Cracker Jack

Jack pulled the car into a dark alleyway and got out. I grabbed my bag and followed. It was early in the evening, but the sun had already sunk below the horizon. We darted out from the alley, running down the street as fast as we could. When we finally reached our corner, we slowed our pace and regained our breath.

"See?" Jack asked. "Nothing bad happened."

I stared at him like he was an imbecile. "You're not home yet, Jack. There's still time."

"Relax. I'm not scared, why should you be?"

I chose to ignore his question. He would find out soon enough. "Thanks for everything. I really appreciate all that you did for me."

"Don't mention it. I had a blast. I always have a blast doing stupid shit with you."

"Yeah so do I. But still, thanks."

He seemed to understand that I wasn't going to let this go easily. I wanted him to comprehend just how much it meant to me that he not only risked so much to help me, but was trying so hard to pretend that it was worth it.

"You're welcome."

I dropped my bag into the snow and hugged him tightly.

I could hear his confusion clearly in his tone. "What's this for?" Nevertheless, he wrapped his arms around me and tightened his grip.

"Just in case you get grounded," I explained, not breaking the embrace. "It's going to be awhile before I get to do anything like this."

"It's all going to be fine," he murmured. His deep voice sent vibrations through his chest and right through me. "If all else fails, I'll see you at school tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to walk with you, too."

I nodded slowly. "Okay. I can handle that. But promise me something, okay? You've got to let me take the fall. It's fine if I'm in shit, but you don't need people talking about you more than they already do."

He pulled back and stared at me. "I'll take the fall for myself. Besides, I don't think that what we did was a big deal. Relax. I'll see you first thing in the morning."

I released him, feeling suddenly cold where his arms had been. "See you then," I agreed. I picked up my bag and walked the few short steps to my house, casting a longing glance over my shoulder before I slipped inside.

Jack was already nearly home; he was walking fast to escape the cold. I hoped that everything would be alright when he got home. He was just starting to truly view it as a home; I really didn't want to fuck that up for him.

I heaved my shoulder into the door and forced it to separate from the frame. As soon as I stepped inside, I could hear my mother's shrill voice.

"Hayley? Is that you? Where have you been?!"

"There isn't enough alcohol in the world to erase that voice from my memory," I muttered darkly.

She rounded the corner in front of me. "Care to explain why you haven't been home since yesterday?"

I shrugged. "I had other places to be. It's not really important, Mom. It won't happen again; it's not like I accomplished anything. I didn't even think you would notice that I was gone."

"Evelyn Mercer called to ask if I'd seen John. She said-"

"Who?"

"Evelyn Mercer," Mom repeated.

"No, who was she looking for?"

"That new kid of hers."

"You mean Jack?" I corrected her.

"Whoever," she waved it off with a careless flick of her wrist. "He disappeared in the middle of the night. So I went to see if you'd seen him, and low and behold, you were gone too. Do you really expect me to believe that you're not running off to some hotel room with him?"

"Believe what you want. I never meant to involve Jack at all. He's a casualty."

She pointed toward the staircase. "Go to your room. And stay there."

"No problem," I pushed past her. I took the stairs two at a time and slammed my bedroom door shut behind me. After tossing my bag onto my empty bed, I wandered over to my window.

Jack's bedroom light was on. I didn't know if that was a good sign or a bad one.

I left the house early the next morning. I didn't really want to go over to the Mercer household; it would be hard to face Evelyn if she was angry with Jack. Instead of going inside, I sat down on the curb outside and waited. I was so wrapped up in my own concerns that I didn't notice when someone sat down beside me.

"Way to go, Grove," Bobby sounded tired.

"I told him not to come."

"The only way he wouldn't have gone with you is if you never went at all. He's grounded, but I'm sure you already guessed that much. It's just lucky for him that when the rest of us picked up and ran off, it took us a hell of a lot longer than a day to come back home."

"How long does he have?"

"Something tells me that I don't know the whole story. But two weeks."

I spun around to face him. "Really? That's it?"

Bobby's eyes narrowed. "Now I'm positive that I don't know the whole story."

"Ready to go, Hayley?" Jack's voice came from behind us.

I leapt to my feet. "Oh, thank God," I said, grateful for the excuse to leave. "See you, Bobby."

"We'll finish this little chat some other time," Bobby called after me as I hurried down the street. It sounded vaguely like a threat.

"What story did you feed them?" I demanded as soon as we were safely out of earshot.

"I said that your dad took us to visit your brother. Nobody told your mom, because she was still mad at Kevin and wouldn't have let us go. I didn't tell anyone because I didn't want word of it to get back to your mom. I told them that you tried to make me stay home, but you looked like you needed a friend."

"You're a lot more crafty than I give you credit for, Jack."

"Maybe now you'll stop underestimating me."

Jack led the way into the school building a few minutes later. We both shed our jackets, gloves, and scarves long before we reached our lockers. They kept the place so hot that I was sweating through my clothes by the time the day was through. It was really no wonder that half of the student body was constantly sick with cold and flu symptoms. To go from that kind of heat to the frigid temperatures outside was enough to make anyone ill.

We headed to our lockers together as usual, but for some reason there was a small group of people gathered around Jack's. He gave me an unsure look. I returned his gaze, then stepped into the crowd.

"What's going on here?" I demanded, giving a short boy a sharp look.

The boy didn't say anything, he simply pointed. Someone had scrawled the words Car Thief in messy script across Jack's locker. I felt my heart stop momentarily before I reached out and tried to rub away the writing. It was written in permanent marker.

"What the fuck is this about?" I asked, my voice raising uncontrollably.

"Rumor has it that last night someone saw the Mercer kid getting out of the driver's seat of a car that was reported stolen."

I spun around, instantly recognizing the voice that had spoken. A brown eyed girl was giving me a smirk. It was Jamie, the girl that used to be my closest friend. I wasn't entirely sure what had gone wrong with her, aside from the fact that she'd aspired for popularity and I had detested it. Maybe that had been enough to morph our friendship into loathing.

"And what do you know about it?" I found myself wanting to challenge her.

She flipped her long black hair over one shoulder. "It's just something that's floating around. Why? What do you care if another Mercer goes to prison?"

"Jack wouldn't steal a car. I know him, and he's not the type."

Jamie arched an eyebrow. "Maybe so, but he seems to be hanging out with the kind of girl that does things like that."

I glared at her, then spun on my heel and pushed my way out of the center of the group. "I don't have time for this bullshit."

I could feel Jack following me.

"Somebody saw something, Jack," I growled.

"That might not be true, Hayley. Maybe they just assumed it was me. I'm a new Mercer, after all."

"But what if it is true? Then what do we do, Jack? I got you into this; it's my fault. You'd be better off without me."

He caught me by the elbow and pulled me back to face him. "Don't say that. Never think that I'd be better off without you. You're why I'm still here, Hayley."