It didn’t take Jack long to find me. He arrived long before I had and knew exactly what door to wait by.
“Good morning!” Jack greeted me with a huge smile.
“Yeah, it’s been lovely.”
He ignored my sarcasm.
“What’s your first class?” he asked.
“Uh—” I rechecked my schedule. “I have English Literature with Mr. Wagner.”
“Me, too. He’s a great teacher. I love him—he’s super easy.”
“I don’t need easy,” I snapped.
“I didn’t say you did—just sayin’, he’s an easy teacher. Get off the sensitive train, Addy.”
“I’m not being sensitive!” I retorted rather sensitively.
Jack laughed and when the irony of my response hit me, I laughed, too.
“Sorry,” I offered. “I’m freaking out for some reason.”
“No worries,” he replied.
“Are you still pouting?”
“Pouting about what?”
“Pouting because I didn’t ride to school with you.”
“No, I don’t care if you choose to take a thirty-minute bus ride over a fifteen-minute Jeep ride. Up to you,” he was teasing and baiting me all at once.
“But those Cahill boys and their lil' piggy scents do smell tasty,” I declared.
He stopped dead in his tracks. "Okay, first of all, they aren't raising pigs—they're raising bacon. Second, any self-respecting person knows the power of bacon. Third, you’re gross,” Jack laughed at his own joke and began walking again.
I laughed, too, recalling how over the summer Jack said he would eat anything wrapped in bacon, then offered up his ideas of what foods could be paired with bacon and in what ways they could be cooked. When he described a bacon wrapped Twinkie, I pretended to vomit, which was when he realized he had started to present ridiculous ideas.
Today, however, he really was thinking of bacon. He patted his stomach, "Well, now I'm hungry. What do you want to do for lunch? Are you eating school lunch or going to Brody’s?” he asked.
“We’re allowed to go to Brody’s? That’s interesting. You can’t leave the campus in California.”
“I don’t even think anyone refers to this as a campus, but yes, we can go to Brody’s if you want to—we can get something from the deli.”
“Hmm.” I bobbed my head in thought, “I guess that does sound better than cafeteria food.”
We concluded the conversation by establishing a meeting place after third period but by the end of third period, I needed a quick trip to the restroom. After showing Jack my index finger in a, “just one minute” gesture, I ducked into the restroom and found a stall. I’d been waiting a while and urgency was the first word that came to mind to express what I was feeling.
I heard the chatter of two girls’ voices I didn’t recognize. They must not have been anyone I met over the summer. I wasn’t really listening until I caught the names Jack and Addy. I peeked through the crack in the door’s frame and saw two girls, one girl had red hair and the other had brown. Their backs were to me and they were preening in the mirror, but I could catch small glimpses of them. They seemed to be continuing a conversation they had been having in the hallway.
“I know. In fact, I bet I could walk up to her right now and she wouldn’t even remember meeting me at The Barn,” snapped the girl with red hair.
“And what’s with her hanging all over, Jack?” asked the brunette.
I do not! Who do these girls think they are?
“Oh, I know. I totally think he was going to ask me out this year, and then Ms. California came to town and ruined everything,” Red declared.
“I hate how he looks at her, as if she’s so different. She puts her jeans on one leg at a time just like everyone else, only hers aren’t Wranglers,” said Brown. They both laughed excessively.
That isn’t even funny.
“Uh-oh,” whispered Red, “Is that her?” She was pointing to my feet under the stall.
“Oh, crap! I think so!” exclaimed Brown in a loud whisper.
“How can you tell?” asked Red.
“I can tell from her shoes. No one wears shoes like that here!” Brown’s whisper was no longer a whisper. They both ran giggling from the bathroom.
Dang! Why did I wear my Jimmy Choo sandals today? Well, that was enlightening—and maddening—and hurtful—I could think of a number of emotions going through my heart right now.
Am I a snob? Did I sound that nasty when I talked of leaving Blue River? Maybe I needed to check myself, but not right now. Now I needed to deal with my anger. I was about to walk out and see Jack waiting for me and that wasn’t going to help.
I stormed out of the stall, smacking the door so hard it made a loud bang, nearly causing the poor freshman girl who was walking into the bathroom to wet her pants. She looked as though first-day nerves still had the best of her. She probably thought she was about to experience some type of freshman hazing ritual. I washed my hands, checked myself in the mirror, and headed out to meet Jack.
I must have been scowling because he asked, “Whoa, if looks could kill, someone would be dead. What’s up with you?”
“Oh, nothing,” I snapped. “Just a little conversation I overheard in the bathroom. Turns out I’m a stuck-up bitch and you’re interested in me romantically but only because I’m from California and that makes me different and because I don’t wear Wranglers or some dumbass thing like that. Oh, and I’ve ruined some redheaded girl’s life because you were going to ask her out this year, but now Ms. California squashed that plan. That’s me by the way, I’m Ms. California.”
“Yeah. I guessed that part.” He pondered his next words but apparently not long enough because he still sounded like an idiot when he said, “Well, parts of that are true.”
“You want to clarify what parts?” I asked tersely.
“I think I’ll let you figure that out,” he chuckled, but it was no laughing matter.
We walked in silence to his Jeep. He opened my door for me. I huffed thinking, quit being such a gentleman! Maybe I AM a snob who can’t appreciate Jack. He’s funny, polite, respectful, handsome, sensitive—he’s the whole package—it came effortlessly to him because that was simply who he was. He honestly liked me for me and I hated that I felt it necessary to give him the impression I didn’t care.
The girls in the bathroom were right. I didn’t remember meeting them. They meant so little to me I hadn’t even committed their names and faces to memory. If those two girls were talking about me that way then what was everyone else saying? I pondered all these points on the three-minute ride to Brody’s.
I was horribly self-conscious as we entered the store. I directed Jack straight to the deli. We ordered some chicken strips and some potatoes that were referred to as Jo-Jos that he insisted I would fall in love with, grabbed two sodas, and opted to eat in the Jeep. We really didn’t have very long for lunch, so there was minimal conversation, and I didn’t really feel like talking anyway. I sensed Jack knew better than to play therapist with me as he let the entire matter go.
I remained in a funk for the rest of the day, but was pleased to find I had three classes with Claire. I only had English Lit with Jack but so did Zeek and he was so funny it distracted me from staring at Jack. At the end of the day, Jack offered me a ride home and I couldn’t resist accepting.
I saw Aaron very little throughout the day. Even in small-town Montana, sophomores and seniors ran in different circles. I caught glimpses of him and was happy he was even there when the final bell rang. Despite the bathroom incident, it wasn’t a bad day, until I heard “Addy! Addy! Jack! Addy!” I looked down the hall and saw the familiar, pale, freckled arm of my mother waiving wildly in the air, desperate to grab our attention.
I groaned. Nothing was more embarrassing than one, my mother being the school counselor and two, having her yell out my name and Jack’s name as loud as she possibly could down a crowded hallway. It brought attention to the f
act that Jack and I were standing together, which made a few people glance in our direction, causing a few eyebrows to raise. It also brought attention to the fact the school counselor knew me. Why I cared, I didn’t know. Pride, I guessed. We were both new and shared the same last name. People were bound to make the mother-daughter connection, but I would have been happier to wait for the connection to happen.
I turned my body away from her as she nearly ran down the hall but eventually she reached our location. Breathlessly she asked, “Have you seen Aaron?”
“Yes.” We replied in unison as we turned to face her.
“Oh, good,” she let out a sigh of relief, holding her hand over her heart. She must have lost track of him at some point in the day causing her to panic. “Good, good, good. Jack, can you please be a dear…” Mom reached out and touched Jack’s arm, “Could you please give Aaron and Addy a ride home?”
“Sure. I had planned to anyway,” he replied.
“Thank you, Jack.” Mom turned her look on me. “Addy, get your brother on to his homework straightaway.”
“Mom, he’s fifteen. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t need a babysitter.”
“Addy, I’m asking for your help with Aaron. Just say yes and drop the banter for once.”
“Oooo, bad day at the big, Blue River High School, Mother?” My sarcasm was thick. Jack nudged me in the arm which caused me to shoot him a nasty look. How dare he do that!
“Just do it,” Mother tersely demanded.
“You work for Nike now, Dr. Davis?” I sarcastically asked.
Mom simply rolled her eyes and said, “Thanks again, Jack.” She then turned to return to her office without another look in my direction, shaking her head in disgust.
When she was out of earshot Jack asked, “Why are you so damn mean to your mom?”
I don’t think I’ve ever heard Jack cuss. He’s irritated with me. Still, I replied, “Because she deserves it.”
“Does she beat you?”
“Excuse me?
“I said does she BEAT you?”
“No.” I didn’t like where his line of questioning was headed.
“Has she ever beaten you?”
“Drop it, Jack.”
“No, seriously, you’re really nasty to your mom, and I’m just trying to figure out where it comes from.”
“It comes from her thinking she knows what goes on inside my head and it comes from her decision to move us to Blue River and…never mind, Jack. Let it go.” In all honesty, she was good to me, my dad, and Aaron. It most likely stemmed from the fact that teenage daughters simply don’t get along with their mothers during certain periods of time—particularly when the mother has completely disrupted the comfort of her daughter’s life. Maybe it was me not understanding her or maybe, I saw parts of me in her and didn’t like it. Now I don’t like my own line of questioning.
“That doesn’t seem like a good enough reason,” said Jack.
“Do you want to fight all the way home or are you ready to drop this?”
Jack stared long and hard at me for a moment then surrendered. “Fine. I’ll drop it. I was just curious. She seems pretty cool to me.”
“Well, maybe you two can date sometime,” I retorted.
“Yeah, I’ll check with your dad on that. Maybe he’s okay with it since his daughter won’t date me.”
I made a funny face then gave him a gentle smack on the arm. The tension of the conversation eased as we found Aaron, found Jack’s Jeep then pulled away from the school parking lot. I looked back and found Red and Brown, hands on hips and rolling their eyes. This is going to be a very long year.
13. Wheels
Today was the day I would finally find some freedom! We were off to Middleburg to shop for cars. Dad had finally realized he couldn’t commute in the dead of winter in a sports car and I was getting anxious for my own car. After all, they did promise me some wheels of my own. Even though logic said my dad needed a vehicle that could handle the snowy roads of Montana, the thought of him trading his glorious sports car was making me physically ill. I kept reminding them that they could afford both the Aston Martin and a truck, but they both insisted it was an unnecessary expense. They are being so freakin’ frugal. Ugh! We’re living like paupers!
Cloudy, gray, wintry skies were already forming and it was only the beginning October. We could no longer put off shopping and, of course, Jack’s knowledge of trucks was important to my dad, so he was along for the ride. Aaron was along for the ride because he couldn’t be trusted to be alone. My mom was along for the ride because my dad couldn’t be trusted to make vehicle purchases. The last time my dad went shopping for a car, my mother’s parting words were, “nothing expensive, not red, and no convertibles.” That was the time he came home with a red Mercedes convertible. I couldn’t help but smile as I remembered the look on my mom’s face. I thought she was going to have a heart attack.
We arrived at what was considered the best used car lot in town. Jack personally knew the owner who had grown up with Jack’s dad in Blue River.
“Jack my boy! Good to see you!” It was the owner, Pete Sells. He was tall and somewhat slender, but his bloated, rotund belly revealed his love of beer. A cigarette dangled from his lips as he spoke. It was like a magic act; it never fell from his mouth. I couldn’t take my eyes off his smoke. His last name worked out well for him as the sign on his lot read—Pete Sells Used Cars –I’ll Beat Anyone’s Price in Town. It was so terrifically clever and cheesy all at once. All he needed was a 1970’s mustache and a polyester suit to make this picture complete.
“Hey, Pete. Here’s the family I was telling you about. This is Bill, Maggie, Aaron, and Addy Davis.” Jack made introductions and we all shook hands.
“Nice ta meet ya. Well, let’s get to it and see what we can do for ya fine folks. We all need cars that handle snow, heh?”
“Yes, and I’ll take that one,” I spoke up first, pointing at Dad’s convertible.
“You wish,” said Aaron.
“I hardly think so,” said Mom.
“Sorry, princess,” said Dad. Then he whispered in my ear, “It hurts me a little to let it go, too, but it just makes sense.”
Makes sense? Nothing makes sense anymore! Are we still pretending this is working for Aaron? I rolled my eyes and let out a huff. I decided my parents needed a refresher course about denial. How could they sleep at night living such an incredibly ridiculous lie?
“I can’t see myself in a truck,” I insisted.
“You don’t have to get a truck. There are other vehicles that will keep you safe,” said Jack.
I expelled another frustrated breath. Shopping a small car lot in Podunk Montana isn’t what I had planned for my first car at all, nor did I ever think I would have to deal with snow, ice, and blizzards. The Universe was in complete upheaval. I looked to the Heavens and asked, “Why me?”
“You may want to give us some driving tips when the snow hits, Jack.” My dad clapped him on the back. “Now let’s look at trucks!” Dad was becoming married to the idea of becoming a redneck.
“Oh, yes sir, no problem,” Jack responded resoundingly.
“Please, call me Bill,” insisted Dad.
I mimicked my dad’s voice, muttering what he really wanted to say, “Just call me Dad.” Jack pretended not to hear but I caught him smirking. Dad and Jack decided to divide and conquer, looking in different directions of the lot. Mom stuck with Dad while Aaron and I went with Jack.
“Dude, make Addy get this one,” said Aaron as he pointed to a Mini-Cooper. “Then she’ll have your name on her ass all day.” Aaron roared with laughter as if he’d just made the funniest joke the entire world had ever heard. He then extended his balled fist to Jack to get a knuckle bump, Jack nearly responded to it until I glowered at him, but he still couldn’t help the laugh that exploded from his throat.
“You shouldn’t spend time with Aaron, Jack, it makes you look foolish. Besides, isn’t it a blow to your male ego putting mini
in front of your name,” I erupted into my own round of laughter.
“Oh, ha ha…you’re just pissed it was funny,” said Aaron.
Jack was nodding in agreement. “You have to admit, it was sort of funny.”
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