Stir-Crazy

I looked up from my book Wuthering Heights as the phone rang obnoxiously.

“Hello, Peters and Anderson residence. This is Lainey speaking.”

“Hey.” It took me a second to realize the husky laugh on the other side of the call, and I smiled once I realized who it was. “Getting specific are we?”

“I guess so. Cora’s doing her ten a.m. yoga right now.”

“Actually…” he trailed off for a minute, figuring out what to say. “I called to talk to you.”

“Oh?” I attempted to mask my surprise, but my voice turned into a squeak.

“Yeah, I was um…wondering if you were busy today…”

I had originally planned to go to the grocery store to pick up some more ice-cream, and then do my Literature homework but right now, screw homework.

“Nope. I’m spending the day sitting in front of the TV. My baby and I.”

He laughed, his laugh deep and throaty.

“Of course. Does that mean you can’t spend the day with me?”

“Well, what do you have in mind?”

“You could come over for a bit, because I’m just finishing working in my garage, and then maybe we can go to mall.”

“Sure, give me ten minutes and I’ll be over.”

We agreed and Jacob gave me directions to his house. I pulled on a pair of leggings, a short striped dress and some flats and made my way to my mother’s car. She was sleeping right now, which she had been doing a lot.

“I’m going out!” I shouted to nobody in particular and sped off.

Jacob’s house was easy to find in the small reservation.

It was dark red and sort of looked like a farmhouse. A large triangular roof covered the house, and as my car pulled up, I realized that the paint was peeling. I parked the car and bounded up the steps.

“Hello?” I called out, hoping someone would answer.

After getting no answer, I turned the knob and the door opened.

Huh.

I made my way through the house, listening the faint sound of hammering. Making my way outside, I found Jacob under a car. Well, Jacob’s feet.

“Hey.”

“Oh!” He slid from under the car and smiled slightly. “That was fast.”

“I said ten minutes.”

“Oh. Well, sorry about that. Let me just finish up here and then we can go.” I nodded and he turned his attention back to the car.

“It’s a Volkswagen…Rabbit?”

“Yeah, I built it a while back. It‘s a 1986.” he paused for a minute. “You know about cars?”

“My dad used to teach me about them when I was little. He was a mechanic, and he loved Volkswagens.”

“Awesome.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“It just needed an oil change. This baby took me a year and a half to build. You know, it took me forever to find the parts.”

“You built it all by yourself?!”

“Yeah.”

“That’s…amazing.”

He stopped and looked up at me, to see if I was actually serious. And god damn it, I was. His eyebrows shot up and he smiled.

“I’ve never met a girl that likes cars. I tried to teach Cora but…”

“I know. Welcome to my life.”

He laughed lightly and I watched him as he concentrated on the car. Jacob worked and I watched in silence for about fifteen minutes before he claimed to be finished.

“Ready?” I asked, as he wiped the grease from his hands on his pants.

His white shirt was tight against his chest and had faint greased fingerprints smeared on, and his cut off jeans matched perfectly.

“Let me just change…”

“No!” I blushed slightly. “I mean, I like it like that. It looks cool.”

He shrugged and lead me inside the house to find some shoes.

“Dad!” Jacob called out and a man in a wheel chair, cowboy hat and a pair of faded jeans appeared out of the kitchen.

“Yes?”

“I’m going out with Lainey. I’ll be back later.”

The man’s eyes traveled to me and he smiled warmly.

“Billy Black. I don’t think we’ve met.”

“Lainey Peters, and no, we haven’t.” I laughed slightly.

“Good to meet you Lainey. Don’t stay out too late.” He winked before wheeling back to the kitchen.

“You dad seems nice.”

“Oh, he is.” Jacob slipped on some sneakers before turning to me. “Ready?”

“Yup.”

We made our way to the Rabbit and Jacob opened the door for me, before he drove to the mall. The mall, which was in Port Angeles, was big.

Actually, it was huge.

So many stores, so much money to be spent.
“Where do you want to start?” I asked Jacob and he shrugged.

We walked around aimlessly before I noticed a certain shop that caught my eye.

A mannequin sat in the middle of the display, dressed in a hoodie and jean cutoffs.

“I am so getting those for you!”

Before Jacob could respond, I had bought him two pairs of cutoffs. Jacob bought himself two button down shirts after, but only because he didn’t want me to be the only one buying anything.

“You really didn’t have to do that.” He protested.

“I wanted to.” I replied.

We then headed to the bookstore where I bought a large stack of trashy romance novels. Jacob only bought two books, claiming he didn’t have that much time to read.

After, we went to the dollar store and browsed around. I ended up buying a magnet in the shape of the United States. Jacob bought a mug with a picture of a dinosaur on it and a pack of gummy animals.

“Here.” He had said a few minutes later, picking out a spider and handing to me.

“Why?”

“Because you’re afraid of spiders.”

I was touched that he remembered, even though it was only a week ago, but my cheeks flushed slightly none the less.

“Only real ones though.”

“Too bad.”

I took the gummy spiders reluctantly and popped them all in my mouth all at once. Jacob laughed.

“I conquered the spiders!”

“All hail Lainey The Spider Conquerer!”

This sent us into hysterics.

“I’m hungry.” Jacob stated randomly.

“Me too.”

I followed Jacob to the food court where we found a pretzel shop. I chose a large pretzel and Jacob chose three more, before insisting on paying.

We took our pretzels and sat on one of the wooden benches.

Jacob had finished off his first pretzel in a matter of seconds, and was soon on his second. Myself on the other hand, was struggling to eat my first, and only succeeded on eating half of it before giving up.

Jacob had finished all three and still looked hungry.

“Jake, take my pretzel.”

“No, you finish it.”

“Jacob, take my pretzel.”

“I’d feel bad if I took it.”

“Jacob Black, take my damn pretzel.”

“No.”

‘Jake, please, as my friend, take my pretzel.”

And as he reached out and grabbed my pretzel, I saw it.

Only briefly, and like many things recently, if I blinked I would have missed it.

But there it was.

It reached his eyes, and could probably light up the entire town.

A real smile.