The Bench

Jake

"Jake!" She announced her presence and waved with a smile.

He turned towards her and smiled. He held up a finger for her to wait while he finished excusing himself from his football player friends. They pushed him while laughing loudly.

Must be nice. Cecilia thought wrapping her skinny arms around herself.

"Hey C!" He called while jogging towards her to give her a hug. "You know you could come up to the field after the game and meet me there."

She accepted his hug and tried not to wince at the nickname. "You know I'd rather not be drowned by all that testosterone." She joked cooly. Cecilia didn't exactly know how to explain that she could sense something... spiritually off... about the football field, or maybe it was the bleachers or something. She didn't have much of a desire to find out.

He rolled his eyes, going quiet.

"You okay?" She asked.

"I'm fine C." He said snapping out of it. "Let's get you home before Mrs. Woodfield starts calling you."

"Okay.." She replied. He seemed to be doing this more and more. But it wasn't any of her business. "Oh hey, did I tell you what my foster brother said yesterday?"

"Colton? No. What is it this time?" Jacob asked. He offered his hand for her to hold while they walked.

She took it and dove into the story of her 8 year old foster brothers' antics while they walked home.

After the stoplight he paused, Jacob dropped her hand and faced her. "Now's the time for a kiss if you want one." He said bluntly.

"Oh," Cecilia blushed and took a step back. She didn't know why she still reacted like this. He did this every time they walked home together. "I'd rather not. Besides, you know how Mrs. Woodfield would react if she found out." Cecilia replied honestly.

"Worth a try." Jacob shrugged. She had to admit; he was very persistent. He took her hand once again and started walking. And he respected her as well. Not something you can usually find, especially in high school. She smiled. She was lucky and she knew it.

And it wasn't just her amazing boyfriend, her foster family was pretty great as well. Mrs. Woodfield seemed to be such a caring person. And her foster brother Colton was such a funny kid. Cecilia was a little bit iffy about Mrs. Woodfields' relationship with her husband... or boyfriend, or partner... she really wasn't sure what was going on there. Only that Mrs. Rebecca Woodfield insisted that her last name was the same as her... "husbands'" - Steven Woodfield. Her foster parents were never really interested in talking about their personal relationship. Of course, Cecilia had only met them a couple of months ago, so she was giving them the benefit of the doubt. Steven seemed pretty cool though. He would teach her how to do maintenance on a car and other cool stuff like that, something her other foster families never bothered to do. She secretly hoped that this would be the last foster family she would have to be with before she turned 18 next year.

"I'm still not used to walking you home in this direction." Jake broke into her thoughts.

Not realizing she had gone silent, she looked up at him and quickly responded "I'm still not used to living here!" and then gave a little laugh. "I'm just glad they allowed me to keep attending Machebeuf so that I could start dating you." she said shyly.

Jake smiled and caressed her face in his strong hand. "Well, this is where I must leave you C." He looked up at the house.

Cecilia sighed, gave Jake a hug and started up the stairs. "See you tomorrow!" she called over her shoulder.