Jake Undone(7)

The first thing on my mind when I woke up was the bat, how intricate it was and how Jake had now joined the bandwagon of people teasing me about my resemblance to the Olsen twins. At least I thought they were pretty and took it as a compliment.

Ryan and Tarah were in the kitchen eating pancakes when I walked in.

“Sit down and join us, Troll,” Ryan said.

Tarah looked at me excitedly. “Nina, you and I should go shopping today. I took the day off.”

“Really? Cool…I need to dress up my room badly.”

She clapped giddily. “Perfect. We’ll have so much fun.” She handed me the syrup. “So, are you nervous about starting school?”

“I am…mostly about the math requirement. I have never done well in math. I failed it in high school, actually.”

Ryan pointed his fork at me. “You should get Jake to help you. He is a whiz when it comes to stuff like math and science.

“I’ll pass. Jake seems a little busy for tutoring.”

Tarah placed a steaming cup of coffee in front of me and said, “Seriously. You should ask him if you’re stuck.”

“Okay,” I said, mostly to shut them up. I knew full well I would never ask Jake for help.



***



That afternoon, Tarah and I went shopping at King’s Plaza. She helped me pick out a pink and gray comforter, a couple of canvas floral wall prints, a gray shag rug, and a pink accent lamp. My father had given me permission to use his credit card for some apartment items, but I knew this spending spree would be the last hurrah for a while.

We stopped for frozen yogurt on the way home, and Tarah insisted on paying for me. We sat down at one of the tables to talk.

“So, you and Ryan. How did that come about?” I asked.

She closed her eyes briefly and sighed. “He is such a sweetie, isn’t he? We were friends for a while first, you know. We had been roommates for like three months before anything ever happened. One night, we had the house to ourselves and just stayed up ‘til all hours talking about anything and everything. All of a sudden, I looked at him and thought…huh.”

“Huh,” I imitated her, laughing.

Tarah took a spoonful of yogurt and continued talking with her mouth full. “I had always thought he was cute, but it was a gradual thing seeing him as something more.”

Then, I stopped beating around the bush and asked the question I really wanted the answer to.

I wiped my mouth and asked, “What do you make of Jake?”

She rolled her eyes. “Jake. Hmmm. Where do I start?”

I started eating my yogurt unusually fast. “What’s his deal?” I asked with my mouth full.

Tarah picked a raspberry out of her cup, ate it and said, “Well, first of all, the obvious…he’s friggin’ smokin’ hot, right?”

I was a little taken aback at her blunt comment and felt a twinge of jealousy but reminded myself that she was with Ryan and would have to be blind not to think Jake was extremely good looking.

“He’s alright,” I said nonchalantly.

“Jake is…cool. I mean, he likes to bust balls. We don’t spend a lot of time with him. He’s obviously got his own stuff going on, traveling back and forth to Boston on weekends and what not. He keeps to himself for the most part when he is home.”

“Do you think he has a girlfriend in Boston?”

“He hasn’t mentioned one, and I have never asked him point blank, but there is definitely something going on there. He has mentioned a sister and nieces that he’s really close to, but he goes back every single weekend, so it can’t just be for them. Jake doesn’t really open up, but that’s okay. He’s respectful, and we all get along. And boy, that dude can fix anything that breaks in the house. It’s amazing how smart he is. He’s got a rough exterior, but there is definitely somebody home upstairs,” she said pointing to her skull.

“Yeah, he seems cool enough.” I decided not to tell her about the bat. I kind of liked keeping that to myself.

Tarah leaned in. “Why were you wondering if he had a girlfriend? She paused and let out a huge smile. “You like him!”





Was it just me or was it getting in hot in here?


I laughed it off. “No, of course not! I mean, not in that way.”

“Then, why did your face just turn as red as this raspberry?”





***



The weekend came and went as I busied myself stocking the refrigerator with my favorite foods and setting up my room. Tarah and I spent Sunday night hanging out in my newly decorated space, waxing our eyebrows and painting our nails.

That night, I tossed and turned, stressed about starting classes the next day.