Page 40 of Jaked

He looked over toward Jake, who was walking across the parking lot toward us. The long-haired guy put his hands around his mouth and hollered out, "Alright. I did it. You happy now?"

"Ask her ifshe'shappy," Jake called back.

With another big sigh, the guy turned toward me. "You happy?" he said.

Well, I was a lot happier than I was a few minutes ago. "I guess so," I said.

"Good. Because I'm outta here." He turned, and stomped away, heading away from the roller-skating rink. When he disappeared around a corner, I turned back around.

Jake was standing behind me now. "I'll tell you a secret," he said.

I looked up at him. "What?"

"Remember the guy with the red hair?"

The driver. Oh yeah. I remembered, alright. I nodded.

Jake grinned. "I know where he hangs out."

"Really?" I said.

"Yeah." Jake leaned down until our heads were nearly at the same level. "And you know what?"

"What?" I asked.

"Tonight, I'm gonna pay him a little visit."

I smiled up at him. "Really?"

"Really," he said. "But you've got to promise me something."

"What?" I said.

"You're not gonna hang out here alone anymore."

"I wasn'tsupposedto be alone," I told him. "My mom's just late. That's all."

He frowned. "Want me to wait with you?"

"Okay." My face was feeling a little hot. "I mean, if you really want to."

He didn't answer, which kind of bummed me out, because it would have been nice to hear that he wanted to stay. But hedidwait with me, just like he said. He walked toward the building and leaned against it.

He looked really cool. I did the same thing. I probably didn't look as cool as he did, but I still felt cool, hanging out with someone like him.

He didn't say a lot, but he listened to me when I talked. And then, way too soon, now that I was actually had someone to wait with, my mom's car pulled into the parking lot. With a sigh, I turned to tell Jake goodbye.

But I couldn’t. He was gone.

It made me sad. I couldn’t remember thanking him, but I should have. If I saw him again, I definitely would. And someday, when I was older, maybe I'd even marry him. The idea made me smile.

I was still smiling when my mom rolled down the car window and said, "Sorry I'm late. Can you believe I completely forgot?"

Oh yeah. I definitely believed it. I walked around the car and opened the passenger door. I got inside. That's when I saw that the knees of my jeans were all torn up, probably from when I fell. One of my knees had a big bloody scrape that had leaked blood all over the torn fabric. Funny, I hadn't even noticed.

Even funnier, neither did my mom. Normally, that bothered me. But not today. Just before she drove out of the parking lot, she turned to me and asked, "Did you have fun?"

I gave it some thought and felt a giant smile spread across my face. "Oh yeah," I said. "Best time ever."

And I meant it.

After that, Jake had a funny way of turning up on Saturday afternoons when I was stuck waiting. I never told my mom about him. I never told my sister either. Somehow, I knew she wouldn't like me hanging out with a boy so much older.

Later, when I got a little older, I started running into Jake at other places too – sometimes at the beach, sometimes at other spots around town. Sometimes, he'd let me hang out with him and his friends. Either he liked having me there, or he just didn't know how to make me go away – at least, not until a few years later.