Serena

E i g h t e e n

As it turns out, my aunt Tess is an advocate for grounding me. No TV, no video games, no phone, no Jake, no nothing. She let me pick up my work the following day and within three days' time I had it all done. With nothing else to do, I decided to pick up extra shifts at my job and will manage to make a decent paycheck at the end of the two weeks.

One thing with working there though, was that my aunt couldn't control what customers I had, so when Jake just so happened to stop by with a few of his friends, I quickly told him the rest of my schedule for the last few days of my suspension and he made it a point to stop by every day to see me which brings me to now—Monday afternoon.

Jake is currently leaning against the glass counter, licking at his double chocolate ice cream cone with sprinkles while I clean my work station. It had been a slow day and I was surprisingly ready to return to school tomorrow.

"So how did your game go?" I ask as I spray out an empty container.

"We won actually. Kurt scored the winning shot with only a few seconds to spare so it was a pretty close game. Sucks you weren't there though," he admits before lapping at the gelato. "Can you come to the next one?"

Even though my back is turned to him and I know he can't see me, I still smile. "Yeah I'll come," I say, turning around and returning the container to its rightful place.

"You promise?" he continues, taking a bite from his cone.

Suppressing a laugh, I nod and wet a rag so I can wipe down the counter, "I promise I'll come."

I see a satisfied look creep onto his face and he adjusts his position on the counter. "So you excited to come back to school tomorrow?" he asks.

I meet his gorgeous brown eyes and sigh, "Yes and no. I mean I'm sick and tired of being at home all the time but I'm also nervous about how people will view me or what else they will start saying. I did pop their precious Maci Simmons after all."

Jake chuckles and takes another bite from his cone, "Believe it or not, it sounds like half the school is glad that you did."

"And what about the other half?" I ask, raising an eyebrow. He presses his lips together and looks down at his cone, avoiding the answer, causing me to shake my head and scoff.

"If it makes you feel any better, anytime I've heard someone talk shit about you I tell them to knock it off," he offers, meeting my gaze again.

At this I smile and allow myself a small laugh. "My hero," I tease. It was partially true though—I've never really had anyone stick up for me to my knowledge. In my absence during junior year, I know for a fact Caroline didn't and Lee usually doesn't like to get in the middle of things. Besides, I hadn't really told them I would be taking an absence from school—I just left and said I had to deal with some things and kept them in the dark.

Jake shoves the remainder of his cone into his mouth and wipes his hands on his jeans. Boys.

He then walks in front of me at the register and casually leans over it, forcing me to look at him. "So, given that it is now officially October and that the Homecoming dance is next week, do you think you'd might want to go with me?" he asks suddenly.

His question catches me completely off-guard and I look at him like a deer in headlights. "Erm..." I trail off. It's not that I didn't want to go with him as being his date would be a complete honor, but I didn't like crowds and our friendship or whatever you want to call it has already brewed up trouble and rumors at school. "Are you sure?"

My question causes him to raise his eyebrows and jerk his head back in confusion. "What do you mean am I sure?" he asks. "That I want you to go with me?" I nod and shrug, continuing to wipe down the counters. From the corner of my eyes, I see that he is looking at me with a dumbfounded expression.