Chapter 8

Jackson wasn't afraid of falling in love. He was afraid of taking a risk. The risk was falling in love with his best friend. He didn't know what to think. He did feel the same way for her, but what if something went wrong? What if after a year of hooking up, they don't feel the same way for each other anymore. Everything would be said and done and then they wouldn't be able to go back to the way they were. So Jackson decided not to tap into these unknown feelings and left it there, untouched, in his heart.

After they hugged, they finished up their lunches and just hung around the apartment like they always did. They played Halo 2 and watched some Jeopardy. They hung around all afternoon until it was six o' clock.

"I'm gonna go take a shower and then we'll decide on dinner," Melissa said, as she stood up from the couch.

"Wow, the day passed by fast. I can't believe it's six already," Jackson said, as he also stood up and stretched. "Don't forget to call that guy."

"Oh, yeah. Thanks. I completely forgot."

"No problem. That's what I'm here for, right?"

She gave Jackson a big smile and went into her room to get her belongings for the bathroom.

Jackson just sat there thinking. He was doing a lot of thinking these days. Too bad he didn't think enough in high school. It was odd because he hated to think a lot. To distract himself from his mind, he walked over to the fridge. He opened it up and saw emptiness. There was a half empty ketchup bottle and a can of Coke. He smiled at himself as he took the last can of Coke.

"So what do you want for dinner?" Melissa asked, as she stepped out of the bathroom and walked towards the kitchen.

"Uh... I think we should go out," Jackson said as he took a sip of his coke.

"Why? There's nothing in there?"

"If you want to share the bottle of ketchup, then be my guest."

"We need to go grocery shopping," she said, as she examined the cabinets. "Hey, is that the last can of Coke you're holding?"

"Yeah, what's it to you?" Jackson said with a smile.

"I really hate you," she said, as she walked towards him. "Come on, give a sip. I'm so thirsty."

Melissa tried to reach for the can in Jackson's hand, but he just moved his arm to the right, away from her.

"Nope. You were too slow and now I have it," he said teasingly.

"Jackson."

She moved to where the right where the can was but he just switched it to his other hand and now it was on the left.

"Stop acting so childish," Melissa said, as she moved to the left this time.

Jackson just switched it to his right hand again and then said, "I'm not being childish. You're the one that's whining."

This continued for a couple of more seconds and then Jackson held the can above his head since he was taller than her and didn't think that she could reach. Melissa just went in front of him and stepped on her tippy toes with her hands outstretched for the drink. She focused on the drink and when she looked directly in front of her, there was Jackson's face leveled with hers. They just stayed like that unsure of how to react. Finally Melissa's toes couldn't hold her up any longer and she was her normal height again.

"Fine, you can have it, but you're paying for dinner," she said with a pout.

Jackson just laughed at her and said, "Okay, but you can't have a tantrum in public when you're with me. You got it, young lady?"

"Yeah, yeah," Melissa said in a boring tone. "Let's go to McDonald's. We haven't eaten there in awhile."

"Okay, let's go."

00000

After they ate, they headed for the supermarket. It was around 7:15 so they were practically the only customers in the store.

"Okay, we only have fifteen minutes so we have to make sure we know what we're getting," Melissa said.

"How about we just go up and down the aisles and take stuff that looks good."

"Okay. That's a totally different method of shopping, but I'm open to it."

After Jackson went to get a cart, he said, "Hop in."

"Come again?"

"Hop in."

"Are you nuts? I can't hop in."

"Come on. Live a little. No one has to know. We're the only ones in the store."

"No."

"What? Are you a chicken?" Jackson said, as he started to make chicken sounds at her.

"Melissa Wu is anything but a chicken," she said proudly, as she swung her leg into the cart.

Jackson just laughed at her on the inside as she settled herself in the cart.

"Okay, you ready?" he asked.

"Ready as I will ever be, captain."

"Okay, get ready for takeoff."

He pushed the cart slowly up and down the aisles since they needed some things from the shelves. However, the more aisles they went through the less things they needed so Jackson would just push the cart at a fast speed. Melissa would just scream as he did this because he was pushing it so fast.

Finally the end of the aisle came and Melissa almost fell over with the cart. There was a man at the end standing in front of them and Jackson tried to stop the cart so he didn't get hit. The cart did stop, but only a couple of inches from the man. He wore a shirt that said manager above the pocket on the right side.

"Are you kids done fooling around now?" he said sternly.

Melissa and Jackson didn't answer. They didn't know how to respond.

"Go pay for your stuff and get out of here. It's closing time."

Jackson and Melissa just stayed still.

"NOW!" said the irritated manager.

What he said moved Jackson to push the cart to the cash registers. After Jackson got all the food out of the cart, Melissa was able to climb out of it.

They walked out of the store with six plastic bags in hand. Then out of nowhere, Melissa snorted with laughter. She had been holding it in for a long time.

"That was so funny! Did you see his face?"

Jackson joined her and they laughed all the way home.