No Particular Reason

“Don’t tell Mom.” Jakob said again as he and Joey drove home after school. His hair was only slightly damp now but his pride was as bruised as ever.

“Who did it Jake?”

“Don’t tell Mom.”

“Why not?”

“Don’t tell Mom.”

Joey growled in defeat. “Fine. But at least tell me who it was. I promise I won’t tell Mom.”
Jakob was silent for a beat. His mind was swimming with the swirling water and Frankito’s harsh laugh in the background. He remembered Frankito teasing him when he wouldn’t go with them to buy weed or break into a disabled old lady’s house. That grin that smeared itself on Frankito’s face made chills go up Jakob’s spine.

“I don’t know who he was.”
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“How was your first day?” Adrienne asked as her sons came in. She pulled her glasses off of her nose and put the magazine she had been reading down.

Joey shrugged and answered first. “It’s another year. Nothing too special.”

Adrienne cocked an eyebrow. “Aside from the fact that it’s your senior year. What about you Jake? How was your first day at Hillcrest?”

Joey slid a glance to his younger brother who had a bland expression on his features.

“Fine.” Jakob replied and went up the stairs.

“Your Dad wanted to see you ” Adrienne yelled after his retreating back. “He’s downstairs in the basement ”

Jakob bit back a possible curse as he reached his doorway only to drop his books and go back down the stairs. He just wanted to go up into his room and hide and maybe everything would go away. What would his Dad want with him. . . . especially in the basement? The basement was where he practiced music. Jakob wasn’t that great of a guitar player and his skills on the drums were laughable. He could play a bit on the piano but that was about it.

As Jakob made his way down the carpeted stairs into his Dad’s personal studio practice area, Jakob could hear the voices and laughter of two other men. His Dad’s band mates Mike Dirnt and Tre’ Cool, father of Satan himself.

“Hey Jakob ” His Dad greeted him when he got down to the last stair and they realized he had come down. “How was your first day?”

Jakob, having already grown tired of that question, simply shrugged. “Fine. What’d you need to see me for?”

Billie Joe scratched the back of his head. “Uh, I was hoping you wouldn’t mind playing that piece on the keyboard while we do the other part so we could hear how it would sound. It’ll only take a minute, promise.”

“Okay.” Jakob walked over to the lonely keyboard and hoped that practice would just resume as normal.
“Do you know if Frankito went to all of his classes?” Tre’ asked before they could regroup and start playing again.

“Um, I guess so. We only have history together and it’s the last class of the day.” Jakob looked at the keys on the keyboard instead of Tre’.

“All right, let’s get started. Count us off Tre’.” Billie Joe said, sparing Jakob from going into detail on anything that had happened at school. However, the ‘minute’ that Billie Joe had promised Jakob’s help would take, became over 90 minutes. Jakob didn’t mind though. It gave him a reason to be around his Dad, even though his Dad couldn’t pay one on one attention to him, he was at least in the same room.

Once the practice was over, Mike and Tre’ packed up and started for the stairs. “Same time tomorrow.” Mike called over his shoulder. “Bye Billie. Bye Jakob.”

“Bye.” Billie Joe yelled up the stairs as he put his guitar in his case. “Thanks for helping Jakob. You did good.”

“Thanks and no problem.” Jakob murmured as he sighed. He didn’t have any homework to do, unless he was assigned some in History and didn’t know about it, but he could use that as an excuse to get away and hideout.

“You alright Jake?” Billie Joe asked as he turned off the lights to the studio and they both started up the stairs.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Jakob reassured his Dad. “Why?”

Billie Joe shrugged and closed the basement door. “I don’t know. You just seem really quiet and all. I thought maybe something had happened at school or something.”

Ironically, a toilet was flushed down the hall. “No. It was fine. Just another day at school.”

Billie Joe nodded slowly. “Uh, Jake.” He put a hand on Jakob’s shoulder. “You know, if something was going on, you could tell me, right?”

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, I know Dad.” Jakob tried to ignore the horrible fight that would break out between Billie Joe and Tre’ if Jakob did say something about Frankito. That was something he did not want to happen.

Billie Joe nodded with more vigor. “Good, good. I just wanted to make sure. Come on, let’s go eat.”

Jakob followed his Dad into the kitchen where Adrienne, Joey, and Joey’s girlfriend, Amy, were preparing supper. Joey and Amy had been dating since their freshman year in highschool. Amy didn’t attend Hillcrest, but the local public school.

“Hey Jakob, Billie ” Amy said brightly as she placed a bowl of fresh salad on the table. “What’s going on?”

“Not much Amy, not much. How was your first day of school?” Billie Joe pulled a beer out of the refrigerator.

“Eh, senior year has the potential to be fun, you never know though.” Amy shrugged as she took her glass of water to the table. “How do you like Hillcrest so far Jakob?”

Jakob fought the notion of rolling his eyes. “It’s fine.”

The family ate dinner in their normal, talkative fashion, but Jakob didn’t really participate. He nodded and answered accordingly, but he didn’t care to take it too far. Once the dishes were cleared and cleaned, he darted up to his room and finally shut the door.

“Jakob Phone for you ” Adrienne’s voice came through the door.

Jakob rolled his eyes. He knew who it was. He grabbed the phone from it’s base by his bed. “Hello.”

“Hey pussywhip.” Franktio greeted, his slick, sick, sarcasm transported through the phone. “Like your free head wash?”

“Why?” Was all Jakob could ask. He was grinding his teeth in anger and his cheeks had become red with frustration and wrath.

As if Jakob could see it, Frankito shrugged, “No particular reason. See you tomorrow at school.”