32. Melissa
32
MELISSA
“ W hy the fuck do I need to know that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell?” Chase grumbled as we sat at my kitchen table, working on a group science project.
It was a science project that I was currently dragging him through, kicking and screaming.
“Shhh!” I giggled, looking over my shoulder to make sure my dad was out of earshot. “Don’t let my dad hear you say the F-word. I’ll get in trouble, and you’ll have to go home.”
“I’m just saying,” he said as he capped a green marker. He had been dutifully coloring in the mitochondria diagram I had drawn out on our presentation poster board. “This is BS. High school is a pyramid scheme. Half this stuff we’re never gonna need to know. The only people who actually use this stuff are teachers ‘cause they have to teach it. They just wanna make more minions like them who also become teachers, and then those teachers teach the next generation the same useless facts.”
I stifled a laugh. “Scientists use it… I think. ”
He flopped back in the wood-runged kitchen chair. “Do I look like I’m gonna be a scientist?”
“I dunno. Have you started looking at colleges yet?”
He raised an eyebrow and gave me a look that silently asked if I was out of my mind. “We’re freshmen.”
“My parents are already talking about taking me on college tours this summer.”
“You’re an overachiever.” He flicked a balled-up piece of tape at me. “We can’t all be little Einsteins,” he teased.
I looked down and kept writing out bullet points about the powerhouse of the cell on the opposite side of the poster. “You throw something at me again, and I’m gonna shove it somewhere real uncomfortable.”
“Kids,” my mother said as she poked her head in the kitchen. “You two doing okay in here? Getting your science project done?”
“Yes, ma’am,” I said.
“Chase, your mom just called. I told her you two were still working, so Melissa’s dad will drive you home when you’re finished.”
Chase nodded. “Thanks, Mrs. J.”
“Come find me if you need something. Help yourself to the fridge,” she said before turning and walking away.
“You think Bridget’s home?” he asked as he twisted a blue pipe cleaner to represent the matrix. Chase turned his head and peered out the kitchen window that faced the fence separating my house and the McGrath’s. There were a few lights on over there, but the shades were drawn.
I shrugged, grabbing a glue stick and dabbing it on the poster. “Dunno. Why?”
“No reason.”
I just rolled my eyes and sprinkled flecks of glitter onto the glue spots. Purple glitter made ATP synthase particles a little more festive. “So, what do you think you wanna do when we graduate? Are you gonna go to college? ”
“I guess. I just haven’t figured out what I wanna do.” He grabbed a handful of pom-poms for the ribosomes. “What I don’t wanna do is be a third wheel at ECU with Steve and Heather.” He stuck his tongue out and made a horrid retching sound that had my stomach turning.
Just the sound of Steve’s name made me blush. He was so hot.
“Gosh,” I groaned. “Those two must have had their futures planned out since they were in diapers.”
“Third grade, but you were close,” Chase said as he put a yellow pom-pom too close to the glitter particles.
I stifled the urge to move it. This was a group project.
“What are you gonna do after high school?” he asked.
I laughed as I flipped through our notes. “Your guess is as good as mine. It depends if I finish high school here or if we get moved again.”
“It’s so weird that you used to live in Germany.”
“I was born in Japan,” I remarked. “Does that make Germany more or less weird?”
He didn’t get a chance to say something quippy. A heavy pounding on the front door caught our attention.
“I thought my mom said that my dad was going to take you home?”
“My mom wouldn’t bang on the door like that.” He craned his head to the side to see if he could get a glimpse of whoever was practically bulldozing the front door.
My dad had just gotten back from being on base at Cherry Point. I could hear the heavy thumps of his boots as he hurried to see what the ruckus at the door was about.
Whoever was on the other side hadn’t stopped beating on the door.
He pulled the security chain off and unlocked the deadbolt before yanking it open.
“Mr.Jacobsen—” Jason McGrath said in a panic. He stood on our front porch with Bridget at his side. She was white as a sheet, leaning into her brother for support.
Chase was already on his feet .
“What’s going on, Jason?” my dad barked. He wasn’t too keen on being disturbed after a long day on base.
“Someone broke into our house. They’re still over there,” Jason blurted out.
A tear streaked down Bridget’s cheek as she looked up and saw Chase and me. She broke away from Jason and ran to us.
I met her halfway in the hallway and pulled her into a hug. “Oh my God, Bee. Are you okay?”
Chase bracketed the other side of her, wrapping us both in a bear hug. Though, I knew he was more interested in Bridget than me.
“It was so scary,” she sniffed. “We were in the kitchen and heard glass shatter.” Her voice choked up and she didn’t finish the sentence. “Jase grabbed me and pulled me through the back door. We jumped the fence and ran over here.”
I felt her body leave mine, and she was in Chase’s arms. My mom had come in and was talking to Jason while my dad was on the phone, probably calling the cops.
Slowly, Jason’s attention left my mom and lifted over her shoulder. Green eyes bored into mine. There was an intensity to his stare that flushed my cheeks.
I looked down at my feet for a count of three and looked up again. His eyes were still on me as he answered whatever question my mom had asked.
I would have read into it, but their house had just been robbed, for goodness sakes. Jason was probably on a hair-trigger.
He was doing that thing my dad always talked about—keeping his head on a swivel. His muscles were bunched and tensed, ready to pounce, but his head was smooth as he kept an eye on the scene unfolding in the foyer.
He and Bridget didn’t talk about it much, but I had overheard the things that my parents said about Mr. and Mrs. McGrath.
Jason and Bridget’s dad was a long-haul trucker who cheated on their mom when he was on the road. When he was home, he parked himself at the local bar and drank away half his paycheck.
Their mom worked overnight shifts at the port in Morehead City. She was nice—the few times I had met her, at least. But she was distant. Jason and Bridget took care of each other. They had to.
“The police are on their way,” my dad said in his booming voice as he came back into the entryway. He called that particular tone his ‘military voice.’ “Melissa Renee, clean up the table and take your project up to your room. You and Chase can finish working up there. Bridget, go on up with them. Jason and I will talk to the cops. If they need to speak with you, Mrs. Jacobsen will come get you.”
There was a chorus of “yes, sirs” as we accepted his marching orders and made our way up the stairs.
Chase and I dumped our craft supplies on the carpeted floor. I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that we wouldn’t get a darn thing done for the rest of the night.
Bridget plopped down on my bed, wiping her eyes with the hem of her shirt. Chase sat beside her and draped his arm across her shoulders. Everyone teased them about liking each other, but we all knew they were just friends. Bridget had a boyfriend, and Chase had been talking to one of the other girls from our math class.
At least Bridget knew how to be friends with a boy. I sure as heck didn’t. I had a crush on a boy who had a girlfriend.
How pathetic.
The poster was nearly done, and since I was the one giving our oral presentation, I sat on the floor and reviewed my notes while Bridget and Chase talked.
He seemed to have calmed her down. Now, they were in a deep discussion about how she wanted to go to the movie theater to see The Notebook when it came out. She bemoaned how her boyfriend thought it was stupid and wouldn’t be caught dead at a chick-flick .
Nicholas Sparks was our local claim to fame. The theater would be packed. To me, that just sounded miserable.
But Chase offered to take her.
Of course, the caveat was that she had to go see Spider-Man 2 with him when it came out the following weekend. Bridget had no qualms with those terms.
My mom appeared in the doorway, knocking on the frame. “Chase, I’m gonna take you home since Melissa’s dad went next door with Jason.”
Chase and Bridget said their goodbyes. He promised to check on her at school in the morning before heading downstairs.
“Bridget, honey, your brother and Melissa’s dad are at your house patching up the window that was broken into. The cops took a statement and got some fingerprints.”
Bee picked at her cuticles. “Is my dad…”
“Mr. Jacobsen had some words with your father,” my mom said. Her tone was definitive.
She wasn’t going to elaborate on what those words had been or if Jase had been there to witness it.
“Since the window won’t be fixed tonight, you and Jason can stay here.” My mom looked up at me, giving me silent directions. “You can sleep in here with Melissa, and Jason can take the guest room. I’ll have Jason grab some of your things before he comes back over.”
“Thanks, Mrs. J,” Bridget said softly.
“Anytime, hon.”
I hopped in the shower while my mom took Chase home. The only thing I could think about was the look in Jason’s eye when he was talking to my dad. The way he looked at me.
Was it just the byproduct of going through something stressful like a robbery, or was it intentional?
I tossed and turned all night thinking about it.
Bridget was sound asleep on the side of the bed next to the wall. From the few times we’d had sleepovers, I knew she was a hard sleeper. There could be an earthquake, and it wouldn’t shake her out of her REM cycle.
I peeled the covers back and eased off the mattress. I’d get a glass of water, make a pit stop at the bathroom, and then get back to bed.
Tiptoeing down the stairs, a soft light glowed from the kitchen. Maybe my mom had left it on in case Bridget or Jason got up in the middle of the night.
I made it to the kitchen without so much as a creak in the floor. With overbearing parents like mine, sneaking around was a quickly acquired skill.
I plucked a glass out of the dish drainer and stuck it under the tap. Before I could turn the water on, a wide hand clapped over my mouth. The other splayed against my stomach, pulling me against a hard body. I thrashed back and forth and opened my mouth to bite the hand muffling my voice.
“Shhhhh!” Warm lips pressed on top of my head. “Shh, shh, shh—It’s just me,” Jase whispered. “Just me.”
I was short. Vertically challenged. Fun-sized. It was something I had always detested. I hated being smaller than everyone else.
But right then with Jason’s body wrapped around mine? He made being little the best feeling in the world. It was so warm. So safe. I wanted to snuggle into him.
He wasn’t like the boys my age: flighty, immature, and barely out of puberty. Then again, he wasn’t my age. He was better. Bigger. Stronger. He had a good head on his shoulders. Reliable. All the things a man should be.
Slowly, he peeled his hand away from my mouth.
I turned, pressing my palm against my pounding heart. “What the hell?” I whisper-shouted.
“Sorry,” he said quietly. “I was sitting at the table and didn’t want to freak you out.”
“So you decided to fake-kidnap me instead? ”
“I didn’t want you to wake everyone up.”
“What are you doing up anyway?” I asked, leaning against the edge of the sink.
“Couldn’t sleep.” He ran his fingers through his floppy hair, pushing the still-damp strands away from his face. He showered before we all went to bed, and I could still smell his soap. It was crisp and fresh, like a clean breeze coming off the ocean.
I had always described boys my age as cute or hot.
Steve was hot, and Lord knows I’d had a crush on him since I moved to Beaufort. But Jason wasn’t cute or hot.
He was sexy.
Just thinking the word made me flushed. I knew I shouldn’t be having thoughts about my best friend’s brother. Especially since he was almost eighteen.
Sometimes, it felt like Jason saw me when no one else did. He didn’t talk down to me like most people his age did. He talked to me like his friend. His equal.
There was a wild look in his eye. Almost feral.
The veins in his forearms stood out against his cords of muscle as he gripped the countertop on either side of me. We had sat beside each other before. We’d even hugged on the rare occasion. But never once had we been this close, face-to-face.
“Are you okay?” I asked quietly.
Jase pushed off the counter, taking two staggering steps away from me. His back hit the refrigerator. “No,” he admitted before sliding down the front of the fridge and sitting on the floor.
I filled up two glasses with water and offered him one. Jase accepted it without protest, so I took it as a sign that sitting beside him wouldn’t be unwelcome.
“I think I should defer a year,” he said out of nowhere.
With my dad’s help, Jason had applied and been accepted to the United States Naval Academy. Just being accepted was a huge freaking deal. He had been excited about it up until now. No way should he defer.
“What? Why?”
“I need to be here for Bridget. Someone’s gotta look after her. My dad’s a piece of shit. Mom’s never here. I don’t want her to be alone.”
Our elbows bumped against each other. His arm was three times the size of mine with a light dusting of gold hair. His legs were twice as long as mine.
On the outside, we were different. But whatever made up our souls was the same.
“We’ll be here for her,” I said. “As far as I’m concerned, Bee can just move in. I’ve always wanted a sister.”
“Mel…”
“Listen to me,” I said, turning to him and placing my hand on his knee. “Your tuition… Your room and board. It’s all covered if you go to the Naval Academy. That’s why it was the plan, right? You’ll automatically have a job when you get out. If you stick around here, you won’t have that guarantee. You can’t help Bee if you stay, but you can help her if you get out.”
Something dark flickered across his face, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was.
“You make it sound like you’re the one who wants me to leave.”
“I don’t,” I admitted all too quickly. “I’m gonna miss you.”
“Yeah,” he muttered. “Who else is gonna catch you sneaking out in the middle of the night?”
I snorted. “Please. All I do is sit in my backyard. You act like you’re catching me breaking out of Alcatraz. Although, that’s not that far off.”
Jason opened his mouth to say something, but he closed it before anything came out. Instead of saying what was on his mind, he opted for a sip of water.
“You should go to bed,” he said after a long stretch of silence. “Don’t let the Colonel catch you down here with me. ”
I looked at the clock on the wall. I’d be miserable at school tomorrow if I didn’t get some shut eye.
“Don’t defer,” I said. “Promise me you’ll go. On time.”
“Mel—”
“Promise me,” I said, holding out my pinky. Yeah, it was juvenile to demand a pinky promise, but that’s exactly what I was doing. You couldn’t break those. They were the real deal.
He stared hard at me for a long moment. Finally, he lifted his pinky but didn’t hook it in mine. “Promise me you’ll keep an eye out for Bridget.”
“I promise,” I said, hooking my finger around his. “I won’t let anything happen to her.”
He gave mine a squeeze. “Fine. Then I promise, too.”