by CJ Adler
My gaze leaves Benley and flickers over to Max to see that he's not even paying attention to my lecture. Instead, he's absentmindedly taking another bite from the cookie with my face on.
“Max Mills!” I scold him. “Did you not just listen to what I said?! Put it down!”
Max pouts and shakes his head like a little toddler with wide eyes. “But it's so good. Can't resist. Too powerful,” he moans as he quickly takes another bite, crumbs flaying everywhere.
I snatch the last bit of his cookie, fed up. I squish it in the palm of my hand before chucking the crumbs aside on Benley by 'accident'.
Max, still chewing on his last bite, shrugs, uncaring.
I watch him with an intense glare. He stiffens and chews more slowly, feeling awkward with my gaze still on him. I raise a 'don't you dare' eyebrow at him. He stops chewing altogether, afraid of my wrath, his cheeks so full that he resembles a hamster.
“Swallow that and I'm never speaking to you again,” I warn him, testing his loyalty. He hesitates before he starts to chew again. I give him a look. “Don't you dare swallow it, Max! I will end you.”
He pauses in contemplation before reluctantly spewing the last of the chewed cookie out onto the floor.
Jay groans aloud at the disgusting sight. “You just had to force him to throw it up, didn't you?”
“I think I'm going to puke,” Blubber comments as he runs for Oog's bathroom.
I stop paying attention when I spot him sitting in his usual dark corner.
Grey.
Of course, he'd be here!
“Even your best friend is here,” I tell Jay loudly, Grey's head snapping up in terror at hearing my voice.
He suddenly smirks as his dark eyes find me. “Wondering when you'd find a way in here, but the rules clearly state that you two—” he grins at Jay in greeting, gesturing to us both, “—are restricted from this club seeing as you two are the sole reason it even exists.”
“Hey man, what is going on? Please enlighten me,” Jay asks Grey, completely confused.
“The hobo started it with Max, Bella and Gland's help. People are sick of you two dragging them all down with you. Whenever you two are together, something bad happens to one of those you know. You two together equals bad omen, a disaster waiting to happen. People are against the both of you ever being together, hence the 'Anti-Jayeela' Club. They don't hate you necessarily as individuals but they hate you when together. Me, I'm just here for the hating Aqueela part only,” Grey explains to Jay before flashing me a sinister glare.
I roll my eyes at him. “Are you still on about that whole hating me thing? Not over it yet?”
“Are you over being crazy yet?” he asks, in turn. I shake my head. “Then no, I'm not over it.”
“Your move, Grey,” the other guy, sitting at the table, interrupts.
My eyes land on the table to see that they're both gambling with 'Anti- Aqueela' tokens. Grey makes his move. His opponent sighs before handing Grey all the cash sitting in the center of the table. Unsurprisingly, Grey has just won.
He turns to me with a cunning grin on his face. “Thanks to your hate club, I just scored money. Perhaps I'll thank you for it one day, but I wouldn't hold your breath.”
I glare at him just as a small band starts playing from the center of the room. Oog is in the band. I begin to listen to the lyrics as they sing. “If you hate Jayeela, Jaqueela, Jay with Aqueela, wave your hands up in the air—”
I'm shocked when everyone actually begins to wave their hands back and forth through the air.
Oog takes over from the singer and begins to rap terrible lyrics about Jay. Grey frowns at this, but when Oog raps terrible lyrics about me, he grins in satisfaction.
I storm straight up to Oog and ask what his problem is in front of everyone. Shocked to see that I somehow got in, he growls at me before the bouncers, Bells and Gland, try to escort me back out. I put up a fight until they give in.
I cross my arms over my chest in defiance as all my 'friends' begin to tell me the purpose of this club.
“Oog sick of Eela and Jay fighting or loving. Oog confused. Eela and Jay hot and cold with each other all time. Oog get no attention no more. Oog mad. Oog want Jay and Eela to leave lone each other.”
His words leads to a massive intervention and Bell takes her turn next. “I was kidnapped. I like you two together but you're both not suited for each other. We all keep getting dragged into insane plot twists when you two are together. I think it's just best you two call quits on each other once and for all.”
Mason, without hesitance, has his say, “I just don't like you two together.”
Melinda's next in the circle to speak her mind (what's left of it). “Jay can do better than the drowned rat.”
Grey nods in agreement. “I must concur with her intelligent hypothesis.”
Okay, so at least we all know why Grey is here: to make his hate for me known to the entire world.
“Plus, she threw a stapler at my head once,” Melinda adds, shooting Grey a flirty smile to which he purposely turns a blind eye too.
Ha-ha! Crashed and burned! R-E-J-E-C-T-E-D!
People gasp aloud upon hearing her words, silently judging me despite it being an accident. I had been aiming to hit Max, although I don't regret the outcome.
“It's just back and forth with you two,” Max starts. “Going in circles all the time. It's exhausting. I mean, just today, I had to bail Aqueela out of a mall prison—”
Jay and Bells immediately cut him off and begin to lecture me.
Thanks, Max! Thanks!
Max sends me an apologetic look before pretending to zip his mouth closed.
Xavier goes next, using an argument similar to Melinda's. “Kitten can do better than Jay.”
Grey scoffs aloud at this. “Doubt it. I'm just here because Lawson needs to be euthanized.”
“My brother and I aren't part of this. We were just told to attend so that the club looks like it has more people,” Emma explains just as others begin to pipe in and agree with her, saying that they didn't even know who Jay and I were until now.
“I came for the food,” Landon admits, unfazed. “Food is good. Food is great.”
“Bex and I just came out of the ice cream store when trash bags were thrown over our heads. Next thing we know, we're up in this tree house,” Dylan elaborates his side to the story.
FeeBee stands up and waves at all of us. “Hi, my name is FeeBee and I'm an alcoholic–”
“It's not a support group, FeeBee. It's an intervention.” Bell forces Feebs back down into her seat.
“Has anyone seen my man, Greg?” Gland pipes up. “He went for glasses and just never came back.”
I tap my chin in mock thought. “Uhm…no,” I lie in ease. “Haven't seen him.”
Benley shakes his head at me knowingly. “Liar.”
“I hate you two.” A random guy in the crowd points an accusing finger at Jay and me as if truly offended.
“Do we know you?” Jay asks, just as lost as me.
“That's why I hate you two,” he gasps aloud at our supposed audacity. “You don't even remember what you both did.”
I roll my eyes at him and shush him. “Yeah, whatever, random guy. Dry your eyes, princess. No one cares. Cry us an entire ocean.”
Jay stands up, a frown laced on his lips. “I'm outta here,” he states before turning to me expectantly. “You coming, Aqueela?”
I nod at him, quickly scrambling to my feet before following him out. “Can you believe those people?!” I huff, frustrated with my apparent friends. “But maybe they're right, maybe we're not good for each—”
“We are,” Jay cuts me off in a fierce voice, sounding adamant and completely certain for the first time since I've known him.
Taken aback by his answer, I freeze in place. “What did you say?”
“Never mind,” he replies, casually brushing it aside.
“Okay.” I sigh, dropping it.
There's a beat o
f silence as Jay watches me carefully as if studying me.
“Aqueela?” he asks, finally breaking the silence between us.
“Mhmm,” I answer absentmindedly as I stare up at the dark sky lit with stars.
“I think it's time we go out,” he suggests quietly.
I nod in understanding. “Yeah, I agree. I'm tired of being indoors and it's been forever since I've left this house for something other than school—”
“On a date,” he clarifies in nonchalance, his bottomless blue eyes straying from me as he walks on ahead as if without a care in the world.
I stiffen in confusion. “Wait, what?” I call after him, stunned. “You heard me.”
Chapter 42
Follow Me
I snap out of it quickly as a smile curves my lips. Jay is finally giving up on his stubborn charade; well, actually, it's not a charade, he is just that stubborn.
Like I'm going to make it easy for him seeing as he made it so easy for me—note the sarcasm.
“Hey, hey, Mister! Hold your horses!” I protest.
He turns back to face me, waiting to hear me out, especially now after I've found my voice again.
“What makes you think that I want to go on a date with you?” I ask, challenging him.
His confidence doesn't shamble like I thought it might. Instead, a smirk curves the corners of his lips as his blue eyes smolder beneath the midnight stars.
“You don't?”
Woah! Let's not jump the gun. I never said that.
“That's beside the point!” I snap at him. “You can't force me on a date with you. Either ask me like a gentleman or no date,” I clarify my terms, being picky.
He shrugs. “Okay,” he says and turns back around as if to leave.
My eyes widen at this as a helpless emotion surges through my veins.
“Wait!” I holler after him.
Once again, he turns back to me with a condescending grin as if he expected me to stop him from leaving.
“Okay what?” I ask him, not following.
“Okay, no date then.” He turns his back on me for the billionth time.
Nice going, Lawson!
“Wait, wait, wait!” I call after him yet again, now desperate.
He spins back to me with that same cocky grin on his face. “Yes?” he replies, his blue eyes full of mischief. He's clearly enjoying this.
“Let's just forget what I said and go, but let's also remember that I'm only doing this for you. I know how much this date means to you, so, you're welcome,” I say, trying to regain some of my dignity back seeing as Jay just stole all of it.
He rolls his eyes at me but chooses to humor me nonetheless. “Thanks, Aqueela. You're so thoughtful.”
I nod at him, agreeing. “I know. I'm always giving to charity.”
“I'm not a charity case,” he replies firmly as if I struck a nerve. I decide to leave it be.
“Yeah, and I'm eager to go on this date,” I retort sarcastically, going back to teasing mode before he ends up angry again. The smallest of things can set him off. He's really a difficult human being to put up with, but I put up with him anyway because I know he's worth it. I decided that a long time ago.
“But you are,” he states in a matter-of-fact way, his serious expression fading back into his laid-back smile, his previous irritation gone, not a trace left behind.
“I'm not! You are,” I insist, wanting him to be the one to cave first.
“So what if I am?” he admits, not backing down like I expected him to.
“It's about time I took you out, wouldn't you say?” he asks, a boyish glint to his eyes. “You see, what I was going to say before, was that I never wanted space.”
I furrow my eyebrows in confusion, glad that he's finally opening up. Still, I can't help but wonder what has made him change his mind. “Then what do you want?” I take my chances in asking him, hoping he won't buckle under the pressure and close himself off—he loves doing that.
He cocks his head to the side with a raised eyebrow as he runs his right hand through his hair, tousling it about in the wind. “What do you think? Haven't I made it obvious?” he asks me with a frown as if conflicted.
I begin to shake my head when he suddenly closes off all distance between us, his hand reaching up to tuck a loose lock of my hair behind my ear. “You, you idiot. It's you,” he confirms in an affectionate voice as he studies me with that intense blue gaze of his. “Always has been, always will be,” he confesses, sincere.
I open my mouth to reply but he's struck me speechless once again.
A chuckle resonates from deep within his chest. “Come on, Klutz, snap ou of it. We have a date scheduled, remember?” he reminds me, but I can't focus on anything at the moment.
“Right now?” I finally manage to get out.
“Yes, now,” he replies back calmly. “I don't want to wait anymore. I've done enough of that.”
“But I'm not dressed for the occasion,” I force out, looking for every excuse possible not to go right now. I need a day, at least, for mental preparation. Besides, I'm dressed in casual clothes.
Jay's electric blue eyes travel down my form slowly before he meets my eyes again with a lopsided grin curving his lips. “You look fine to me. You look good. You always do.”
I protest, “But, but, but—”
He shushes me, placing his finger over my lips. “Sshhh, stop talking,” he instructs with a grin. “Stop looking for excuses. You're going on a date with me now, even if it means I have to tape you to the roof of my car just to get you there.”
“And where is this 'there' that you speak of ?” I ask, curiosity getting the better of me.
“I'll let you know as soon as I figure it out, now hurry up,” he persists as he grabs ahold of my hand and begins tugging me after him rather eagerly.
“Such a gentleman,” I mutter as he practically shoves me into the passenger seat of his Gallardo before I can change my mind.
“Compliments will get you nowhere,” he remarks at hearing my sarcastic comment. He gives me a full-fledged smile as if genuinely happy. He starts up the car, giving me another piercing look in the process. “Actually, it definitely will get you somewhere.” He winks teasingly before reversing out of the driveway.
I roll my eyes at him and his rare flirting. “Just drive, Jay.”
“Whatever you want,” he says before pressing his foot all the way down on the accelerator. I almost go flying out of the window as a result. “Put on your seat belt,” he commands, refusing to slow down as he races past the other cars like a true outlaw.
It's clear he has no fear when it comes to speed.
I quickly buckle myself in and suck in a deep breath, closing my eyes in an effort to soothe my nerves. “Could you slow down?” I query, remembering when my mom asked Lars, my dad, the very same question. “When I said drive, I didn't mean race.”
“I don't know how to do anything else.”
***
“We're here. You can open your eyes.” Jay laughs at me as I continue to clutch on to my seat, frozen in place.
I open my eyes to find him leaning over me from his seat. He reaches over and unbuckles my seat belt. He ends up staying put right in front of me.
“I got it,” I reassure him, my heart still thumping loudly.
A smirk graces his lips. “Sure you do,” he humors me.
I lean further back into my seat in order to create some distance between us, but it only pushes Jay to incline his head further down to my level so that I can meet his playful gaze. I turn my face away from him. “Ever heard of personal space, Jay?” I say in unease, uncomfortable.
He answers by gently turning my face back to him. “Personal space should not exist when it's concerning you and me. I'll just end up crossing your boundaries every time. You and I, we don't need space, ever.”
Before I can say anything, he's dipping his head toward me, angling himself, and it's only then that I feel the soft brush of his lips against min
e as if testing the waters. My eyes automatically flutter shut as I savor the feeling of the warmth his presence always creates, like a surge of electricity flowing between us.
I feel his lips twitch up into a smile as he lingers against me for a second longer before pulling away. I frown in disappointment as I open my eyes again to see him watching me with interest. “I was right after all then…” he says as he backs away from me completely, “we don't have any chemistry.”
It's when his face breaks out into a grin that I realize he's messing with me, referring back to when he'd first given me a ride in his car several months ago. I smile at the memory before glowering up at him through my lashes. “You should know that you can't just kiss me whenever the hell you like. Last time I checked, I'm not your girlfriend.”
He doesn't take it personally. Instead, he flashes me a charming grin. “You obviously haven't checked very recently then, have you?”
With that said, he's already out of the car and walking away.
“Hey!” I call after him upon finding my voice again. “What's that supposed to mean?”
“Why don't you follow me and find out?” he challenges, in turn.
I sigh before scrambling out of the car, making a point of slamming the door shut as I follow after him in reluctance. “Where am I exactly, Jay?” I ask, glancing around at the deserted racing track. There's nothing but dust and rubble here.
“Home,” he answers with a carefree smile, meaning it.
“Racing is home to you,” I state aloud, understanding him in the moment.
“Once upon a time it was,” he mutters absentmindedly, his mind drifting elsewhere.
“What happened?” I gesture to the deserted area.
“Nothing ever happened. People just stopped coming here. The track closed down.”
“Why?” I prod, wanting to understand why this place is so important to him.
“Because more well-kept, popular racing tracks opened up nearby, but to me, this place is still the best. I prefer the streets but this track is special – better known as the 'Ghost Tracks',” he explains, opening up. “This is where I first started racing, where I first started to escape a life I never asked for. But along the way, I came to realize that racing was never going to solve all my problems, just distract me from them. It worked for a while until I got a violent wake-up call,” he says, his voice nostalgic as if missing those days.