“What did you think I was going to say?”
“I don’t know. Most of them were pretty far-fetched, but when you don’t have a frame of reference, lots of things seem possible. I certainly didn’t think it would be about my father.”
“Sorry,” I said thoughtfully.
“It’s fine. You know, I’m getting hungry now. Let’s get some food before lunch is over.”
We grabbed some food and headed over to where the girls were sitting. Mike was there. They all seemed a little concerned when we showed up.
“There you guys are,” Jessica said. “Where were you?”
“We were in the courtyard,” I said. “We were talking about a project we have to do for English.”
“Thanks for including me!” Meredith said, obviously offended.
Whoops. “Sorry Mer,” I said. “I asked Nicole about it on the way to lunch, and you weren’t there.”
“It’s fine.” She wasn’t very convincing.
“Sorry,” Jake added, “we didn’t mean to make you wonder. We just thought it would be better to sort it out where we had some quiet. Did we miss anything?”
“Just us talking about where you guys could both be,” Mike said.
We both looked at Jessica. “Sorry,” we both said.
“Well, you’re here now,” she said, trying to sound bubbly. “So, we’re all in for Friday night.”
“Oh, great!” I said. “I hadn’t had a chance to ask Mike yet. So,” I said, looking Mike’s way, “you can go?”
“I wouldn’t miss it,” he said wryly. “It should be a lot of fun.”
Yeah, it should be a real blast. “Yeah, it should be a real blast!”
Jake and I ate quickly, since there wasn’t much time left. We mainly listened as the others talked. We responded when necessary, but we mainly just observed. Strange how so much has changed in a week’s time. I would never have figured that we would all be sitting here as a group.
The warning bell rang and we said our goodbyes. Jake had Spanish with Caryn and Meredith, so they left together. Jessica headed to her class, and Mike walked with me even though we didn’t have the same class.
“So,” he started, “what were you guys really doing?”
“I think it would be best if Jake told you.”
“I knew it! You guys hooked up, didn’t you?”
“No, we didn’t!” I said, looking around. “Don’t say that too loud, either. Jessica has a thing for Jake, as if you didn’t know. I don’t want her thinking something is going on.”
“Well, then what else could be so important?”
“Like I said, I think Jake should tell you.”
“Come on.”
“Fine. Jake’s mom came into my room this morning and told me all about Jake’s dad.”
“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
“Before I had a chance to tell Jake? I don’t think so. This is a big deal, Mike.”
“I know. Jake and I have been best friends for years. I would’ve been the first person he told.”
“And you probably will be, but he just found out, and we still have some information to get. I’m sure once he knows everything, he’ll tell you.”
“You mean you’re not gonna tell me anything else?”
“No, Mike. It’s not my place to tell you. It’s nothing personal, but I think he would rather you hear it from him.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right. I’ll meet you guys after school. Then he can tell me.”
“He doesn’t have all of the information yet. Why don’t you let him just call you later tonight?”
“Fine. You know, this whole situation sucks. I barely see him…well,” he said, looking my way, “talk to him anymore. I wish this whole thing would just end already.”
“You and me both. Look, assuming things aren’t back to normal before then, maybe tomorrow we can both come over to your house and you guys can do your guy thing.”
“What are you going to do?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I’ll probably study. Don’t worry, I’ll stay out of your way.”
“Then why are you coming?”
“Because, it would look funny if you and ‘Nicole’ were hanging out at your house. At least if I’m there, it won’t seem so odd.”
“Alright.”
We were almost to my class by the time we finished our conversation. “You’ve got to get to class. I’ll see you later.”
“Later.”
I was more at ease now that Jake and I had talked, but my mind was still racing with all of the events of today. I was able to pay attention in class, for the most part, but time still seemed to fly. Before I knew it, school was over for the day.
Jake met me at my locker. We gathered our things and headed to my car. I miss driving my car.
“So, what was Mike talking to you about after lunch?”
“He wanted to know what we were really doing.”
“He always assumes there’s some juicy story,” Jake said, bemused.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I told him that your mom told me about your dad.”
“That’s fine. What did you tell him?”
“I wouldn’t give him details. He wants you to call him later tonight. He’s feeling a little best friend neglected.”
“Yeah, it’s weird. I don’t know about you, but I feel all out of sorts. It’s difficult trying to pick up a completely different routine than you’ve had for seventeen years. He can be obnoxious, but he’s still my best friend.”
“I know. I feel the same way. I’m used to having long conversations with the girls. Sometimes about nothing at all, but it’s still nice to be able to do it.”
“I know,” he confirmed.
“I told him we would get together after school tomorrow so you two could hang out a bit.”
“What are you going to do?” he asked.
I laughed, mainly because Mike asked the same question. “I’ll probably just study.”
We listened to the radio on the way to Jake’s house.
“So,” I started after a few minutes, “I realized last night that there is still a lot we don’t know about each other.”
“I know. I had been feeling pretty good until last night. Jessica made me realize that there’s still a lot to cover. I didn’t even think to talk about favorite music and movies.”
“Me neither. But we made it through. I tried to read your expressions.”
We spent the most of the trip discussing movies and music, and anything else we could think of that would help each other down the road.
“I’m nervous about Friday night,” I said, as we neared his house. “Jessica asks a lot of questions. When she likes someone, she wants to know everything about them.”
“I think that’s normal,” Jake said. “You know, we could try to tell her.”
“No way. She won’t believe it, and she’d probably think we made it up to get her not to like…well, you. She seems a little suspicious that we like each other. Today didn’t help at all.”
“Yeah, I saw that too,” he said. “Okay, so we won’t tell her. Look, if she asks you a question that you don’t know, make something up. Just…try to make it sound like something I’d say, and tell me later so I can back it up.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“I don’t really know another way around it,” he replied.
“Okay. I can do that. Plus, you’ll be there for most of it, so that will help.”
“Right.”
We arrived at Jake’s house and went inside. We quickly got our books out to start studying.
“So,” I asked, “are we going to go ahead with the plan we talked about earlier?”
“I guess so. It’s tough, because I may think of questions that will occur to me during the conversation. I’ll write down what I can think of for now. Hopefully this won’t be a one shot deal, and I can ask her more down the road…once we change back.”
“Yeah, whenever that may be
,” I said dismissively.
“Do you think we should be spending some time trying to figure out how to change ourselves back?” he asked.
“I wouldn’t even know where to begin. It’s not like you can search the internet and find others who are sharing their experiences, and how to fix it.”
“Are you sure?”
“Did you just ask me that?” I asked, amused. He wasn’t serious, was he?
“I didn’t really mean it, but I just don’t know what to do. Should we look at astrological charts, or full moons? I mean, what?”
I let out a sigh of frustration. “Be practical. It’s not like I know, but I don’t think it has to do with moons or astrology.”
“So then, what?” he asked.
“I don’t know, Jake. Maybe we are supposed to learn a lesson. Maybe we are supposed to see what it’s like to be the other sex.”
“Well,” he said, “I’ve seen. I’m good. If that’s the case, wouldn’t we be turned back by now?”
“I don’t know. I guess so,” I said with a hint of irritation. “I don’t have the answers, Jake. I’ve thought about it, a lot, and I don’t really think we are going to find the answers. I’m hoping we just need to wait it out, and hopefully soon we’ll be back to normal.”
“I know,” he conceded. “It’s just making me a little crazy. I’m not used to having things not have a logical answer.”
I realized I had been getting worked up, so I took a deep breath before responding. “It’s making me crazy, too. But, just because we don’t know the answer, doesn’t mean a logical answer doesn’t exist.”
“I guess,” he conceded. We were silent for a minute before he spoke again. “So, what next?”
“We should study, and you should get me your list of questions,” I said.
We got to studying, and before we knew it, five o’clock had arrived. Jake handed me his list of questions. It wasn’t a very long list.
“This is all of them?” I asked.
“It’s all I can think of right now. It didn’t sound like she knew a lot about him after he left, and with him being dead, that takes a lot of questions off the table.”
“Okay, I can memorize these. Your mom is going to be home in a little less than an hour, right?”
“She should.”
“So, I’ll cook some dinner, and you can hang out in your room until she arrives.”
“Do you want some help?” he asked.
“No. If she gets home early and sees you, we’ll blow our opportunity.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
He headed back to the bedroom while I looked in the cupboard for some dinner ideas. I settled on Hamburger Helper. It took me about fifteen minutes, and I had everything simmering, so that it should be ready shortly after Jake’s mom arrived.
Once I had the food going, I headed back to Jake’s room and picked back up with my studying. Jake was sitting in the closet. When I came in he closed the closet door. Jake’s closet is not a walk-in closet, so he didn’t exactly look comfortable sitting there on the floor. Hopefully he wouldn’t have to be in there very long.
About ten minutes later, Jake’s mom arrived home. She peeked her head in and said hi.
“Hi, Mom. I’ve got dinner going. It should be ready in a bit.”
“Thank you, Hon. Did you have a good day?”
“Yes, but I spent a lot of time thinking about our conversation earlier today, and I have a few questions.”
She walked in and sat down on the bed. “Okay. What would you like to know?”
“What…did he…look like?”
“He actually looked a lot like you. He was about six foot tall and slender. A good looking man, I must say. I bet if I looked real hard, I could find an old picture for you. Maybe this weekend?”
“That would be great!”
“What else would you like to know?”
“Umm…did he have any hobbies?”
“He liked to bowl. He was an okay bowler. He wasn’t on any teams. He would just bowl for fun. He’d take you sometimes. He liked to paint too, although he seemed to do that less as time went on. He was pretty good. He could paint sceneries as well as people.”
“Do we have any paintings he did?” I asked. That wasn’t on Jake’s list, but I figured he would want to know.
“No. I’m sorry. He took most of them with him when he left, and I was so angry when he left that I got rid of most of the things that reminded me of him. I guess I didn’t really think about the fact that you might want them someday.”
“Did you try and find out any information from the lawyer about how he died?”
“I did, but I didn’t push too hard. I did call and I asked about how he died, among other questions, but he said that he was only provided a certificate of death, and that he did not have any details in the file. Something like that. The lawyer didn’t seem to want to disclose much. Your father’s side of the family didn’t have any known health issues, and he wasn’t very old, so I wouldn’t imagine it was health related.”
I was dreading asking the last question, but I felt I owed it to Jake. At least, I know I would want to know.
“So, I’ve had all of this money since I was about five, right?”
“Yes.”
“So, why have we been living so poor all of this time?”
She was quiet for a long moment. “I don’t really know how to answer that. I’ve always tried to make sure that you had the things you really needed, and I’ve always thought it important that you value the things you have. That way, when you got older, you would appreciate what you had more. Is that what you are asking?”
“Well sort of. But, I think I want to know why you don’t use the money to help you. I mean, it seems like we could have made it a little easier on you all of this time. And, if I would have known that I had a little money, I wouldn’t have been as reserved about asking for some things.”
“That money wasn’t intended for me. It’s your money, and it is to help you make a better life for yourself someday. Yes, we could have had more over the years, but I have been just fine with what we have. I’m proud of the fact that I earn enough money to keep our house, and put food on the table. If we had started spending that money a little here and a little there over the years, you would have less to start you off once you started college.”
She paused for a moment before continuing, “I can’t really say that I am sorry about that. I’ve done the best I could by you, and someday I think you will appreciate it.”
“I do appreciate it. Everything you’ve done. I just wish you would have done more for yourself.” I think that is pretty much Jake’s sentiment.
“Don’t worry about me. I am happy with my life. I have a roof over my head, and a wonderful son. I don’t need much more than that.”
I smiled at her.
“Do you have any more questions for me?”
“Not at the moment.”
“Then maybe we should get to dinner,” she said. “Oh, and if you do need money, like I’ve always said, just let me know. It’s not like I’m going to let you spend at will, but I want you to be able to have fun.”
“I could use some money for Friday night.”
“What’s happening Friday night?”
“I sort of…have a date.”
“With Nicole?” she asked with a smile.
“No. Actually, it’s with one of her friends.”
“How does Nicole feel about that?”
“I think she’s fine with it,” I said honestly. Although, I’d be much better with it we switched back by then.
“Okay. Oh, is that Nicole’s car out in front of our house?”
Uh-oh. “Uhh…yeah, probably. She was here earlier, but she and a friend went to the store together. She’s going to come by in a bit to pick it up.”
“Okay. So, let’s eat!”
“I’ll go check on the food. You probably have a few minutes till dinner.”
“I’ll
go change into some pajamas then.”
She walked out of the room, and I heard her close her bedroom door. After a minute, I quietly opened the closet door, and we both quickly walked out toward the front of the house.
“Well done,” Jake whispered softly.
“Thanks,” I whispered back.
I knocked on the front door from the inside. Jake smiled, opened the door, shut it and we walked into the kitchen and started talking about school.
Jake’s mom came out a few minutes later. She was dressed in pajamas, but they were appropriate for being around others.
“Oh, hello Nicole. You’ll have to excuse my appearance. I didn’t realize you were here.”
“Hi Angela,” Jake said. “Don’t mind me. You look fine.”
“Thank you. I don’t usually dress in pajamas if I’m expecting company.”
“Please, don’t worry.”
She smiled. “Are you joining us for dinner?” she asked sincerely. I have to say, Jake’s mom is always so warm and welcoming. And it’s sincere. She never seems to talk bad about people when they’re not there. I really like her.
“Thank you, but I should probably go.”
“There’s plenty of food,” I offered. I hope I’m not missing a dynamic to their relationship here. I don’t really know how Jake’s mom feels about unannounced company. If Jake still declines, I’ll let it go.
Jake’s mom chimed in, “You’re always welcome here, Nicole. We’d love to have you.” Awww.
“Thank you. I guess I’ll stay,” he finally said. I could tell he was happy.
“Oh,” I said, just realizing, “you should probably call your mom and tell her you won’t be home for dinner.”
“Right. Thanks.”
Jake stepped out of the room to make the call and Jake’s mom walked over to me discreetly. “So, are you going to tell me how it worked out that you have a date with one of Nicole’s friends? You are spending all of your time with Nicole.”
“It’s a really long story, and it’s kind of hard to explain,” I said.
“So, you aren’t interested in Nicole anymore?”
“I don’t know.” Truthfully, I didn’t know. We’ve become really good friends, which I would have never guessed, but I had no idea if Jake still was interested in me.
In My Shoes Page 20