Kissed (2 page)

On
Thanksgiving, they weren’t the usual Beth and Jake.
 

Mom
put her in a dress, and Jacob arrived in a white collared shirt and tie.
 
He’d even left his ear stud at home.
 
Beth’s brother made an excuse not to come
again, so it was her parents, Mrs. Lindsey, and them.
 
Daddy ate too much then fell asleep in front
of the football game on TV.
 
Their moms,
though…you’d think they were
BFFs
.

“Weird,
isn’t it?” Jacob said.

“Huh?
Oh…yeah, definitely. You know they’ll start trading stories about us soon.”

He
shivered.
 
They watched them wash and dry
the dishes in the kitchen.
 
Mom handed
Mrs. Lindsey another dish to dry, their heads close together while they
gabbed.
 
Then they laughed about something.

“Scary.
Gonna eat the last piece of pie?”

Beth
pushed the tin to him.
 
“Nah, take it.”

Christmas
break meant two whole weeks without homework or freshman jerks.
 
She felt like dancing, except she tended to
trip over her feet just by walking.

She
watched through her window as Jacob hopped over the back fence into her
yard.
 
Always gave her a thrill when he
did that, dropping to the ground with the grace of a cat.
 
He smiled, seeing she was in her room, and
she waved, then opened the window.
 
“Hey.”

“Hey.
Wanted to wish you Happy Christmas.
I’m off to England.”
 
He looked happy to go.

“Family?”

“Yep.”
 
He pulled a
candy cane out of his back pocket and presented it.
 
“Thanks for
tutorin
’
me. Know I’m not the easiest student.”

She
took the candy and smiled.
 
Her first
gift!
 
“You’re welcome. Not like I have a
busy schedule or anything. Well, it’s cold out, so…”

“Right.
Can’t stay, but I wanted to—”

“Sure.
Thanks.”

He
nodded and left the way he came, back over the fence.
 
Boy had the cutest butt ever in a pair of
jeans.

The
two weeks without a friend revealed her crush on Jacob to her.
 
She’d gotten so used to seeing his face every
day, it hurt to be without him.
 
Her
calendar got an “x” through every day of vacation.
 
She heard Dad ask Mom why she was
moping.
 
Had she been?
 
She was lonely, but…
 
Really, did they expect her to go out or something?
 
She was fourteen in Los Angeles,
duh
.

When
the break was over, she looked for Jacob the second she got on campus, knowing
his schedule by heart, and finally caught him at his locker between second and
third periods.
 
Almost
hugged him right in front of
everybody
.

“Hey,
kid.”

The
urge to roll her eyes came upon her again.
 
It was
only
a two-year age
difference.
 
“Have a good Christmas?”

He
shrugged.
 
“It was alright.
Got a new amp for my guitar.
Sounds wicked.”

“Cool.”
 
Oh God
…her
nemesis was coming down the hallway.
 
“Hide me!”
 
She ducked in between
Jacob and the lockers.

He
blinked down at her.
 
“What?”

“Chad
Cromlin
three o’ clock.
Please
.”

He
shielded her from view to her right.
 
She
faced his open locker and tried to be invisible.

“Bethie,
what was that?”
 
He placed his hand on
her shoulder.

She
turned around.
 
“Is he gone?”

“The
hall’s nearly bloody empty. We’re going to be late.”

“Thanks.”
 
She ran to World History.

Chad was
talking to his cohorts-in-crime when she got to English later, so she managed
to sneak into her chair without the usual torment before the bell.

****

Jacob
started out using Beth’s willingness to impart knowledge, but months later it
was a friendship he valued.
 
He could
tell her things and she wouldn’t gab…not that she had many mates he knew of,
but still.
 
She didn’t have much to gain
by ratting out his less popular aspects.

When
he wrote new lyrics, he let Bethie critique them.

When
he wanted to watch Monty Python or Doctor Who, she’d keep him company.

If
he wanted to rant about a teacher or his mother, she would listen,
then
always have good advice.
 
He’d never say it out loud, but the wisdom a
fourteen-year-old could have amazed him.
 
She was way more mature than he was when it came to the brainy stuff.

She
was sweet, innocent, not afraid to bust his balls, and the only part of this
new school he wouldn’t trade.
 
His best
friend, and he’d protect what they had with his dying breath.

****

For
two weeks, all Chad
did was greet Beth with a stupid name and she thought she’d finally won.
 
Too boring to tease all
year.
 
What
really
happened was the jerk lulled her into a false sense of
security.

Semester
finals week in late January, she walked into English and found a folded piece
of paper on her desk.
 
It was an obscene
drawing with her name on it.
 
Chad laughed
when she looked at it.
 
She crumpled it
into a ball, stuck it in her jacket pocket, and opened her lit book.
 
Always kept layers on in
that class even if she was warm.
 
It was finally time to talk to her teacher now she had evidence.
 
Then, he started poking her with the pen wand
again under her right arm in the side of her nearly-non-existent boob.
 
Ms. Blake was lecturing, so she turned her
back on him and tried not to cry.

“
Heh,
knew you were frigid,” Chad said under his breath.

Frigid?
 
She’d have to
look that up later, but it was obvious he meant it as a major insult.
 

The
second the bell rang, she ran out, debating whether to call Mom to get her or
try to be a big girl about it.
 
Not
looking where she was going, she ran into a male chest.

“Bethie?”
 
Jacob’s
hands steadied her.
 
“What’s wrong?”
 
He guided her into the library.
 
“Did you get a B instead of an A?”

Oh, thank God it was him
.
 
She shook her head, lower lip
trembling—couldn’t
cry
at school, at
least not out in the open.
 
He kept
walking and they were soon behind the stacks.
 
She liked the back of the library—it was quiet and left alone.

“Hey,
what’s up, Beth?” he asked again.

Beth
.
 
Not
Bethie
.
 
The serious use of her name did it and a tear
leaked from each eye down her cheeks.

“Aw,
Bethie, it can’t be that bad…”
 
He tugged
her into an awkward hug, patting her back.

“I
thought he was done teasing me…” she blubbered into his shirt.
 
God, I
was such a baby
.

“Who?”

“Boy.
English class.”
 
She pulled the drawing out of her pocket, handed it to him, and turned
away to dry her face.

“Name,”
he said.
 
He sounded scary.
 
Glancing at him, he
looked
scary.
 
That
expression would be a bad thing to meet in a dark alley.
 
The look in his eyes was hard and his jaw was
clenched tight.

“It’s
my—”

“His
name
, Beth.”

She
sighed.
 
“Chad
Cromlin
.
Blond hair, long in the
back.
Sits next to me in English.
He’s been
picking on me since the first day of school.”

“He
drew this?”
 
He balled the drawing in his
fist, his knuckles turning white.

She
nodded.
 
“And pokes me with a stick and
calls me names. What does ‘frigid’ mean, besides cold?”
 
His eyes widened for a second to the size of
silver dollars.
 
Wow, it must be bad
.
 
“On
second thought, don’t tell me.”

He
squirmed, shifting his weight from foot-to-foot.
 
“It means, uh, that a girl can’t, um…”

“What?”

“She
doesn’t respond to sex.”

“Oh.
Oh
. First,
eww
, and second, he doesn’t know that!
I
don’t even know that, but I’m pretty sure I—”

“Bethie,
please stop there.”

Her
cheeks turned red.
 
“Sorry.”
 
He still looked pissed.
 
“Please don’t get in trouble for me, okay? I
was going to show that to Ms. Blake once I got a grip, so please don’t do
something stupid.”

“Beth,
this sketch is sexual harassment.”
 
He
used the English pronunciation of “harassment”, with the emphasis on the first
syllable.
 
The different way to say
things always made her pause and take note.

“
Which is why I’m talking to my teacher!
I finally have
proof.”

“’Finally’?
What else did he do?”
 

Okay, never want that angry face directed at
me
.
 
“Jacob, just leave it
alone.”
 
Their voices were starting to
carry.

“He
drew himself raping you!” he whispered.

“You
don’t know that. That’s not necessarily what it is.”

“Pffft,
please
.”
 
He started to charge out of the library.

She
grabbed his arm.
 
“Promise me you won’t
get in trouble?”

He
met her eyes.
 
“I won’t get in trouble.”

Beth
took the drawing back and went to lunch, what was left of it.
 
When she told Ms. Blake what was going on,
she promised Chad
wouldn’t be sitting near any girls again.
 
He didn’t show up for the final day of finals and it soon traveled the
grapevine he’d been suspended.

They
had Friday off between semesters.
 
Beth
went over to Jacob’s and listened to him play a song he wrote while it rained
all day.
 
It was the first time he played
for her and she was mesmerized by the movement of his hands, her fingers
itching for her camera.
 
His singing
voice was even prettier than his speaking one.

On
Monday, she didn’t know what to expect when she walked into English.
 
True to her teacher’s word, her tormentor was
now on the opposite side of the room.
 
For the first time, he didn’t stare at her, daring her to hide her
eyes.
 
He avoided eye contact with most
of the room, actually.
 
Weird.

The
bell rang to end the period and freshmen poured out into the hall.

“Did
you hear what happened over the weekend?” one boy said.

“There’s
a rumor
Cromlin
got jumped.”

“No way!”
 
That came
from a girl from History class.

“Who
did it? Who did it?”

“About
time,” another girl muttered.

What
were they all talking about?
 
Beth didn’t
see any bruises on the jerk in class, but three-day weekends gave kids time to
make stuff up.

Jacob
met her at her locker when she grabbed her Geometry book and walked her to
their class.
 
He was smiling and had an
extra spring in his step.
 
“Jacob…what
did you do over the weekend?”

“Hung out with you, silly.”

“That
was only on Friday. What about the other two days?”

He
didn’t look at her when he said, “Not much. It rained, remember?”

“Yeah…”
 
She didn’t press further.
 
The skin on his knuckles was roughed up.
 
It made her feel safe he protected her honor,
and ratcheted her crush up another notch.

Their
teacher decided to alphabetize them this semester, so Jacob ended up behind her.

“Perfect.
Now I can see over your shoulder,” he teased.

“I’ll
tell your mom if I catch you cheating, Jacob Lindsey.”

He
placed a hand over his heart.
 
“You wound
me, kid.”

She
rolled her eyes and faced forward.
 
“Yeah, yeah…”
 
It was nice having
him close by, though.

Second
semester was definitely better than the first.
 
Monday through Thursday afternoons, it was good odds Jacob was over at
her house to study, though they went to his sometimes, too.
 
Mom and Mrs. Lindsey were frequently out
gardening on weekends and chatted over the back fence until one or the other
offered a glass of lemonade or iced tea.
 
Beth kept expecting Dad to wonder what this boy was doing at the house
so much, but Jacob was usually gone before he got home for dinner and she guessed
Mom hadn’t said anything he felt the need to worry about.