet."
"We walked around the side of the house and sure enough there was trucks and building materials everywhere. So far, there was a cement slab and the start of a steel frame up.
"Come and she what it's going to look like."
We went inside and upstairs to Arianna's current room and I sat on the bed and looked at the plans for her 'room'. It couldn't really be called a room, it had everything including the kitchen sink, and that's not a bad attempt at a joke. Well at least she knew that these people really cared about her and didn't want her to leave, spending all that money on a 'room' just so she wouldn't run away, and getting it started the day after she says she wants it.
"It looks good."
Arianna smiled at me. "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Do you think I'm a slut?"
"No"
Is that the truth?" she asked, looking me in the eye.
I looked back into her eyes. I loved her eyes, they were so cool, blue with green flecks.
"Yes Rhi, it's the truth. Why do you ask?"
She sighed and lay on the bed. "Because half the people at school think I am."
I lay beside her. "Well your not."
She smiled and I started stroking her hair. I stayed with her until she had fallen asleep, kissed her gently and went home, telling my parents I had been at Marco's.