Page 87 of Jaked

I felt myself nod.

"Alright," he said. "It's because you grew up."

Something inside me twisted. "I knew it," I muttered.

"You don't know as much as you think."

"What do you mean?"

He was quiet a long moment, and then said, "You remember Loke?"

Ididremember. Loke wasn't his real name, but it was the name everyone called him. The guy was crazy, and not in a good way.

"Yeah," I said. "What about him?"

"He was the first one to notice."

"Notice what?"

"That you weren't a little kid anymore."

"So?"

"So you wanna know what kind of shit came out of his mouth?" Jake's expression darkened. "Forget it. Don't ask, because I'm not gonna repeat it."

Knowing Loke, I could only imagine.

Jake glanced toward the windows, and his voice ground to a low menace. "But the shit he says, it gets the rest of the guys talking."

"About me?" I asked.

"Yeah. About you. And you're like a kid sister to me."

"Oh." That was nice. Sort of.

"But you'renotmy sister," he continued. "So yeah, I could kick Loke's ass. But then what? What happens when the next guy steps up, wanting a piece of you?"

I tried to laugh. "You could've kickedalltheir asses." 

His gaze returned to mine. "Yeah. I could've. But then what? What happens when I’m not there? What happens when one of them takes a shot at you for real? And what happens when you say yes?"

With some of Jake's friends, it might not have been an entirely bad thing. They were wild and dangerous, just like him. But there were others – I tried not to think about it. Loke in particular, he was bad news. "About Loke," I said. "Whatever happened to him?"

"He's upstate," Jake said. "Serving ten to twenty."

"For what?" I asked.

"You don’t want to know."

He was right. I didn't want to know. Besides, I didn't care about Loke. I cared about Jake.

"But the Maddie thing," I persisted. "I don't get it. How could you have sex with her if you didn't even like her? I mean, that's pretty cold."

"Want to know what's cold?" he said. "Some girl who sells out her roommate for a guy she just met."

"You mentioned that before," I said, "but I still don't know what you mean."

"It's how I found you," he said.