Sweetness

by Lindsay Paige

got out and made our way over to the basketball court so that Drake’s car could run on a smooth surface.

  Seeing Drake bubbling with excitement brought a smile to my face. If he liked me, perhaps I wasn't so horrible and disgusting. There was no time to dwell on the matter. Drake placed his car on the cement and started driving it around. I leaned against the rusty pole holding up the goal and watched. “Did you see that, Emily? It was on two wheels!”

  “I sure did. That was really cool, Drake.” I tried to sound excited, but I just couldn’t. My mind was too flustered. Drake didn’t seem to notice though. I tried to ignore the tall, handsome Jake standing beside me, watching Drake.

  His hands were tucked into his pockets and he was quiet. Unusual, if you thought about it. He was always talking, always asking questions that I didn’t want to answer. The wind blew causing a clinking noise to float over my ears. I looked to the side of the courts a little ways, and saw a swing set.

  That’s what I needed. I needed movement. I started to walk across the court, narrowly missing getting my foot ran over by Drake who was laughing hysterically, and sat down in one of two swings. To my dismay, Jake followed. I began to motion myself back and forth, swaying. I took my arms around the back of the chains to the front, which allowed me to stuff my hands in my jacket pockets locking myself into place.

  “Something wrong, Emily?” Jake’s deep voice asked.

  I shook my head, hoping that would settle the issue. However, I should have known. Jake wouldn’t be satisfied until I started talking. He reached over and grabbed one of the chains, holding my swing and pulling me towards him.

  Once I was close enough, he tugged the other chain to make me face him. My legs knocked into his as he did this. I looked down at our knees. I could feel the heat radiating from his legs to mine. “Look at me.”

  I couldn’t do it. I was scared of what I might see when I did. That one thing kept me from looking people in the eye. I didn’t want to see their disgust and hate for me. I couldn’t stand to see one more person look at me the way my mother did. I wouldn’t look. I wouldn’t.

  Jake wrapped his legs around mine to hold me in place and let go of one of the chains. He curled his fingers under my chin and lifted so I would have to look at him. No! I didn’t want to look. I closed my eyes before I could see his.

  I heard him sigh. “Emily, c’mon and open your eyes.” I didn’t budge. His voice was softer when he spoke again. “C’mon, Emily. Just open them. What are you so afraid of?” The heat from his legs and his hand was getting to me because, before I could stop myself, I told him the truth.

  “Seeing the hatred and disgust.”

  “Jake! Emily! Did you guys just see that?” Drake’s happy voice squealed. Jake slowly let go of me and, when I opened my eyes, I saw he was making his way over to Drake.

  The soft breeze carried his voice over to where I was. “No, buddy. Do it again so I can see.” Drake, not seeing or caring that I wasn’t there, repeated the trick.

  What the hell was that? Did I really just say that? I closed my eyes and leaned back. From my knees to my head, I was lying flat, while my legs dangled. With my eyes still closed, I just let the breeze move the swing for me. Jake stayed on the court with Drake, while he showed him all the flips and crashes he could do.

  Great. Just great. I had just told a complete stranger my innermost secret. What was wrong with me? Well, besides the obvious. After this, I wasn’t going to be within two hundred feet of Jake if I could help it. Would he go back to school and tell everyone that I was a freak and dumb and what not?

  I shoved the thoughts out of my mind. My arms ached and I had to sit up. I was lightheaded for a moment and then it was gone. Drake was running full speed to the empty swing. “Jake, come push me!” Jake obeyed and soon Drake’s attitude rubbed off on me. I was pumping my legs and swinging, enjoying the sound of Drake’s laughter.

  “All right, little boy. You can do it yourself for a while. My arms are tired,” Jake said.

  Drake tried to turn around in his swing to see Jake, but failed in the attempt. “’Little boy!’ I’m not a boy! I’m a man! Tell him Emily!”

  The determination on Drake’s face was clear and I couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s right, Jake. Drake is a man, not a boy.”

  Jake laughed, “If you say so.”

  A triumphant expression overtook Drake’s face as he said, “Told ya! I’m a man, not some little boy.” The tension between Jake and me seemed to disappear with Drake around.

  We had been swinging for about half an hour when Drake skidded to a stop. “I’m hungry.”

  “What do you want to eat?” I asked.

  Drake pondered in thought, but Jake was the one who answered. “I could really go for some Chick-Fil-A.”

  “That’s all the way in Wilmington, a forty-five minute drive, if you go the speed limit,” I pointed out.

  Jake smirked at me and said, “I don’t mind. Do you Drake?”

  “For Chick-Fil-A? Of course not! Let’s go!”

  “We’re just waiting for Emily to decide if she wants to go with us.” Jake was giving me a look that seemed to say, I dare you to say no to this kid. I took one look at Drake’s expectant face and knew the two brothers had made my decision. I stood up.

  “Well, let’s go if we’re going.”

  On the drive there, Drake talked the whole time, literally. Neither of us could get a word in. He talked about anything and everything.

  We were a few minutes away from the restaurant and Drake had been quiet for a few minutes. “Emily, can I ask you a question?”

  “Sure, Drake.”

  “Where’s your mom?”

  The question stole my breath. It was out of left field. Of course, Drake would want to know where she was. He had only seen my dad around. “Um…she’s…” I tried, but I couldn’t think. I needed to think of something fast. “She doesn’t live around here anymore.”

  “How come? Doesn’t she want to see you, Emily?”

  I found the words coming as if from nowhere. “You see, Drake, my mom and dad are divorced. So, my mom moved away when she got her new job. We weren’t really close, so I stayed with my dad.”

  I really hoped that would make the questions stop. “Oh,” was the only reply.

  Jake tried to brighten the mood when we parked. He told Drake that he could go and play after he ate, which definitely brought a smile back to his face.

  Inside we ordered and made our way over to a booth by the glass, so we could look in once Drake went to play. I don’t know if I was glad that I would be alone with Jake or not. What I did know was that I didn’t want Drake asking me questions about my mom.

  I ate without talking. I let Jake and Drake do all of that. It was cute seeing the brothers together and enjoying themselves. Drake finished his meal quickly and ran off to play. For the first few minutes, our eyes followed him around.

  Then Jake spoke. “Where is your mom?”

  “That’s none of your business.” I tried to speak curtly, but instead I sounded fragile.

  “Okay.”

  Okay? That was it? Are you telling me that Jake Benson just gave up on making me talk? Maybe I should mark this on my calendar.

  We were sitting in silence when three people came up to our table. I recognized the short blonde one as the girl who was by Jake’s locker the other day, but the other two were lost on me.

  She spoke and again my gaze went down. “I thought today was a day for just you and Drake. You know, just brothers.” By her voice, I could tell she was mad.

  All Jake said was, “It is.”

  “Then what’s she doing here?”

  Oh, how I wished I could leave. Why did I ride with him? I knew that if I looked up, I would see what I feared most in the blonde girl’s eyes.

  The guy that was with the girls spoke up before Jake could. “Yeah, man, if you didn’t want to come, you should have just said so. You didn’t have to lie.”

 
“I didn’t.” But he was. “Claire, Emily is here because I wanted her to be.”

  “Oh, get real Jake. You have one class project with her and now you are hanging out with her? Really? You shouldn’t hang out with people just because you feel sorry for them.”

  “I don’t feel sorry for her. I like hanging out with her, so I am.”

  “You like hanging out with her? Please. She can’t make eye contact, much less talk.”

  Just then, Drake came running out of the playhouse room and found his way into my lap, ignoring our surprise guests. “Emily, this one is more fun than McDonald’s! It’s empty too. Will you play with me?”

  His eyes were pleading with me. I couldn’t have said no even if I wanted to, which I didn’t. This was the perfect escape. To my surprise, my voice came out as it always did when I talked to Drake, clear and confident. “Of course. Lead the way,” I said as he hopped down and I slipped my hand in his.

  We passed by the evil Claire and her friends. I didn’t even look back. I couldn’t. Instead, I slipped off my shoes and made my way into the playhouse.

  I chased Drake in and out of the crooks and crannies, tickling him when I caught him. After about thirty minutes, I heard Jake’s voice booming up one of the slides. “Alright you two, let’s go.” Drake was satisfied with his playing time and slid down the red slide. Tired, I followed right behind him.

  Careful to avoid looking at any part of Jake, I slipped on my shoes and we left. The ride home was to the sound of only the radio. Jake liked to listen to rock and other popular songs in different genres. Forty-five long minutes later, I was home.

  It wasn’t but about 4 o’clock and Drake wanted to show my dad the car. I didn’t mind, but I was tired from all the conversations from today. Regardless, I told them to stay awhile. I planned to be quiet.

  Jake stopped me just inches from my front door. “Emily, can I talk to you for a second?”

  I turned around and leaned against the brick of the house. Crossing my arms, I suddenly found my shoes interesting. “I feel like I’ve talked all day long. I’m tired of talking.”

  “I just wanted to say that I was sorry about earlier, with Claire. She didn’t know what she was talking about. She was mainly just jealous.”

  That caught my attention. I was confused. “Jealous? Of what?”

  Jake’s sneakers came into my line of vision. He curled his fingers around my chin and lifted. Why must he keep doing that? I glared straight into his pretty green eyes. “Not ‘of what’. Of whom. She is jealous of you Emily.”

  What? That didn’t make any sense and I told Jake so.

  He smiled a crooked grin that made my insides melt and said, “It makes perfect sense. She is jealous that I would rather spend time with you than her. She called this morning, before I called you, and wanted me to go with her to the movies. I didn’t want to and Drake was upset that I said he couldn’t come here. Therefore, I called you. A solution that made everyone happy…well, besides Claire.”

  I tried to back further into the wall, but it was no use. My confident voice from earlier was gone and, with it, any desire that I had had to be around Jake. “So you were hanging out with me so you didn’t have to hang around Claire.” There. I said it. I thought I would feel better about it. Finally getting the truth about Jake and his presence out should have made me feel better, but it didn’t.

  For some wild reason that I could not even begin to understand, I had been hoping that finally someone besides a seven year old would want to be around me. I wanted that someone to be Jake, but clearly I was mistaken. Stepping to the side and out of Jake’s grip, I went inside without giving him the chance to say anything.

  Drake and my dad were in the living room playing with Drake’s car. They were very oblivious to me, so I went straight to my room and shut the door. I heard greetings exchanged between Jake and my dad. I didn’t listen long. Instead, I got my