Katie's Angel (5 page)

“It is really different from Denver, but I have grown to like it. I think it is so nice to not always be in such a hurry, like everyone is in Denver.  The nightlife here is an adjustment, but I am not really into going out since moving here anyways.” Jack replied as the waitress brought their food to them.

After making sure they didn’t need anything else, and both saying thank you, the waitress walked away, Jack looked at their plates with wide eyes.

Jack looked at Katie and said, “This is a lot of food. You should have warned me. I won’t need to eat dinner tonight if I eat all of this.”

Katie giggled and replied, “It will be the best food you have tasted since you came out here though, and so it will definitely be worth being so full afterwards.”

They both took their first bites and he looked up at Katie. He couldn’t believe he didn’t realize how beautiful she was in school. Her blonde hair just accented her face in a way that he knew she was oblivious to. As he watched her take a bite of food, he couldn’t put a finger on how he was feeling and why.

“This is really good,” he said to Katie. “This is definitely a better dinner than I would be having at home tonight, so I definitely will be eating here more often than at home.”

“What your mom doesn’t cook very well?” Katie asked.

“Not exactly,” he replied. He didn’t really like talking about hi
s mom lately. Not since the accident anyways. His dad didn’t talk about it either so that made it easier to just dismiss it like it never happened.

“Oh well my mom cooks almost every day. Usually it is a full meal. Once in a while she will just make a casserole and call it good, but she makes the best lasagna you will ever taste. And her pumpkin pie during the holidays will make you want it every day for the rest of the year.
” Katie said to Jack as he took another bite of the turkey and mashed potatoes.

“I would much rather have microwavable dinners, than have to really eat my mom or dads food. They both lack in the ability to really make the food taste unbelievable.” Jack said.

“Do you like to cook?” she asked him.

“Not very often, it really depends on what mood I am in if I even go into the kitchen,” he said.
“How about you, do you cook?”

“I actually like to make different things, but not many people would actually try it.” Katie replied thinking about how Jackson was the only one who would honestly try her food. Even mom would get this look of not happening, when she asked her to try it.

“Well at least you make the effort.” Jack said. “What else do you like to do for fun?”

Katie was not really sure how to answer that question. Honestly her whole world revolves around when she can get to Jackson again. It wasn’t like she did much more than that these days. This information though, she was not ready to share with anyone who was close to her, much less someone she barely knew. “I like to listen to music and read. Last summer I got into reading to the toddler classes at the library. It was fun to see a
ll the little kids face light up over the puppy finding his way home.” Katie said feeling a little embarrassed at how easy she is finding Jack to talk to. Suddenly she felt as if someone was standing next to her. This feeling was getting so much stronger every day. It was starting to kind of freak her out actually.

“Is that why you were just sitting outside the library yesterday then? You were waiting for all the kids to come to you?” He asked her in a smarty pants kind of way.

Katie was surprised to find herself laughing at him being so sarcastic. Normally she would just shrug it off, but she honestly found it funny. “No, I was just sitting there thinking about how happy I am that it was summer. I was over school, and am glad that we are finally out.”

“I don’t know I didn’t find school so bad,” Jack replied as he pushed his plate away. He was full, so he knew that he would have to ask for a box to take the rest home for later.

“Yeah well, you were not here for very long, and from what I know, you were not really there as much as school was actually open either,” she replied with the same sarcastic tone he had used earlier.

“Why I am not sure what you are trying to say about me
,” he said feigning disbelief, trying his hardest to not laugh.

Katie saw how hard he was trying not to laugh and took full advantage of it by saying, “yeah well did you
forget that we had history class together, and you sat in front of me?”

Before she could say anything else, Jack hid his face as if he was ashamed of what she was saying, and started laughing so hard that he thought he was going to fall out of his chair. He liked that Katie was so easy to talk to.

When he was able to stop laughing, he gathered himself together, and said “Huh, I didn’t realize you paid that much attention to me in school.”

Katie could feel her face turning red as she tried to gather her thoughts. Honestly she had not realized that she had paid that close attention to him in school as well. “I didn’t pay that much attention to you,” she said trying hard not to look at him, “it was just hard to not notice such a
“pretty boy” not sitting there like he should have been. Besides there were a few times you were supposed to be my partner in class but ended up having to do all the work myself.”

“That was a good comeback,” Jack said. He couldn’t even come up with anything to say against this. In Denver none of his friends would ever had said anything like that to him, and if they did they would not have liked the results that would follow.

“Yeah well, you are definitely an easy target.” Katie replied, hoping that he was not going to get mad because she was being so free with what she was saying. She found it odd that she was actually being so uninhibited when it came to what she said around him. It was totally out of the norm for Katie, but she found that she was extremely comfortable when it came to talking to Jack. There was only one other person she had found that it was this easy to talk to. That struck her as odd since that person was Jackson. She was always doing things, saying things, which would make Jackson crack up. It seemed to truly be the only thing to make him feel better on his bad days.

Jack touched her hand bringing her back to the here and now. It surprised her so much so that she jerked her hand back.

“I didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted to say that this has been the most fun I have had in a long time,” he said.

“Oh no you just surprised me. I was actually just zoned out. It wasn’t you at all.” Katie replied, not being able to shake the feeling that there had been two hands on hers and not just his one. She couldn’t tell him that though, because she didn’t want to sound like she was losing her mind.  Heck, she felt like she was losing her mind, she didn’t need anyone else confirming it.

“What were you thinking about then?” Jack asked.

Katie was not expecting him to ask that, and she honestly did not want to tell him about Jackson yet, so she had to think fast.

“I was just thinking about the fact that my parents would probably strangle me if they knew that I was having lunch with you.” Katie said.

“Yeah somehow or another, I managed to get that bad boy reputation in the few months that I have been here. I can’t understand why since I do everything I am supposed to do including going to school,” Jackson said in as honest a tone as he could muster without laughing.

Katie just shook her head since she was laughing so hard that it was almost starting to hurt. “You know if you were the kind of guy that went to church and helped little old women cross the street it would just make you boring, so I wouldn’t let anyone else’s opinion bother you.”

“Well thanks for that pep talk there Blondie. I will have to remember that as I walk down the street and everyone is shooting daggers at me for no real reason since they do not honestly know me.”  Jack knew that they had a reason to dislike him, but he had never really been one to care what others thought of him. In Denver, no one dared to really say what they were thinking about him.

“What did you do to make them not like you?” Katie asked. She honestly never found anything really wrong with him. Yes he did not attend class like he should, but who could blame him since Mr. Morgan was so darn boring anyways. Most of the kids were trying their hardest to just stay awake.

“Honestly, I am not sure. It could be that I just don’t really fit in around here. Or it could be that I did get into some slight trouble with the cops when we first moved here,” he replied with a smirk on his face.

              Shocked with what he just told her, Katie looked at him with her mouth hanging open. How did she not know that he had gotten into trouble? How is it that she had not been observant enough to remember something like this, after all, in the small town schools, all the gossip makes its rounds rather quickly?

             
Jack started to laugh out loud in a subtle way, as not to bring attention to the two of them. “It was a misunderstanding is all,” he said to Katie.

             
“A misunderstanding, it must have been a big one if you had to deal with the cops,” she replied as she picked up her drink to take a sip.

             
“I was out late one night and I saw a house that was empty. I just needed a place to think and so I went inside and just walked around. Apparently someone saw me and called the cops. They say it was breaking and entering, but it wasn’t like I was going in to destroy anything, I just wanted some place to get out of the rain, that wasn’t my house. I know this is probably hard to believe, but I am not some hoodlum that is trying to cause trouble,” Jack replied with a little bit of shyness.

             
“Well that was something I didn’t know about. Which really surprises me since our school is small and I am sure it got around. But I must say, it is a petty thing to get into trouble for. Yes you should not have gone into a home that was not yours, but it wasn’t like you were destroying the inside or anything.  Sometimes people just like to be nosey it seems like,” Katie replied.

             
“Yes but I shouldn’t have been there. I really didn’t get much except for a fine and some community service, but I will not be doing that again,” he said.

             
Katie noticed that the café had seemed to have cleared out. She looked at the clock on the wall, and noticed it was already two thirty. They had been sitting here for two hours and the conversation had never stopped. She was just amazed at how easy she found it to be to talk to him.

             
“I should be getting home soon. I didn’t leave a note for my mom and she is probably trying to figure out where I am. She does that a lot lately,” Katie said dropping her head. She felt sad again thinking about Jackson, but again she didn’t feel like she was alone. She couldn’t figure out why she kept feeling like this.  It was really starting to get annoying frankly.

             
“Yeah I should be getting home and cleaning my room anyways. We should do this again sometime,” Jack said.

             
“Yes we should. It was fun,” Katie said.

             
Katie took out some money to pay her half of the bill, and Jack stopped her saying “No, I have the bill.”

             
“It’s ok I have money, I can pay for my own. It isn’t a big deal,” Katie replied.

             
“No really, I asked you to come with me, I’ve got it. Next time I will let you pay,” he said jokingly.

             
Katie didn’t know what to think. She had never gone out with a boy so she didn’t know that they paid for anything. “Ok that sounds like a deal to me.”

Chapter 8

Katie was looking around the street while her and Jack walked back home after they had lunch. They continued the conversation as if they had always been friends. They talked about things they like to do for fun, and what they did as kids that they remembered most. They talked about vacations they took and what their favorite memory was as a kid.

They talked all the way to Katie’s house and was surprised when they almost walked by it. “Well I guess this is it. Thanks for lunch, it was fun,” Katie said to Jack.

“Yes and it was great to talk to someone my age, and the food was better than you gave it credit. It is definitely going to be my new favorite place to eat,” Jack said.

“Well I should get inside. Thanks again for lunch,” Katie said with a smile.

“Anytime, I really enjoyed it myself. We will have to do it again soon,” Jack replied as he turned to leave. “I’ll see you later.”

“Later,” Katie said as she walked up the walk to the front door.

Katie walked in and closed the door behind her. Her head was spinning as she was replaying the lunch in her head. It had been so unbelievably easy to talk to him. She just couldn’t get over the fact that he reminded her of Jackson. So much so that it brings a smile to her face anytime she thinks about him.

She walked in the kitchen feeling like she was walking on clouds. She went to the fridge to get a bottle of water. As she closed the door she turned around, she saw her mom coming in the kitchen.