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“Oh my god, Jett!” Rae said,
laughing excitedly. “I love this girl! She's a perfect match for
you.” Everyone at the table chuckled again and Declan agreed and
said “no kidding.”

Jett put his arm around me
and gave me a squeeze. “It sure seems that way doesn't it, I ate
before I came too.” I looked at him, smiled and asked “What did you
have?” I said excitedly. Rae interrupted “Who cares what you two
ate. Let's talk about something else.”

She seemed genuinely happy I
was there. Maybe she didn't get along with the other girls. “No
more talk,” Jett stated, “You two run along because we aren't
sharing our food.” They sat there with puppy dog eyes and looked
truly upset they had to sit with the others, they didn’t move until
Jett made a thumbing motion toward their table. They got up
begrudgingly; Rae turned and stuck her tongue out at Jett, Jett
returned the gesture.

“I like her, she’s cool.” He
took my hand in his slowly and said “they are cool… is this, too
much?” as he twisted our hands above the table. I pulled them under
the table and said “Only if you don't mean it.”

“Well, I'm having fun so far
which is not what I expected. I'm not sure what I expected, but
this is all right.” I kept holding his hand. 

After the waitress delivered
the pizza he moved to the other side. I looked at him and said “Do
I smell?” sarcastically.

“Nooo.... I need elbow room
when I eat, because we're piggin' out right!” he said with a
big fat grin on his face.

“Absolutely,” I told
him.

“Piggin' out 'til we have to
pop the button on our jeans.” He said and winked at me.

“That's what I'm talkin'
about” and we both laughed. That’s when I caught an evil look from
his ex; I didn't care though. Hopefully our date would keep on
going well, even if we only ended up being friends in the end; it
would be good enough for me.

I didn't finish my half so
Jett did. I was stuffed. Declan came over told us they were leaving
for the show. Jett gave him a twenty and said “Get us two tickets,
we'll be right behind ya.” I got up tapped my belly and stretched,
forgetting the sweater I had on, and said “I am so full, I may
just need a nap.” Jett reached over and touched my belly and I
flinched and pulled my sweater down. He moved his hand to my
waist.

“You must not be full
enough, your jeans are still buttoned.” I smiled and took his hand.
I don't remember laughing at all with Cale, I wonder why that was?
I pondered through all our dates on how serious they were and then
realized I felt like they were all controlled or very well planned
somehow, and just boring. I was quiet in the car contemplating all
this.

Before we got to the movie
Jett asked “A penny for your thoughts.”

“Where's my penny?” I asked.
He dug in his ash tray and handed me a nickel.

“You better be sure you want
to hear what's on my mind before you ask, because I always have a
lot to say.” I replied.

“That's fine, talk away…“ He
reached out and I slid my hand in his.

“Well, I was just thinking
about Cale.”

“Oh.” he said
disappointingly and loosened his grip. I scooted closer and put my
other hand around his so he couldn't let go.

"No, no no no not like
that. I was just thinking, here I am on a date with you expecting
to get used and thrown away and to have a terrible time, but I have
laughed more with you and have had more fun on one date with you
than I ever did with Cale.”

He let out a sigh of relief
and squeezed my hand. “Me too.” 

“So you dated Cale too? Just
kidding.... Hey, are we here to make your ex jealous or what?” He
didn't respond right away.

“I don't know” he responded
with sincerity “We made her jealous at the restaurant. Making her
envious was fun but I have moved on, starting with you. The
more I hang with you the more I realize she wasn't such a nice
girlfriend.” He jiggled our entwined hands.

“I think it would be fun if
we had a plan.” I said. “Something to make her jealous but nothing
too obvious, she may already be provoked by us from the
restaurant.”

“What do you mean?” So I
told him I caught her giving me “an evil eye” a couple of times
during the evening, he enjoyed that.

We didn't make a plan which
was fine since I'm not that vindictive of a person. The ride to the
theater was short so there wasn't a lot of time to plot and plan
anyway. We had to park in the back lot because the front lot
was full. Jett shut the car off and I slid myself out. As
I was straightening my coat and shirt someone grabbed me from
behind. A gloved hand covered my mouth, pressing my head back
firmly onto him so I couldn't move it and the other around my
arms and chest. I couldn't scream. I looked for Jett, he was
on the other side of the car. When he finally looked back he did a
double take. I could tell he was confused, shocked. I saw him
saying something but couldn't make out his words.

My feet were dragging on the
ground as I was being pulled backward. I tried to dig my heels into
the snow and ice but it didn't help. I lifted both feet up hard
and pushed off of the car, we fell back, hit one car and
bounced off another and then we both hit the ground. I was on top
trying to get up but he was pulling on my coat, I turned around hit
him, got up, kicked him and started running toward the building but
not before he grabbed my ankle. I fell right into Jett, he grabbed
both my arms, whipped me around releasing my ankle and asked me if
I was ok. He sounded a million miles away. I nodded, I had a hand
on his car holding me up, he took off running but not very well as
the parking lot was slick with ice. Once he hit the snowy field,
though, he really took off.
 

As I turned to look at the
building, I saw Declan and Rae walking toward me. I yelled and
pointed, “Jett just took off after this guy who attacked me!”
Without even flinching Declan took off in the same general
direction. I stayed leaning on Jett's car, I was trying to get my
bearings. Rae yelled my name, she was standing by the building, she
waved me over. She was holding her coat closed, carrying the
biggest purse I have ever seen, she looked cold. I let go of the
car, my legs were shaking but managed to make my way over; as we
walked to the front of the theater I told her what
happened.

“Are you okay?” she asked.
“What kind of maniac would try something on you around Jett? If he
gets hold of him he'll tear him apart.” I didn't say anything, I
was just shivering, not sure if it was from the cold or the fact
that I was totally freaked out.

“Let's go inside, get you
warm plus it’s probably safer inside.” Rae said as she led me
around to the front of the building, after we turned the corner and
stepped onto the sidewalk we saw Jett and Declan, they were walking
toward us. They jogged over to us.

“We lost the guy, he had
parked his truck on the side street” Declan announced thumbing to
the street behind them “...and took off.” I didn't stop, I just
kept walking until I was inside the theater doors. When I stopped
inside Rae fixed my hair straightened my jacket; she had me turn
around looking to see if I was alright.

I shivered “Ah Jett, I
panicked and kicked your car, I'm sorry, I’ll pay for any damages.”
He smiled and came over, put his rough warm hands behind my neck
and under my hair and pulled me closer. I put my hands on his
chest, they were still shaking.

“We’ve had girls do crazier
stuff than that to our cars and never once has any of them
apologized nor had a good reason for it, please, don't worry about
it.” Then he kissed me on the forehead and gave me a hug. “Are you
okay?” He rubbed my back and it warmed me immediately and I felt
safe in his arms. I pushed back gently, “I am fine, don't we have a
movie to see?” I asked, giving my fake cheesy smile. Jett pulled me
in for another hug, I could get used to this.

Rae questioned my efforts,
“Don't you want to go home or call the police?”
I knew I had 24 hours to report a crime, since Nic and I had
researched it after my other incident this summer. When I told them
I could wait to file a report; they seemed amazed I knew that
information.

“Let's go see the movie, and
after, if all of us think we should call the police we will. But
I'm sure it was someone just playing a prank on us....” Not that I
believed for a second it was meant for anyone else, but I thought
it sounded good.

We entered the next set of
doors. Rae gave us our tickets. “We're getting popcorn, you guys
getting anything?” I looked at Jett and shook my head. “No, we're
good,” he said. I saw a wall and thought I'd hold it up while we
waited. Jett came with me, stood across from me, his hands in his
jean pockets. He looked solemn, serious, he looked into my eyes
“Are you sure you don't want to leave?”

“I'm fine.” I said, shaking
my head, “A little shaken up maybe, but fine.”

He came even closer to me,
put one of his muscular arms on the wall next to me and leaned into
my ear. “Are you sure, you look like you’re trembling to me.” His
hot breath permeated around my ear and sent a definite tremble
through my body that sent a warm feeling right down to my toes. I
turned my head only a smidge and my cheek touched his “I’m fine.” I
whispered back. He touched my face and pulled back slowly until our
lips made contact. We released and I opened my eyes and held his
gaze for a moment when I noticed Lisa standing only a few feet
away, giving me another dirty look. I looked right back at her and
gave her a nod. Jett turned his head slightly, spotted her then
turned back toward me and said “Sorry, I didn't know she was
there.” He straightened up, stood next to me and took my
hand.

Jett sat on one side of me
in the theater and Rae on the other. She handed me a bottle, I
handed it to Jett, he opened it and handed it back; it was beer I
could smell it when he handed it back to me. Rae said “You deserve
it girl, drink up, it will settle your nerves.” She gave one to
each of the boys too. The girls in front of us, which were part of
the rest of our group, including his ex, giggled and talked through
the entire movie, knocked over bottles that rattled all the way
down to the front of the theater and were just utterly obnoxious.
Thank goodness I didn’t knock any over because I could tell Jett
was annoyed.

Before we got to the end of
my block I asked Jett to pull over and park. He laughed and said “I
thought guys were always the one to ask the girl to
park.”

“Really, I wasn't sure how
that worked because I’ve never parked before.”

“Now that I don't believe”
he said “You and Cale never...”

“No, I told you we never had
fun and we only kissed. He was boring and acted like my dad more
than anything else. Now that I think about it I'm not sure why I
dated him.” I paused then continued “Oh yeah, I dated him because
he was good looking but looks can only take you so far in a
relationship, obviously.”

He put one hand behind my
waist and slid me across the bench to him. “Nice.” I
mumbled.

I started “I don't want
to...” and he pressed his lips into mine before I could say
anything else.

“THUD!” Both of us stopped
and froze, then tried looking around outside. Jett got out of the
car and I followed suit. Something was on his trunk. We inched
toward it slowly. It was a big rock with lots of mud on it, like
someone just dug it up and decided to toss it. “That wasn't very
nice” I said, “They didn't even leave a note.”

In a split second Jett took
off, I saw it too, the movement between the two houses. He ran
fast, I yelled “Jett don't....”

I stood, my body locked in a
still position, just outside his car. We were on my street, in my
own neighborhood where I normally felt comfortable but tonight I
got that peculiar eerie feeling. I looked at my watch and thought I
would wait right here…..then I thought if he doesn't return in five
I'll get in the car and lock the doors, and if he doesn't come back
in ten I'm running home …. Since this s
ummer's
incident, I scheme and pre-plan exit routes all the
time.

I looked at my watch again,
it hadn’t even been a minute but felt like five. I started pacing
and looking around to see if anyone was sneaking up on me. I saw
nothing. One thing about being out in the country is when it's
dark, it's dark. I felt like my eyes were opened wider than
possible. This had to be someone playing a prank, I told myself.
Crap, I should have gone after Jett. I looked back down at my watch
and only two minutes had gone by.....I ruffled through his glove
compartment looking for a flashlight, nothing. I started nervously
walking in the same path that Jett took behind the houses. There
was a tree line a few feet wide dividing the neighbor’s yards.
Behind the houses and yards was the same ravine that connected to
mine. I heard nothing standing next to the neighbor’s house, still
nothing when I got to the back yard. My heart felt heavy and my
hands clammy. The backyard was pitch dark, the owners were either
in bed or not home.

I heard some rustling in
front of me. I kept walking; I stumbled on a big branch and decided
to pick it up. I heard something again as I approached the ravine.
I raised the branch over my head and I said quietly “Who's
there?”