Chapter 5 Summer

Chapter 5
Dumb

    “Good morning, girls.” Aunty Kelly, Holly’s mom, says from over the stove. “Breakfast is almost ready.”
    Holly and I move into the living room where her cousin and brother are sitting. Jake is sitting on the couch in only a pair of basketball shorts and his dark, curly hair is messy and out of place. Her brother is sitting at the computer, like his usually is.
    When we got to the kitchen to spoon some breakfast onto our plates, I cringe as I take a peak into the huge frying pan.
    “Is this what I think it is?” I ask in dread.
    Holly nods.
    All our lives, growing up, her dad had always been the great cook. Her mother usually cooked breakfast though and it was usually eggs and bacon. Occasionally she’ll cook this--eggs mixed up with a small amount of chopped up bacon and…mashed up tortilla wraps.
    Yum.
    I do my best to down as much food as possible without anything seeming strange, but only because one, I’m starving. And two, I don’t want to hurt Aunty Kelly’s feelings. Jake and Conner shoveled their food down like usual. They’ll eat anything. When Holly’s mom get up to go get a drink, I scrape some of the mush into Jake’s plate.
    When we finish eating, we rinse off our plates and put the in the sink to be washed later. Right now, the pool is calling our name so Holly and I go upstairs to change into our bathing suits from yesterday which have already dried.
    For a long time, we just lie on the grass in Holly‘s back yard, as always, attempting to get as dark as possible. That is, until Jake runs by and dumps a bucket of water on us, soaking us and our towel. He better thank god that I’d been talking instead of listening to my iPod, which was tucked safely away in my purse.
    “Jake, d****t!” I yell, getting to my feet.
    Holly, on the other hand, doesn’t even say anything. She just chases him around, yelling  a string of profanities. They wrestle in the grass for a few minutes until Jake forfeits, laughing as Holly lets him up.
    I stand at the edge of the grass, staring at them with a smirk and my arms crossed. “Ya done now?” I ask.
    “Yep.” Holly smiles is satisfaction and walks past me and does a cannon ball into the pool. Her head pops back up a second later. “Jake, don’t!” She yells, suddenly alarmed.
    I turn around just in time to see Jake running at me as if he’s going to tackle me. Instead he throws me over his shoulder and I scream as he jumps into the pool. Arms wrap around my waist and I’m pulled to the surface.
    When I can breathe again, my teeth start chattering. The air is perfect. Not hot, not cold, but that’s the recipe for freezing water.
    “Jake, you idiot!” Holly scolded her cousin. “She can’t swim!”
    “She’s fine.” He said, rolling his eyes.
    It’s almost true. I can tread water and stay afloat and jump into pools and swim very slowly, but at the beach, I usually stay where my feet can reach the sand. My mother had sent me to swimming lessons when I was in the third grade, but that hadn’t lasted. I quit after the day so much water went up my nose that is started bleeding.
    Jake, seeing and probably hearing my chattering teeth, pulls me against him and wraps his arms around me and for whatever reason, I don’t move away from him. Butterflies are fluttering around in my stomach.
    For the past few months, Jake’s actions had me befuddled. It hasn’t been until recently that I’ve noticed that he’s not the same guy he used to be. He used to be, well, a jerk to be honest. In the past year or so, he’s really changed. Helping me in and out of vans, trucks, or SUVs. When Holly and I have our drinking nights, he actually carries me if I can’t walk.
    My immediate thought had been that he likes me, but I’d quickly pushed the thought away. Of course, he doesn’t. He may have had a crush on me when we were in the third grade but he grew out of it. And that would just be weird right now. I mean, he’s Jake. The same Jake that had cried when his ice cream fell on the sidewalk when we were four. The same Jake that had made me cry so many times in elementary by teasing me. The same Jake that, as a little girl, I had sworn nothing would ever happen between us.
    Whoa.
    Why should anything happen? It’s not like I like him. Besides, even if I do say that I like him, there’s little doubt that it’s just a fleeting thought. I’ve done that a lot in the past--say that I like someone when really, all I really liked was the fact that they liked me.
    But Jake doesn’t like me. And that’s the whole reason for this stupid argument--with myself.
    I don’t think it’s possible to feel any more dumb thatn I do right now.