You Were Always on My Mind

Since Jake was always spending time at my house, today we decided to switch things up. I walk into Jake’s small living room and see a dusty old box in the middle of the room. Jake’s grabbing some movies out of the box, most of which say Batman. His eyes are glistening a little as he looks through them all. I see some VCR tapes from our childhood. They look like the movies we used to watch when Jake’s mom was still around. She passed away when we were five and it hit Jake’s family hard.
“You sure about these movies?” I ask Jake sitting next to him on the couch.
“Yeah, so Batman movies?”
“You know I love my super heroes.”
I curl up on the couch stealing the blanket hanging on the back of the couch. Billy comes into the room and starts to say something when he notices the box of movies. He closes his mouth and leaves the room. Jake puts in the movie then tries to settle down on the couch, but he’s too stiff. I stay on my side of the couch giving him space as I watch the movie. Batman was always my favorite superhero because he doesn’t have super powers. All the superheroes are useless without their superpowers, but Batman has all of his cool gadgets to make up for being human. We get through a movie and a half before Jacob relaxes. We finish the second movie then I suggest that we go for a walk.
“Maybe, we should just take a break from the movies for a while,” I say nonchalant.
“Sure, let’s go,” Jake responds. He gets up from the couch and grabs my hand then smiles at me. We go for a short walk down the street and notice Alex with a blonde hair, green eyed girl. She contrasted from Alex so much with his dark skin and deep brown eyes. She didn’t look like she’s from La Push.
“Who is that?” I ask Jake pointing to her.
“Oh, thats Claire,” Jake informs me, “she goes to Seattle University and she’s a nursing major. She sometimes comes around, but Alex tends to visit her more, but they’re not official.”
“I didn’t know that he was even seeing anyone,” I comment.
“He’s pretty private about it, and he told me that she’s been travelling with her mom over the summer. She was around a lot more during the school year since they have a lot of general ed classes together at the college.”
We pass by two more houses then turn back around toward Jake’s house. His fingers are interlocked with mine as we slowly walk back.
"You were great today with the kids, by the way," I tell Jake smiling at him.
"Well it helps that they seem to like me now and not just be obsessed with you," Jake says laughing.
"They're not obsessed with me," I reply scoffing, "and you and Ian get along really well.
"He's cool to hang out with and he's a great teacher."
As we pass by my house again, sneakily to see what Alex and Claire are up to, we see them also holding hands on the edge of the truck bed. I decide to walk over there to introduce myself, and I drag Jacob along.
“Hey Alex,” I greet. I look at Claire more closely, she is really pretty. She has wavy light blonde hair that passes her shoulders. Her eyes are this pretty pale green
“Hey Sammy, Jacob. This is Claire; Claire this is my sister Sammy and her boyfriend Jacob,” Alex introduces us. He doesn’t seemed to embarrassed of us, but I still find it weird that he took forever to tell me about her.
“It’s nice to meet you Sammy and Jacob,” Claire states with this soft yet clear voice.
“Nice to meet you too,” Jake responds, “well we’ll leave you be while we watch Batman.”
“See you later, try not to spend the night,” Alex warns winking.
“She sleeps over at his house?” Claire asks Alex shocked.
“They grew up together and they don’t do anything, but watch movies too late at night,” Alex assures her. I like that she’s innocent. It’s nice to know that her and Alex won’t be doing anything bad together. We walk back into the house and start on "Batman and Robin". Billy eventually joins us and sits through a whole movie. He leaves to make dinner when we finish "Batman and Robin".
“Billy do you want any help in the kitchen?” I offer.
“That would be great Sammy,” Billy answers smiling at me. Jake and I help his dad prepare dinner and Jake is definitely not the best cook. He still owes me dinner from the 49ers game.
“Does this count toward the bet?” Jake asks thinking about the same thing.
“Nope. You have to make the whole dinner all by yourself,” I inform him. Dinner is done in thirty minutes and we all sit around the small dining room table and eat. It’s so weird that Jake’s house is so small since mine is so large. My dad did rebuild the house to have it the way he wanted though. Both him and my mom designed it when they had both of their salaries combined. I’m not actually sure as to what Billy does. I think he’s retired now since he’s about ten years older.
“Have you visited Sam and Emily much?” Billy asks me.
“No, I’ve been planning on heading down there, but I keep getting distracted,” I tell him smiling at Jake.
“We could go tomorrow. Unless you want to go alone then I can hang out with Quil and Embry since they live nearby,” Jake tells me.
“You’re still hanging out with those two goofballs?” Billy asks laughing.
“Of course, goofballs make things fun. We could always hang out with them too. You only met them that one time and I’ve only seen them once since,” Jake says.
“Maybe I can just have a get together at my house with everyone instead of trying to see everyone,” I suggest.
“That makes things easier. Dad you want to tell stories this time or are you saving them for the bonfire?” Jake asks.
“Well that is a month from now so I guess I could tell some stories if Tim sets up the fire pit,” Billy says smiling, “it’s been a while since I’ve told them outside of the bonfire. Quil’s grandpa, Mr. Ateara, can tell them too.”
“How is he? I haven’t seen him since last year?” I ask. There are still a lot of people I haven’t talked to. I really need to go to Emily’s tomorrow and talk to her.
“He’s doing well. Old age suits him fine,” Billy informs me with a sincere smile.
We continue to eat dinner and chat then Jake and I go back to watching Batman movies. We watch the newer series of movies then head out to the garage. I watch as Jake works with all the tools mesmerized by the way his hands move around and fix things that I don’t even know the names of.
“Do you know what you’re going to do in the future?” Jake asks randomly head down, focusing hard on what he’s doing.
“I’m thinking pediatrician,” I answer, “why do you ask?”
“I don’t know, we have college applications coming up when school starts and I’m still not sure.”
“You could be a mechanic. You make a lot of money from it and you know a lot about it so a vocational school is an option.”
“I’ve thought about it, but I just can’t imagine leaving this town.”
“You could always come back here, your home won’t leave and if someone tries to sell it, I’ll make my dad buy it,” I say winking at him.
“That’s true. What college are you thinking of?” He says peering over at me. I walk over to him and lean against the car.
“I don't know, why?”
“Just wondering,” he says. He drops the conversation and so do I. I stay leaning against the car and watch him work. We’re quite for a while, just enjoying the peace as it starts to lightly drizzle outside. I listen to the pitter patter of the raindrops against the tin roof. When Jacob finishes for the day and cleans up a bit, he leads me to the back seat of the car.
“I’m so close to being done, I just need a few parts to finish,” Jake tells me as he sits down. I lean against the car and stare down at him.
“Tell me if you need help getting them. I have some money saved up and I’ll partly be the reason why you’re using the car.”
“Yeah, but that’s your money.”
“And how are you supposed to get money? I had a job in San Diego and if I go back, my position is saved so I’ll still be getting money.” I saw his eyes spark a little when I said if.
“Well for now, this car can be a really nice make out spot,” Jacob states badly winking and pulling me close to him. I laugh at his comment, but kiss him anyways.
“You’re such a dork,” I tell him as he leans in again. We stay in the garage for most of the night then part our ways around 12.