36. Playing Games
thirty-six
Playing Games
“ H ey, Jaz, what’s the plan?” I say, putting the phone to my ear and flopping on my comforter.
“I thought I might come take a look at your car,” a deep voice on the other end answers.
“Jacob, sorry.” I cringe. “Jasmine told me she would call me right back. I thought you were her.”
“So, you have plans tonight?” he asks.
“Nothing set.” I hesitate for a minute. “You want to come over?”
“I was hoping to get a minute to look at your car.”
“It’s really dead now. I don’t even think you could bring it back to life.”
“I’d like the chance to try.”
“Come.” I’m feeling brave. “But don’t worry about the car. We can find something else to do.”
“Like what?” I try to judge if his voice sounds curious or cautious.
“The weather is decent. We could go for a bike ride.” I’m teasing, but it almost sounds like I’m asking him on a date.
“No thanks,” he answers. “I’ve had all the biking I can take.”
I laugh. “Saddle sore?”
“I’m fine, but it was really fun to watch Bryan walk around base yesterday.”
“You weren’t sore at all?”
“Okay, maybe a little. I think I used muscles I didn’t know I had.” He pauses. “If you have plans tonight, I don’t want to stop you.”
“Nothing concrete. I’d like to spend some time with you. You haven’t been over for a long time.” I can’t believe I just said that.
“Okay, I’ll see you in about a half-hour.”
I put the phone down and hug my pillow.
By the time Jacob arrives the decent weather has turned into a downpour. He runs into the house, his hair dripping wet. “Still want to go for a bike ride?”
“Still want to work on my car?” I grab a towel from the downstairs bathroom and throw it to him.
“Only if it’s in the garage.”
“It would have to be pushed.”
“Maybe when the rain lets up.” Jacob dries off his face and looks around. “Where is everybody?”
“Mom and Dad are on a date and Tyler is out with some friends. I guess you’re stuck with me.” This is the first time since I got my wisdom teeth pulled that we’ve been alone at my house.
“I think I can deal with that.” Jacob’s gray t-shirt is wet and clinging to his chest.
I touch his shirt. “Dude, have you ever heard of a jacket? We live in an actual rain forest, remember?”
“I’m starting to remember that.”
“I’ll get you one of Matt’s shirts.” I head up to Matt’s room and then remember the sweatshirt he loaned me when he was fixing my car. I’ve kept it for a couple of months, maybe it’s time to give it back.
He’s standing in the foyer holding his wet shirt when I come down the stairs. It's hard not to stare at his chest. “Wow. You’d think with all of those muscles you would do better at something as easy as stationary biking.”
“Yeah.” He touches my nose. “You’d think that with a pretty face like that you wouldn’t be quite so sadistic.”
I hand him the sweatshirt. “Thought you might want this back.”
He looks at it for a second, like he’s trying to remember why I had it. “Oh. Looks like you got the raspberry stains out of it.”
“Yeah.” I duck my head at the memory. “Sorry about that.”
We sit on the couch. I hesitate and then ask. “How’s your family?”
“Gage is doing better with school, but basically up to his old tricks. Mom told me he took three girls out on Valentine’s Day. Of course they all found out about it, and of course they all forgave him anyway. That kid can get away with anything. I’m not sure what his secret is.”
I laugh. “I can’t figure that one out either. At least he found the time to have you deliver flowers.”
Jacob gets serious. “Don’t tell Jasmine the thing about the three dates, okay?”
“Don’t worry, Jasmine does plenty of things I’m sure she doesn’t want Gage to know about.” I pick at the couch cushions, avoiding his eyes. “How’s Nate?”
“Good. I guess. He’s not into talking to me these days, but Mom said he made the Dean’s List again.”
“That’s good,” I say. A wave of guilt washes over me. I'm the reason Nate and Jacob aren't talking. I wish I could fix it, but if Nate isn't talking to his brother, then he's definitely not talking to me.
Silence settles over the room. I’ve run out of things to talk about. There are other questions I want to ask, questions I should ask, like how he feels about his looming deployment, but right now I’m the one who’s afraid. “You want to watch a movie or something?”
Jacob looks over our DVD collection. “Hey, what’s this?” he picks up a case.
I look at what he has in his hand. “That’s not a movie, it’s a game.” It’s one of those overly violent fantasy war games that my brothers love. “Tyler got it for Christmas.”
“I know,” Jacob says. “This is a great game. You want to play?”
“I actually suck at video games.” I could never see the point of learning to play a video game until now.
“Oh, that’s just because you never play them,” Jacob coaxes. “Give it a try.”
“Whatever. At least it will give you a chance to beat me at something.”
“You played video games ?” Jasmine looks at me dumbfounded.
I texted her to tell her Jacob was over, so she would understand why I blew her off.
At lunch she cornered me in the cafeteria, begging for details, but I can tell she’s disappointed with my report.
“You want him to notice you as a girl—correction—as a woman, and you played video games with him? That’s not even something you do with your little sister, more like something you do with a little brother, or with one of the guys. ”
“We had fun,” I protest.
She takes a sip of her soda and taps her emerald green fingernails on the can. “Whose idea was the game, yours or his?”
“Mine,” I think for a minute. “Maybe his. We kind of ran out of things to talk about.”
Jasmine sighs and puts her drink down. “When you run out of things to talk about, there are other things you can do with your lips.”
“Yeah. That one already got me in enough trouble. Besides, what was I supposed to do, throw myself at him?”
“She would have,” Taryn looks up from her book.
Jasmine gives Taryn a dark look, “Well I sure as hell wouldn’t have sat around and played video games all night.” She looks at me critically. “And I don’t even want to know what you were wearing.”
I look down at my standard outfit, comfortable jeans and a t-shirt, my hair pulled back in a ponytail, similar to what I was wearing when Jacob came over.
Jasmine shakes her head at me. “You need to work on that. The one good thing about Brad—you dressed better when you were together.”
As if he can hear what she says, Brad catches my eye across the cafeteria and hoists his can of soda, like he’s toasting me. I drop my eyes. Brad hasn’t bugged me for a long time. I was kind of hoping he'd forgotten I exist.