Chapter 3

Eric was driving me home again after practice. He was talking about how he knew what team and what position he was going to get already and how telling him tonight would be pointless. I was blocking out all of that like a bad friend did. He said the same thing twice last year after football and lacrosse tryouts were over. 

Today we were taking a different way home because he overheard a kid in one of his classes saying how beautiful this spot was. All I cared about was that this place was quiet and not full of high schoolers drinking. 

Eric pulled up to a clearing that a dirt road directed us to. The view was wonderful if you like nature with the tress of the forest surrounding us. I took out my phone as we walked out and took pictures around us. 

“What do you think,” Eric asked me. 

“I think we shouldn’t tell Seth about this place. You know the moment he knows he’ll call a party and ruin it,” I replied. He chuckled in my ear while wrapping his arms around my waist. I took a few more photos before putting my phone away and placing my hands over his. 

It was nice with the evening winds blowing on us. It was cool and relaxing. Eric let go and walked back to his car reaching into the trunk for something. 

“You may have been sitting down for a while but I haven’t and want to lay down,” he said before taking out a rolled-up picnic blanket he must have kept from out lunch at the park the other week. We spread it out a distance away from all the trees. 

Eric stretched out across the blanket with his hands behind his head. I sat next to him, looking up at the sky. No one else from school came here making us the only ones around. 

“What did Aiden say to you the other day,” Eric asked. 

“He just wanted to hang out with me on Saturday. He also didn’t want anyone else to be there,” I answered. Eric grunted, probably thinking, lifting one of his knees up.

“Why did he specifically ask for it to be just you two? I swear, if he tries to hurt you.” I grabbed his knee and looked down at him. He stopped, looking at my smile that made him calm down. “I’m just worried for you because of Monday.”

“I know. It’s Aiden though! He won’t try to hurt me if he finds out.” Eric grabbed my arm and pulled me into his chest. I could feel him breathing with my ear against him. His hand connected with mine.

“Will you call me if something DOES happen?”

I thought about it waiting for Eric to say something else. “Hm, maybe. Liam would probably beat him till he mostly bleeds out unlike you.” 

Before I knew it, Eric had me pinned to the ground. His face was dark since the sun was behind him. I didn’t get to see what his face looked like. “I’ll beat him up so hard he’ll be in a coma for weeks.” I giggled hearing him trying to one up someone when it comes to beating a person up for me. 

Then he leaned down and kissed me. It wasn’t as long as the first time and not as enjoyable. He was taking advantage of the situation we were in to get something he wanted. I stopped and stared into the darkness of his face. 

He tried to lean in again when I stopped him halfway. “We can’t be doing this. Do you want the Aiden problem to be real?” Eric lifted himself up, hovering a foot above me. “And you have Lola already who doesn’t know what you’re thinking.”

He got off me and sat. Even I didn’t know what he was thinking half the time. “How do you know Lola can’t figure out my thoughts,” he asked. I looked at his face and saw the saddest/angriest frown ever. He wouldn’t even look at me.

“Monday, during practice, everyone asked me what Lola talked to me about before she left. She was questioning what was up with us and how she can’t tell if you love her.” We both stayed silent for a while. I didn’t know whether I needed to say anything else. 

Eric pulled in his knees and rested his arms on them. He’s never been like this before. “I don’t know,” he finally said. “We both agreed that it would be a one-time thing. Then the next time I slept over, I wanted more. It felt different than when I kiss Lola. I wanted to feel that difference again. 

“I keep saying in my head that once I get over the difference and it feels normal I’ll go running back to only loving Lola. The hard part about getting over it is that you’re the only one I wish to feel this difference with. Yet, you can go so far with me before we have to stop.”

I watched as the sun set like Eric was doing. He wanted to get over this and go back to normal. I can’t go through with what he wants though. 

“You can’t hold off these feelings until I can help you get over it,” I asked. He shook his head. “I don’t know what to do then.” 

I rested my head on his shoulder. Eric leaned his head against mine. We were interrupted by a text from dad. “You need to get home,” he sent.

I showed Eric and we got up. “So now we know where this is,” he said. 

“Yeah.” We rolled up the blanket and drove to my house. The sun was still setting when we pulled into the driveway. 

“I’ll see you Sunday then,” Eric asked while I was getting out. He kept his eyes on the wheel, gripping it tightly. 

“You are a guy. And Sunday we have a group hang out planned,” I said hoping he would look at me. He stayed silent until I got out of the car and drove away. 

In the kitchen, Dad was rushing around with my laptop on the counter. He heard the door shut and quickly turned to see me. “Thank god you’re here,” he said. “Think you can help me make chicken for tonight,” he asked. 

“Why are you making chicken for just the two of us,” I asked back. He ignored me and continued running around. I looked at my laptop and saw he had instructions on how to make chicken for a family of four.

“Who else is eating with us?” 

“I invited the woman I’ve gone out with for dinner here and she is bringing her daughter.” And now he decided to tell me about dinner plans?

“When did you invite her over?” 

“Last night. I may have mentioned you the last time I went to dinner with her.” May have? I grabbed my laptop and headed towards the door. He was doing okay on his own and the instructions he had were simple. 

I rolled a chair in front of the TV and turn on my PlayStation. The rhythm game came on and I did what I normally do with it. It felt different playing alone than it did with people watching and playing. 

A couple songs later, there was a knock on my door. No one that comes up here often knocks on this door before entering. “Who’s there,” I ask. It might be the woman dad invited over for all I knew.

“Uh, I’m Stacy. Your dad said you would be up here.” I went over to the door and opened it. There stood a girl who may have been a couple inches shorter than me with gorgeous straight black hair.  “You’re Jack, right,” she asked.

“Y-yeah! U-uh nice to meet you Stacy,” I somehow uttered out. This was the daughter of the woman dad is dating? “Would you like to come in?”

She peeks into the room, looking at everything thrown all over the place. I would have cleaned up a little instead of playing that game if I knew one of them would come up here. “Don’t mind the mess! Dad didn’t tell me I might have people up here.”

“That’s fine. My room’s actually messier than this,” she says walking in. How could her room possibly be messier than mine? There are blankets thrown into a corner, the mattress against the wall is actually hiding a shelf ready to fall over, my desk has random things all over. 

“I don’t know. The last girl who showed me her bedroom was messy when we were together, but her room was spotless,” I mentioned. I rolled out another chair for her. When I turned around, I could see her pouting in front of the closed door. 

“Not all girls clean their rooms, just so you know.” I tilted my head wondering what she was going on about. “I guess it’s pointless trying to get that out of you.” I just shrugged and sat back down in my chair. She did the same but in the other chair. 

“What are you playing,” she asked. 

“It’s a music game that used to only be an arcade game. They only sell it in Japan though so you’ll have to excuse all the Japanese text on the screen.” I went to one of the songs I play often and started it up. 

“So what did you just do?”

“I picked a song and now the game is going to load it up for me to play,” I explained. “Was it not that obvious,” I thought. The song had a lot of spam note sections which went by fast. I could see Stacy looking from the screen to my hands every time they showed up. At the end of the song, I could see her still trying to figure out how I pressed everything so fast.

“So you’re a gaming nerd,” she said after thinking. I laughing at her blunt way of saying that. Only if she knew about everything else I could do.

“If that’s what you want to call me. I think Jack is easier to say though.” She took on to the joke and giggled. “I’m sort of a Jack of all trades as my friends sometimes call me.” Then she started not believing me. 

Footsteps came crashing up the stairs. They weren’t any that I recognized so they must have been Stacy’s mom’s. “Dinner’s ready kids,” she yelled through the door. I plugged my controller into the charger and followed Stacy downstairs. 

The kitchen table was set up, which never happens, fancy-like. Plates were already placed in front of chairs with utensils on either side. A glass cup was also sitting near each set. 

“When did you do this,” I asked. Dad was throwing the chicken he made on each plate. 

“Since I got home. If you helped me, this wouldn’t be as much of a shock, now would it?” I shut my mouth and sat in one of the chairs. Stacy sat in the chair across from me neatly. 

Dad poured the two of us water into our glasses. He took out a bottle of wine for him and his date. I glared at him while he sat down. We both knew that he can get out of hand with women and alcohol. 

“So,” Stacy mother started. “How long have you lived here,” she asked. I groaned loudly. This was going to be horrible if this was the best anyone can do. 

“A while,” I answered rudely. “Now, I don’t know how you’ve dealt with my dad the three times you’ve been with him, but can you tell me your secret?” I was practically jumping over the table to hear her answer. Stacy giggled holding her hand over her mouth. 

I must have scared her a little because she kept quiet for most of the dinner afterwards. Stacy and I kept talking about the kinds of people at our schools. Dad tried to interest his date with conversation about what could happen tonight. 

“Maybe you should bring your new friend back upstairs, Jack,” dad ordered. I nodded taking both of our plates and utensils to the sink. Stacy grabbed our glasses, filling them up with soda, and followed me through the door. 

“That was, delicious, I could say,” Stacy said.

“But?”

“But it wasn’t. Can either of you cook an edible meal?” 

“Not to my knowledge. The best we can do are sandwiches when we work together. If you want something else, you’ll have better luck going somewhere else.” I turned on my PlayStation again and put on Minecraft. We played until it got dark and bored. 

“What time is it,” Stacy asked. I glanced at the clock and saw it was already 9:30. Did she want to go home now?

“Half past nine. Do you need a ride home?” I waited for her to say yes as she moved her eyes from her phone to the door and back. “Your mom is probably staying over.”

“You’re right. She is staying over. The way your dad talks to her kindles those emotions. Just like she does to other men.” The last part came quietly. I strained to hear it as it was uttered. Just like she does?

Then it hit me. If she did that to other men, that means she was just like dad. They both used single humans for sex. They both were the same kind of person! “Holy sh*t,” I exclaimed. Stacy jumped suddenly in her seat. “They’re both the same kind of person,” I practically yelled at her. 

“What?”

“You said your mom kindles emotions of love in other men just like my dad does to women.” Her eyes widened coming to the same conclusion I was.

“Then they’re both perfect for each other,” we said in unison. I threw myself back into my seat trying to calm down. I was laughing wildly along with Stacy. 

Everyone must have been thinking we were maniacs after the laughing continued for another five minutes. Stacy stopped and texted someone when her phone rang. It reminded me that Aiden was going to text me tonight if he had problems getting the new game.

“I don’t think going home is a good idea,” Stacy said. “I forgot my key in my room and our parents are probably busy for me to ask mom for her key.” I nodded and looked at my bed against the wall. “Maybe getting one of the other mattresses is a good idea,” I thought.

“Should I get you a double or single mattress then,” I asked. She raised an eyebrow looking up from her phone. 

“Do you mean for up here,” she asked slowly. I nodded and the realization came in. We walked into one of the rooms connected to the hallway that I kept all the blow-up mattresses in along with other random things. 

“What shall it be?” Stacy looked over the different boxes in the room. I forgot to mention that each mattress box had a name written on it for who used it the most. Liam and Will, Brett and Vincent, and Carlos and Ray had double and single boxes for the night we all couldn’t fit in singles.

“You must have a lot of friends over if they each have a mattress here,” she stated. I went over and pointed over a couple things.

“The ones with better handwriting are newer than the ones with elementary or middle school writing.” Stacy knelt down and examined each name carefully. Looking at Seth’s box brought back memories of when we used to hang out together. 

“What’s up with the mattress already in there,” she asked suddenly. “Is that where you and your girlfriend sleep?” She wiggled an eyebrow suggestively. I quickly got her away from the topic with a disgusted face.

“Is it too much work to set one of these up?”

“Not at all! There might be some better blankets in here than the ones in that pile.” She giggled standing over me. I got up as well and looked down at her beautiful hazel eyes. I didn’t recognize her hand was against my chest until she looked down at it. 

“You have bad memories of a past girlfriend,” she blurted out. I shook my head grabbing her hands. 

“If you’re asking about my face, it was because I don’t do that on the mattress inside. Most of the time, I’m the only one who is on it.” A smirk grew on her lips. 

“And what about the other some of time,” she asked. I tilted my head questioning silently what she was meaning.

“Oh! Those nights my best friend is over and he uses the mattress with me.” Her eyes fell sighing probably about the lack of juiciness my night life had.

We both left and looked around the room. Stacy grabbed a blanket I always used. It was the warmest one in the pile. She wrapped it around her neck and held it close with one hand. The bottom of the blanket rested on the floor until she moved where it dragged behind her. Honestly, I wanted to do the same thing with her.

“Let me pull out my mattress so we can decide how this is going to work out,” I suggested. Stacy stepped over to the blanket pile while I grabbed the mattress. I took the blanket from her and threw it, spread out, on top of what was supposed to be a sheet. On here, it just covered the horrible green thing dad threw on it years ago. I placed two other blankets I used on top.

Stacy sat down and placed my two pillows against the chair behind her. “I call this bed,” she yelled. I sighed and sat on the end of bed staring into her eyes again. 

“But this is my bed,” I whined like a little kid. “Dad got me this one for me to use.” She giggled grabbing my arm and pulling me over. 

“How about we decide on the both of us using it tonight,” she suggested. I nodded grabbing the blankets and a few more pillows. The entire back of the mattress was covered in pillows blocking the chest next to the chair. 

“Do you want me to start the heater up or will you be okay with a little chill in the morning,” I asked. Dad got me a little two-foot heater that I plugged in during the Fall and Winter season. 

“Will your heat emit onto me throughout the night?”

“Maybe. If you let me close enough that is.” Stacy opened her arms inviting me in. I scooted over placing my head on top of hers and wrapping my arms around her. 

“Good night, Jack,” she said sleepily. Her head was against my chest.

“Good night, Stacy,” I repeated back.