Things That Go Bump At Night Part 19

"Ow, stop that." He said, retreating behind me again.

"Well ask her stupid! You used to be good at this."

He narrowed his eyes at her, apparently he didn't want to be reminded of his past, at least not in front of me.

"Fine. Will you go to homecoming with me Remi?" He asked, still eyeing Kendra, keeping an eye on her swing, no doubt.

"Um, okay." I said, not quite sure how I felt about school dances. I'd never been to one, much like I'd never been to a party...and my first had turned out to be a bust.

"Oh, that was just too romantic. Cue the white doves." Kendra said sarcastically. She turned to me. "I'm skipping practice today, we are going dress shopping, right now."

"I can't tonight!" I cried, almost too quickly. "Um, I have plans tonight." I forced my voice to calm. It was our second hunting s.h.i.+ft. Luckily the week fell perfectly so that we had both Friday and Sat.u.r.day night off.

"On a Thursday night?" Kendra asked skeptically.

"Yeah. Um, it's a family thing. With Jake's family." Wow, I was not a good liar. Kendra narrowed her eyes at us.

"Fine. Have your secret. But first thing Sat.u.r.day morning, we are shopping. Better yet, you're spending the night with me tomorrow."

Now Jake stepped forward but Kendra stopped him before he could argue.

"Please spare me some c.r.a.p about plans tomorrow night too. You spend every night with my girl, I think you can go one without her."

I practically heard Jake swallow. He looked to me and I shrugged.

"It's fine." I nearly whispered. Kendra was right, it'd been over three weeks now since I'd entered the Jake safety zone. Stepping out of it was going to be hard.

The game the next day was intense, I sat with Jake's father again, but this time it was more comfortable, as if he were starting to accept me. Maybe my speech had more of a positive impact than I thought. He stood and cheered Jake on, encouraged me to as well. Near the end of the game the score was tight, 32 to 29, Webber ahead. The other team had the ball and they were slowly making their way down the field, despite the Wolves best efforts to stop them. Suddenly, the other team was running the ball up the sideline, he was only 20 yards from the goal line with only ten seconds left in the game. Every single person in the stands was on their feet. Jake because he had skills no one else was even aware of- managed to break away. He ran at the runner with the ball, went low and threw his shoulder into the other player's middle, wrapping his arms around his waist, Jake lifted the player off his feet and dropped him on his back.

Game over.

The stands erupted. Everyone went wild. Mr. Wagner actually hugged me and I laughed. Students rushed the field, everyone after Jake. He waded through teammates and fans, all trying to clap his back, or hug him and he came to the stands, and like a truly romantic movie moment, he took the bench seats up like stairs until he was standing on the one just below me. I smiled at him, he smiled back. Big and excited. He may be a big bad demon hunter, but he truly loved this game.

Mr. Wagner cleared his throat and drew Jake's attention.

"Good game, son." He clapped Jake's back with a proud smile.

"Thanks, dad."

Then his dad gasp- winked at me and moved off. Jake finally threw his arms around me and lifted me into the air. I kissed him very publicly.

"I take it Homecoming is an important game." I laughed as he very loudly went after my neck.

"Only the most." He mimicked Kendra's sa.s.sy voice and I laughed again. Then his smile cooled drastically. "It sucks you're not going to be with me tonight."

"I know." I found myself wondering what kind of celebrating we would have done. I had to stop that, I was only torturing myself.

"There's usually a party afterwards, but I never go. Dad grills up steaks, then we sit around and talk about the game for a couple hours, play some poker."

That actually sounded like fun, but when I meant "celebrating" in my head, I had meant the more private variety. The celebration just between Jake and me. Again, I had to stop thinking like that, it was torture.

And if yesterday I had thought to myself that stepping out of Jake's safety zone was going to be hard, I think it was harder for him. After he had changed with his team in the locker room he walked with me out to his truck, waiting until with an over exaggerated eye roll- Kendra went to wait near her own car, her view of us obscured by the truck. Jake pulled a blade from under the driver's seat and slid it into my backpack.

"Can't risk a gun in Kendra's house. But I'd feel better if you had at least this on you."

"I don't think we're leaving her house tonight." I said Kendra hadn't mentioned the party- wrapping my arms around his waist. But I kept the knife.

"I know. Just in case." He sighed and kissed me softly. "But if you do go to the party, will you text me?"

I nodded my promise.

"Four weeks ago I went to my house on my own every day, slept alone in my bed every night. That's a very unappealing thought now."

"Come on!" Kendra called over the vehicles. "You'll see her when you pick her up at my house for the dance. I think you two can handle being apart for 24 hours."

Jake kissed me again, longer, deeper, harder this time, and probably would have went on kissing me all night if Kendra hadn't finally reached her patience limits and came back around to pull me away.

"OMG." She muttered. "Wave Rem, we're leaving."

Like an obedient puppy, I waved and Jake laughed. He blew me a kiss as Kendra backed us out of the parking lot.

"If you don't stop staring at him in that mirror Remi, I am going to have to slap you. You two are gross. How do you even go to cla.s.ses without each other?"

I shrugged.

"At least we know we're in the same building together."

Her head whipped around to look at me, saw my teasing face and rolled her eyes while trying not to laugh at her own gullibility. It only took minutes to get to her house, and we closed ourselves up in her room after Kendra called down to her mom to order us a pizza. She explained why she had no intention of attending the party tonight; she did not party the night before a dance, she got her beauty sleep, that's why her pictures were always the best the next day, while everyone else looked like they had permanent red eye.

"I don't want to talk about Jake all night, so let's get it out of the way now." Kendra said flopping back on her bed as I rummaged through her closet because I had finally developed a taste for fine clothing.

"Okay." Came my m.u.f.fled reply.

"What is it with you two? It's like you can't breathe if you're more than two inches away from each other. I mean, I love romance just as much as the next girl, but it's only been three weeks and you guys can't live without each other."

I came out of her closet, took a deep breath and said exactly what it was between Jake and me at least on my end anyway.

"I think I'm in love with him."

"Duh." Kendra said, SO unsurprised by my admission that it surprised me.

"Like Twilight Saga in love." I said. Now, she appeared interested.

"Really? So does that mean I'll be shopping for a maid of honor dress by the end of the school year?"

"If I have my way? Definitely." I laid down in the bed next to her and laughed when she gaped at me. So gullible. "Seriously though, I just want to be with him. Just be. I don't care what everyone else says or expects. I don't care if people think we're too young to be in love. I'm happy with him, and what the h.e.l.l is too young anyway? Why is there an age limit on love?"

"Whoa." Kendra laughed. "Slow your roll girl. You love who you want as much as you want, I've got your back."

There was that phrase again. And she did have my back. I should have thought of that when I'd argued with Mr. Wagner. I was way neglecting my friends.h.i.+p. I'd have to do something about that.

"I think I want to tell Jake how I feel, but I'm not sure how. Will it freak him out do you think?"

"Probably not, since he clearly feels the same way."

"What? Really?"

"Really. He's so Twilight Saga too."

"The vampire or werewolf?" I asked, I expected her to say vampire.

"Is there a way to combine the two?" She deadpanned.

"Seriously?" I asked, my heart did an excited turn.

"Oh for Christ sake. I'm only going to say this once, then we are changing the subject. I knew that boy before you and him. He serial dated, and I don't mean in a man-wh.o.r.e kind of way, I mean, he never let anyone get attached. And he didn't really seem to be interested in getting attached. And now, he's all about Remi Dexter. And it's not just like, oh Remi sleeps with me so she's mine; it's everything. He doesn't let people talk about you, he doesn't let people touch you, and he doesn't let you out of his sight. And before you, PDA's? Forget about it! Now, he can't seem to stop himself. The boy is in love with you Remi. If you, for one second, even think you can sit here and tell me that you haven't noticed any of this then I'm making you an appointment with the nearest head doctor tomorrow."

And he had stood up to his dad for me. I kept that to myself though.

Kendra blindsided me with what she said next; "And that tattoo on his neck? When were you going to tell me about that?"

My eyes probably looked like they were going to pop out of my head. Could she read Norse?

"I asked him about it today." Kendra explained, examining her nails. "And he told me freely. Unlike you, my best friend."

"I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you, but I didn't know if he wanted people to know."

"Okay, first off, I'm not people. Secondly, he got the d.a.m.n thing on his neck, you don't think people are going to ask about it?"

I eyed her curiously.

"Have others asked?"

"Only the whole entire football team. They think he's nuts, by the way. I mean, not nuts because he's dating you, just nuts for getting a girl's name tattooed on him in general. Oh, and you should have seen Darva almost s.h.i.+t a brick when she found out. It was precious!"

"Darva knows?"

"Well yeah, the guys asked him at prayer before the game. Of course us cheerleader's were there. I wish I'd taken a picture of her face for you. If there were ever a time when a person finally admitted defeat, that was it. I think it's safe to say that Darva will no longer be pursuing your man."

Well, that was a relief. Not that I was worried about it, but I did hate the way she was constantly finding excuses to touch Jake. It was a very irritating thing.

"And now this conversation is concluded. We will not talk about Jake anymore tonight. And you're not texting him all night either. I'll allow you a few minutes right now, because I know you're dying to after this convo; and once more before we catch our Z's. But that's it. I don't get nearly enough time with you because of him, so he's not going to intrude on the time I do get."

I pressed my lips together. She knew me to well.

"Well." She said expectantly. "Text now or forever hold your peace."

I dove for my phone.

U told ur teammates about ur tat?

He must have been watching his phone and waiting for me to text because his reply was almost immediate.

I did. U ok with that?

Yes. Still not regretting it then?

h.e.l.l no. Miss me?

Depends...wuw?

A few minutes pa.s.sed and he still hadn't replied. I frowned. Was that a question only guys got to ask? I mean, Jake text me that nearly every morning after the first cla.s.s we didn't have together, but I had never asked him. Maybe I shouldn't have. When my phone finally chirped I felt relief, but when I pushed at the screen a message did not pop up, a picture did. And he wasn't wearing anything. I gasped and held the phone to my chest, away from Kendra's prying eyes.

"I saw it." Kendra grinned, next to me. "And now I totally see why you are in love Twilight style."

"Kendra!" I squealed and hit her with a pillow. I rolled off her bed.

"What? The guy is ripped! Does he work out like ten hours a day or something?"

I blushed, I needed her mind on me right now.

"How do I reply to that?"

"In kind. Duh."

"You mean, with a picture?"

"What else?"

"I can't do that!"

"Are you a prude like this behind closed doors, too?"

"No! I mean, Kendra! Have you ever sent a picture like that?"

"h.e.l.l no! s.e.xting is bad Remi! Very bad. But then, I don't have a Jake. He'd never pa.s.s your picture around."

I chewed my bottom lip. Kendra sighed.

"I'm going to leave the room for ten minutes. Get it done, you will forever be his fantasy if you do. Just FYI."

I stared at the closed door for a moment after Kendra left. I took a deep steadying breath and another look at Jake's picture.

G.o.d he was beautiful.

A slow smile caught my lips and I got it done.

I did a slow turn in front of the mirror and came to a stop front and center again. I sighed and stared at myself. I'd spent the last four hours shopping with Kendra, trying on countless dresses, we were at the last store in Portland that carried the kind of dresses we were looking for, so I needed to find one here or I'd be going to the dance in jeans. This one was by far my favorite. The steel gray sleeveless dress was "hot" by Kendra's standards, but she still claimed it wasn't "the one" and had ran off to find yet another dress for me to try on.