Junie & Jackie - A Love Story

8

My dad was not happy when he found out Jackie and Trey had been over. The smoking, he could deal with. He practically had to deal with it, considering I knew his secret and he wasn't going to take away my little bit of happiness without a lot more issues to deal with. But two boys in his house, boys with reputations, as he called them, was something he could not handle.

I think he always saw me as his little girl, the 5 year old that unlaced his shoes when he came home from work, the 9 year old that cried when she got a Nintendo DS as a Christmas present. I was still that little girl in his eyes, and he could not wrap his head around the fact that I knew men, much less let men who were known for bad things into my house. I explained over and over again that they weren't as bad as everyone says, that I truly didn't believe either of them would actually hurt me, but he would not stand for it.

He was nervous not that they would hurt me, but that I would be pulled into the dark world they spend every day in and not be able to claw my way out. I understood him, I did. It was a scary thing to imagine, but I hoped I was smarter than that.

My dad's opinions didn't stop them from coming around anyway. I wasn't sure why they were so interested in me, why they seemed to be prowling around my house the second my parents' cars left the driveway. I didn't know what I—the most boring girl on this side of the train tracks—could possibly possess that would make them want to stay, aside from my babysitting skills.

All I knew is that really, I was lonely. I had friends, good friends, but they weren't around often. They had lives and families and things to do. I had been alone since we graduated high school, so when two boys who wouldn't have blinked an eye at me in school were actually attempting to hang out with me... I couldn't say no.

At least, that's how I was justifying it to myself.

I saw Trey coming from a mile away. Probably because he was double hand waving at me up on the rooftop from where he was exiting Jackie's house. I had seen his car pull up an hour ago, and I had just been waiting for him to make his way over.

An old man, with a hand full of what I could only assume was the meth Jackie's dad was cooking in the kitchen, hobbled out behind him. He looked like he had a bum knee, but you couldn't really tell in his oversized, dirt clothes that draped over his body like a an ill-fitting toga. He left the front door open behind him and started making his way up the street.

"Is Amelia in there?" I called down to Trey, who shook his head.

"Sarah got a job at a gym, babysitting rich kids while their parents work out," he replied. "They let her bring Amelia if she wants. Pretty sweet gig."

"What're you doing here?"

"Is the front door open?"

"I live across the street from Robby Williams," I rolled my eyes. "The door is never open. I'll be there in a second."

I carefully tucked all of my smoking things inside beside the window and climbed back through. I threw on an old hoodie so I wouldn't be too exposed, then went to open the door for Trey, who was now joined by his partner in crime, dressed in his usual all black outfit. His hair was still wet from the shower, little beads of water hanging at the tips of his curls. I looked away before he realized I was staring.

"To what do I owe the pleasure, gentlemen?"

"There's a party tonight at Grizzly's," was all Trey said.

Grizzly was a couple years older than us in school, but he was well known around town for being one of those kids with no brain and a love for opiates. He ended up dropping out of high school when he turned 20. We were all seniors by then. Now, he worked on cars at his dad's shop if he could get out of bed and lived in a double-wide that his grandma had paid off before she died.