It's a Love Thing (12 page)

“
Yeah, well, if some idiot
hadn’t parked so close to me it wouldn’t be an issue.”

“
Oh, sorry about
that.”

He
would
be the idiot, wouldn’t
he?

“
Let me make it up to
you.”

“
How are you going to do
that?”

“
Give me the keys. I’ll get
you out of here,” he offered.

I considered turning him down, but
decided it would more humiliating to have him watch me continue to
try and wiggle my way out, so I scooted over on the seat and let
him climb up beside me. It took him less than a minute to get the
truck free of the parking spot.

“
Son of a
pumpkin!”

Jason laughed and I cursed my weirdo
mouth.

“
Would that be like . . . a
gourd?” he inquired.

“
Yes,” I said defiantly,
folding my arms across my chest. So I said weird things sometimes,
so what? I blame it on my mother. She runs a very PG household. I
have to get creative sometimes in order to express myself. Back at
my last school everyone was used to it, but here I guess it was
either pick up a new vocabulary or get used to the weird looks for
a while.

“
Uh huh. So a moving truck
huh? Does that mean you’re new in town?”

“
That is what it would
mean.”

“
Where are you
living?”

“
Over on
Chestnut.”

“
Oh, okay, that’s not far.
You gonna be alright getting this thing home by
yourself.”

“
I’ll be fine,” I assured
him.

“
Sucks that you moved here
right after school ended. How are you supposed to make any
friends?”

“
I guess I can just keep
getting this beast stuck in parking spots. It seems to be working
so far.”

He laughed. “That’s true. I’m Jason by
the way.”

“
Melody—Mel,” I told him,
taking his extended hand.

“
Well, Mel, it was very
nice meeting you. If you’re not busy this weekend would you like to
meet up over at the mall? A few of my friends will be there. You
can get to know some more people before school starts back
up.”

“
That sounds great, but I’m
not sure what’s going on this weekend yet.”

“
Let me give you my number
and you can give me a call if you decide to come. I’ll even pick
you up so you can leave this baby home,” he added, patting the
dashboard.

I handed him my cell and he programmed
in his number.

“
Drive safe,” he said over
his shoulder as he climbed out of the cab.

“
Thanks,” I called out the
window after him as he headed back towards his car.

“
No problem. Talk to ya
later, Mel.”

I couldn’t believe it. I’d
actually made a friend, an incredibly
hot
friend, and he had invited me
out. It was too good to be true. Suddenly, I loved that stupid
truck.

*****

The rest of the week passed
in a blur of unpacking. Mom was at work, as usual, despite the fact
that it was the weekend, and I had been fiddling with my cell all
day debating calling Jason. I didn’t want to look pathetic, but I
also didn’t want to actually
be
pathetic either, sitting around my house alone on
a Saturday night. Finally I decided to suck it up and just called.
Jason answered on the second ring, almost like he had been waiting
for my call. Yeah right, wishful thinking.

“
Hey, what’s
up?”

“
Hi. Jason?”

“
Yeah.”

“
This is Mel. From the
burger place the other day,” I hedged.

“
Oh, hey, Mel. I hoped
you’d call.”

“
Well, it turns out I don’t
have anything going on this weekend.”

“
Oh, no? Got tired of
picking up guys with that hot ride of yours?”

“
Sadly the beast had to go
back to the rental company.”

“
Well, in that case, would
you like to go to the mall with me and some of my friends tonight?
We’re going to hit up the movies.”

“
That sounds like
fun.”

I gave him my address and he arranged
to pick me up at six. That left me just over an hour to get ready.
About five outfits later I was convinced I needed to do some
serious shopping, and soon. Finally settling on a pair of skinny
jeans and a black V-neck tee, I moved into the bathroom to finish
getting ready. I was never big on makeup, but that was before I
moved to Hotsville. A little lip gloss and eye liner couldn’t hurt.
After pulling my long chocolate-brown hair up into a messy bun, I
secured it with a clip and surveyed the final product in the
mirror. Not bad, if I said so myself.

I was just pulling on a pair of
strappy sandals when the doorbell rang. The doorbell . . . nice.
Most guys I knew would have just blown their horn. Who wants to
risk a parental meet and greet? Good thing mom wasn’t at home.
Jason looked amazing again in his button up black shirt and dark
jeans. We matched . . . terrific. I considered running back
upstairs and changing until he said, “Wow, Mel, lookin' good.” His
eyes ran over my ensemble and he grinned. Well, that settled it. It
was officially my new favorite outfit.

“
Yeah, I tend to clean up
decently when I haven’t been hauling boxes all day.”

“
Are you ready?”

“
Yeah, let’s get out of
here.”

I snagged my purse off the
counter and we made for that gorgeous car of his. Cherry red with
the smoothest black leather interior you could ever imagine. I
almost didn’t want to sit on it, fearing I would damage it somehow.
When he turned the ignition the car emitted a low, sexy rumbling
sound. It essentially purred. The cold AC felt great on my sweat
dampened skin and some kind of techno music pumped out of the
speakers.
Techno
.
I must admit, I didn’t see that one coming.

The mall was a few towns over, about a
twenty minute ride and Jason chatted amiably the entire time. He
never ran out of things to say or questions to ask. I had never met
such a naturally social person before. There weren’t any of those
awkward silences where you wrack your brain hunting around for
something to say and usually end up spitting out something
completely absurd and embarrassing. There was only easy
conversation and a lot of laughing. By the time we reached our
destination I felt like I had known the guy for years and I liked
what I knew. Just inside the entrance we were met by another guy
and a girl. He was rocking a hoodie with some band name splashed
across the front and shaggy reddish hair. The girl was blonde, like
platinum Barbie blonde, and she was decked out in a designer
sundress. Suddenly my outfit wasn’t so impressive. Great, I had
been completely fooling myself. Jason was probably about to
introduce me to his gorgeous girlfriend.

“
This is Kyle and Jenna,”
Jason presented. “Guys, this is Mel. She’s new in town.”

“
Hey, Mel.” Jenna
immediately latched onto my arm. “It is so nice to finally have
another girl to hang out with around here. Too much testosterone,
if you know what I mean. It can make a girl nuts.”

She seemed nice enough, but that
lingering annoyance of too pretty to be real kept me from warming
up to her—that is, until Kyle slipped his arm around her waist as
we strolled into the mall concourse. She suddenly didn’t seem so
bad.

“
So Mel, where are you from
anyway?” Kyle asked as we window shopped our way to the
theater.

“
California.”

“
California? Why would you
ever leave California to come
here
?” Jenna demanded to
know.

“
My mom got transferred. If
she wanted to keep her job we had to move, so here we
are.”

“
That bites,” Jenna
declared. I couldn’t disagree.

Just as we reached the food court
everyone came to a dead stop and it took me a moment to realize
why. There he stood, right in front of us: jerk face from next
door. His gaze flicked between Jason and me several times before
finally settling on me.

“
Hey,” he said with an
abrupt nod.

“
Hi,” I offered cautiously,
feeling completely uncomfortable.

Everyone seemed tense and I couldn’t
quite figure out why. Jason’s hand slipped into mine, feeling
almost possessive. I won’t lie and say I didn’t like it, at least a
little.

“
Jason,” he said, shifting
his gaze again.

“
Lucas,” Jason returned,
stiffly.

Then everyone resumed staring at each
other. What the heck was going on?

“
We’re going to the movies.
You wanna come?” I offered, having had enough of the awkward
silence.

Lucas glanced at me. “No. Thanks, but
I need to get going.”

“
Alright then, see ya
around.”

He moved around our group toward the
exit and the tension finally seemed to ease.

“
Lucas is a freak, Mel,”
Jason warned. “You should stay away from him.”

“
Well, that could prove
difficult since he lives next door.”

“
You live next door to
Lucas Prescott?” Jenna asked incredulously. “Oh man, that bites. I
mean, don’t get me wrong, the guy is like totally hot,” this was
met by a round of groans from the guys, “but he really is a
freak.”

“
Why?”

“
Who knows? He’s totally
antisocial, never talks to anyone,” Kyle chimed in.

“
He talked to me for like a
week when I first met him, but then it was suddenly like he
couldn’t be bothered anymore,” Jenna told me.

“
Yeah, same with me,” Kyle
agreed. “Who knows what that guy's deal is. It’s like he has some
personal vendetta against Jason especially. No one really knows
why.”

What
was
his problem? He hadn’t even made
an attempt to be friendly with me when I first met him and
apparently that first week was all anyone ever got from him. Oh
well, no great loss.

“
Does anyone have to hit up
the ticket booth?” I asked as we approached the theater at the rear
of the food court.

“
No way,” Kyle laughed,
whipping a ticket stub out of his pocket and waving it in front of
my face. “I’ve had this baby for like two years. You just wave it
at the guy collecting tickets and he lets ya slide right past, they
never look close enough to notice.”

“
Yeah, we’ve all got 'em,”
added Jenna. “It was Jason’s idea actually. None of us have paid
for a movie in years.”

“
But isn’t that stealing?”
I asked, astounded by their cavalier attitudes.

“
It’s not like the theater
needs the money more than we do, right Jas? They’re showing the
film whether or not we’re sitting in the seats so we might as well
be there,” explained Kyle, sounding as though
I
were the one being
illogical.

“
I don’t know about this,
guys,” I hedged.

“
Don’t worry, Mel, it’ll be
fine,” Jason assured me.

“
It just doesn’t feel
right.”

Alright, so I sounded like the
party-pooper of the century, but my queasy stomach disagreed with
this plan.

“
You gotta learn to relax a
little and enjoy yourself,” Jason laughed. “Here,” he added,
offering me a small square ticket stub, “I brought an extra for
you, too.”

“
Oh, well, I already bought
my ticket online before we came so I might as well use it,” I
explained, grateful for the excuse to turn him down.

Watching them lie their way inside was
going to be bad enough, not a chance I was up for the challenge
myself.

“
Sorry, I should have told
you not to bother,” Jason apologized, throwing an arm around my
shoulders and ushering me towards the entrance.

“
No problem. I don’t
mind.”

“
Well, next time you’ll do
it our way,” he said matter-of-factly.

“
We’ll see.”

*****

I inhaled a bowl of Captain
Crunch, the breakfast of champions, at the kitchen table. Mom had
poured coffee into her to-go mug and headed for the door just as
I'd shuffled into the kitchen. Now I sat alone in the quiet house
trying to decide what I was going to do with the rest of my day.
Was it too soon to call Jason again? Okay, pathetic much? I guess
it wasn’t impossible for me to find a way to entertain myself for a
few hours at least. There had to be
something
on TV.

I had just settled on some lame, mind
numbing reality show when the doorbell sounded. I wasn’t sure I'd
heard my doorbell ring this much . . . well, ever actually. Check
out Miss Popular. When I answered the door I couldn’t believe who
was standing there. Lucas. Two different hot guys in as many days.
Impressive.

“
Hey,” he said, like it
wasn’t strange at all that he was standing at my front
door.