Chapter 12

 

        “Damn snow,” I cursed under my breath as I shoveled up a bit of the white blanket that covered the driveway and tossed it to the side. It was a Saturday afternoon and I was stuck shoveling the driveway, which almost seemed to be like a complete waste of time because every time I turned around the snow had already begun covering the bit of the driveway I had just cleared.

        “Looks like you're having a lot of fun.”

        I looked towards the street to see Jack walking down the driveway towards me.

        “Yeah, loads of fun,” I mumbled sarcastically before tossing another shovel-full of snow to the side.

        “You do realize you're just wasting your time with that, right?” he questioned. “You'll never get done with it when it's snowing as hard as it is.”

        “Yeah, you're right, but Mom will be ticked if it's not done when she gets home,” I replied, “and we don't have any salt to put down.”

        Jack nodded. I didn't say anything else as I resumed to my shoveling. A few seconds later though, I felt something hit me in the back before I heard Jack laughing from behind me.

        “You jerk, you'll pay for that!” I shouted with a smirk as I spun around while scooping up a bit of snow and hurling it at the other male. Before the snowball could hit him, Jack started to run and I quickly gave chase while making another snowball.

        We ran around the side of the house and to my small backyard, where we resumed the snowball fight that Jack had started. Our laughter filled the air around us as snowballs flew back and forth between us. Mine always usually missed while Jack was able to hit me with just about every one he threw. After a while, Jack surprised me by charging straight for me. Before I could start to run, he dove towards me and we went straight for the ground. However, we were at the edge of the hill, so as soon as we landed we started to roll down it on top of one another. We laughed all the way down until we came to a stop at the bottom. Jack was on top of me, smiling down at me as we laid there. When our eyes met, I abruptly pushed him off of me and sat up.

        “Let's go hang out at my house for a little bit,” Jack suggested after we sat there in silence for about ten seconds.

        “But I have to shovel the driveway,” I said as both of us stood up.

        “Like I said, you're never gonna get done with it snowing like this,” he replied. “Besides, you have plenty of time to do that later. Both of you parents get home late after all, right?”

        “Yeah, I guess you have a point,” I admitted. “Okay, let's go then.”

        When we got to Jack's house, we were the only ones there. Jack said that his father was at work and that his mother and sister were doing things together and probably wouldn't be back for a good while. It didn't really matter either way though because we just ended up going in Jack's room.

        “Here, this is for you,” he said with a smile as he picked up a small wrapped present that was sitting on the nightstand and held it out for me.

        I looked at the present and back at him, a little surprised by this.

        “Go on, take it,” he said, chuckling—probably because of the look that was on my face.

        I slowly nodded before taking the gift. I looked down at it before looking back at him.

        “You didn't really have to do this you know,” I said.

        “Just shut up and unwrap it already!” Jack said exasperatedly.

        I did as I was told. It was a Linkin Park CD. Even though it was something small, I actually felt happy for getting it—more so than what I usually did when I got something. At the same time though, I also felt kind of bad.

        "What's wrong?” Jack asked in a slightly concerned manner. “You don't like it?”

        “N-no, it's not that,” I quickly replied. “I really like it, but I didn't get you anything. It just doesn't feel right.”

        “Who cares?” he said with a shrug. “I got you something because I wanted to, alright? So don't worry about it.”

        “Thanks,” I replied, smiling a bit.

        “No problem,” Jack said, also smiling as he clapped me on the arm a little. “Now come on, let's play some video games. We can listen to the CD while do that.”

        I nodded. Jack picked out a video game for us to play while I popped my new CD into Jack's stereo. Every now and then, Jack would randomly sing the lyrics to the songs as we played the game. His singing was so terrible that I couldn't help but to laugh, although I wouldn't have been surprised if he was trying to sing horribly on purpose.

        However, I couldn't help but to feel a little nervous as I sat there next to him. I guess you could also say that I had "butterflies in my stomach.” Maybe I – no, that wouldn't be it. I was never really interested in Jack before, so why would I start now? We were friends, and that was the only way it was going to be. There was no way something like that would happen.

        “Hey, you wanna sleep over tonight?” Jack asked a couple hours later as he turned off the GameCube.

        “I shouldn't,” I replied. “You're going to be going to visit your grandparents tomorrow, remember?”

        “Yeah, but we aren't leaving until about noon.”

        “I don't want to be a burden on your family before you leave though. Besides, you still have to pack anyway, right?”

        “It's not like it would take that long or anything.”

        “No, it's okay. Maybe some other time.”

        “Fine.”

        “I should probably be going anyway. I still have to shovel the snow off the driveway.”

        We said bye to each other and I started to make my way out of the house. In all honesty, there was a part of me that wanted to stay the night so I could be with Jack a little while longer before he would leave town for a week. However, I didn't want to do that if I was going to start feeling nervous around him like this. I just hoped this week would give me some time to clear this nonsense out of my head so I wouldn't have to worry about feeling like this around him anymore.

Author's Note

Anything wrong with the dialogue?

Reviews

[Amund Schofield]

I would expect that Jay would at least get some what upset at Jack sometime.

[courtney]

no the dialogue is perfect! i loved how you kinda reinacted the ealier snowball scene between the two boys. Its a sweet wonderful story and i can't wait to read more.

[Kayla]

Not that I can tell. ^^