First Kiss (Heavy Influence) (20 page)

             
“No, but I’ll go look around and I’ll meet you at the bottom of the stairs over there.” He pointed.

“
So Jake,” hippy chick hesitated. “Aly tells me she’s gonna be a freshman next year.”

The amused look disappeared from Jake’s face and a forced smil
e replaced it. “Yes, yes she is.” He turned to me, stiff. “Aly, there’s a bathroom upstairs you can use.” He led me away and I didn’t bother saying goodbye.

I wasn’t sure what to think of those girls, but what I was sure of was Jake giving me an ear full. He explained that I needed to censor
myself that not everyone was what he or she appeared to be. We arrived at a closed door and Jake opened it without knocking, and to my horror we walked through the door, and ran right into Rachel and Sienna. I’m sure they all heard my intake of breath. I felt like I had the wind kicked out of me.

             
“Oh man, sorry,” Jake apologized, stammering, just as surprised as I was. “Uh, Aly needs to use the bathroom.”

             
I was so on edge I began to dig my fingernails into the palms of my hands. I was surprised to see Rachel look like she’d been crying. She turned away quickly as Sienna chatted us up.

“Hey,
yeah, the bathroom’s over there.” She pointed. I quickly walked into the bathroom locking the door and pressed my ear against it trying to listen for any conversation. The murmur of their voices was too low, with the exception of Rachel’s outburst,
“I don’t fucking care Jake, whatever.”
I turned looking in the mirror. I was holding up nicely. My makeup was still intact. My stomach was in a tight ball and I must have peed for five minutes straight. I was a nervous wreck about walking back into the lion’s den. When I opened the door I saw Rachel and Jake sitting on the bed at the other side of the room and Sienna was looking at herself in a mirror. I’d concluded this must be a guest room because it didn’t look personalized. Jake immediately stood up. He said something inaudible and strode over to me with a weak smile. His eyes were wide with dismay. He must have felt bad about Rachel.

“Let’s get out of here.
I don’t wanna stay here anymore,” he said grabbing my hand and opened the door. “Later Sienna.” He glanced back at her. Rachel never looked up from her hands and I felt bad for her for the first time. She actually did have at least one sensitive human bone in her body. I tried to wipe it from my mind feeling the warmth of Jake’s hand in mine.

I spotted Nicole with some guy standing outside next to the pool. I tugged on Jake’s hand and led us in a different direction, making a beeline for Nicole. I practically accosted her as soon as I reached her. “Dude, Nicole, where have you be
en? I’ve been worried about you,” I demanded to know.

             
“Oh, I’m sorry. I was hanging with Mitch here, he’s a friend of my brothers,” she explained. “Mitch this is Aly and Jake.”

             
Mitch appeared suddenly awestruck, staring at Jake and didn’t even glance my way. “Yeah man, Jake. I’m totally into your music, cool. I see you around campus but you know how it is,” he babbled on. I looked at Nicole trying not to laugh at Mitch’s fan-girling. She was snickered too.

“Yeah. You’re varsity with Chris right?” Jake responded, respectfully.

              “Yeah, that’s right.” Mitch confirmed, beaming, satisfied that Jake knew who he was.

             
As if things could get any more dramatic, I suddenly I heard her shrill voice, my name being called out for the world to hear –
Alyssa Montgomery!
- I froze. It was my sister. My whole night was ruined in that instant. She was going to embarrass me in front of the entire school. I looked at Jake with panic in my eyes and he knew instantly what is was. He glanced over my shoulder and then immediately left my side. I got tunnel vision and I thought I would pass out. Nicole grabbed my arm and steadied me. I could barely comprehend the words coming out of her mouth.

Everything moved in slow motion as I tried to focus on Nicole’s lips. I took in a deep breath and closed my eyes. I waited for my sister to y
ank me out of there by my hair. The moments passed and she wasn’t at my side. Finally, able to hear what Nicole was saying.

             
“Aly, calm down, Jake’s talking to her.” She rubbed my back. Mitch stared at us, looking around, confused.

             
“What’s the problem?” he finally asked.

“She’s not supposed to be here,
” Nicole explained with worry knitted across her forehead.

             
“Awe man, that sucks,” he said, clearly unconcerned and brought a flask to his lips. He was obviously into the harder stuff.

“What’s going on, what are they doing?” I asked fearful, afraid to lock eyes with my sister. “This is killing me, I want to leave.”

              “They’re coming over here,” Nicole blurted out quickly.

Before I knew it my sister was in my face, looking me up and down. Her new boyfriend
, Owen Thompson, was standing next to her looking confused by her angry outburst. He wore a Euro inspired side-swept hairstyle and slim fitting pants, probably because he
was
from England.

“Hey, Allison, calm down,” h
e said and reached out placing his hand on her shoulder.

Yeah, Allison, take his advice.

She shrugged it off, ignoring him.

             
“Hi,” I managed to squeak out.

             
“Jake tells me he’s gonna take you home,” she said coldly and turned her ice-witch eyes onto Nicole. “And I bet if your parents found you here they wouldn’t be so happy either.” Whatever Jake said to my sister worked – sort of. I just wanted to find Nadine and get out of there. I walked away tugging on Nicole’s belt loop. Jake trailed behind saying one last thing to my sister – I couldn’t hear what it was. Nicole and I squeezed through the crowd choosing an open path near the pools edge. My sister and Jake followed way behind us.

We were slowly making our way out and I heard a voice near my ear, “
It was nice to see you again
.”

The next thing I knew I was falling into the swimming pool.

20

Alyssa

No, this wasn’t happening! I turned attempting desperately to grab onto someone, anyone. The person I tried to latch onto was Rachel, and with an evil glint
in her eye she yanked her arm away from me. I hit the water with a flailing theatrical plunge. As I was sinking to the bottom of the pool, I wanted to stay there drowning in my humiliation. I gasped for air when my head bobbed to the surface and the first thing I heard was my sister yelling. I treaded to the steps trying not to cry. I climbed out glaring at Rachel, wishing she’d burn into flames right then and there. I pictured myself tackling her into the swimming pool and holding her under, drowning her. My sister was going off like she had Tourette’s, which meant she must have seen her push me in. Jake was immediately at my side, consoling me.

“That bitch did this on purpose,” I growled. I sat drenched at the side of the pool taking Nicole’s boots off. Just then anoth
er big splash erupted at the other end, some guy cannonballed into the pool, thankfully taking the attention off of me.

“Damn, looks like you started a trend,” Jake half laughed, trying to make light of my soggy situation. Hoots and hollers came from all around. “Rachel said it was an accident and that she tried to grab ahold of you.”

I interrupted, aghast at hearing him making excuses for her. “Are you serious, Jake?” I yelled. “I grabbed her am and she yanked it away from me! She laughed in my face!” He was silent and switched his gaze from me to her in the distance, his face went blank and disappointment replaced his concern.

I could still hear my sister going off, but couldn’t decipher her words. The only thing I heard was – “
fucking whore”
– those were my sister’s last words to Rachel as she shoved people out of her way making it to my side.

“Let’s go! That stu
pid skank better watch her back,” Allison hissed. I never knew that she’d have it in her to stick up for me.

“I’ll take her home,” Jake offered, standing tall and authoritatively.

“Oh, you will? I bet you will, and what else, Jake?” she spat out cynically.

I i
nterrupted. “Allison, let’s go. Come on, all of us.”

Jake held out his hand and helped
me to my feet as he glared at Allison. We ran into Sienna and Dump on the way out. Sienna looked at me with apologetic eyes, she couldn’t believe Rachel would do something so lame in such a public way, but in the same breath she said she wasn’t surprised under the circumstances. That revelation took another gouge out of my already hollowed and ulcerated stomach. Some random girl came up handing me a fluffy oversized towel. Jake grabbed it away from me, wrapping me in it.

             
I thanked her.

“No problem, it was awesome watching Allison go off on her. I can’t stand her.” She laughed, with joy. “Try and
have a great rest of the night,” she said and disappeared into the crowd.

             
Jake and I locked eyes. I squinted with rage. “I told you, she’s freaking crazy and nobody likes her.”

             
“Let’s go,” Jake urged and pulled me along with him. He’d clearly had enough.

Chris stepped up and offered to take Nadine and Nicole. They wanted to stay at the party. I didn’t blame them. Allison’s silence was deafening. She would usually be going off for the world to hear, and it was killing me that she wasn’t saying a word. I pulled on Jake’s arm and we stopped to wait for Allison and Owen to catch up.

              “Allison, please don’t say anything to mom and dad,” I begged, nearly in tears. I could feel my throat thickening and it made me want to scream.

             
“Aly, what the hell do you think you’re doing? You’re 14 years old. You haven’t even officially started high school yet and look at you.” She held out both hands pointing out my appearance. “There are a number of reasons why I’m pissed, Aly. We’ll talk when we get home.”

             
“So, you’re coming home now, with me?”

             
Allison stopped, looking down at the street. Oh, here it comes, I thought. She was about to erupt.

             
“Are you two seeing each other? I mean, I guess that’s a stupid question. It’s obvious you are.” She paused with a perplexed look. I waited for Jake to say something but he just stood there, dumbfounded like me. Taking a deep breath she continued. “I had one of my friends come up to me raving about how good you looked. How grown up you’d gotten and everyone was talking about you and Jake.” She began pacing and glancing between Jake and me. “Aly, do you even know who he is? He’s not just the cute guy who lives next door. Do you realize what you’re getting yourself into?”

Jake’s voice cracked the long silence and my heart almost came up out of my mouth. “Allison, we’re just friends, hanging out.”

              “Just hanging out, are you a fucking idiot, Jake?” she barked at him and turned her fiery eyes onto me. “Aly, answer my question, do you realize what you’re getting yourself into?”

             
“Allison,” I paused, “he’s just a guy, in a band, he…” I was interrupted by Allison’s cynical guffaw and I was silenced.

             
“Aly, he is in a band that’s on the brink of something. Why do you think everyone kisses his ass? Do you realize the life he’s chosen? He’s never going to be home. He’s gonna be on the road, and you’re going to be here, alone; heartbroken and hearing rumors about him hooking up with girls all over the country. That’s what going to happen.” She passionately explained with words I didn’t want to hear. I looked over at Jake and he was staring at her with heated glare. I pictured her face melting off.

             
“Allison, come on, you’re being ridiculous…” Jake cut in.

             
“Yeah, you’re going out with Owen, he’s in a band,” I broke in and daggers shot out of her eyes.

             
“Oh, I’m being silly, Jake? So what part did I get wrong?” She asked, ignoring me.

             
“I’m not going to be hooking up with girls all over the country.” Jake answered.

             
“Why is it ok for you to hang with Owen and I can’t hang with Jake?” I rang in again, persistent.

“Aly, Owen’s deal is different,” she paused looking at Owen. “He isn’t on the same path right now that Jake is.” Her voice was softer, not wanting to offend Owen.

              “Allison, why are you making a big deal out of this? It’s not like I’m some random guy. Yes, I like Aly.” He admitted. “We’re hanging out, havin’ fun. I’m not gonna hurt her if that’s what you’re worried about.”

             
“That’s what you say now. I swear to God, Jake Masters, if you hurt her I will hunt you down,” she said through clinched teeth. “Keep your dick in your pants. She’s a kid, not some whore skank. If my dad finds out, your head’s gonna roll. See you at home, Aly.” She took one last moment to stare down Jake, as if everything she just said wasn’t enough.