Текст книги "Junk Miles"
Автор книги: Лиз Реинхардт
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What? “Saxon told you?” I asked. Why?
“I was really pissed to hear from him at first, but he explained everything.” Jake’s gray eyes were calm, like we both knew perfectly well what he was talking about and that it was all good.
“What did Saxon explain?” My voice sounded far away and tinny in my ears.
“How you were still into me from the beginning,” Jake said with a shrug. “How you regretted everything. How you would be glad to get back together with me.” He licked his lips nervously. “And I knew it was what I wanted. I didn’t want to date some random girl. I want you. It’s always been you, Brenna.”
There was that moment that was a little golden gift, and everything sane and rational in me screamed that I should scoop it up and accept what Jake was offering.
But something about this was off. There was something I just couldn’t get a handle on. My just-recovered brain muddled confusedly through the words Jake had just spoken. Not the final ones that were kind of melting my heart in the background; the earlier ones, where he wiped the slate clean so easily it made my stomach clench.
“Jake, why did you take Saxon at his word?” I pulled my hand free of his.
He sat up straighter, his now-empty hands resting on his lap. “Why would he lie?”
“Why wouldn’t he?”
“So what he told me wasn’t the truth?” Jake asked, confused and just at the edge of hurt again.
And I wanted to apply the emergency brakes again and stop this train wreck that I was about to create. But what was the point of going through all of this heartache if I was right back where I started at the end of it all?
“It was Saxon’s version of the truth,” I explained. “And it was part of a deal he made with me.”
“What kind of deal?” Jake demanded.
I didn’t like his tone. I knew I had hurt him, but part of the reason I did what I did was because I wanted to be able to care about Saxon on my own terms, without Jake’s anger. And maybe I’d taken it way too far, but I didn’t regret getting to know Saxon better. I felt stronger for having been with Saxon, even if being together as a couple wasn’t right for us in the end. “An exchange. He felt like he’d helped ruin our relationship, so he decided to help fix it. I told him I didn’t think it would work.”
Jake looked up at me, his eyes wide with realization. “But it did work, didn’t it?” he said slowly. “I was so happy to hear him say what I wanted to hear, I never really thought about whether it was true. Or just more lies.” His face hardened a little and he stood. “Sorry Bren, but I can’t hear any more lies from you.”
If I wasn’t recovering from pneumonia, I would have been on my feet and staring him down in a fury. As it was, I had to make do with sitting and waving my arms around like a deranged angry woman. “I never lied,” I said fiercely. “You say you want the truth, but it seems to be the only thing you don’t want to listen to!”
That stopped him in his tracks. He came back and sat down. “Alright. What’s the truth?”
I had no idea where to start. What was the truth?
“The truth is that you put me on a pedestal.”
He frowned. “You say it like that was a bad thing.”
“It was.” I twisted the gold ring on my finger.
“For me to love you? For me to realize how amazing you are?” He shook his head. “Sorry if I fucked up by telling you that you’re important to me, Bren,” he added sarcastically.
“Loving me and idealizing me aren’t the same,” I said quietly.
“I didn’t idealize you,” he said, too quickly. He hadn’t even bothered to think about it.
“Yes, you did. You knew what I had done. Or hadn’t done. I guess that was pretty ideal in your mind. The virginal, pure girlfriend. But you thought that meant I would never mess up or make a wrong move.”
“Well, you’re smart. A lot smarter than me. When did thinking that become such an awful thing?” he demanded.
“That’s another thing.” I swallowed hard. “You put yourself down; it’s a habit, I know, but it says something about what you really think of me.”
“What do you mean?” He stared at me.
“If you’re such an idiot and I’m with you, what does that say about me?” I challenged. “Not much, right?”
“But that’s not how I mean it…” His eyebrows crashed low over his eyes.
“I know,” I interrupted. “But it’s only because you haven’t really thought about it. I always knew I’d mess up at some point. And it kind of felt like the longer we went with you telling me how terrible you were and how great I was, the more it would suck when we both faced the fact that that’s not true. And you being a loser and me being perfect are two huge lies. And each one is equally terrible in its own way.”
He didn’t say anything for a few minutes, which was totally to his credit. He was thinking. Granted, he was thinking for a few minutes about things I’d been obsessing over for months, but it was the first step.
When he finally opened his mouth, he snapped it closed again. I wanted to hear what he had to say, wanted to know if it had made any difference to him.
“What is true, Brenna?” he asked, his voice a little cracked.
“What’s true is that I thought about you every day. And I missed you so much it made me ache. And I wanted to see the pictures you posted. And I hated missing school because it meant not seeing you, so I went even when I had pneumonia.” I took a deep breath. “And what’s also true is that I tried really hard to make something work with Saxon. I really tried,” I added for emphasis. I could feel myself radiating a shameful red.
“Why didn’t it work?” Jake asked. “He’s smart. I mean, he’s like a genius. And he’s loyal, in a weird way. And he‘s good-looking, I guess. I mean, I know girls find him attractive. Or whatever.” He shook his head. “It’s pretty weird to be sitting in your room defending fucking Saxon of all people.”
“He is a genius.” I chose my words carefully. “He’s loyal, and it is weird. And I am attracted to him. He’s also caring and tries hard to do the right thing, whatever that means. To him.” I looked at Jake closely. “But he isn’t you. And that makes all the difference.”
“Why?” Jake’s voice sounded hopeful.
“Because it’s youI want. I’m not giving you a specific reason, because I honestly can’t. I just want you.” I shrugged, but my shoulders felt really heavy. It hadn’t been that long since we had been intertwined, our lives expanding and contracting in the same rhythm. Then we were apart, and I felt scattered, but I didn’t know for sure that Jake felt that way. I realized that his whole visit might have been fueled mostly by guilt.
But then he was leaned forward, his eyes bright. “You want me? You’re sure?”
I thought about all we’d been through and all everyone had said and all I’d wanted and missed and done. That all made a difference, but in the end, there was only one truth.
“Yes,” I said. “I want you. I’m sure.”
Jake moved slowly next to me on the bed, then gathered me gently in his arms and crushed me, suddenly, against his body and held tight. “Jesus Christ, Brenna,” he said roughly. “This has been a crazy fucking few weeks.”
I put my arms around him and grabbed tight, balling my fists around his shirt in an effort to pull him closer to me. “You smell so good,” I choked out, breathing him in hard. “You feel so good.”
“I take it you missed me?” he asked, his adorably sweet smile back. And all for me.
I smiled back, but there was already a nagging fear in my too-busy brain. Jake and I were back together, back where we both needed to be, but this wasn’t going to just snap back to what it had been; and I knew I didn’t want that anyway. The truth was, we had both done things to inspire jealousy in each other, just because we wanted to. This relationship was not the same beast it had been when we both started dating, and I wasn’t sure what that meant for us.
Because I loved being Jake’s girlfriend. And I loved being free. I loved doing my own thing. I always felt like I had been doing that, but I wasn’t. I was doing what I thought made me a good girlfriend. I couldn’t just go back to that.
I also couldn’t just dump Jake and expect him to come back with open arms. There had to be a middle ground.
But in that moment, Jake’s eyes were looking at me hungrily. “I’ve really missed you.” He kissed me, just a warm dry kiss at first, then a set of small, teasing kisses, then deep, insistent kissing that opened me up the way only Jake ever had.
I knew now that it wasn’t what he did physically, because I had done it with someone else. It was his elemental taste, the way his tongue felt on mine, the sound of his voice when we pulled apart and he said my name. Every piece of it made me feel filled up and warmed over and home.
Which didn’t necessarily make sense. There was very little that Jake and I actually had in common. All I knew was that when I was with Jake, I felt calm. I felt at peace. I felt the exact way I’d felt the second I walked through the door of my home after being in another country. Paris was exotic and gorgeous and amazing; but there was only one place that would ever smell like home for me.
We must have been suspiciously quiet, because Mom made a lot of noise walking down the hallway and poked her head in.
“Sorry, Jake.” Mom flashed the laser eyes. “Brenna’s had a long day. She needs her rest.”
Jake answered, “Yes, Mrs. Blixen.”
He stood awkwardly, and Mom relented a little, sighing. “Five minutes.”
She left and he grabbed my face hard and kissed me. “I would tell you I’d come over, but your mother will be in and out a million times tonight,” he whispered. “Can we talk on the phone?”
“Yes!” I felt giddy despite my trepidations.
“I love you, Bren,” he said and kissed me again. His lips were sweet and insistent, burning softly over my cool skin, marking me with gentle nudges and delicate pulls.
He walked to the door, and looped back to grab the bangles off of my desk. “I need these.” He grinned and continued out backwards while I laughed, my relief intense and wonderful.
I heard him say good-bye to Mom and Thorsten, heard the door close shut behind him and felt a warm pulsing in my lowest regions. I wanted him back in this room, in my bed. I didn’t want to waste a minute. I was already plotting weekends with him and dates, getting all worked up about the things I hadn’t realized were so wonderful a few weeks before.
And then I remembered that Saxon was probably feeling like shit. I grabbed my cell and dialed his number.
He picked up fairly quickly. “Blix. It all worked out?” His voice was lazy.
“Jake and I are back together,” I said as calmly as I could and waited with my eyes closed and my lips pressed together.
“Well, I’ll bow out gracefully then.” His words sounded perfectly casual.
“That’s not what I want,” I rushed. “I want to be…don’t make me say it, Saxon.”
“You’re lucky you stopped short,” he chuckled. “No girl has ever uttered those words at me. Let’s go back to rival soul mates, alright?”
“Sounds good.” And I realized that it wouldn’t work in a way that would leave either one of us completely satisfied. It never would, and there was no point in trying.
“You know how to make one big ass production, Blix. Pneumonia? Next time tone down on the melodrama. Jake would have come back to you without all the theatrics.”
“Hardy har har,” I griped, but I let out a silent sigh of relief that we were joking a little again. “What are you doing for the rest of the day?”
“Nikki Devine is going to need some comfort and want some revenge. I’d say my bed will probably be full. Don’t fret over me, Brenna.”
“Saxon,” I begged. “That sounds like a shitty idea.”
“You had your chance.” His voice slid into sexy mode. “Don’t try to deny the other fine ladies a piece of me. It isn’t fair.”
I laughed a little, more to make things seem normal than because I actually found anything funny about his plans. “Good-bye, Saxon.”
“Until we meet again, Blix.”
The connection clicked off, and finally, peacefully, I drifted into the first contented sleep I’d had in weeks. I know I dreamed, and I know they were crazy, but I was completely happy when I woke up later and couldn’t remember a thing.
Chapter Seventeen
There was a new clawing need in my heart for Jake. Things had always been intense between us, but now that I’d almost lost him, I clung to every chance we had to see each other. Mom was absolutely against him visiting for the rest of the week, but by Wednesday, I couldn’t stand it anymore and begged her to let me go back to school.
“I’m fine,” I pleaded. “My appetite is back. I haven’t had a fever, haven’t coughed at all. I’m going to die of boredom if I have to stay home another day. Plus that, I’m falling behind in school. Please, Mom. Please?”
“Fine.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “But you are not riding to school on that bike, I don’t care if it’s seventy degrees tomorrow. So forget that.”
“Do you want me to take the bus?” I held my breath but didn’t go so far as to dare to hope.
I hated to use it against her, but her guilt over my sickness and breakup with Jake all bubbled to the surface and made her relent. “Jake can drive you for now.” She sighed and left me to do a private dance of happiness.
No one had ever been happier to wake up at the crack of dawn and get ready for school than I was that first morning back. Only a week had passed, but it felt like a month. I dressed, packed my backpack, ate breakfast, and brushed my teeth, all the while humming happily in my throat. When I heard the gravel crunch on the driveway, I practically flew out the door and into Jake’s waiting arms.
He pushed his face into my hair and squeezed me so tight I gasped.
“Where’s Mom?” He checked the windows, looking for her tell-tale curtain flutter.
“She had to leave early to prep for her classes.” I felt like I couldn’t get close enough to him. I jumped up and wrapped my legs around his waist. His hands cupped my butt and he nuzzled my neck.
“Let’s skip.” His eyes drank in my face. “I’ve wanted time, just the two of us. Things still feel so weird, Bren. I just need a day with you.”
“I can’t.” I let my feet drop back down to earth “I can’t miss today. I’ll fall too far behind in my classes. But maybe…”
He looked at me with eager interest.
“Um, maybe I could tell Mom that I was spending the night at Kelsie’s this weekend?” My heart hammered at the very thought of that lie. “But if you think your dad would find out or if you have work…”
Jake’s jaw hung open like it had come unhinged. “You want to stay the night? With me?”
I nodded.
He kissed me hard and whooped.
“You tell me what to do and I’m there. Don’t worry about my dad, don’t worry about work.”
We ran to the truck together, and our secret hummed through me all day.
Especially when I walked up to Sanotoni’s room. It felt like I was wearing a neon sign advertising the fact that Jake and I were about to spend a romantic night together behind my parents’ backs and despite the fact that I had been Saxon’s kind-of girlfriend just a little while before. Saxon hugged me wordlessly when I walked into government, which helped my guilt peak even more sharply.
“Hey.” I held onto him for a second longer than I needed. “It’s good to be back.”
“It’s good to have you back. You know, and not looking like the first victim of the zombie apocalypse.” He pulled back and narrowed his eyes at me. “You look like you’re up to no good.”
My face flushed. “No. I’m not. I don’t know why you’d say that. I’m not.” I stopped talking with a clip of my jaw.
He studied my face. “What would have you so flustered?” he wondered out loud. “It’s not drugs. It’s not rock and roll. That only leaves one alternative.”
My face flamed so hot, I was sure my hair would catch on fire. “It’s not that,” I hissed.
There was a flash of something painful in Saxon’s eyes, but it was gone so fast, I could have imagined it. “Well, maybe not sex. But I’m willing to bet my favorite bong and my best pair of handcuffs that it’s sex-ish. Am I right?”
“Stop,” I begged in a whisper.
“You don’t have to be such a prude, Bren. Especially around me.” His voice was hard and sharp as a knife’s blade, but he backed off and we spent the period doing completely mundane government work. It would have been totally fine, except for the glint of something raw and wild in his eyes once or twice when I caught him stealing a look at me.
I was relieved to get to crafts and away from Saxon’s knowing, judging eyes. Kelsie was more than happy to help when I asked her about Friday.
“Of course.” She paused in her weaving for a minute and looked me in the eye. “You do realize that you two are, like, meant to be? It was making me seriously depressed when you weren’t together.”
“It doesn’t feel real yet.” I slashed at the copper with a sharp tool and made odd, jagged lines that didn’t look nearly as cool as I thought they would. “We talk every night, and I’m so happy every time, but sometimes I wake up, and I’m not sure what happened. Like I wonder if it’s all still messed up.”
Kelsie’s fingers flew over the white string. “It all happened so damn fast. One week you two were practically married, the next you were in Paris and then with Saxon, and then you were sick. Now it’s all alright.” She plucked at her project. “You guys really need this night, just the two of you, just to reconnect and sort through things.”
I brushed my finger over the sharp edge of my copper sheet. “I know. I feel a little weird lying about the whole night. What if we get caught?”
“You won’t.” Kelsie winked at me. “It’s airtight. Anyway, you’re lying for a really good cause, so you just need to stop worrying about everything. Okay?” She nudged me with her foot under the table. “Okay?”
I nodded. “Okay.”
“Something else bothering you?”
I watched her fingers fly as she made the string into something gorgeous. “It’s Saxon. It’s…”
“Weird?” She raised her eyebrows.
“That’s a fairly massive understatement.” I twisted my hands together. “I know I brought this all on myself. I know that. It’s just, why the hell did I do it?”
Kelsie shrugged and laughed at the same time. “Because you were faced with two incredibly tempting guys and you’re a red-blooded woman?”
I wrinkled my nose at her. “If you’re ever around when my red-blooded woman-ness rears its very stupid head, please smack some serious sense into me.”
She crossed her heart. “Promise, sweetie.”
I managed to dodge Saxon during gym and text Jake to pick me up for lunch, which seemed the safer option until we made it into the cafeteria and Jake steered me away from our regular table and over into the corner.
“Why are we eating here?” I dropped my bag on the table and looked at our usual table where our usual group chatted and joked.
Well, our usual group plus a few.
Nikki glared daggers in my direction.
“C’mon.” Jake took my hand and led me to the lunch line.
I felt tears prick at my eyes. Jake looked over to ask if I wanted mashed potatoes, and wound up almost dropping the tray on the floor. “What’s the matter?” he asked, his face close to mine. “Do you feel sick again?”
I shook my head and swallowed a few times until I got my bearings and could speak without blubbering. “I just messed so much up, Jake. I screwed it all up.”
“What?” He moved out of the line and pushed my hair back from my face with his hands. “What’s screwed up? You and me, we’re good. We’re fine.”
“You can’t even sit with your friends because of me.” I waved a hand towards the lunchroom. “And Saxon and you? I just made that a crazy mess.” I couldn’t stop the tears and didn’t bother to try. “What was I thinking?”
Jake hugged me tight and kissed my hair. “I have no clue, Bren. But it’s done, okay? It’s in the past. The only person I want to eat lunch with is you. Saxon will deal the same way he always has. And you need to stop getting all worked up and eat some lunch. You could have died, and you don’t have your strength back yet.”
I gave a wet laugh. “I was in nodanger of dying, Jake. Have you been talking to my mother?”
“C’mon. No more crying. You love open-faced turkey day. I’ll sweet talk the lunch ladies and get you extra cranberry sauce. Alright?” He wiped his rough thumbs under my eyes.
“You’re so good to me.” I felt the tears well up again.
“I know it. Just keep it in mind the next time you think about breaking up.” He smiled and kissed my nose. “C’mon, before all the mashed potatoes are gone.”
We got our lunch, and I tried to ignore Nikki’s ugly faces and dirty looks from across the lunchroom and focus on Jake’s excellent smile and sweet jokes.
Friday came fast, and, despite all of my angst, Mom okayed a sleepover at Kelsie’s with a slightly distracted ‘of course’ after extracting a promise that I keep my cell on and grilling me about my general health. I told her I would take the bus right to Kelsie’s on Friday.
“Do you want me to pick you up on Saturday, sweetie?” Mom asked.
“I think Kelsie’s mom will be okay with dropping me off. It’s right down the road.” I felt my heart hammer as I waited for mom to see through my ruse.
“Great. I’ll be at the college for a few hours in the afternoon. My freshmen are handing in their first big paper this Thursday and Friday, and I want to have a good chunk graded over the weekend.” She sighed, and I patted her hand.
“The grading will be over before you know it.” Secretly, my mind eased. Mom was totally focused when it came to grading, so I could relax about her checking in on me too much.
“I know. It’s just these kids are raised text messaging. Their syntax is abysmal.” She gave me a quick hug. “Please promise me you’ll never spell the word ‘before’ with the numeral four.” She shuddered.
“I promise I will never, ever spell with numerals. Even when I text.”
“You are my silver lining, sweetheart.” Mom patted my butt, and I hurried to my room to give Jake the good news.
I spent Friday a bundle of raw nerves, especially since it seemed like Saxon could see right through me and read every nervous thought jangling in my head. By the time the entire school day was done and I got into Jake’s truck, I felt too keyed up to sit back and relax.
Jake’s good mood was a stark contrast to my nervous worry. He’d smiled blithely through the entire day, and didn’t even give a second glance to Nikki when she stopped him in the hall to invite him to some bonfire. On the ride to his house, he whistled along to every song on the radio, and he ran to get my door with a frantic excitement that reminded me of a puppy.
I could have gotten bogged down in worry and unease, but with Jake so happy, I decided to let myself fall into the happiness, too. We’d had so much drama and craziness, it was nice to just relax. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed me soundly. I wrapped my arms and legs around him and he lifted me up and carried me into his house, both of us laughing hysterically. He put me down on the dining room table and put one finger up, indicating that I should wait a minute to see what he had planned for me.
“Look at this.” He opened the fridge, and there was a tray of lasagna that could have fed a small army.
“What’s that?” My lips curved up in response to his proud smile.
“A friend of mine gave me her mom’s lasagna recipe. I got all the stuff to make it and cooked it last night. We just have to put it in the oven, and it will be ready for dinner.” He held the tray out proudly. “I grated cheese for this. Like, a lot of cheese.”
I got up, took the tray out of his hands, and set it on the table next to us. I wound my arms around his neck and just looked at him for a long minute.
“I love you, Jake.” I had said those words before, but I wanted him to understand how much I meant them, with every breath I took and every beat of my heart.
“It’s just a lasagna.” He was trying to joke, but I could see the worry that clouded his eyes.
“I’m really sorry for everything. Honestly, I screwed up big time.” I kissed him softly. He kissed back hungrily and soon I was pressed against the kitchen counter, and Jake’s hands were everywhere at once.
He finally pulled back, panting. “I’m going to put that lasagna in the oven. You wait for me in my room, okay? I’ll be in, five seconds.”
I kissed him, grabbed my backpack, and headed down to his sterile little room. My hands brushed over the bangles on his desktop, and I felt a smile tug at my lips. I turned to the bed and I felt a little clutch of panic.
The last time I’d seen that bed, it was in a picture Jake posted. With a condom wrapper on it.
I knew everything had been washed and changed since then, but it still felt alien and dirty, somehow.
Jake skidded down the hall and burst through the door, then stopped and looked at me looking at the bed. He looked back and forth between me and the bed. “Bren? Is something wrong?”
“Uh, it’s just…you know, the last time? It was you and…” I couldn’t finish the sentence.
Jake pulled me into his arms and kissed my lips. “She didn’t mean anything, okay? It was stupid. The only reason I did it was to make you jealous, and it was still a dumbass move. Do you believe me?”
I leaned my head on his chest and nodded. He scooped me up and dropped me on the bed with a bounce, then climbed on top of me and boxed me in with his arms as I giggled and squirmed.
“This is our space. This is our night. We both did things that were dumb, but let’s forget them for a while.” I stopped giggling and he lowered his mouth to mine, kissing me softly. “I’ve been waiting to get you alone since the minute I left you in your driveway before you went to Paris. I missed you so damn much.”
I pushed my mouth back up, close to his and we kissed and held each other first sweetly, then with a more powerful need. Soon we were surrounded by discarded items of clothing and toppled pillows, our hands and mouths grabbing greedily at that feeling we had both needed from each other for the time we’d been apart. When we were finally satisfied, Jake kissed my shoulder, pulled his shirt on, righted his pants, and pointed down the hall.
“I can smell the lasagna, so it must be done. You hungry?” His hair was tousled, his eyes were hooded and heavy-looking, and I wanted to crawl into his arms and never come back out again.
“Starving. I’ll be out in a minute?” He whistled down the hall and into the kitchen, and I called my mother to check in. She asked how the night was going and complained about her students’ inability to follow very clear instructions, then we exchanged good nights and clicked off. I let out a sigh of relief and headed to the bathroom. I searched for a brush, but only managed to find a comb, so I did the best I could to my wild hair and headed out to the dining room.
Jake had the lasagna on the table, which was set with plates bordered with olive, orange, and gold tulips, mismatched plastic cups and paper napkins from Dunkin Donuts.
“Dinner is served,” he announced solemnly. I sat across from him and watched as he shoveled an enormous amount of layered pasta onto the plate.
I took a bite and closed my eyes. “This is amazing. I had no idea you were such an awesome cook, Jake.”
“I was thinking about shaking up my weekly dinner menu a little. But maybe I have to make a little less next time. I think this lasagna will last a whole month.” He motioned to the enormous dish in the center of the table.
We laughed and joked through dinner, and I helped him portion some of his delicious lasagna to freeze for later. We did the couple of dishes we made side by side at the sink and had a soap sud fight that left us breathless and necessitated getting out the mop.
“I should invite you over more often,” Jake commented as I sopped up the last of the water. “Awesome dinner and a spic and span kitchen?”
“The dinner was all you. And I only mopped because I feel bad about how totally soaked you got. I didn’t want to be a sore winner.” I shrieked when he came at me, his fingers bent to tickle my sides.
When we were done in the kitchen, it was only eight.
“Wow.” Jake stretched and yawned a huge fake yawn. “I’m ready for bed.”
I felt a sudden flurry of nerves. “Um, you want to go to bed?”
He started down the hall backwards and crooked his finger at me. “Yep. C’mon. It’s chilly. I need you to warm me up.”
I swallowed hard. “What if your father comes home soon?”
“Pool and darts tonight. He’ll be in after midnight, and he’ll go straight to bed. C’mon.” He was at the door of his room now. He crooked his finger again, and I followed like I was connected by a string.
He shut the door and we tumbled back on his bed in his dim room.
“What do you usually do on Friday nights when we don’t go out?” I ran my fingers through his hair.
“I wait for you to call me. Or I play video games.” He looked at me and smiled. “Wanna play?”
“Okay. But I don’t want you to be a big baby if you lose.” I sat, cross-legged, and waited while he flipped on his PS3 and opened a dresser drawer full of games. He took out one and held it front forward, his face serious.
“This is Little Big Planet. Have you ever played this game?” I shook my head. He sat down on the edge of the bed. “This game is the most amazing game in the world. This game will change your life. Are you ready to play this game? Brenna, stop laughing. Are you ready?”
I smoothed my mouth out and tried to be as serious as I could. “Okay.”
He put the game in, set up the remotes, and explained the directions. Which weren’t all that specific, since the point of the game was basically to create worlds that you could play in. Our Sackpeople flipped and whirled through cities and around fantastic gardens of our own creation. We engaged in friendly battles, met other Sackpeople, and explored the graphics and world possibilities. Jake and I made an amazing team; he was careful and thoughtful, I was experimental and fearless and our world grew and expanded like an amazing Wonderland. We got so sucked into the game, I had no clue at all how much time had gone by, but I couldn’t contemplate stopping. Before we knew it, we heard the roar of an engine outside, and Jake’s father was home. I froze, and my Sackgirl’s menacing high kick fell short of Jake’s Sackboy’s karate slash.
“No worries.” Jake rubbed a hand on my arm. “He’s not even going to stop in here.”
