He smiled and gathered his books. “Deal. You’re the best, Bethie.”
Jacob hurried around the corner to drop his books, change, and grab his guitar. He wished he could drive to the house, but Mum wouldn’t let him take the test, yet. Luckily she was out at some thing tonight and couldn’t check his work. He checked the mirror, a truly handsome bloke smiling back.
“Hell, yeah. This is gonna rock.” The bad-ass look and guitar were guaranteed chick magnets and he’d have to totally put his foot in it to not get a good snog tonight. Maybe reach second base.
****
Nearing Thanksgiving break, Beth finally had a handle on high school. Jacob showed up at her house whenever they had a test the next day. Honestly, he was smart enough to do the work. He just got bored, and then he got antsy. If she could keep him focused, he usually had the lesson mastered in under an hour.
Despite liking her teacher, she dreaded going to English even more now than the second day of school. Chad Cromlin had been the bane of her existence for two months.
Mom taught her to ignore bullies and they’d stop. Not this jerk. Today’s stunt? Poking her with an extending pen wand. She was trying to do the in-class reading and he kept tapping her ribs with the stupid thing—always when the teacher’s back was turned, of course. She didn’t want to be a tattle-tale, what with her already minimal popularity, but how long would this go on? He had to get bored soon, right?
She stopped at her locker before her last class (Biology) to drop off the books she didn’t need tonight.
“Hey, Bethie, see you at Thanksgiving.”
She turned to Jacob. “Huh?” He never talked to her at school.
“Your mum invited my mum and me to the feast. Found out this morning.”
“Oh. Uh, see you Thursday, then.” A holiday with strangers at their table? Well, not strangers, but definitely not family. Mom had never invited outside people before.
The warning bell rang. “Later!” he said.
She watched him jog off, then walked the twenty feet to class.
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.
“A
w, 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.
Spring Break came along, but not with fun time for her—Jacob and his mom were out of town. Dad didn’t have the time off, so Mom dragged her around to her daytime activities when she couldn’t escape to the park to practice with her camera. She got her first SLR for her thirteenth birthday, but she’d been shooting since she could hold a camera without dropping it and she had plans to make a career of photography.
With May racing by and the weather heating up, her fifteenth birthday was approaching. Birthdays were a family thing, since she hadn’t had enough friends for a party since she was seven, and brought mixed emotions of loneliness and anticipation.
“Don’t forget we’re going out to dinner tonight,” Mom said, setting two sodas on the table.
“Special occasion?” Jacob asked.
“Her birthday,” she said with a smile.
“Your birthday’s today, Bethie? Mine’s in a week. Small world.”
“No wonder you get along,” Mom said. “The symbol for Gemini is The Twins. Two sides of the same coin.”
“Mom…” She knew Beth didn’t believe in any of that stuff.
“Fine, I’ll let you study.” She walked down the hall and they heard a door close.
He bumped Beth’s shoulder with his. “Should’ve said somethin’. I’d at least get Mum to bake.”
“It’s no big deal.” She wrote out an equation from today’s assignment. “Just another day.”
“Next year, have a party. My sixteenth was awesome.”
“Honestly, who’d come?”
His knee nudged hers under the table. “I would.”
“Thanks.”
Two weeks later, finals arrived. The end of the school year filled her with dread.
What if Jacob went away all summer? What if he didn’t need her help next year with Algebra? What if he met a girl? Duh, she knew he dated. Anybody with ears at their school knew if Jacob Lindsey had plans Friday night. The junior girls he asked out couldn’t keep their mouths shut about it. Summer, though…summer meant pools and beaches and parties she wasn’t invited to. Every date was the potential end to their friendship. He was two years older than her, so what else could she expect?
But the last of June was okay and she started to relax. He passed his driver’s license test and they celebrated with hamburgers and ice cream. She ordered a chocolate fudge sundae.
When the waitress brought him the check, she said, “You know, I think it’s so sweet you took your little sister for lunch.”
Beth’s face flamed as the server walked away and she excused herself to the ladies’ room. Staring at her reflection, she couldn’t blame the woman for the assumption. She wore no make-up, her hair was in pigtail braids, she still had frames from eighth
grade, and she’d yet to graduate from the double-A training bra Mom bought her a year ago. Might as well have been twelve.
She sulked during the ride home and mumbled an excuse about eating too much and not feeling well. He shrugged and said he’d see her tomorrow. Completely oblivious to my pain.
“Home so soon, honey?” Mom asked.
“My stomach’s kinda yucky. I’m going to lie down.”
“Okay.” She came into Beth’s room a few minutes later. “Do you need a Midol, Beth?”
“What? No! Eww, Mom.”
“Sorry, sorry…just wanted to check.”
God, could this day get more embarrassing?
Chapter Two
Dad took Beth and her mother on a camping trip for a week in July.
She came back to a note from Jacob that his mom decided to travel, after all. He didn’t know how long. So much for her fun. In spite of being Queen of the Friend Zone, her teen heart was fiercely loyal—and stubborn, crushing on him hard all summer.
September came all too soon and school started in a week. She was ready to kick scholastic butt. Sophomore, baby! No more lowest-woman-on-totem-pole. Even had a new backpack and folders. And pens. And a graphing calculator. Okay, still a nerd. But most importantly, Jacob would be back!
She heard a car next door and checked her appearance in the bathroom mirror. New, much smaller, glasses rest on her nose and she’d chopped her hair from waist-level to across her shoulder blades. Last week, she started experimenting with mascara and pink lip gloss. Finally grew an inch, so new jeans were added to her wardrobe, too.
Having stalled long enough, she skipped next door to welcome her best friend home. Her jaw dropped when he opened the door. “Oh my god, what did you do to your head?”
“Like it?” He ran his hand over the bleached spikes.
“It’s white!” She took in the rest of him—torn jeans, a wallet on a chain, and a black tank top. He wore studded cuffs on each wrist and silver rings on most of his fingers. It was hot. “And are you taller?”
He grinned. “Six-foot-one as of two weeks ago. You’re still Little Bethie.”
She scowled at him. “I grew, too.”
“Oh, how much?”
“An inch!”
Kissed Page 2