𝙩𝙚𝙣 𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙪𝙩𝙚𝙨 | 𝙟𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙜𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙠𝙮 | 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙚𝙩𝙚𝙙

Ch. 3 ♡

Jack's Point Of View

I sighed happily and placed my bag on the couch. My heart was beating out of my chest and I felt like throwing up, but I felt good.

"Jack."

I turned around and saw my mom walking over to me. She looked how she looked everyday– drunk. She held out her hand.

"Oh sorry," I reached into my pocket and handed my money her, "I don't get to pay until next month, right?"

My mom sighed and counted the money. "Yeah. You're remembering now!" She smiled and patted my back, "good boy." She turned around and walked back to her room.

Five years ago, my mom started to develop a drinking problem after my grandma died. It wasn't from anything, it was her just her time to leave. We couldn't do anything about it. Instead of buying what our family needed, she bought what she needed. Liquor. A few months later my dad divorced her and took my sisters back to Omaha. He asked me to come with him, but I couldn't leave her here– someone had to take of her.

I walked into the kitchen to make dinner for her. I didn't want make dinner for myself since I was going on a date with Jamie.

I smiled. I couldn't believe I worked up the courage to asked her out.

As the semester went by, Jamie and I never even talked– every time I saw her there was this feeling in my chest. It started when we were partners in english for a while, she was always nice to me and we had a few things in common. I wanted to talk to her sooner, but her friends were intimidating and she was with them all the time. At this point my feelings for her weren't going away, I watched an old school movie about passing notes in class and took that as advice.

"Shit!" My mom exclaimed from the kitchen. I stopped chopping the carrots and saw that she dropped some pills on the ground.

"Don't worry kid, I got it, just keep cooking," she sighed and bent down to pick up the dirty tablets. I wondered what they were for– she hasn't been to the doctor's recently.

I finished up dinner and called her over, then started to prepare myself. I heard that going to the movies wasn't a good idea for a first date, Johnson and Sammy suggested that I take her out to eat some pizza and walk around the city– maybe some dessert if we had time. 

"Mom! I'm taking the car, I'll be back around 8," I waved goodbye as she smiled– I don't know if she heard me, but she looked at me so I'll take that as an okay.

Jamie texted me address awhile ago and it turns out that she only lived down the street from me, I've never seen her in the neighborhood.

Should I text her to go outside? Or should I knock?

I decided to go to the front door and knock, it was more polite and maybe she'll think of me as a good person. Her house was really nice– their plants were beautiful. I rang the doorbell and knocked, in a few seconds it swung open and I faced her.

Her hair was pinned back and she wore some lipstick, she looked different from what I saw in school. She grinned and closed her door– making sure it clicked and locked.

"Such a gentleman!" Jamie exclaimed as we walked back to the car, "I was looking outside my window and saw you come out."

"It would be more rude to text so–" I ran ahead of her to open the car door, she laughed and got inside.

"You're–" She sighed and smiled, "you're so nice."

I laughed, "your standards for men are low– it's common courtesy."

She smiled as she stared at the streets in front of her, I really wish I knew her mom. Between english class and the hallways, Jamie seemed like the easygoing type of girl. She wasn't rude or mean unless you rude or mean to her, whenever someone needed help she would volunteer. The only "downside" I've seen with her is that she doesn't really turn in work on time and never pays attention in any of her classes– she's not the overachiever in academics.

"Where are we going?"

"I– well, I wanted to go out to eat pizza," I stuttered, "are you good with that?"

"I had pizza for lunch," She fumbled with her phone, "but that was school pizza. How about Mexican food?"

"Tacos?"

"But real tacos," She smiled and pulled out her phone for directions. We ended up having to drive towards the east side of town, somewhere I've never been to, but Jamie's instructions helped me. Our car was pulled over in the streets, she said that this taco truck was one of the best ones in town.

"I would of invited you to a restaurant but this truck is the closest," She leaded me and ordered our food and drinks. In only a few minutes they were prepared and I popped the back of my car's trunk so we could sit down.

"Oh my God," I looked over at her as I had my first bite, "these are good..."

"I know! Better than what they have at Taco Bell," she laughed and continued to eat. The drink she gave me was good too, it was like cinnamon and milk mixed together– she told me it was called horchata.

"So–" She handed me a wet wipe from her purse and one for herself, "–what made you ask me out on a date?"

The horchata shot towards the back of my throat and I coughed, that question was not expected– "I– um.. To be honest I had a crush on you."

Jamie's eyes widened as she sipped on her straw, then she furrowed her eyebrows, "yes and.."

"And I wanted to get to know you outside the walls of the classrooms and school."

She smiled again, this time it was like a satisfied smile, "the last time a guy had a crush on me was the sixth grade and I didn't like him back– our friendship didn't end well."

I arched an eyebrow, "oh.." Was she trying to tell me something?"

"But now that I'm older and there's this cute guy sitting next to me, eating tacos in the night– I think I'll give it try."

I sighed out of relief, Jamie likes joking around a lot, hopefully I'll be able to tell when she's being serious.

"On with dessert!" She smiled and took our trash to throw away.

I closed the back trunk, "this time I'm going to pay," She already paid for our tacos and it was just the first date. The drive back to our side of town was fun– she asked me about my music preferences and we ended having a whole session of sharing playlists and dancing to songs. Her favorite one was September by this guy Roy Blair, she said it was because her birthday was in September.

We stopped by this local ice cream, a girl from school served us before having a small conversation with Jamie about their class.

"The ultimate ice cream flavor.. what is it?" Jamie asked me as she took a scope of hers.

"Cookie dough," I winked and ate some of mine.

"That's fine, I guess," She sarcastically said, "I mean macadamia nut exists but that's fine."

Hopefully the night went well for her because I was having the time of my life. Meeting someone new was already an adrenaline rush, but getting to know your crush was another level. Jamie and I shared the same interests in movies, music, and television shows. Ice breaker stuff I know, it was getting someone though.

"Bye Blair!" Jamie waved off to her friend as I held the door open for her. I dropped her off home and planned to wait until she got inside.

Before opening her door, she turned to me, "next Friday, you free?"

I widened my eyes, "yeah. I am."

"Same time," She winked and walked off, she unlocked her front door and waved before getting inside.

"Yes!" I exclaimed to myself and looked to my car roof, "thank you.."