A Friend's Love

Chapter Fifteen: Date Night

Place: My backyard. The tree Jake and I always climbed. "Our" Tree.

Time: Evening. That sunset, is gorgeous.

Who: Jake. Just Jake, and me. Alone. Finally.

The bark of the old mulberry tree was rough against the skin of my arm. I leaned farther back until I was resting against Jake's chest. His arms wrapped around my rib cage protectively. It was nice to know that I didn't have a huge chance of falling.

The view was really amazing. Sunsets always make me happy. Especially when there are so many colors... Red, orange, pink... a splash of purple... And the breeze felt so nice. It was warm, here in Jake's arms. And relaxing... I could almost forget everything...

But not quite. I couldn't help it. Because as much as I wanted to just relax and enjoy this time I had with my boyfriend (because, really, when did we ever get to do this? With Cassie, and our busy school schedules... It never ended!), the memory of what Alise and Joey had said kept running through my head, like an endless, repeating movie.

I'd been so scared. And I still was. But I was also so relieved.

Jake, Cassie, and I got to the park 5 minutes after they called. The first thing I noticed was the expression on their faces. There was no emotion, whatsoever. Their faces, were completely blank. Was that good? Or... was that bad?

Turns out, it was a bit of both.

Alise explained that the doctors weren't sure what Alise was sick with, if it was anything. They had asked her to take a few tests, just to see what the results would be. But Alise had wanted to ask us first.

The first person to speak up was Cassie. She sounded to small, and scared...

"Will it hurt mommy? Will the tests hurt you?" My heart melted. It was so touching that her only concern was whether her mom would be in pain. Tears started to form in my eyes, and I had to blink rapidly to keep them from falling down my cheeks.

I was so relieved when Alise assured us that the tests wouldn't be painful. But another question was bothering me. I was dying to ask it, but Jake beat me to it.

"How bad do they think this is?"

Alise hesitated, but only briefly. I glimpsed some emotion in her eyes before she covered it up with a fake smile. "Not that bad. I mean, we're pretty sure it's nothing major. So don't worry."

Uh huh. That, was a lie. And we all knew it, except for maybe Cassie. But why make Cassie worry? So... I let it slide.

Alise, Joey, and Cassie went back to their house, and my parents went back to mine. For once, my mom was home. Which meant vegetarian dinners for a week! Yay... Not only was my mom a rich artist, but she was also a vegetarian. I didn't know how she stood it. No chicken, or steak, or hamburgers, or anything? There was no way I could live like that.

So rather than endure another stir-fry meal, I decided to skip and climb a tree with Jake instead.

And so, here we were. He was tense, and I was tense. The moment should have been perfect, any teenage girl's dream, but... all I could feel, was worry. Because even though Alise had said it wasn't bad, I just knew it was. Something wasn't right. And I was scared.

My train of thought was broken when Jake shifted his position and whispered in my ear.

"You wanna go grab some Chinese? I'm starving, and... I need to take my mind off of... everything." He chuckled and I smiled gratefully. Now that he mentioned it, I was was kind of hungry. Okay, scratch that... I was really hungry.