Chapter 14

 

        “I love you,” Jack said.

        My eyes widened in surprise as I turned to face him completely. We were standing on a deck in the back of a somewhat large two-story house. The stars twinkled in the clear night sky above as the moonlight cascaded down on us. I could feel the heat rushing to my face and my mouth hung open as I struggled to form the words.

        “I-I love you too,” I finally spat out.

        There wasn't another moment's hesitation. Jack almost violently pushed me up against the house before cupping my face with his hands and leaning in to kiss me passionately. My eyes fluttered close as I savored the taste of his lips and felt his body pressed up against mine. Our tongues soon danced in a rhythmic motion, time seemingly standing still around us. It was then when everything started to fade. . .

        My eyes opened up to stare at the blank ceiling above. Damn it, it was only a dream, I thought to myself. But of course, what did I expect? It was too good to be true after all. Jack would never have those kinds of feelings for me, so why bother getting my hopes up? Now that I thought about it, the dream felt like too much of a soap opera anyway.

        I sighed before getting up out of bed to start my Saturday. Unfortunately, there wasn't really too much for me to do right away except sit around watching television or playing video games, so I don't even know why I bothered getting out of bed so quickly. When afternoon settled upon the neighborhood though, Mom told me that she wanted me to cut the grass while she was gone. Since there wasn't anything else for me to do, I rose from the couch and went to go start the chore that was assigned to me.

        When I finished cutting the grass, I turned the lawnmower off and stepped back while letting out a sigh, glad that the job was finally done. I soon heard a car though and I looked towards the road to see a new black car slowly going up it. It coasted to a stop when it got in front of my yard and the window rolled down to reveal Jack in the driver's seat.

        “I got my driver's license!” Jack shouted excitedly.

        “Great, a maniac's able to get behind the wheel now.” I smirked.

        “Hey, I'm not that bad. Now come on and get in. Let's take this baby for a spin.”

        I didn't say anything right away as I tried to decide if I really should or not. I knew it wouldn't be a problem with my parents, especially since we'd probably be back before either of them returned home, but that wasn't the real reason behind my hesitation. It was really because I wasn't completely sure if I would be able to handle being in the car with him.

        “C'mon, stop standing around like a loser and hop in already!” he shouted.

        “Okay, okay, I'm coming,” I muttered, not really caring if he was able to hear it or not. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad? We might not be out on the road long anyway, right?

        I walked over to the passenger side and climbed in. As soon as I did though, I could feel the nervousness beginning to fill me. My gaze went downwards a couple seconds later as I fidgeted with my fingers a little. I could feel Jack's eyes on me.

        “You alright?” he asked. “Oh, wait, I get it now.” He chuckled a little. “Don't worry, I'm not a bad driver. We won't get killed or anything like that.”

        Too bad that wasn't even close to the reason why I was feeling this way.

        “Go ahead and turn the radio onto whatever station you wanna listen to,” Jack said as he started to drive up the gradual incline of the road.

        “This station's fine,” I said.

        It was currently playing some kind of rock song I've never heard before. Not like it would've really mattered what kind of music it was playing anyway. It could've been bluegrass and I still wouldn't have changed it. All I really wanted to do was just sit still and hope that we wouldn't be gone for too long so I would be free of these bothersome emotions.

        “Okay then,” he replied. There was a couple moments of silence. “So anywhere you wanna go?”

        Where I really wanted to go was back home. At least there I wouldn't have to worry about feeling nervous because of some stupid crush. I would never say something like that to Jack of course.

        “Not really,” I finally answered after a few seconds passed. My eyes soon widened. “Squirrel!”

        Jack looked out the windshield to see the squirrel sitting in the road and he quickly slammed on the brakes. We both jerked forward from the abrupt stop and I could feel my heart racing a little bit.

        “Not going to get us killed huh?” I mumbled.

        “Not my fault the squirrel came out of nowhere,” Jack quickly retorted as we watched the squirrel run to the side of the road. He resumed driving afterwards. “But there's gotta be somewhere you want to go. I mean, there's a lot of places we could go. We could grab something to eat . . . or maybe go see a movie.”

        My eyes widened a tad from hearing the last suggestion.

        “There's gotta be some movie you want to see, right?” he continued.

        “N-no, not really,” I lied. “I have to do a lot of chores before my parents get home anyway, so I probably shouldn't be gone too long.”

        “Okay, then we'll go grab something to eat. That won't take too long.”

        “I'm not really that hungry though.”

        “Then we can just stop at UDF and get a milkshake or an ice cream. That's not too much, right?”

        “I don't know, I'm not really in the mood for anything like that.”

        “C'mon, there's gotta be something you want to do.”

        “Not really. I'm not really feeling too well anyway.”

        Well, it was kind of the truth. I was feeling really nervous and I was beginning to become nauseated from it. Jack sighed and I mustered up enough courage to look over at him. A slightly upset look was on his face as he stared out of the windshield and at the road ahead of us. I felt a little bad after seeing it and I looked out the window as I thought a little. I sighed.

        “Well, I guess a milkshake doesn't sound too bad,” I said.

        I was probably going to end up killing myself for dragging myself through this mess, but I couldn't stand to see anyone sad, especially him. United Dairy Farmer wasn't too far from us anyway and we probably wouldn't be there that long either. Hopefully I would be able to refrain from losing the contents of my stomach during that time.

        “Alright,” he replied, the small smile returning onto his features.

        “Oh, and happy birthday by the way,” I said, just now remembering.

        “Thanks.”

        Jack did most of the talking while we were in the car. He tried to get me to talk every now and then, but I tried to only respond with a nod or a shake of my head or by saying as few words as possible. It was too difficult for me to say too much with the way I was feeling after all.

        When we reached United Dairy Farmers, we walked inside. I only asked for a milkshake since I wasn't sure if I would be able to have too much without wanting to throw it up, and Jack asked for an ice cream. I would've offered to pay since it was Jack's birthday and all, but I didn't have any money with me. After Jack paid for the things we got, we walked into a small area that had several small, round tables and sat down at one of them.

        “It feels awesome to be able to drive,” Jack said a few seconds later. “I won't have to ride the bus anymore either, and neither will you.”

        “I don't know,” I muttered, completely unsure of whether I should really ride with him to and from school. “I don't really mind riding the bus. It's not that bad as long as I have a way to drown out the sounds of the annoying sixth graders.”

        “But if you ride with me, you won't have to worry about doing something like that because the sixth graders won't be around. Besides, you'll get to sleep longer.”

        “Yeah, but I don't want to be stuck with helping you pay for gas money either because I decided to ride with you.”

        “You wouldn't have to. I'll just pay for it by myself.” There was a couple seconds of silence. “But just try to think it over and let me know before Monday, alright?”

        I quietly sighed a couple seconds later. “Okay.”

        When Jack was finished eating his ice cream, we headed back to the car. I was relieved to hear that we were going home now. Jack did ask me though if I wanted to go down to his house and hang out a little bit, but I said no and repeated the excuse that I wasn't feeling too well. Luckily, Jack wasn't too upset to hear the answer – or at least there wasn't any visible signs of it – so I didn't have to worry about feeling bad because of it. When we reached my driveway, Jack stopped the car. I muttered a bye before climbing out of it without another look back.

Author's Note

Was the dream okay? Should I have tried to add a little more, or was there any parts that sounded a little odd? Also, does using an actual thought in dialogue when Jay realizes it's a dream a little strange? And do I repeat anything too much to where it gets annoying?

Reviews

[courtney]

i like the dream it would have been cool if you added some more but it wouldn't really matter you got the point across. Nothing odd that i saw. I like you using the dialogue it gives him alittle more personality to me anyway. Not really you say hes nervous alot but thats becuz he is and its not anoying at all.