"What if he goes to her party now!" Eddie continued. "Ugh, I should've just talked to him instead of walking away."
"It's a Saturday night and it's only 7:30, why don't you just go to his house?" Denise suggested after hearing her cry for the last 30 minutes. Eddie's head snapped up from the pillow "You're right! Oh my gosh." Eddie scrambled around her room in search.
"I'm going to shower and I'm going to go talk to him."
"Okay, we'll I'm going to head out If anything happens just come over to my place." Denise hugged her.
"Thank you so much, girl." After Denise left Eddie gathered a quick outfit and showered.
"Did you notice anything strange about Jamie at dinner." Mary hung her coat into the closet.
"Other than him sitting next to his brothers? not really." Frank continued reading his book.
"I mean he just won his first game back and he wasn't too thrilled at dinner, plus Eddie didn't go."
"He said something came up with her, maybe you're just over exaggerating Mary."
"Francis, I know my children." Mary snapped.
Frank closed his book, removing his glasses. "Would you like for me to speak with him?"
"If you would, he just doesn't like to speak about boy things with me." Frank walked down the hall to Jamie's room, knocking on the door and entering.
"Hey, Jamie." Jamie sat on his bed overlooking a textbook.
"Hey, dad."
"What are you up to." Frank sat in the chair at Jamie's desk.
"Fresh out the shower," Jamie said he had yet to remove his eyes from the textbook.
"Is something wrong." Jamie annoyingly sighed.
"Why would something be wrong," he said closing the textbook.
"Because it's a Saturday night and you're sitting here overlooking calculus, why aren't you out?"
"Are you encouraging me to be out partying." Jamie slightly smirked. "Nothing is wrong, I'm just reading."
"I also think something is wrong because you seemed upset at dinner, just tell me what's up."
"Eddie's mad at me," Jamie mumbled
"What happened."
"You remember my ex-girlfriend, Teresa?" His father nodded. " Well she was talking to me after the game and being a little flirty and Eddie saw, nothing happened, I'm not even interested,"
"What happened when she confronted you about it."
"She yelled at me." Jamie innocently said.
"Did you want to head over there and speak to her?" Frank suggested.
"No, I'll just talk to her tomorrow. Danny said I should give a woman 24 hours to calm down before I talk to them when they're mad." Frank laughed at his son's remark.
"So what do you plan on doing next."
"Well.. tonight I have plans."
Eddie pace back and forth on the driveway mumbling words before finally going to knock on the door.
"Hey, Eddie." Linda greeted the familiar fellow blonde, Eddie wore a pretty white top With a light denim blue jacket on.
"Can I talk to Jamie?"
"Jamie's not here, he actually just left 10 minutes ago." Eddie's heart flopped.
"Oh okay, well just let him know I stopped by."
"Of course, have a good night."
"Yeah.." Eddie stuck in her thoughts. "You too." Linda watched the girl walk off, Linda returned to the kitchen where her husband, Joe, and Frank had sat."
"Who was that babe."
"It was Eddie, she was looking for Jamie."
"Ahh man," Joe added.
"He went over to the Reid's" Frank spoke.
"Shoot, I wish I had known she looked pretty bummed when I told her he just left."
"How are you doing David." Jamie smiled taking a seat at the dining table.
"Working a lot mainly, since Mas isn't here anymore, I have no need to be here all the time... I figured I'd pick up extra shifts," He smiled slightly. "The hardest part for me is getting used to the quiet, Mas was a sworn enemy of pauses in conversation."
"You're not kidding." Jamie smiled.
"He was fearless, wasn't he? In everything he did. He just dove right in, head first. Took it on, without thinking."
"I don't feel him you know?" Jamie muttered. "I just don't feel his presence anywhere."
"I don't really feel him either but he's with you. He's with all of us."
"Yeah.." Jamie sighed.
"What about you Jamie? you won your game tonight."
"I and the guys did.." Jamie smiled.
"What about college Jamie?" Jamie smile quickly faded. "You have to commit soon."
"I know.. but time isn't waiting for me."
"As much as it would be nice.. it doesn't wait for any of us." David sat down at the table. "You don't have to go to Los Angeles don't feel pressured to go across the country, you still have Columbia." David watched the young man lost in the thoughts. "Just promise me you're going to go to college somewhere, you only have two weeks to choose. If I can't send my son off to college I would love to see the closest thing to him go."
"I promise." Jamie teared up
"So back to baseball.. how many games you got left?" David wondered continuing to clean the kitchen counters.
"Twenty-one." Jamie played with his cup.
"How many wins do you have to have to qualify for State?"
"Seventeen." Jamie sighed.
"What do you think my son would say to us if he were sitting at this table?"
"Only seventeen?" Jamie mimicked in Mason's voice
"Hmm." David laughed drinking his beer.
"He wasn't home." Eddie uttered.
"Come in." Denise and Eddie made it into her room.
"What happened?" Denise exclaimed.
"I went over to his place and his sister-in-law said he left." Eddie felt heartbroken.
"Did you ask her where he went?"
"I didn't need to already know where he is," Eddie laid onto Denise's bed. "He's at Teresa's party."
"How can you be so sure, he did tell you he wasn't going to go." Denise reasoned.
"Where else could he be on a Saturday," Eddie paused looking over at Denise's nightstand at the clock. "At 9:26 at night." Eddie wailed. "It's probably over between us, he's probably with Teresa," Eddie said, with her my flooded with all the thoughts of things they could be doing.
"I don't think he's that kind of guy," Denise added to Jamie's defense.
"I don't know what to think, things were so great between us... he was just at my house two nights ago and he fell asleep to one of my favorite movies." Eddie smiled from the memory. "He said the kiss wasn't romantic and I said what does a real romantic kiss look like? And so he held my face and kissed me."
"Awh Eddie." Denise watched her friend relive the memory.
"I've never felt this way about a guy."
Jamie woke up to the light from between the blinds beaming on him. He rubbed his eyes sitting up straight removing the blanket that he hadn't fallen asleep with, seeing the blue walls with sports jerseys, medals and trophies hung around. He was in Mason's room, he sighed slightly. 'Nothing has changed.' he thought Mason's room is the same as he left it. Jamie did notice a piece of paper on the edge of the bed with something on top.
'Hey Jamie it's David, Amanda and I left for work early this morning so here's a key for whenever you feel like coming over and hanging out, don't hesitate to come in, you're always welcome. Lock up when you leave. Love, David and Amanda.' The note read.
Jamie clenched the key in his hand. After leaving he was sure to lock the door behind him and he walked 5 houses down to his own.
"Is anyone here!?" Jamie shouted. He looked over at the clock, "11:49, well there goes church." He headed up the stairs and immediately got into the shower. He let the hot water pellets rain down on him, every problem in life flooded into his mind, losing his best friend, committing to a college, his girl problem, he thought long and hard for it all.
"J! You here?" Joe called from downstairs, as the rest of the family placed the groceries in the kitchen.
"In my room!" a distant voice yelled.
"What's up kid, missed you this morning." Joe peaked into Jamie's room.
"Yeah sorry about that," Jamie put one of his shirts on. "I was at Mason's and was talking to David and it got so late i just stayed the night."
"Oh yeah, well pot roast tonight for dinner," Joe added.
"Alrigh-"
"Oh!" Joe loudly interrupted closing the door, Jamie looked at him like he was crazy. "Eddie came by yesterday!" Jamie faced was pure shock.
"No way-" Joe smirked. "Are you- Joe if your messing with me, I swear-"
"She did! She asked for you and Linda told her you weren't here and Linda said she looked pretty bummed."
Jamie ran his finger through his hair. "I have to go talk to her! you got to give me a ride, please Joe."
"No way kid." Jamie facial expression flipped. "Just take my car." Joe tossed him the keys.
"The Chevelle? you're kidding! you love that car!"
"Yeah but I love you more. You have your license I trust you."
"Thanks so much, Joe." Jamie hugged him.
"Just make sure you return it the way you found it please," Joe said breaking the hug.
"Of course," Jamie smirked.
"Kid." Joe squinted.
"Hi Lisa, is Eddie here?"
"She's in her room. Come on in." Jamie thanked her, he walked up the step's, his heart pounding with each step he took, he knocked softly at her bedroom door.
"Lisa! I told you, I'm not hungr-" she opened the door, at a complete loss of words.
"Hey." he smiled softly.
"Hey." She opened the door wide enough for him to enter, he walked in looking around awkwardly. "I think we need to clear the air," Eddie said sitting on her bed.
He nodded. "Yeah." Taking a seat as well.
"I'm sorry." They both said simultaneously. "Wait you first." they both laughed.
"I'm sorry Jamie, you tried to explain everything to me and I wouldn't listen-" Eddie began.
"Eddie," Jamie tried to interrupt.
"Can you please not talk? This is, you know it's really hard. So just let me get it off my chest." She exclaimed
"Okay."
"I really really like you and its so weird because." Eddie pulled her hair behind her ear. "I mean, you're not even close to my type... I mean, you are a complete Boy Scout and you make me crazy most of the time. You're also the best person I think I've ever met and you're the best friend that I've ever had, and you didn't deserve the reaction I gave you yesterday."
"I get it, I shouldn't of let Teresa, flirt with me I guess but I'm not even close to being into her-"
"You never told me why you guys broke up." The question still lingered in her mind.
Jamie sighed softly. "She broke up with me for a Senior our Junior year, It sucked because she was talking to him while we were dating-"
"Her loss." Jamie smiled slightly.
"I'm into you Janko, I'm crazy about you." He stared deep into her eyes. "Let's just drop this okay?" She nodded, "You're my girl." The drive of wanting to kiss him overpowered her and she went right in, their kiss intensified, next thing she knew she was on top of him.
"Wait." She stopped looking down at him, her lip gloss shined a little bit on his lips. "Where were you last night when is stopped by?"
"Mason's, I was hanging out with his dad." Eddie looked at him sadly.
"Do you always do that?" She wondered.
"I mean not always but I go over there sometimes and sleep on the couch in Mason's room." Eddie got off of him, sitting crisis cross applesauce in the middle of her bed.
"Jamie, I'm so sorry," Eddied pouted. "That's so freaking sad."
"Eddie it's okay," The mood in the room completely changed.
"It's kinda crazy. I thought you went over at Teresa's party when I came by and you weren't there." Eddie felt completely embarrassed.
"I told you, you're my girl. Now can we please get back to making out?" Eddie bit her lip, climbing back on to his lap, she ran her fingers through his dirty blonde hair. He laid a hand gently on the side of her face, her whole body tensed, she fell threw with the tension her lips met his.
TBC
Next chapter will include the idea for their final project, Jamie's commitment to college and where Eddie is in all of it! Thank you all so much for the reviews it has inspired me to write more and it encourages me to update often. Please drop a review feedback is appreciated good or bad.