In My Shoes (22 page)

Nicole just looked at me the whole time I was
talking, and continued looking at me until she found her voice.

“I am so sorry. That had to be very
uncomfortable for you. I mean, they obviously don’t understand our
situation, but it must have hurt having them say all of that about
you…and your family.”

“It did, but I know they are just trying to
protect you.”

“Yes, but they couldn’t be more off base. You
really are a good guy. And I think your mom is great. If they knew
her, I know they’d feel differently.”

“I didn’t really know what to say to your
father. I’m sure you could have handled the situation better. I was
trying my best to bite my tongue and not say something to cause a
problem. I wish you could have been there to speak to your father.
That’s a case where it would have been helpful to know your father
better to know what to say.”

“Well, I wish I could have spoken to my
father, too. This whole situation has been just awful at
times.”

At that moment, I saw my mother standing at
the doorway to my room. She looked pale. I gave Nicole a look,
because she had her back to the door. She turned around to see my
mother give a half-hearted smile. I smiled and said hello.

“Hi kids,” she said softly.

“Oh, hi mom,” she said looking at her…well,
my…watch. “You’re home early. Are you feeling okay?”

“No, I’m feeling a little under the weather,
so I asked to go home a little early. I had some personal time
available, so they let me go. What are you two doing?” she said
curiously.

“We were studying, but we’re taking a break.
We were just talking. Do you need me to get you something?”

My mother’s smile became a little warmer. “No
Hon, but thank you. I’m just going to go lie down for a while. Are
you guys going to be here for dinner?”

“Well, we were going to go to the mall with
some friends, but I can stay home…”

“Oh no. Thank you Jake, but I’ll be fine. You
go out and have a good time. Just make sure you’re home by eleven,
or call if there’s a problem.”

“Are you sure, because I don’t mind
staying?”

“I’m sure. Have fun.”

“I hope you feel better, Angela,” I said.

“Thank you, Dear. Nice seeing you again.”

I smiled, and she walked away.

“She didn’t look so good. I hope she’s okay,”
Nicole said.

“I know. Hopefully she’ll feel better when
she gets some rest. They work her hard at her office. She doesn’t
take time to eat lunch half the time.”

“That’s not good.”

“I know. So, what were we talking about?”

Nicole thought for a moment. “I…don’t
remember.”

“Oh well. It must not have been important.
I’ve got about thirty minutes left of government, and then I’m
done.”

“I’m almost done, too. Should we go to my
house...Oh,” she said after a pause, “that’s what we were talking
about. My parents. And you never called my mom back. Do you want to
call her back, see what she wanted and tell her we are coming over
for dinner?”

“Okay. What do I say if she asks me what I’ve
been doing?”

“Tell her you were studying. You said they
told you that you could come over here still, right?”

“Right.”

“Then it shouldn’t be a big deal. If my mom
starts to make an issue of it, just tell her that’s why we are
coming over there for dinner.”

I called Nicole’s mom back. She answered on
the second ring. “Hello?”

“Hi mom, sorry I missed your call. What’s
going on?”

“I just wanted to see if everything was okay.
I found some of your clothes in the washer. It looked like the
outfit you left school in today.”

How did she remember that, and how did she
notice with everything else mixed in there? I could barely remember
what
I
wore this morning, much less what others were
wearing. “Oh, yeah…they got…dirty. I had to come home and
change.”

“Oh…gotcha!” she said. “I moved them to the
dryer. I’ll put them away for you.”

“Thank you.”

“Sure. So, what are you up to?”

“I’m studying right now. Jake and I were
planning on coming over for dinner tonight, and then we’re going to
go to the mall with Jessica, Caryn and Meredith.”

“Oh, that sounds like a great idea! You
haven’t gone out with the girls in a while. I’ll have dinner ready
by six. Love you.”

“Love you, too,” I said. She hung up, and I
did the same. It’s weird telling Nicole’s mother I love her.

“She was fine with us coming for dinner. I
forgot about the clothes in the washer. She seemed to understand,
you know…”

“Yeah. Girls get that kind of stuff. At one
time or another, I think it’s happened to all of us.”

“I didn’t know what to say. Do girls normally
talk about that stuff?”

“Girls talk about everything with each other.
At least, that’s my experience. How else are we supposed to figure
out everything that’s going on in us?”

“I don’t know…Google?”

“So, guys don’t talk about things?”

“We talk about some things, but I don’t
usually talk about really personal stuff. It’s kind of
embarrassing.”

“That kind of goes back to what we were
talking about before,” she said. “If it happens to you, it likely
happens to everyone. Talking about things like that help you
understand more.”

“I guess that makes sense. I just don’t see
myself talking about personal things with Mike. You saw how he
handled today.”

“Yes, well Mike is a bad example for this
conversation.”

We finished up our studying and gathered our
things together. We looked for my mother, but she appeared to be in
her room, so we just left.

We arrived at Nicole’s house and found her
mother in the kitchen.

“Hi guys.”

We both said hello.

“How was your day?” she asked.

“It was fine. I missed physics and some of
calculus so I could come home and change, but I got the stuff that
I missed and we’re both done with our homework.”

“How about you, Jake? How was your day?”

“My day was fine, thanks.”

“Good. Dinner will be ready in about fifteen
minutes. I’ll call you when it’s ready.”

We walked up the stairs to Nicole’s room. She
spent the little bit of time we had giving me some wardrobe tips. I
hope I switch back to being a guy before I learn all there is to
know about girl’s clothes. There is so much to learn.

I had just learned the difference between
flats, pumps and heels when Nicole’s mother called us down to
dinner. We both washed up and headed downstairs.

Nicole’s father was sitting at the dining
room table, and her mother was bringing in the food.

“Can I help you with anything, Sara?” Nicole
asked.

“I’m fine, but thank you, Jake. I appreciate
the offer. You two can have a seat, and I’ll be right there.”

We took our seats, Sara brought in the final
dishes and she sat down for dinner. Nicole’s father said grace and
we started eating.

“Thank you for having me for dinner,” Nicole
said. “Everything looks great!”

“Anytime, Jake,” Nicole’s mother offered.
“Any friend of Nicole’s is welcome here.”

“So, Jake,” her father started, “tell me
about yourself.”

“What would you like to know, Keith?” she
asked.

“What classes are you taking in school?”

“I actually have very similar classes to
Nicole. We share English and physics classes. We both have
calculus, Spanish II and government, but at different times.”

“So, how are your grades?”

“I think you said you had five A’s and a B,
right Jake?” I said, offering her the same help she gave me with my
mother.

“Yes, that’s correct,” she said, smiling my
way.

“Impressive,” her father replied. “Do you
have plans for college?”

We hadn’t talked about this much. We talked
just a little about it yesterday. Why didn’t we realize that this
was going to be an inquisition? I’m not sure how much I should cut
in. I hope she can wing it.

“Yes, I do. Although, I haven’t decided on a
college yet. Right now, I’m just starting to look at my options and
getting ready to apply to universities.”

“Do you have money set aside for college?
With your grades, you ought to be able to get some scholarships,
but you should always be prepared.”

I think Nicole’s father was being genuine
with his questions, but they were starting to feel uncomfortable.
Nicole gave me a look that told me she could use a little help, but
I didn’t really know how Nicole would respond in a situation like
this, so I didn’t say anything. Talk about being in a weird
place.

“Well, actually I’m really going to be
counting on scholarships to get into college.”

“What are you planning to do for your
career?”

“I don’t really know.”

“What do you enjoy doing?”

Again, Nicole looked at me for help. “Jake is
really good at physics. He’d probably make a good engineer,” I
offered.

“Engineering is a great field. There are so
many options with mechanical engineering and electrical
engineering. There are lots of related fields out there, too. Is
that something that interests you, Jake?”

“It does. It’s something I have thought
about, but I want to make sure I get lots of information before I
make a choice. I don’t want to get ten years into a career, and
find it’s not something I really love.”

“Very sensible,” her father said. He started
to open his mouth to ask another question, but Nicole’s mother
stepped in.

“Dear, do you think you might want to let
Jake eat his food before it gets cold?” she said, giving him a
telling look.

“I’m sorry. I guess I got carried away with
the questions. I’m just trying to get to know the boy who has been
spending so much time my daughter.”

“Well, we don’t have to do it all in one
night. Hopefully we won’t have scared him away, and he’ll want to
come back again sometime.”

“Oh, it takes more than that to scare me
away,” Nicole said smiling.

We all made idle conversation the rest of the
time while we ate our dinner. Before long, we were saying goodbye
and heading to Jessica’s house.

“Wow, my dad was out of line there. If I were
me, I would have said something.”

“I didn’t know what you would say, so I
thought it better to keep my mouth shut.”

“Well, he was asking very personal questions.
That’s a bit heavy for your first dinner at our house.”

“He’s just protecting his girl,” I
offered.

“Yeah, maybe. That doesn’t make it okay.” No
argument here.

I called Jessica a few minutes before we
arrived at her house. She was waiting for us when we pulled into
her driveway.

“Hi guys!” she said, getting in the car.

We both said hi as I backed out and headed
toward the mall.

“I’m so glad you were able to come, Jake! Do
you go to the mall very often?”

“I…,” she said, trying to get a read from me.
I subtly shook my head no. “No, not really.”

“I didn’t think so. I mean, I’ve never seen
you there before, and well, not that I would necessarily have seen
you if you
were
at the mall. I mean, not that I wouldn’t
have noticed you, it’s just that, well, the mall is a big place, so
if you were there, I might have seen you there, or I might not have
seen you there. But I didn’t, so…”

What a train wreck. I was feeling bad for
Jessica. She was obviously nervous and trying to impress…well, me.
She was really struggling, though. I didn’t really know how to
help, but I thought I would try.

“So, Jess, where are we meeting Caryn and
Meredith at?”

“We’re meeting them at the food court. They
were going to eat there and wait for us to show.”

“So,” Nicole added, “are there any stores in
particular we are going to tonight?”

“Well, normally we just walk around until a
store catches our eye. It’s mostly girl stores, but since we have
mixed company, I thought we could try and go to more neutral
stores. Maybe some girl stores and some guy stores. Are there any
places you want to go?”

“Maybe we could go to the music store,”
Nicole said.

“Oh, that’s a good idea. What kind of music
do you like?” she asked.

To think this morning I was feeling like we
were starting to get comfortable in each others’ shoes. She has no
idea what kind of music I like.

“Oh, he likes pop and rock mainly, right
Jake? We were listening to the stereo on the way to your
house.”

“Yeah, pop, rock. Those are my
favorites.”

“Me too! Who’s your favorite band?”

“Well, I like Daughtry a lot right now.”

“Aren’t they great? Nikki and I
love
Daughtry, huh Nikki?”

“Oh, yeah. Daughtry is great!”

“Yeah, I really like their music,” Nicole
said. “They’ve got lots of great songs. It seems like everything
they put out is a hit.”

“I know. Same with Taylor Swift. I
love
her music!”

Nicole looked at me out of the corner of her
eye, trying to read whether or not I liked Taylor Swift. Her music
is alright. I like her sound, but the lyrics are very teen girlie,
so I don’t really relate. I still like to hear the music, though.
Not to mention she’s hot. Unfortunately, my only options to let
Nicole know whether I like her music or not is to nod ‘yes,’ shake
my head ‘no’ or shrug. Shrugging seemed the best choice.

“Uhh…I like Taylor okay. I like some of her
songs, anyway.”

“Oh, I think she’s great!” Jessica
confirmed.

“Nikki loves Taylor, don’t you Nikki?”

I’m guessing she knows better than I do.
“Yeah, I love her music.”

“Nikki is always singing her songs. She loves
to sing ‘The Way I Loved You.’ She’s got a great voice. Have you
heard her sing?”

“No, I haven’t,” she said, looking at me
nervously. Great, why do I have a feeling I know what’s coming
next?