Scared of Falling in Love

Goodnight

"Your parents are so cool", Jaden says with his hands in his khakis pockets. He smiles at me, then looks up at the sky. Tonight is probably one of the clearest nights so far this year. And you don't get much of those these days what with all of the pollution.

Even though the sun set about and hour and a half ago, the sky seems so bright, illuminated by the moon, which is very big and full. There isn't much need for the street lights tonight.

I walk Jaden over to the bench swing placed on top of a bunch of white rocks and stands right in the middle of mama's (grandma's) garden.

Oh yeah. Did I mention that it's not only me, my brothers, my mom, and my dad that live in the house? Nope. There is also my mom's sister, Auntie Vicky, along with her four kids which are my first cousins. In order from oldest to youngest, there's John, Joey, Katherine, and Ally. There's my mama and papa. And there's my Uncle Ray, the brother of my mom and Auntie Vicky, along with his two kids( also my first cousins), Jake and Laya. Yes, I know there are many J's in the family.

So what's that? Six adults and nine kids. That means that whenever there's a tub of ice cream, it lasts under an hour. That means that we have to fight to use the bathrooms in the morning. That means that I have to wake up before everyone else just to take a warm shower. But the nine of us are practically like siblings. We've grown up together in this house.

"Why do you say it like it's the first time you've met them. You used to come over all the time", I say chuckling, as I sit down on the bench swing. I stare at the rocks, kicking at them.

"Well the last time I actually talked to them was in the sixth grade when I came over for a school project. They asked me what I wanted from McDonalds", he says smiling.

Technically, Jaden and I have known each other since elementary. In fact, almost everyone that attends Eastwood High School has known each other for the majority of their lives. This is because the elementary and middle school that I attended, and the high school I'm currently attending, all range within a mile from each other.

However, it was in the sixth grade that we actually began to talk. It's not like we really had a choice though. We were assigned as partners, so talking to each other was pretty mandatory unless you wanted a low grade in participation. HA. Like I was going to let that happen. I was the girl in class that would be seen crying over anything lower than an A- on a progress report. I slightly smile to myself, remembering the time Nathan comforted me while I was crying over my English grade. It was embarrassing, knowing people were watching me cry, but I couldn't help it.
Jaden and I got around to talking outside of class and I guess that's when our friendship officially began.

"Oh yeah. That was a really good burger", I say chuckling, thinking of the BigMac that I had that day. I quickly put aside the thought. Considering we each received and devoured our own box of pizza, the thought of food at the moment is triggering my gag reflexes.

"Well yeah. It only tasted so good because we were starving", he says, smiling so big, exposing his pearly white teeth. "We skipped lunch because you begged me to come with you to Mr. Gerrad's classroom so that you could convince him to change your test grade from an A to an A+. Remember?", he says, smiling teasingly at me then staring up at the sky again. I open my mouth in self defense, but the smile creeping it's way onto my face mixed into that expression.

"For your information , that test grade did bring my grade up exactly one percentage", I say, sitting criss cross applesauce on the swing. I switch my gaze over from the sky to Jaden, who was still looking up at the sky.

Even though that one percentage didn't change my letter grade, considering you can't get higher than an A+, I still take every possible area of improvement into consideration. Although Jaden really cares about his grades too, as long as he has an A, the percentage doesn't seem to matter to him.

The moonlight gave this special lighting to his face that made his facial features stand out even more. He has no facial hair at all, unlike the rest of his friends who have already began to grow a lot of long, thin hairs around their upper lip area. I also notice a small scar on his left cheek, about an inch below his eye. The sight of it makes me smile at the memory of how he got it.

Almost a minute has gone by before I realize just how long I've been staring at him. He catches me staring, and I quickly look away, blood rushing up to my cheeks in embarrassment. I look back up to him, hoping that he went back to looking up at the sky, but he was still looking at me. As our eyes meet, his gaze gets softer.

"What?", I ask, jokingly, attempting to hide my embarrassment.

"You were staring first", he says in a whisper, and I'm pretty sure I'm hallucinating as I see his eyes go from my eyes to my lips. It's only now that I realize how close our faces have become, only two inches apart. My heart is beating so fast. Oh jeez...

Not knowing what to do in a situation like this, I clear my throat and look at the ground.

"Uhm. The- The scar. From fifth grade. I uh- I forgot about it", I say, staring down at my hands, fidgeting with them.

"Oh yeah", he says brushing a finger across the scar, pink showing on his cheeks. He looks back up at the sky. "That jerk Nathan called you dumb and ugly. I got so mad", he says."You tried calming me down, but I was too mad", he continues, shaking his head. " I jump front kicked him in the face, thinking I was so tough with my purple belt in Karate, and I forgot that he was a red belt. He got so mad and punched me so hard that I-"

"That you were unconscious", I finish.
"I remember crying and repeatedly screaming 'you killed him you killed him'. Oh gosh that was the scariest moment ever", I say laughing.

He starts laughing too. "Then he apologized to you with a rose-"

"And I fell in love with him", I finish, finger quoting 'in love'.

"Yah. I learned to get along with him... Eventually", he says, smiling to himself.

"Well at least you did. The rest of my family.... not so much. They never liked him. They always knew he was no good.   They kept reminding me of that over and over again. And I tried sticking up for him so many times, but they never gave in. And the dance incident in the eighth grade just gave them a reason to hate him even more", I say, shaking my head, still fidgeting with my hands.

He quickly takes his focus off of the sky and fixes it on me. He looks at me with a mixture of sympathy and concern.

I laugh softly, shaking my head."Stop looking at me like you feel sorry for me", I say nudging him. "I'm over it, remember?"

"Yeah I guess", he says, scratching the back of his neck.

I opened my mouth to say something, but before I could say anything, Jaden quickly stands up, looking down at his watch.

"Hey so um this was fun, but I actually have to go home. You know. Mr. Harrison gave us a bunch of homework", he says. But he looks anxious and sort of nervous- as if he's hiding something.

"Oh yeah. Four page essay due tomorrow. Forgot about that", I say, not questioning him any further. I don't want him to get the impression that I'm nosy.

"Yah... So uh tell your parents again that I said thank you", he says, but his attention is somewhere else. I just don't know where.

Instead of responding, I just smile, nodding, tucking hair behind my ear.

"Goodnight, Giselle", he says getting on his bike.

"Good night. Talk to you Monday at school?"

I expected him to say yes. I expected him to say that he'll talk to me on Monday or call me later or something. But he didn't.

"Goodnight", he said. And that was all he said. He looked at me for a few more seconds before riding off.