Infinite (Strange and Beautiful, Book 1) (55 page)

Seeing
Mark and Luke interact, it made me curious about male socialization. Luke was
popular and well liked, and Mark was antisocial and often avoided. Besides
Tegan and myself, Mark didn’t seem to hang out with anyone else. I wasn’t sure
he had any other friends. The only time I’d seen him interact with another guy
was with Jackson and that was because of my doing. They’d seemed to get along
well enough, but that did not a friendship make.

I’d
realized in the past few weeks that once you got past the surface and dug a
little deeper, Mark wasn’t nearly as bad as he liked to let on. Sure, he could
be really mean when he wanted. Being shoved in a locker was proof of that, but
underneath all of that, he was a decent person, and so far had proved to be a
good friend as well.

It
felt nice to see Mark interact with other people. As Luke and Toby were packing
up, they started discussing when they should get together next to practice. I
hoped this band thing would be good for all them, but especially for Mark, and,
unlike Stevie and Skylar, I had faith in them and knew they could make it work.

I’d
heard people say “be careful what you wish for” so many times in my life, but
it wasn’t until after Jackson called me to set up our first official date that
I understood what the warning meant. It had nothing to do with first date
jitters—though those did exist—and everything to do with my family’s unexpected
interest in my life. Usually, whatever I said went in one ear and out the
other, but the sudden existence of a boyfriend had apparently made them all
pause and listen. Their newfound interest was nerve-wracking.

Dad
had taken to asking me a million questions about Jackson. Unfortunately, these
questions were no longer solely limited to his car knowledge. Instead, he
wanted to know about his family and his job and his other hobbies.

I
found the whole thing ridiculous since Dad hadn’t so much as batted an eyelash
when Mark started showing up at the house to practice with Luke’s band. They’d
decided on the name Oxide because “it sounded cool.” I doubted they even knew
what it meant. Out of curiosity, I looked it up on an online dictionary and it
had something to do with oxygen bonding with some kind of atoms. I figured I’d
revisit the topic later in Chemistry.

Dad’s
acceptance of Mark was unexpected. He’d seemed wary of him at New Years, and
that was with his piercings toned down and tattoos covered up. When he came
over for practice, though, Mark was back to his usual look. I’d have thought
Dad would have been more concerned with Luke’s and my friendship with someone
Dad considered a “delinquent.” It was, in my opinion, far more intriguing than
my relationship with Jackson.

No
one else seemed to agree.

Even
Mom, who had been all about support and encouragement, was playing twenty
questions. She was far less invasive about it and made it feel like less of an
interrogation, but it was still strange to be at the center of attention all of
a sudden. Mom mostly wanted to know how things were going.

Aside
from when Jackson and I saw each other at school, we hadn’t really had much of
a chance to talk. Sometimes Jackson would call if he got home from work early
enough or we’d chat online at night before bed. Still, I didn’t mind. I liked
seeing him in person, sure, but I also liked getting to know more about him.

Apparently,
my relationship had caused Mom to start reminiscing because she was all too
happy to reflect and share stories from her teen years. Her sudden openness was
welcome, but that didn’t make it any less bizarre.

While
Dad worried that Jackson planned to take me out and have his wicked way with
me, Mom was mostly curious.

“Has
he kissed you yet?” she asked one evening while we were fixing dinner together.

I
turned away, blushing, and made a show of looking through the refrigerator.
“Yeah,” I muttered, unable to face her.

“Oh.”
Mom sounded intrigued. “How was it?”

I
inwardly groaned. The whole thing was just so embarrassing. “It was really
nice,” I finally managed, closing the refrigerator door. I considered opening
the freezer to cool my flaming face, but I doubted it would help.

“Good,
I’m glad.” And it sounded like she meant it. I looked at Mom over my shoulder
and she was smiling fondly, as if remembering something. She shook her head a
little and caught me looking. Her smile softened until it was almost a little
sad. “Skylar would never talk to me about these kinds of things,” she
confessed. “I know it’s embarrassing for you, but it’s nice to be included.”

Her
admission was somewhat surprising. I’d always thought that Skylar and Mom had
the better relationship. It was probably partly due to jealousy. When Mom would
take us shopping when we were younger, it always felt like her focus was more
on whatever Skylar had to say, inane as it might be. Thinking about it now,
though, I realized that was really the only time Mom and Skylar were like that.
They didn’t talk much at home, and my inquisitiveness aside, I realized barely
more than a day ever passed without Mom and I having some kind of conversation.

Honestly,
though, the interest wasn’t solely placed on me. Luke was getting his fair
share of attention because of the band. When Dad wasn’t badgering me about
Jackson, he was breathing down Luke’s neck about staying focused on school and
the upcoming baseball season.

Luke
always waved Dad off when he’d say, “Oxide is not your priority. It’s every
teenage boy’s dream to have a garage bad, but a dream does not a future make.”

I
found his outlook somewhat depressing, but, as far as I could tell, Luke wasn’t
letting Dad rain on his parade. By the end of the day on the Friday we returned
to school—still couldn’t believe we had to go back on Friday—Luke had secured
two more members for the band. Robby was a friend of a friend who played
keyboards, and Nick, who played guitar, was the cousin of the same friend.

Luke
had come home from school that day, called up both guys and asked them about
auditioning. Mom had given Luke permission to use the garage for practice.
She’d even generously given up parking inside the garage—much to Dad’s chagrin—so
that they’d have more space. Within a couple of hours, Luke, Mark, Toby, Robby
and Nick were jamming out in the garage.

Mark
had spent all of Thursday moving and setting his drum set up. Luke was at work,
so I’d helped. I could see that Mark still had some misgivings about the whole
situation.

“What
if he gets a couple of douche bags to join the band that don’t like me?” he
muttered. “I don’t want to have to move this all back to my house because your
brother changed his mind.”

“He
won’t do that,” I assured him. I wasn’t sure how I knew, but I was certain it
was true. Luke was a lot of things, but fickle wasn’t one of them.

Mark
wasn’t convinced, and I wondered at what point he’d actually start to trust me.
“Okay, if he does, you have my permission to kick his ass.” Mark raised an
eyebrow. “And destroy his guitar.” He grinned at that, and I hoped like hell my
brother wouldn’t make me into a liar.

Mom
invited Mark to stay for dinner that evening. The look on Skylar’s face when
she came downstairs to find Mark Moses seated at the dinner table was
priceless. Mom tried to coax some answers out of Mark, but he was pretty quiet
throughout dinner. Then afterward Luke—he’d arrived home from work just in time
for dinner—and Mark jammed in the garage for a while and I stuck around to
listen.

As
it turned out, Mark needn’t have worried about the additional members of the
band. Nick and Robby were mostly jokesters, but they certainly weren’t douche
bags. Luke, as the founder of the band, seemed to take most of the initiative
in getting things underway.

Tegan
and I sat in during a couple of jam sessions, and I was pretty surprised when
Stevie showed up with a very reluctant Skylar. At first, she nagged Luke about
everything that was wrong with what he was doing. Then she started in on how
much they needed a lead singer to whip them into shape and complete the band.
Then she started hinting that she was up for the job.

Luke
either couldn’t take a hint or simply wasn’t interested, and I couldn’t say
that I blamed him. Individually, I liked both Stevie and Luke, but when they
were in the same room, it was never pretty. I couldn’t imagine them trying to
work cohesively in a band.

For
her part, Skylar just seemed annoyed that her best friend kept coming over to
hang out in the garage and watch her brother’s band instead of hanging out with
her. It was becoming more and more evident to me that, despite her show of
confidence, Skylar had a serious jealous streak. 

Jackson
also seemed intrigued once I told him about the band. He didn’t seem to have
any urge to be involved, but as a fan of music, he thought it was interesting.
Because of work, he hadn’t been able to come over and listen, but I was kind of
glad for it because I didn’t necessarily want to spend what time I could be
with him watching my brother play music. Maybe that made me a little jealous,
too.

Jackson
had promised that once his work schedule fell back to the usual three or four
days a week, we’d get together, and the week after school restarted, he made
good on that promise. When he got his schedule for the next week on Thursday,
we made plans to go out on our first official date on Friday night.

I
was excited about it, but I was also very nervous. Rationally, I knew the only
real difference between the other times he and I had hung out was that we were
no longer simply labeled “friends” and kissing would likely—hopefully—be
involved. Also, Tegan wouldn’t be around, which she seemed thankful for because
she muttered something about “third wheels.”

The
start of the new semester of classes helped to distract most of my worries.
With the new semester came a new schedule of classes and teachers. When Tegan
and I had compared our classes, I was disappointed to find we no longer shared
the same schedule.

Unlike
the upperclassmen, we weren’t given the opportunity to schedule all of our
classes. We were given options as far as foreign language and electives, but
which semester and which block we’d have the classes was done in the guidance
office. As far as classes and scheduling went, I couldn’t say I was overly
thrilled with the lot I’d been handed.

While I was in History, Tegan
was in Biology and vice versa. We still had lunch together and shared the last
two blocks. Lunch wasn’t quite the same anymore either. Mark still sat with us,
but Jackson also shared our lunch period and sat with us. It was nice to get to
talk to him for a solid thirty minutes midway through the day instead of just
at the beginning and end of the school day. I felt bad, though, because I’d
expected him to want to spend lunch with his friends as well.

“I see them in class all day,” Jackson shrugged easily when I
voiced my worry. “As much as I like the guys, I don’t mind getting a break from
them.”

I hadn’t really met many of Jackson’s friends. Some of them had
stopped by the lunch table we occupied from time to time, or we’d end up next
to them in the lunch line, but we’d never spent any time with them outside of
school.

“I don’t see them much outside of school anyway,” Jackson
explained. “Between work and homework, I don’t have a lot of free time.”

I suddenly felt guilty that I was monopolizing all of his time
without knowing it, but before I could express this worry, Jackson had already
read my expression. “Silly, I like spending time with you. If I didn’t, I
wouldn’t. But, really, most of the time I’m too tired to go out with them after
work, and if I’m not and I’m going to do something, I’d really kind of prefer
to go hang out with you or Jordan.”

It wasn’t until then that I really started to recognize that for
as friendly and outgoing as Jackson always appeared, he was kind of a homebody.
Spending time with Jordan wasn’t much of a surprise either. After all, he’d
already confessed that, cocky asshole or not, Jordan was his best friend.

It wasn’t as if Jackson went without male company during lunch
anyway. Aside from Mark, Luke had, unfortunately, been assigned the same lunch
period and had made himself at home at our lunch table and brought Nick, Toby
and Robby along with him.

Of course that meant much of the conversation revolved around
Oxide. Often times Jackson was dragged into the discussion when Luke was
looking for an outside opinion. I was always ready to offer my thoughts, but
they were rarely ever welcome, so Tegan and I usually gabbed about something
else until Jackson would extract himself from the conversation.

When my brother happened upon the CD artwork Jackson made for me,
while looking for the handset in my room, he became interested in getting
Jackson to create a logo for the band. Jackson was up to the task, but the band
still wasn’t complete, as Stevie often pointed out when she dropped by our
lunch table or came by the house. Luke still refused to bite whenever she
hinted that she might be interested in becoming their lead singer.