Five Hundred Miles From Friona, page 4
When the bell rings, I linger anxiously next to Mr. Garcia’s desk until everyone else has left the room. He sighs, “May I ask what that outburst was about?”
“Something I was thinking about made me laugh. I just kind of lost it. I’m sorry.”
“Leanne, you’re a smart girl, a model student.” While he talks, my focus is on a pencil that he’s rolling between his hands. “You’re still a student leader for the next week or so and you’re expected to set a good example.”
I shift my focus from the pencil and look him in the eye. “I’ll try not to let it happen again.”
“Make sure it doesn’t.” His lips twitch slightly, and I think he’s trying not to smile as he waves toward the door. “Get outta here, squirt.”
As soon as I step into the hall, Rachel rushes up to me. She’s panting; no doubt she’s been running in the hall again. “Natalie Dixon said you lost your shit in Mr. Garcia’s class. Are you okay?”
I grin at her, although I’ve smiled so much already today that my cheeks are starting to ache. “I’m in love, Rach.”
“Hell, that’s no news flash,” she says, dropping her shoulders. I swear she’s disappointed that I didn’t have something sensational to report.
“I’ll have to tell you about it later; I’m gonna be late for World History.” I take off down the hall then turn around. “Meet me at the snack bar at lunch.” Rachel waves goodbye.
I make it to my classroom the instant the bell rings. During class I pull Brandon’s note out of my backpack and read it again. Thank goodness, this time I just smile and imagine myself kissing him… in a bed… my fingers tangled in his hair… Oh my gosh… He’s touching me the way he did last night, only more. I refuse to ever live without you either, cowboy.
Shifting awkwardly in my seat, I put the note in my pocket. Then I stow my fantasy before I embarrass myself again. I turn my attention to the teacher, Mrs. Simpson. I have no desire to listen to a lecture on Russian czars today, although, she is showing us some interesting pictures that she took while she was on a trip to St. Petersburg. I have to admit there are some beautiful palaces and churches in Russia, but instead of watching the slideshow, I reply to Brandon’s note. I have an overwhelming desire to tell him I love him.
While I write, I realize that it’s ridiculous for two adults—okay, basically adults, people who have the privilege to vote and enlist in the military—to be writing notes to each other as if we were still in junior high. On the other hand, if Brandon wants to tell me how he feels in writing, he can write all he wants, and I will do the same. Written communication is definitely better than no communication.
He’s waiting for me when I leave class. I go straight to him, wrap my arms around his waist, and lay my head against his chest without saying a word. So I’ve just reduced myself to being the clingy, needy girlfriend, but I don’t care. I want to be close to him, to breathe his scent, to touch him and feel him touch me. I’m dying for a repeat of last night.
About half a second later, Brandon is grasping my shoulders and pushing me away. He holds me at arm’s length and looks into my eyes. “Jake said Rachel told him you freaked out in first period. Are you all right?”
I gaze into his eyes while my brain screams, I love you, I love you, I love you, over and over. “I’m fine,” I answer, feeling my face flush. “I’ll tell you about it later.”
While we walk toward my next class, I give him my note. “Here, I wrote you back.”
He gives me a sideways glance. “You’re not breaking up with me like you did in seventh grade, are you?”
We stop next to my third period classroom. Luckily, Brandon’s class is across the hall. “No way, cowboy. You’re stuck with me for a long time.”
“Damn straight. If you even tried to leave me, I’d have to rope you like we do the calves and pull you back.”
“Well, in that case… moo.”
“You want me to rope you?” he asks as those ice-blue eyes turn at least two shades darker, and he laughs nervously. I might have embarrassed him.
Tilting my head sideways, I roll my eyes toward the ceiling and tap my index finger on my chin. “Hmm, being roped by a very good-looking cowboy… let’s see. Uh huh, that sounds pretty hot.”
His eyes narrow just a little. “Just any cowboy?”
“Only a good-looking one,” I whisper, looking into his eyes again.
“Any good-looking one?”
“Only you, Brandon; you’re all I want.” Forever and ever and ever. Amen.
Chapter Six
Brandon
Damn. That little girl’s a walking, talking question mark. I think she just told me that she wants me to tie her up, and I don’t know if she’s kidding or if she’s serious. I’d be willing to bet if I acted like I was going to, she’d turn tail and run. It’ll never happen, but she’s right: it sounds pretty hot.
The teacher hasn’t started the class yet, so I pull Leanne’s note out of my pocket. While I unfold the notebook paper, I slump over my desk as inconspicuously as I can and shove the note in my book. I don’t want anyone, especially Kelsie Jenkins, who sits behind me and is the nosiest, gossipiest girl in the school, to read over my shoulder. When I finally get a look at it, I see Leanne’s girly handwriting in purple ink.
Brandon,
Thank you for the ringtone and the words to our song. I really loved your sweet note. What you said makes me happy. You always make me feel wanted, and I want you in every way too. I noticed that the word “love” isn’t in the song, but that’s what I want you to feel the most from me.
The feelings are mutual,
Leanne
I know she loves me, but what does she mean by, “I want you in every way, too.”? I don’t know if she means the same thing I meant. When I told her that I wanted her in every way, I meant that I want her to be my girlfriend for the next few years. After that, I want her to be my wife. I want her to work with me in my veterinary practice when I have one, and I want to be with her for the rest of my life. Yeah, okay, I want the sex, too, and that’s the part that’s confusing me.
I told her I wanted to be with her forever and I refuse to ever live without her, but she didn’t respond to that in her note. I’m going to look like a real jerk if she doesn’t want the same things I want, but I don’t know how to ask her what she meant.
This dilemma eats at me for the rest of the morning until I finally decide to ask Jake what to do. He has more experience with girls than I do. Well, he had a girlfriend before Rachel, which is one more than I’ve had, and he’s taken a lot of girls out on dates. Plus, he has an older sister, so he’s had to have learned something about girls from being around her.
At lunch, I meet Jake in the parking lot and we head to Dairy Queen. There aren’t a lot of places to eat in Friona, and we eat at the snack bar at school most of the time, but it gets old. We go to the DQ a couple of times a week, mostly out of habit, but we like the food too. He pulls into the crowded parking lot. As we climb out of his truck, I think about how many times we’ve eaten here and how weird it’s going to be without Jake around when I move to College Station.
When we walk in the door, I remember the time when we were in sixth grade, and our families came here for lunch together after church. Jake and I got our own table as far away from our parents as we could; must’ve been at least fifteen feet. We were sitting there eating chicken strips when out of nowhere Jake busts out laughing and spits chicken all over the table. Of course, I thought it was the funniest thing I’d ever seen. I cracked up too and spewed Coke through my nose and mouth, turning my Texas toast into mush and splattering the table with the sticky brown stuff.
I just happened to look over and saw both of our mothers glaring at us with those pissed-mother looks that mean, If I have to come over there, I’m going to whip your butt when we get home. I kicked Jake under the table and motioned toward our mothers with my head. Ignoring my warning, Jake laughed harder, which made me laugh harder. My mother came over to the table, grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the booth. Then she marched me out to the car and made me sit there by myself until they finished eating. I had to spend the rest of the afternoon hoeing weeds too, while my brother and sister got to go fishing in the stock tank with my dad.
The next day at school, I asked Jake what had been so funny. He said he’d been thinking of a joke that his older sister, Tandy, who was in junior high at the time, had told at the dinner table. It was so stupid, but to two eleven-year-old boys, it was the funniest joke ever: How did Dairy Queen get pregnant? Burger King forgot to wrap his whopper. To this day, it’s the only joke I can remember. I suck at jokes.
When we get our turn at the counter, we order our usual burgers and fries. I grab a table in the corner with only two seats. I need to talk to Jake and I don’t want anybody else to sit with us. While we wait on our food, I tell him about the notes Leanne and I wrote and ask him for advice on how to talk to her about what she meant.
“Sounds like she wants you to do her.” Jake shrugs indifferently as he takes a drink of his Coke then crunches a mouthful of ice.
I frown at his rudeness, which wouldn’t bother me if he were talking about anyone besides my girlfriend. “I wasn’t asking your opinion; I want you to tell me how to bring it up, how to ask her what she meant.”
“Just ask her. Babe, when you wrote that note, did you mean you want to have sex with me?”
“I can’t be that blunt with Leanne. Besides that, I’m not as rude as you.”
“Hey, you asked me and I told you.” Arrogance rolls off of him like beads of sweat.
I wad my straw wrapper into a ball and throw it at him. “Be serious for once in your life. What would you do if Rachel said she wanted you in every way?”
He gives me a droopy-eyed, bored look, and says, “I’d say, babe, when you said that, did you mean you wanted to have sex with me?” He goes to the counter to get our order. Seven steps later, he’s back with our food, carrying the tray in one hand and strutting like he thinks he’s a real player when it comes to women. “’Cause if that’s what you want, baby, I’m down with it. You just name the place and time.”
“You’re full of crap, Jake. You don’t have the balls to talk to her that way.” Sighing, I look at him. “Girls speak a whole different language, and I don’t know how we’re supposed to figure out what they mean.”
He wiggles his eyebrows. “I don’t have to figure out what Rachel means. She tells me exactly what she wants, straight up.” Jake props his elbows on the table and takes a huge bite out of his double-meat, double-cheese burger. “It’s gonna kill me when she’s at Baylor and I’m…wherever.”
If he wasn’t acting like a jerk, I’d feel bad for the guy; it would kill me to live far away from Leanne too. “Who knows; you might get an offer from a school that’s close to Waco.”
He holds his hand up in front of him, indicating that I need to shut up. “I have, but I don’t want to talk about it,” he mumbles with his mouth full. He finally swallows and wipes the corner of his mouth on the back of his hand. “So, you told Leanne that you wanted her in every way first, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then tell her what you meant and she’ll probably tell you what she meant.”
I must look like I’m about to balk at that suggestion—which I am—because he smacks his hand down on the table and adds, “Hell, just write her another note if you can’t ask her in person. I can’t believe you’re such a chickenshit.”
I am a big chickenshit when it comes to this stuff. “I can’t either, but I don’t want to mess this up with her.”
“Then don’t.” Picking up his cup, he shakes ice into his mouth, crunching louder this time.
“I’m in love with her.” There, I said it. I finally admitted it out loud for the first time, and it didn’t kill me. I didn’t throw up or anything.
Flabbergasted, one of my grandmother’s favorite words, is how Jake looks with his mouth open, staring at me. I’m sure he’s as surprised to hear me say it as I am. He grins sarcastically and shakes his head. “You’re screwed, buddy. Next thing you know, she’ll be wantin’ you to buy her a ring, and then she’ll have your ass out shopping for furniture.”
That’s exactly what I want at some point, but there’s no way in hell I’m going to admit that to Jake now. I lean back in my seat and cross my arms. “No way; that’s not happening any time soon. I haven’t even told her I love her yet.”
His eyes narrow as what I said sinks in. I’m pretty sure he knows that I’m trying to play it off because Jake knows me better than anyone. His mouth twists into a smirk. “Damn, Brandon.”
On the way back to school, I remember my promise to Leanne not to keep anything from her. And although Jake hasn’t really given me anything except a hard time, I keep going back to one thing he said: Tell her what you meant. I need to start talking to her and chickenshit or not, I’m going to, starting now.
As soon as we pull in to Jake’s parking place, I see Leanne and Rachel headed our way. Jake sees them, too. “Here comes your wife,” he says to me, but even as he teases me, his eyes never leave Rachel. He’s grinning like an idiot, he’s breathing harder, and that’s when I notice it: Jake Wolcott is in love with Rachel McKee.
After all the crap he’s given me at lunch, it’s obvious that he’s in as deep as I am. Hypocritical bastard. I want to punch him in the face. “Yeah, and that’s your wife with her, asshole.”
Ignoring my comment, he pulls the key out of the ignition, opens his door, and the instant his feet hit the pavement he grabs Rachel. She jumps into his arms, wraps her legs around his waist, and squeals like she hasn’t seen him in years. Two seconds later they’re in full-mouth lock-down.
When I get out, Leanne is standing by my door. I think she’s a little embarrassed by the make out session taking place on the other side of Jake’s truck. Her cheeks are flushed, and she’s biting her lip as she smiles up at me. “Hey.”
On impulse, I pick her up, hold her against me, and kiss her hard. When I open my eyes, she’s blinking at me like I’m crazy. And I am crazy. I’m crazy in love with her. Reluctantly, I set her down and brush her hair back from where the wind has blown it in her face. “I missed you at lunch.”
“I missed you too.” She looks down at her feet, causing me to look down too.
Her toenails are painted pink, and she’s wearing black flip-flops with silver studs on them. Even her feet are sexy. She’s perfect, and I want to blow off school so I can be with her. Jake’s right: I’m screwed, but I’m good with that. “I want to spend the afternoon with you.”
Glancing toward the school, she says, “Me too, but at least we’ll get to spend the night together.” Her hand shoots up and clamps over her mouth. She giggles and blushes the color of her toenails. “That’s not… I didn’t… mean it to come out that way.”
This is one of those times when she reminds me of a little girl. I can’t keep from grinning, but at the same time, I think about how great it would be to spend the night with her. I’d like to do what we did last night, but for longer and in a place other than out at the old gin. “I know that’s not what you meant.” Okay, Kirk, grab the bull by the horns. This is my chance to tell her what’s on my mind and I’m taking it. “I want to spend the night with you though.”
She turns her eyes up to look at me. “We better go in; the bell’s about to ring.”
Before we walk off, I glance across the hood of Jake’s truck and see him and Rachel still kissing and groping each other. They need to get a room or get to class. I’m still pissed at him so I decide to give him back some of the crap he gave me at lunch. “Hey, Jake, I heard there’s a big sale at Furniture Outlet in Clovis; better go get you some chairs… and a bed.” The jerk doesn’t even break his kiss with Rachel but lets go of her long enough to flip me off. Shaking my head, I grab hold of Leanne’s hand and we head into the school.
Leanne doesn’t speak while we make our way through the halls. I want to kick myself in the ass because I’m pretty sure I offended her with my comment about wanting to spend the night with her. She’s quiet all the way to her locker, and now I’m worried that she’s mad at me. When we stop, she looks up at me with a confused frown on her innocent face and says, “Why does Jake need furniture?”
Chapter Seven
Leanne
Brandon isn’t talking to me. I just asked him why Jake needed to buy furniture, and he didn’t answer. I cross my arms and lean against the lockers, waiting for him to answer my question. When he doesn’t, I give up and start walking toward my class.
He comes up next to me and drops his arm around my shoulders. “I’m sorry, Leanne; you should have seen how cute you looked. You took me by surprise.”
“But you didn’t answer my question.”
A brief scowl crosses his face, or maybe it was a grimace; I don’t know. “I’ll tell you later, okay?” I notice him glance at the clock in the hall then he brushes a quick kiss across my cheek. “See you after school.”
I watch him walk away from me. My heart is heavy as I enter my classroom and take my seat. I really wanted to spend the afternoon with Brandon. I miss him already.
When the bell rings, Rachel’s seat next to mine is empty. If she and Jake are skipping school this afternoon, I’m going to be twelve kinds of green with envy. As if their little porn show in the parking lot at lunch wasn’t enough. I don’t even want to think about what they do when nobody’s watching, but if they’re sleeping together, I hope they’re being careful.
Oh, no! What if Jake needs to buy furniture because Rachel’s pregnant? My stomach churns with dread and I press my hand against my abdomen to make it stop. It doesn’t help. I feel the burrito I ate for lunch rolling around in there, making me sick.
