Mystery Boy

"I promise they won't kill you," I claimed as Jacky and I walked hand in hand down the street, heading back towards my house.

Jacky just smiled and laughed lightly. He nodded as a way of telling me that he knew that nothing bad would happen.

I grinned up at him and bounced on the heels of my feet. I was nervous, but I didn't feel it when Jacky was around. He wasn't nervous so I wasn't nervous. It was like we revolved around each other and our emotions bounced off of each other and were reflected back.

We walked into the house together and Jacky didn't bother to try and let go of my hand to act modest. He probably knew that I wouldn't dare let him pull away from me. My dad and Ina had ran to the grocery store with Taite and they dropped Decklan off at a friends house, so it was just Easton and I, and Jacky.

"Easton, are you alive?" I shouted into the house, grinning when he replied that he wasn't.

Before the parents left Dad told me not to leave Easton home by himself while I went to get Jacky, but when I tried to leave to tell Jacky about our lunch plans, Easton was in the middle of a game so we decided he could stay as long as he didn't tell Ina or Dad.

Jacky and I went to my room. He'd been in the house a few times before when his father had lashed out but he'd never been in Decklan's room before. He laughed at the contrast between the sides of the room. Decklan's side was on the right, and the wall wasn't visible behind the skateboard decks, and posters, and pictures. My side of the room had a picture frame hanging on the wall that held three pictures in it. One was of Kelley and I, the next of Mom, Dad, and me, and the last held a picture of my friends and I at homecoming the year before.

The walls were simply white and looked nice with my bedspread, that was black. Jacky sat down on my bed and I pulled the laptop out from underneath and cuddled up against Jacky's chest. We put in one of my movies and Jacky asked me questions about the girls in the photos. When I told him about the homecoming picture that had six of my friends in it, and their dates, he moved on to asking about my mom, then Kelley, and then back to who I was before I moved here.

"I'm the same person," I told him as the characters in the movie danced across the screen. "I'm just a better person now. I feel like I woke up the day my dad told me he had another child. I wasn't the center of the universe anymore," I told him.

He nodded as a way of asking me to continue.

"I was on homecoming court every year," I murmured with a smile, "I never won, but I was there. Kelley won last year and she gave me the crown when I left home. The girls in the picture were my bests friends, although I hadn't talk to any of them since I left. There's Keisha, Naomi, Rachel, Dani, Quinn, and Kelley of course. I've talked to Kelley though. She was supposed to come down this weekend."

Jacky nudged my arm and I looked up to him. "Why didn't she?" he quipped quietly.

I shrugged. "There's just too much going on."

"Airea, Easton!" my father called into the house as he returned from the store. I paused the movie and closed the laptop before standing up and reaching out for Jacky's hand.

"You ready?" I questioned with a grin.

He climbed out of my bed and nodded, his fingers laced tightly between mine.