Bumps in the road | J. Puckerman (1)

Slushy

A few days later we sat at lunch the way we always did. At our little circle table, I sat next to Blaine and Jake. Today Jake sat closer to me than he had in the past, I thought he would be more distant but he was closer. We talked and laughed like nothing had happened in the past few days like I didn't sing a song to wreck his relationship, but you could tell something did happen. No one said anything, but it was different. Jake and I were closer and his smile was back. I forgot how much I missed that smile.

"So like fancy basketball shooter, winning, throwing the ball and all that fun stuff?" I asked looking at Jake, he had shot the basket that won the basketball game. I knew he was excited and I was proud of him, but I really didn't understand basketball too much.

Jake laughed and softly rubbed my back, quickly dropping his hand "yeah, something like that. You should come to watch me be a fancy basketball shooter sometime."

"I would love that," I said with a smile looking into his big brown eyes.

"I would love that" a boy mocked, grabbing the neck of Jake's shirt and dumping a slushy down his back. "That's what you get for leaving Kitty for bitchy little miss perfect," he said, slapping Jake's back to make his shirt stick.

"What the fuck!" Jake yelled "Asshole!"

Jake was frantically trying to clean himself off. We had all been slushied before but this was his first and he was not okay. Jake was looking around panicking not knowing what to do, so I decided to offer help while letting him still be in control.

"Jake? Can I help you clean up? I can help you get dry and walk with you to the locker room so you can rinse off and change?" I asked him softly and offered my hand.

Jake nodded frantically and grabbed my hand pulling me to the locker room. "Fucking asshole! I swear to all that is good and fucking holy I'm going to kill him!"

"Oh-kay," I said taking his other hand. "Why don't you go rinse off and come back?"

He nodded and walked into the locker room. I sat on the bench outside the door and waited for him to be done and change. I could hear him cursing under his breath. His voice sounded angry, but you could tell he was trying to hold back tears. I just sat and waited, I wasn't going to say anything that would make him uncomfortable

When he came out, even though he had changed he was still itching at his back. He paced back and forth pulling on his shirt and clenching his jaw. "I'm going to rip his fucking head off," he said in a quiet voice. I could tell he wanted it to come off angry but he couldn't.

I watched him pace and yank his shirt for a few minutes. "What can I do to help you?"

"I I I- I just- I don't know. I don't know. I don't know." He said, itching at his back harder.

"Can I give you a hug?" I asked, "is a hug going to help your brain slow down or make it move faster?"

He looked up at me with sad eyes and open arms. I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around his waist. I softly scratched his back in an attempt to replace the sensory. He dropped his head on mine and loosely wrapped his arms around me. His breathing was fast and shallow so I make sure to take deep and slow breaths, in hopes that he would match them.

"Deep breaths Jake, it's okay," I told him, still scratching his back.

"God I know it's not really there still, but it is" he explained, hugging me a little tighter.

We stood there and hugged for a few minutes. I scratched his back and told him that he was going to be okay.

After a little while longer he looked down at me, "this is helping?"

"What is?" I asked, softly.

He put his head back on mine and took a deep breath, "the fancy scratches and hugs?"

I smiled, even though I knew he couldn't see me. "I'm glad, if you need anything, for real tell me."

I felt him nod his head. We stayed there for a few minutes longer than separated, both sitting on the bench that I waited for him on.

"Can we just sit here a second before we go back? Or you can go back, but I'm taking a second?" He asked me, his breathing just a little faster than normal.

"We can stay here," I told him, rubbing my hand on his back so he knew I was there. "We can stay here as long as you want, then go back to our fancy table."

He shook his head and smiled, "thank you. Thank you for caring after Kitty was a jerk to you. Thank you for not letting me push you away."

I moved so I could look into his eyes, "Thank you for not pushing me away."

About five minutes before the bell rang, we went back to the lunch table to clean up our food and make sure that everyone knew Jake was okay.

"Did y'all make out?" Sophia as with a laugh.

I looked at her with a mom glare, quickly changing my eyes to be soft, "Nope" I said popping the p "we just had some hugs and talked a little bit."

"I still want to kill him." Jake reminded me, he was very upset about the whole situation -and rightfully so- that his filter was pretty much gone.

"I could throw a slushy at his face and make him and sad and sticky," Sophia said proudly.

She was protective of her friends in a different way than I was, but I still loved her and was so grateful for her love and kindness. She would slushy them back, and harder. Me on the other hand, I would try to sit down and explain to them why what they were doing was wrong. I guess that's what you get when you are the person who gets thrown around. You know how to talk yourself out of situations pretty well.

"That's a... that is a plan, Sophie. Yep. But like, maybe don't?" I told her right as the bell rang for us to leave for class.