Roller Coaster Summer

~Chapter Five~

     "So you live here, right?" Jake asked me once we were outside and near the river. The moon's reflection hit the water and I saw Jake's eyes glitter.

     "Yeah, where do you live? If you don't mind telling me."

     "Oh I don't mind, I live over there." He pointed to the other side of the river at New Hope. That's weird, because I never saw him before in my life until Carrie's wedding.

     "How come I've never seen you then? I know tons of people in New Hope." I scrunched my eyebrows together, wracking my brain to see if I actually ever did see him before.

     "I have no clue. Maybe I'm not worthy of being seen by you." He shrugged with a smile on his face.

     "Sure." I said with heavy sarcasm and a smile on my face because I wasn't that ignorant to not notice his looks if he ever passed me.

     "Well, I live alone in the apartment right above the guitar place; since I, well, own it." I looked at him with astonishment. I always saw that store but since I was never really into music, I never really stopped by to check it out. Maybe if I did, I would have met Jake sooner...

     "You own it? Like literally?"

     "Yup, my parents are dead so it was left to me." I quickly looked at him and gently touched his arm.

     "I'm so sorry, I didn't know. I should never have mentioned anything." I started to pull my hand away but his hand covered it, making my hand stay in place. Something in my heart warmed that never really got touched before.

     "Don't worry, there's no way you would have known." He looked down at me and had a look in his eyes that I couldn't quite read. The back of his fingers grazed my cheek as he said, "You're so beautiful."

     His other hand slid down my arm to my hand and held it. I don't think I ever felt so weak to a person then I did right there. I closed my eyes yet I could still see his face in my head. I shivered and then his hands were off of me, which made me even cold for some odd reason. I opened my eyes and saw him take his brown sweatshirt off then offer it to me.

     "You don't need to do that, I'm fine." I said, while I pushed the sweatshirt back to him.

     "Layna, its fine. You probably need it more than I do." He gave it back to me and I surrendered then pulled it on. It was warm and soft on the inside. It also had that perfect guy smell, which made me a little dizzy; but the good kind of dizziness.

     "I like you." I said quietly as I wrapped my arms around myself.

     "What?" I almost felt discouraged when he asked that but then I remembered that I'm Elena Ferrante, whose not scared easily.

     "I like you. I don't normally like creeps who randomly talk to me on cruises and hide in the shadows." I smiled and pushed him lightly on the shoulder to show him that I was joking about the whole 'creep' thing.

     "Good, because I like you too and I don't normally like girls that don't know the difference between a guitar and bass guitar." I stuck my tongue out at him and he laughed a good and happy laugh.

     "You're never gonna let that down are you?" I crossed my arms over my chest.

     "Nope, but you're never going to let down the 'standing in shadows' thing so we're even." He smiled gallantly then crossed his arms across his chest to mimic me.

     "True. So, want to play the question game so we can get to know each other more?"

     "Sure, but you must go first." I threw my hands up in the air because whenever I played that game, people always made me go first.

     I go first anyway.

     When the show inside was over, Summer and the guys found Jake and I sitting on the grass beside the river asking each other simple or difficult questions and laughing.

     Jake gave me his number which I put securely in my phone right away; but since he didn't have his phone, I had to write my number on his hand like a cliché. He promised me that he would call me so we could hand out sometime again. Summer also left with a person's number, Chris'. She seemed happy and I thought she liked him, a lot. We all already knew that he 'loved' her.

     "You like Jake." Summer said when we were walking home like it was a fact.

     "Yeah, as a friend."

     "Nooo, you like him more than a friend. You never give people your number that you've only known a day or two. You like him a lot, Elena. I can just see it in your eyes. Maybe summer is good for you and I'm not talking about myself. I think he's cute and I'm happy for you. Just make sure you get him before someone else does." She wrapped an arm around my shoulder and had a very proud look on her face.

     "I never said I liked him, Summer. And oh, what about you? You seemed to take a liking to Chris." I winked at her and bumped my hip with hers.

     "Yes, I do like Chris. At least I'll admit to it. Plus I'm not the one who went alone with one of the guys and 'got to know each other'."

     "Why'd you say it in that way? We did get to know each other, we asked each other questions and got to know each other. Nothing else really." I didn't tell her anything about how he caressed my cheek and held my hand and how I closed my eyes, secretly wanting him to kiss me. Or how I didn't think of Will at all the whole time and how I just couldn't stop looking at Jake the whole night, even though we were talking to each other the whole night. I just didn't want to give in to Summer and let her know that he warmed a spot in me that I never thought any guy would touch.

     "Mhmm, then why do you have his sweatshirt?" Oh crap, I completely forgot to give him his sweatshirt back. Or maybe did I subconsciously didn't give it back to him so I knew I would have to see him again?? Elena, I told myself, stop thinking about the possibilities.

     "I was cold and he was being nice to let me borrow it, which I forgot to actually give back to him."

     "Mhmm, I don't think he would have let me or any other girls borrow it if we were cold." I ignored her and rolled my eyes, though some place deep within me; I kind of knew what she meant.

     Once it was well past midnight, I was finally in bed and thought about all that I knew of Jake.

     He was only a year older than me and his birthday was April 12th. He lived alone in the apartment above the guitar place in New Hope since his parents died five years back. Before he was eighteen and was legal to live alone, his uncle lived with him. He was in the band for a year then but knew how to play the bass for a long as he could remember. Ronnie was his best friend even though he's crazy. Jake has never smoked and never will because that's how his grandmother died at the age of fifty-six. He loved playing sports but only liked watching football and baseball. Unfortunately, he liked the New York Mets and the Giants, where I liked the Philadelphia Phillies and Eagles.

     His favorite color was blue, food was spaghetti, dessert was brownies, ice cream was coffee, soda was birch beer, and music was country. His dream girl was someone who cares for him, is playful, will try new things, active, smart, kind, loving, respectful, beautiful on the inside and out, and who would love him for him. The features don't matter.

     The funniest thing that he has ever done was light mini fireworks in a trash can to a very hung over Chris because he would not wake up when they had a gig in an hour then.

     I ended up falling asleep to the thought of Jake and the sound of his laughter ringing through my ears.