The Exception (10 page)

When I pulled back I looked around and Jake was nowhere in sight. “Where’d Jake go?”

“He walked off pretty soon after you buried yourself in my shoulder.”

“Perfect! Freaking perfect!” I said louder than I meant too. “How is he ever going to believe that we are just friends when I do stuff like this? In his mind I bet he is thinking I chose you over him. Add it to the gosh darn list today.”

“Em?”

“What?” I demanded, clearly frustrated.

“Why did you just choose me over him?” He asked, sounding almost afraid to ask the question.

“I…I don’t know,” I let out as I sunk down on the floor leaning against the lockers. “I wish we could just hit rewind and do this morning all over again.” I put my hands over my face and sat there like that until the morning bell rang. Gabe was still standing there, waiting patiently, when I stood up.

“Want to just get out of here?” he offered, leaning against the lockers.

“Oh yeah, how would I explain that one to Jake? I’m just going to go to class.” I threw my bag over my shoulder and turned to walk toward Spanish.

“I’m here if you need me, Em,” I heard Gabe say as I walked away. I didn’t stop and turn around. I just put my hand in the air and gave a little wave to let him know that I heard him.

Maya wasn’t in Spanish when I got there. I couldn’t find her in the halls, and when she didn’t show up for the second class we had together, I knew she had left. I might as well have been gone. I spent most of my morning worrying about her. God, I just hoped she didn’t do anything stupid. She never did deal well when she was this upset.

Much to my surprise, when the bell rang for lunch Jake was waiting for me by my locker. He gave me his best attempt at a smile when I walked up to him.

“Evan texted and said he took Maya home,” he said in a forced voice.

“OK. Thanks. I knew she had left and was hoping she wasn’t driving around by herself somewhere. She is really unpredictable when she gets like this.” I starred at my locker unable to meet Jake’s eyes.

He reached out, grabbed my chin, and gently turned my face toward him. He waited until our eyes met. “I’m sorry I walked off earlier, Em.”

“You’re sorry?” I half laughed. “I throw my arms around Gabe instead of you and you’re sorry?”

“Not going to lie. I was pissed at first, but I know he’s your friend and sometimes you need a friend when shit goes down,” he swallowed, running his hand down my arm. “I’m here for you too, you know. I hope one day you feel like you can lean on me instead of him.” I could hear the strain in his voice as he said the last part.

My eyes swelled with tears, and as soon as Jake saw them he pulled me into him. “None of that. Do you hear me? I know you could be with him if you wanted to be, but you chose me,” he said, hugging me tight. “I mean you did choose me, didn’t you?” he asked, pulling away and pretending to be worried.

I let out a little laugh. “I’m sorry about earlier and I’m sorry I’m an emotional mess…I’m just sorry.”

Jake looked at me with that perfect smile of his while tucking away a piece of hair behind my ear. “Want to pretend that today just started?”

“More than you know.”

Jake turned around and jogged a few feet away. Then he turned back around and walked toward me.

“Morning, beautiful,” he said, scooping me up in a hug.

“Good morning, yourself.” I played along.

A grin tugged at the corner of his mouth as he leaned down and gave me a quick peck. “Now what do you say we go get some lunch?”

“Yes, please! I’m starving.”

The rest of the day went by extremely slowly. I was worried about Maya but also hurt and confused about why she had lashed out at me. She and I never fought. I was shocked when it first happened and thought it would blow over after she had some time to herself. I mean, this is me and Maya we were talking about. I didn’t really expect her to stay mad. When I hadn’t heard from her by the time I got to practice, I started to get irritated.

I pulled into the parking lot right behind Gabe and marched my way over to him as soon as I got out of my car.

“Like really? What is her freakin’ problem? I didn’t do anything.”

“Good afternoon to you too there, sunshine,” he replied as his passenger side door closed. I looked up to see Ryan getting out of his car.

“Yeah um, I’m just going to head to the courts and let you two work out whatever it is that y’all have going on here.”

“No, it’s fine Ryan. You know what’s going on anyway,” I spat.

“Uh, OK. I’m not sure what to do here?” Ryan said, looking a little nervous.

“Whatever.” I turned back to Gabe. “I mean, I get that Dylan hurt her and that she’s pissed at him. Heck, I would be too, especially knowing what I know now. But mad at me? Really?” I steamed.

Ryan relaxed a bit when he realized this was about Maya. And if I hadn’t been so worked up over this issue, I probably would have probed him about why.

“Give her some space, Em. You know Maya can get a little fiery when she gets upset.”

Ryan coughed, “A little fiery? You mean like a full on fireball. That’s chasing you. And it’s scary.”

“Yeah. Just never at me.”

“So that is what this is about,” Gabe said, sounding amused.

I looked at him with a raised eyebrow, waiting for him to speak.

“This is y’alls first big fight.”

“No. Well yes. I mean we don’t really fight, especially when the other person hasn’t done anything wrong.” I said flustered.

“Listen, Em. You know Maya. Just give her some space right now. She’ll come around.”

“Yeah. Alright. But if Dylan decides to show his cocky, jerk of a self today, I’m going to peg him so hard with a tennis ball. This entire thing is his fault.”

“Note to self. Do not piss Emma off at tennis practice,” Ryan chimed in.

“Oh shut up. Come on, let’s walk over to the courts. Jake’s truck is here and he’s probably wondering why I’m not up there yet.”

“Heaven forbid your boy toy has to wait for you,” Gabe joked.

I just rolled my eyes and then started walking with both the boys in tow.

***

I hit my light and crawled into bed after what felt like one of the longest days of my life. I still hadn’t heard from Maya; at this point I was past mad and back to worried. This just wasn’t like her. I made up my mind that I was going to track that girl down tomorrow and make her talk to me if I had too.

I had just closed my eyes when I heard the tap, tap, tap on my window. When my window didn’t open right away, I thought maybe just maybe Gabe decided to leave me alone and let me get some sleep after everything that happened today. I wasn’t that lucky. I heard the window open and thought about throwing my pillow at him.

“Gabe. I swear to…” I started, clearly agitated, but was cut off by a voice I wasn’t expecting.

“Not Gabe. Just me. But please keep going. I like you addressing Gabe when it sounds like you’re going to kill him.” Jake chuckled.

“Jake? What are you doing here? I mean, I’m glad you’re here. I just wasn’t expecting you,” I rambled on while trying to smooth down any stray hairs and adjust my oversized t-shirt.

“Oh. Were you expecting someone else? I can go.” I could hear the playfulness in his voice as I heard him continue toward me, causing my heart to speed up.

“No!” I said a little too quickly. I took a deep breath before answering again. “No to both, actually.” I got out – more under control of my voice this time.

“Good.”

Even in the dark, Jake made his way over to my bed with ease. He sat down right next to me and placed one hand on each side of me. He was close enough that I could see him looking directly at me. We sat there for a moment before either of us spoke – not that I could have if I tried. Something about him being this close to me, in the dark, on my bed, with my parents right downstairs had butterflies going off in my stomach and took away my ability to trust what would come out of my mouth.

“So, what’s next?” he asked as if this were the most normal thing in the world.

“Wha…what?” I asked slightly breathless. What does he mean what next? I don’t even know what is going on right now.

He gave me one of those perfect smiles and had a look on his face that caused my body to react. Then suddenly he moved, pulling his hands back and standing right beside my bed.
What the heck was going on?

“I mean, what do you and Gabe do after he crawls through your window?”

At the mention of Gabe, I felt a twinge of guilt and disappointment. Ever since I started dating Jake, a part of me has felt bad when Gabe crawled through my window. I was excited when Jake crawled through my window tonight, but now I know that he only did this so he could better understand what goes on between Gabe and I – I can’t help but feel disappointed about that.

“Well, he usually waits until I’m really comfortable and almost asleep, then decides to crawl through my window. So, so far you’re right on track. Then, he walks straight into my bathroom. Usually while I’m telling him how irritated I am that he is robbing me of my sleep. But knowing he won’t leave until I talk to him, I storm in behind him and give him my best annoyed face.”

“OK then,” was all he said before turning and going into my bathroom. I let out a sigh before following him into the other room. Just like I had to do with Gabe, I turned on the light as I walked in.

“What now?” As soon as he said that, I went from disappointed to frustrated. Does he really not have enough trust in me that he felt like he had to come get a play-by-play of how things go with Gabe?

“Really? You came all the way here to reenact what it’s like when Gabe crawls through my window?” I tried to not sound as frustrated as I was but clearly failed. His face turned into a frown, and he sunk down into my bowl chair.

“Can you blame me? Emma, I know he’s your friend, but he is still a guy. And you…you are beautiful. And if this is what you sleep in, I really want to know what happens next,” he gestured to my oversized t-shirt while now sounding frustrated himself.

“OK. Again, really? After today, did you plan on coming over here and picking a fight with me?” I was currently on the verge of being borderline mad.

Jake leaned forward and ran his fingers through his tousled hair before looking back up at me. “No. But I did want to know what it was like between the two of you. Then I see you, in this shirt that hangs just past your ass and. Damn it, Emma. Can you not see why this would be hard for me?” He sank back into the bowl chair and closed his eyes as he leaned his head back.

I wasn’t stupid. Of course I knew what this had to look like from his point of view. I probably wouldn’t be crazy about another girl crawling through his window either. But this is just how it has always been between Gabe and I. And gah. Why did life have to get so complicated?

I walked over to Jake and reached down to grab his hand. At my touch, his eyes opened and found mine. “I know this probably looks bad and doesn’t make any sense to you. I like you Jake, and if Gabe crawling through my window is going to make things wrong between us, then I’ll tell him he can’t do it anymore.”

He made a frustrated sound as he sat up and grabbed my other hand as well. “Emma, I don’t want to dictate what you can and cannot do with your friends. But I also can’t sit around anymore knowing some guy is sneaking in here when you look sexy as hell.” I blushed at his words and reached out to touch his face before letting my hand fall back down into his, wishing the whole time I could take away the pained expression that I know I put there.

Looking into his eyes I couldn’t tell if he was mad, or hurt, or nervous, but then he took a breath, “Emma, you’re not like any other girl I’ve dated.” Nervous – he was definitely nervous. “I’m not sure what it is about you that makes me this crazy, but I know why this Gabe thing bothers me so bad.” He took another deep breath and squeezed my hands a little tighter. “I love you, Emma.”

All I could do was stand there with this goofy grin and look at him like an idiot while his words sank in.

“Say something please,” he choked out. 

“I love you too, Jake.” I bit my lower lip as a huge smile spread across his face.

“Yeah?”

“Yes! Of course I do. How could I not?”

He didn’t waste any time reaching up and pulling me down onto his lap so that I was straddling him. He took my face in his hands and kissed me. It started out gentle and sweet, but then his hands dropped to my bare thighs. I felt his hands tense when they made contact with my skin. He sucked in a breath, which caused a shiver to shoot down my spine. He deepened the kiss, and I felt his hands begin to creep up my leg. Instinctually, as if my hands had a mind of their own, I reached up and tangled my hands in his hair.

“Emma,” Jake growled, pulling back just enough for him to speak. “If we don’t stop now, I don’t know if I can trust myself to stop later,” he breathed heavily.

I touched my forehead to his and closed my eyes. “What if I don’t want you to stop?”

As soon as my words were out, his lips found mine and his fingers ran straight up my thighs until his hands cupped over my lacey hipster panties. I was instantly glad I was wearing one of my new Pink purchases. When his fingertips tightened around my curves, I sucked in a sharp breath of air. Embarrassed, I started to pull back – stupid betraying body. I never could trust myself around this boy. But Jake didn’t seem phased. He ran one of his hands up my back and pulled me back into him.