Just Say Those Three Words

I sat on the step of the porch with Estelle, waiting for Jacob to come pick me up. I had quarantined myself in the house that night, following Jacob's strange rule. My dad had gone to visit some friends after I told him what Jacob did. He didn't seem concerned, but still wanted me to stay inside.

As I absentmindedly stroked, Estelle, the Black Honda pulled into my driveway. I stood up and opened the front door for Estelle, then locked it and went to the car.

"Hey," he said, reversing as soon as I shut the door.

"What happened last night?" I asked, watching Jacob's face crease as I asked.

"I can't tell you."

"Sure, it's okay for you to just run off into the woods but I can't even go outside?"

"Compared to me, Delilah, you are about as strong as a toothpick," he said, rolling his eyes.

"But I'm decent, for a girl, right?"

"No, Dee."

I smiled at him. "I could take you down."

He laughed heartily. "I'd like to see you try."

I looked at him, my heart jumping up when he looked back and grinned. "I could, because you'd be too scared to hurt me to do anything to me."

He laughed even harder, and nodded. "You could point a gun to my head and I'd let you if you wanted me too."

I shook my head in doubt and changed the subject, "Seriously, is everything okay?"

"Yeah, it's taken care of."

"Will you tell me someday?" I asked as we pulled into a parking spot.

"Of course." He opened his door, then came around and got my door as well. "Hopefully soon."

"Why do all guys think they can keep secrets?" I asked, going to my locker. Jacob followed suite, even opening my locker for me quickly.

"Because, half the time it's to protect the person they're keeping the secret from, really."

"Jake, seriously, why is it so important?"

He sighed heavily and leaned on the lockers next to mine. "I can't tell you, Dee. If I could, I would have told you yesterday."

I smiled and finished getting my school stuff in silence.

The school day went by in a blur, it seemed. When I went to my locker for the last time, Jacob was waiting for me. I smiled at him cheesily and got my stuff. "So, Quil said something about coming over tonight," I said, closing my locker and walking to the car.

As I had spent more time in the school, I noticed that many girls were attracted to Jacob. Even though I'd been there for a grand total of two days, still, Jacob's little fan club of girls had tried to get me in. But, Jacob always seemed to show up to scare them off at just the right time.

"Yeah," Jake said absentmindedly, glaring at a few of the girls that were talking by his car. As he opened my door for me to sit down, he said a few choice words to the girls and went to the other side of the car. "He said that Sam would be at your house with your dad and we should throw a party, since it is Friday and all."

"What would Sam need to talk to my dad for? He's so old," I said, sticking my tongue out in disgust.

Jacob shrugged. "Don't know."

"What does Sam do for a living?" I asked.

"Uh." He bit his lip and shrugged. "So, on Saturday do you want to go to a bonfire?" he asked, changing the subject.

"With who?"

"Me, Quil, Embry, Sam. Just people."

"I'm not so sure, I'm gonna be pretty tired after partying tonight," I joked, faking a yawn. "And I do need to finish decorating my room."

"I could help you decorate, and then we could go over to Quil's?"

"Yep. That's good."

He smiled and pulled into my driveway, parking and getting out. As we both walked into my house, my dad was sitting and watching TV. "Hey peanut," he greeted without looking back.

I smiled when I saw what he was watching, but decided to save his pride and said, "Hey papa. Jake's gonna help me get my room done, then we're going to Quil's."

My dad finally looked up, and stood up to shake Jake's hand. After my dad was done making small talk with Jake, he followed me into my room. "I just need it moved around, and obviously, my dad won't be much help. He was watching Rugrats just now," I giggled.

"Hey, don't diss men who watch Rugrats!" he joked, collapsing on my bed. He took up nearly half of my full sized bed, and his feet hung off the edge a little.

"Oh my God, you watch Rugrats?!"

He sheepishly grinned and turned on the TV, immediately flipping on the same TV show my dad had on. "How can you resist those little guys?"

I rolled my eyes and lay down beside him, secretly enjoying the TV show. As it went on, Jake kept subtly moving towards me, and by the end of the episode, was right beside me, one of his arms draped protectively around my waist. When the episodes credits were rolling, I forced myself to move Jake's arm and get up to actually get stuff put away. I went into my closet and got a box full of pictures out. Many of them were of my Mother and I before she passed away. Jacob came up behind me and saw them.

"Is that your mom?" he asked, putting one of his hands on my shoulder.

I nodded, and put the picture face down on my bedside table.

"She died when you were little," he concluded.

"I was ten." I shut my eyes, willing myself not to start crying like I usually did. When I felt certain I could open them without crying, I said, "She had lung cancer. It spread to her brain, kidney, liver. Everywhere."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You've gone through the same stuff," I responded coldly. When I heard it, my face immediately softened. "I'm sorry."

He shook his head and stood up. "What do you want me to do to the room?" he asked, looking at the room. It had purple paint, and the door for the closet and window were teal colored. I got several pictures out and handed them to him.

"You can hang these up," I suggested, getting the hammer and nails from the corner. "Just where ever you want," I added.

He nodded and started pounding nails in the wall, and hanging up pictures after laughing at many of them. While he was doing that, I finished getting my CDs and DVDs in order.

"So, you don't have a girlfriend," I said, trying to sound as casual as possible. I moved so I could see both him and the work I was doing and added, "But you definitely could."

"You don't have a boyfriend."

"I don't have a fan club," I laughed, looking back at him.

He laughed softly. "You met them."

"You should have seen them ambush me in the locker room. They didn't even wait for me to put my clothes on and they asked if I got you in bed," I replied, turning around completely and ignoring the work.

He smiled and put up the last picture, then turned to face me. "And?"

"I said that it was inevitable that I would be close to you since our dads were such good friends."

"Good. Nice and inconclusive."

I smiled. "You don't like any of them?"

"Eh," he said, shrugging his shoulders. He looked toward the living room absentmindedly. "I don't really think that they're right for me." He once again looked towards the living room, and immediately my dad's face popped in the door.

"Hey, Dee, Sam needs to talk to you."