Chapter Six

  “Ael?”Jason asked “Like A-E-L?”

            “No, like just the letter, ‘L.’” Valentine said. Jason just tilts his head to one side seemingly confused.

“People tend to f**k up her name. So that’s what we call her L.”

            Not exactly what Jason was expecting, but at least he had something to call the beauty that captured his eye.

            “I’m sure you’ll be hearing from her soon.” Valentine said giving a smile as she walked away.

            Jason watched as Valentine reunited with L. He wanted to go with Valentine and actually meet L face to face, but of course he was too shy. He stood there grinning from ear to ear. He couldn’t be happier. 

            “What was that all about ha-ha?” Ken said giving his annoying laugh like he does after everything he says. Jason just stood there speechless. He didn’t really even know what that was. Sure, he knew what it was, but he didn’t quite know exactly for sure. Was this an invitation to start something, or maybe just to get to know her, maybe she just wanted to see if he was worthy. What ever it was, he was happy, happy to at least have a chance to talk to her.

            Jason, Ken and his family left the church and proceeded back home. The whole way home he stared at his phone, eagerly waiting for some sort of call or text message from her. He griped his phone tightly subconsciously thinking it would magically conjure some sort of communication from L. Realizing that if he squeezed anymore he would crush his phone in his hand with all the tension running throughout his muscles.

            “Hey Jason, are you alright? You haven’t said a word the whole way home.” His mother asked him from the driver seat. “You’ve been staring at your phone this whole time.” Jason looked up from the back seat and gave a big smile.

            “Staring at it isn’t going to make her call you.” She continued. “Just be patient.”

            Back home Jason quickly went straight up to his room and plugged the charger into his phone making sure it wouldn’t die on him. Jason didn’t want to miss when she tried getting a hold of him. He wanted to be there when she did. He knew that this would be a real first impression. Whether he would respond right away or didn’t even bother until later; that would make a huge difference on how she thought of him; or so he thought. The phone would sit on his bed for a few moments and then he would check to see if he got anything. The blank screen held no words from L. He didn’t allow himself to get weary, instead he kept up hope she would contact him.

            Ken walked in “Jason, what’s up?” Ken took a seat in front of Jason’s writing desk.

            “I’m waiting.” Jason said still looking down at this phone. He checked his phone one more time, but still nothing there.

            “Like your mom said earlier. Staring won’t make her text you ha-ha.” Again with the laugh, it was getting irritating to Jason’s ears already. He didn’t want to hear this talk of not getting a message soon. He knew she would reach out to him. He believed it.

            “This phone has suddenly become the most valuable thing I own now.” He said sincerely.

            It wasn’t until later in night that she actually messaged him, and when she did he was there to reply quickly.

            “Hey, this is L from church” the text read.

            “Hi there. This is Jason” he responded. He felt dumb after he sent that since she already knew who he was. She was the one who messaged him first after all.

            “How are you?” she asked with the letters on his screen.

            “I’m doing pretty good actually, and yourself?”

            “I’m good. So umm, I hope it’s okay that my friend got your phone number for me.” She asked. Of course it’s okay, I’ve wanted to talk to you since last week Jason thought to himself, but didn’t say that for not wanting to sound like a creep.

            “Yeah,it’s totally cool. I’m glad she did.” He responded adding a smiley face at the end hoping he would express his happiness at the situation.

            Their messages went throughout the week talking of likes, dislikes, how long they’ve been going to their church and other things of small talk. She also asked of his age.

“I’m going to be twenty in like two days,” he told her. Unknowingly to him, L was concerned about that. She wasn’t sure if he would talk to her if he found out her age. Jason asked the same question to her to which she replied “Seventeen.” It shocked Jason at first. It was almost a three-year age gap between them. He was concerned about this, but then thought about his own parents. His deceased father was ten years older than his mother. This gave him comfort. He thought that if it was okay for his parents then it shouldn’t be that big of deal for L and himself.

 Jason was so happy to be talking to this girl. It’s all he could talk about everyday. This got on his friends nerves a bit, but he didn’t care. L was the only thing on his mind and all his words could speak of. 

            He hoped he could take her out on a date soon. He started coming up with ideas of where he could take her. Jason ultimately decided on the cliché “dinner and a movie” date. He was scared though. He didn’t want to mess this up. He begged his best friend for 13 years to go with him. Jason orchestrated a double date so the pressure wouldn’t be too great on him. He wanted to be himself around her but his fear of messing it up would ultimately clam Jason’s true personality within his chest. He thought that if his best friend Jay were there he could just be himself and hopefully she would see him for who he was.

“Would you like to go to a movie with me on a double date?” Jason’s text read the night before it would take place.

“Yeah, that sounds like fun” she replied giving Jason enormous happiness inside. He spent the next day trying hard to figure out what to wear. He wanted to look nice, but Jason didn’t own the nicest clothes. He had just got out of his skater phase. Skaters don’t exactly dress the best. He decided on a dress shirt and jeans. The only dress shirt he owned though had such a terrible collar. He thought it looked ugly so he cut if off. His mother approved, but that’s not how a dress shirt should be worn. He most likely looked awkward to her when he finally saw her.

L gave him the address to her home. Jason set the address on his GPS. He, Jay and the girlfriend went on their way to go pick L up. Jason couldn’t help but speed his way to her. He couldn’t wait anymore. He was too impatient. The address she gave him though wasn’t agreeing with his GPS. Jason ultimately got lost on the way and had to call her for directions. He felt really embarrassed for not being able to get there without her help. He wondered how this made him look: Incapable,undependable, and dumb?

He finally arrived at her home and walked straight to the door. After he rang she came to the door and he was stunned where he stood. She was even more beautiful than he had once seen. Her style: sexy. Her hair: Beautiful. Her Smile: breath taking. The black jeans she wore were ripped up and down the front of her thighs. The shirt she wore portrayed a band, most likely one of her favorites. He became a little nervous now, he wondered if he was too dressed up. Without a collar on a dress shirt how fancy could you actually look though? The pressure dissipated slowly and he had words to speak.

“Hi.” He said in a bit of a low voice.

“Hi.” She replied to him with that gorgeous smile of hers.

“Uhh… Let’s go?” he asked and she simply replied with a very cute “Okay” having the cutest grin. 

The four started the night off at village Inn all together. Taking Jay and his girlfriend was a mistake Jason made. The whole time at the diner Jay and Jason spent the whole time talking and telling jokes left and right. Jay’s girlfriend just sat there and laughed at everything that was said, even if it wasn't remotely funny what to so ever, while L kind of just sat there listening and saying something every now and then. Jason wasn’t able to really talk to L like he wanted. He smiled and cracked a joke toward her a few times hoping to let her know that he was there with her and not there with just Jay.

After dinner they made their way to the movie theater. Jay and Jason decided to watch “30 minutes or less.” The movie looked like a really well done comedy from the previews they watched. Jason thought it would be a good idea to watch a movie they could laugh at and talk about later on the drive home. Sadly for Jason this wasn’t the case. The movie turned out to have a lot of profanity. This scared Jason. He met L at church after all. He didn’t want this church girl to think he was some sort of derogatory loving person, which he kind of is, but he didn’t want to mess things up with her. He eventually took her out of the movie and redirected them to another one which he knew wasn’t so awful. “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” Jason enjoyed the movie, it was good movie to him, but L didn’t agree. He didn’t know it at the time, but L thought the movie was boring and stupid. L later conveyed how she would have enjoyed the first movie much more.

When he first got into this new movie it appeared to have been on for twenty minutes. He tried explaining the plot and beginning of the movie to L since he had already seen it, but was interrupted by his phone ringing with a call from his mother. Damn it mom, why are you calling me now while I’m on a date?  Jason frustratingly thought to himself. His mother wasn’t the type to be ignored. If he had dismissed her call there would be much hell to pay so Jason kindly excused himself from the theater disappearing for about twenty-five minutes. While a way and bleeding out of the ear by his mothers angry voice L was becoming impatient at the date he took her on. She really just wanted to get up and go back to the first movie they were watching. She was actually almost getting ready to just go and let him know to meet her back there, but Jason finally came back and they both rode out the movie together.

Sadly to say, the date the two went on didn’t go as Jason planned. He was discouraged and knew he screwed this one up. He kindly took her back home and walked her to the door.

L lied through her teeth “I had fun with you tonight.”

Jason knew that had to be a lie, but politely replied trying hard not to show

His disappointment “Thank you, I had fun too.”

            Jason took his leave from her house then dropped his friends off. Afterwards he just went home with no hope or expectations anymore. 

            L and Jason didn’t talk again after that.