Messed Up Youthful Innocence

(Katie's Point Of View)

The thing about going to the Wentz’s now that they know Drew and Kayla are dating is that Pete never lets them go far without keeping his eye on them. Even if it’s his own birthday party. I knew he was watching us from the kitchen window as all the kids chilled in the pool. He looked furious when Kayla and I came down from her room in bikinis. Dad’s eyes were pretty wide too. I saw mom mirror Erelin’s look and give dad a ‘keep your mouth shut and let her be’ glare. Kayla and I set the towels that had been wrapped around our waists on a chair near the pool before joining everyone in the pool. Petey was wooing his girl of the week. Kayla Drew, Jake, Wil, Brian and Amanda Stump plus Mark Trohman and I were just goofing off while playing with all the pool toys. Drew had his arm around Kayla’s waist, but since they were standing with their backs to the house, no one inside would know.

“You know what I want?” Wil suddenly said.

“What?”

“I want a girl who can seriously play an instrument. Drums, guitar, whatever, it’s really hot.” he responded. He was doing this on purpose, he looked over at me “no offense but not you.”

“Not me? Asshole!” I said sarcastically. “Fine if you don’t want me I’ll leave.”

I just happened to be floating on a noodle, and I just happened to push off the ground and directly into the railing by the steps into the pool. I made a small whimpering noise right after the railing collided with my spine.

“Oh God Katie, are you okay?” Wil asked making his way over to me. He started to rub the part of my back that hurt. “He’s starting at me isn’t he?” Wil whispered quietly.

“Yeah” I whispered back.

Jake had given Wil the meanest glare ever until I hit the railing. As soon as my eyes
widened and I whimpered he looked ready to comfort me, as soon as wil had started to rub my back he went back to glaring at him.

“Figures, I told you so.” wil whispered back.

“I’ll be fine, thanks” I said before we swam back to the others. Drew was shaking his head
and Kayla suppressing a giggle.

“You okay?” Jake asked quietly.

“I’ll be fine, nothing a good back massage won’t fix.” I smiled at him.

He forced a smile then went back to brooding like he had been for the past six months. We all chilled in the pool on the surprisingly hot June day until dinner time when Pete came out to glare evilly at Drew then tell us the food was ready. I got out of the pool and wrapped a towel around my waist. Wil mouthed from across the pool ‘he’s staring’. I turned around but not fast enough to catch Jake in the act. I sighed and walked with wil into the house.

“When you two get married and have tons of babies, I get to be the godfather.” Wil said opening the door for me

“Don’t hold your breath.” I mumbled back

“You can be the godmother to my kids!”

“We need guys first.” I looked up at him “Okay you need a girl, I’m used to this talk with Kayla not you.”

Summer barbeques are the best. Seriously. I sat down next to Wil at the empty dining room table. No one else was eating in the formal dining room. Some people were outside, others the kitchen. I Saw Amanda in the doorway, and then turn around when she saw me and wil sitting at the table.

“I don’t see why you’re trying to help me this much” I sighed picking the seeds out of my watermelon.

“I can’t stand to be around you two If you’re not dating, it‘s like you‘re either going to go at it, or fight him to the death. Plus, what are best friends for, I honestly don’t know why Kayla isn’t’ doing anything. Unless she’s too love struck already.”

“Kayla doesn’t’ know, I never told her what happened.”

Wil dropped his fork.

“What? You didn’t tell your best friend?”

“No, she seemed to have a lot on her plate. Anyways, I should have, she wouldn’t have been as obvious as you are, and she’s a little more subtle.”

“You don’t like my ‘Jake if you kiss or touch her here you can get into her pants’ method?”

“No, because it has the phrase ‘get into her pants’ in it.” I snapped back.

“The bikini is a nice touch”

“Thanks” I replied sarcasm dripping from my voice.

“Seriously, he has been staring all day.”

“Why are you helping me so much?”

“Actually, I was hoping you’d return the favor.”

“Who?”

“Tiffany”

“That I can do”

“And I think you need to get laid”

“Wil” I glared at him

“I’m just saying, maybe you’ll calm down a little, mellow out maybe”

I looked up at the doorway just as Jake appeared in it.

“Can I sit here with you?”

“Sure” I responded as Wil kicked my shin underneath the table. I managed to kick him back before Jake sat to my right. Lucky me, sitting in-between two wet very good looking shirtless boys.

Between the intellectually stimulating table talk I managed to find exactly 29 black seeds and 32 white seeds in the three pieces of watermelon I had. I finished what I had, excusing myself from the angry glances both boys were shooting each other, and went to go throw my plate away and perhaps grab another drink. Just as I reached the coolers Kayla and Drew were at them too. In the one Kayla and I were at there were the neon color drinks, mountain dew, orange crush and code red. In the cooler Drew was at were the not as fun colas and clear drinks. He looked over at ours.

“Hey Kate Oww” Kayla and I looked up to see dad had hit Drew in the back of the head. He rubbed the spot.

“Don’t ever let me see you doing that again.”

“What? Asking Katie for a dew?”

“No, the other thing, especially don’t let Pete see.”

I stood confused for a second before I realized when we were all bent over drew had a clear view of Kayla’s (ample) cleavage. I grabbed my own can of mountain dew and turned to walk back in the house only to walk directly into Jake. My face smashed directly into his chest and hit solid muscle.

“You okay?” he asked putting his hand on my bare shoulder.

Ow. Ow. Ow. Note to self: boys hurt, emotionally when they play with you and physically when you run into them.

“Yeah”

“You’re not having a good day are you?” he said with a slight nervous smile.

“I’ve had worse” I sighed. New years perhaps?

“Um, can I talk to you … in private?” he asked at barely a whisper. It took my head several
seconds to process the information. In those seconds his face fell.

“Yeah:” I said blinking rapidly. “I don’t think there’s anyone in the basement. “

“Okay” he cheered up a little.

He followed me down the stairs to the studio. I sat down on one of Pete’s amps looking around. Jake closed the door behind him and sat next to me, close but not too close.

“So” he mumbled trying to make conversation.

“Right”

“Do you remember the mistletoe on New Years?” he asked scooting closer to me.

I blinked remembering us brushing each other as we both walked through the same doorway. Both of us looked up and saw the mistletoe. Both of us smiled. I stood on my toes and kissed his cheek. He mumbled “I don’t think that counts” before he leaned down and kissed me on the lips. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy it.

“Yes I remember, why?”

Jake blushed and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Well it’s been bothering me, because I kind of enjoyed it and I know you did, but you haven’t said anything about it.” he said his shoulders falling in a sigh.

“Jake” I began only to be interrupted by his lips pressing against mine. Jake leaned into me as I arched my back. I closed my eyes before realizing what I was doing and pulled away. “Jake, we can’t keep doing this.”

Almost as if on cue the door opened and Petey appeared.

“I swear I’m this close! Like one acoustic song away from her being within my grasp” Petey said as he grabbed an acoustic and a few picks from the stands in the corner. Thankfully Petey was completely obvious to the fact that Jake was practically on top of me. He left the door open behind him.

Jake again turned to me.

“Katie what do you mean “this”?”

I sighed trying to find the right words.

“This… This… Everything. After you kissed me I was all smiles that night but you didn’t bring it up again, you got my hope up Jake. You ignored me for the next three months. You didn’t say anything; you didn’t even acknowledge my presence! That hurt.” I got out my voice cracking on ‘Jake’.

“I didn’t mean to.”

“You don’t mean to do a lot of things but it still happened.”

“This time it‘s all different” he said before kissing me again catching me slightly off guard. I closed my eyes and his arms wrapped around me, shaking, then he cupped my face as I pulled away for breath. The towel around my waist had come undone when he leaned in and kissed me the first time. He had almost kissed me with enough force to make me lie flat on the amp. I gazed into his baby blues for a few seconds, both of us barely breathing. “Katie, will you go out with me?”

I think my heart skipped a beat. I bit my lip then smiled

“Yes.”

I closed my eyes and right as our lips touched again I heard a gasp. And it wasn’t Jake; it was more of a feminine gasp. Jake pulled away almost instantly, removing his arm from my back and his hand from my face, I opened one eye and glanced to the doorway. I opened the other eye and sighed. Drew and Kayla were standing there. His arm around her waist, his mouth wide open. Kayla had both of her hands pressed to her mouth. I suddenly remembered that Jake was shirtless and I was in the swimming equivalent to a bra and panties. The towel that had been wrapped around my waist had come undone the first time Jake kissed me.

“Just as Kayla and I slip away from Pete’s eyes, and try to find someplace private I find you sneaking behind my back with Jake, what the hell Katie”

Why does he always think it’s about him?

“Oh, and you’re so innocent with your sneaking down here to the SOUNDPROOFED room with Kayla?”

“How long as this been going on?”

“Twenty seconds.” Jake said defensively. At least I could trust him to take my side.

“Not how long I’ve been here, how long have you two been sneaking around.”

“Now? It’s about twenty five seconds.” Jake said sounding bored with this argument.
I shot pleading eyes at Kayla. She bit her lip.

“So great, I walked in on my sister’s first kiss.”

So incredibly no true.

“No” I said quietly.

Drew gave me a ‘who have you been sneaking around with look’.

“No” Jake echoed.

I used the time Drew was glaring at Jake to plead with Kayla. I mouthed ‘help, please’ to her.

“Drew, let’s just go and pretend we didn’t see anything. Its better us get caught then them, I mean, she did cover for us for two weeks, they deserve at least that.”

I love Kayla.

“Fine.” Drew said not taking his eyes off Jake as Jake, having won the right to touch me again, wrapped his arm around my waist pulling me closer to him. Kayla mouthed ‘you owe me’ before kissing Drew on the cheek which distracted him enough to let her pull him out of the room. Jake kissed me on the forehead.

“We should probably reappear at the party. If they’re out searching for Kayla and Drew we don’t want to get caught too. “

“Anything you say” I said dreamily.

“What?” Jake asked giving me an amused expression.

“Never mind” I said blushing madly before standing up and rewrapping the damp towel around my waist.
Jake smiled as he grabbed my hand and led me up the stairs to the rest of the house. He slowly let go of my hand as we got to the first floor of the house. I walked in front of him through the house only to spot Wil on the stairs. He looked up and saw both of us, but not happily holding hands or making out.

“Dear God! Tell me something happened between you two, because if nothing did I’m going to flat out tell Jake how to get into your pants.” He said angrily.

I sighed and closed my eyes.

“Technically Katie isn’t wearing pants... And did you just do all the stuff to make me jealous? Cause it worked and I kind of want to punch you right now.” Jake said the last part angrily.

“Well, do you really want to punch me if I can get you into Katie’s pants” Wil said in a very Jack Sparrow like manor.

“I’m right here!”

“All sexual advances towards Katie will stop if she puts in a good word with Tiffany.” Wil said gripping the step.

“Deal” Jake and I said in unison.

“Okay then. I suggest we move this little party to the pool because I think Petey, that girl he brought, Kayla and Drew are upstairs, and as funny as it would be to see Petey get caught, I don’t want to be around for Drew and Kayla.” Wil mumbled shuttering

“Yeahhhh, let’s go”

I led the way outside to the pool, stopping to put my wet towel on a chair. I swear Jake checked me out again, even if he didn’t I still blushed. Jake and I walked down the steps into the shallow end of the pool to join Amanda and Brian. I noticed at the last possible minute Wil and Mark were cannonball-ing into the deep end, where we were. I hit Wil hard on the shoulder.

“Ass”

“Jake, your girlfriend is abusing me” he whispered only so we could hear.

“You totally deserved it.”

“Damnit, he’s already on your side.”

The night wore on and Petey, Kayla and Drew appeared again. Apparently Petey’s girl of the week had to go home, but his still had a very smug look on his face. Most of the guests went home until it was just us, the Trohmans, the stumps and the Wentz’s. Jake had driven separately and convinced his parents to let him stay for awhile.

We all changed out of our wet bathing suits and to Drew’s dismay, Kayla put on pants and a shirt. He was however very happy that I had clothes on. I put my stuff in Kayla room and headed out to the loft to watch a movie. I sat next to Jake on the couch and felt his arm curl around my waist. I laid my head on his shoulder and smiled. Amanda raised her eyebrow at us and scooted over to us.

“Are you two going out?” she whispered, making sure no one else heard.

“Yeah.”

“Is it a secret?”

“For now, yes”

“Okay.”

Amanda went back to where she was originally sitting. Jake leaned close to me to whisper something.

“Do you still need a backrub from earlier?”

“Yes”

“Come here, sit in my lap.”

I looked at him and bit my lip, tempting offer, but I didn’t want to get caught. I eventually gave
in and quietly crawled into his lap. The only one that seemed to notice was Kayla. She rolled her eyes and went back to watching the movie. Jake started to work on the knots in my back. I closed my eyes and exhaled, he was insanely good at it. My eyes started to droop and I crawled out of Jake’s lap and put my head on his shoulder again.

“Katie, Katie, wake up” someone whispered waking me from my dream where Jake had finally asked me out. I groaned and felt someone’s lips against the back of my neck. My eyes shot open as I realized that wasn’t a dream and Jake had just kissed the back of my neck again, his arm still wrapped around my waist. I turned to face him smiling.

“I have to go, and I think your parents are leaving too.”

I sighed sleepily then yawned. I got up and said goodbye to everyone upstairs before going into Kayla’s room to grab my swimsuit. I searched using only the light from the hallway because I was too lazy to turn on the light. Suddenly someone closed the door. I squinted as the room went from incredibly dark to bright as Jake switched on the light.

“Need help?”

“No, not really” I mumbled picking up my bag with my bathing suit in it.

“So, how long are we going to keep this a secret?” Jake said stepping closer to me.

“Not long, I just… I want to tell my parents, just not this second. My dad is going to freak.”

“Why?”

“I’m his little girl. I know it’s going to happen, just if I were to tell them when I got home, it’d
be bad, so yeah.”

“Are you sure?” Jake asked tucking my bangs behind my ear.

“Yeah, I seriously am going to tell them. Because no one wants a repeat of the Kayla-Drew
incident.”

“I completely agree with you on that one.”

Jake leaned in and kissed me, I suppressed a giggle. Jake ran his hand through my hair when I pulled away. I bit my lip for a second then pressed mine against his again. I ran my tongue across his bottom lip. I found myself pressed against Kayla’s bedroom door as Jake and I started to make out. We abruptly stopped when I felt someone knock on the door.

“Katie, your parents are looking for you.” Kayla whispered.

Jake pecked me on the lips before I opened the door.

“Goodnight” Jake said squeezing my hand.

“Sweet dreams” I responded smiling.

I bounded down the stairs and met my parents at the bottom. They both looked at me oddly. Mom shook her head and Drew came down the stairs so we could leave.

“You okay?” dad asked me.

“Yeah, why” I smiled

“You’re just, acting odd.” he said surveying me

“Andy, it’s almost 3am, it’s late. Of course she‘s acting odd.” mom said.

Dad eyed me suspiciously until Jake came down the stairs.

“You leaving too?”

“Yeah”

“Well, I’ll see you guys later” Jake said his eyes momentarily locking onto mine.

“Bye!” I whispered as dad herded us out the door.

“Bye Katie” Jake replied doing his best to brood like he was this morning.

I almost fell asleep in the fifteen minute car ride back to our house. I stumbled like an
exhausted drunk up the stairs to my bedroom. After collapsing on the bed I head the door open, but not close. I opened one eye and spotted Drew. He plopped on the bed next to me.

“So, what’s new?”

I glared back at him.

“Not much, you?”

“Meh, same old same old. My sister is totally dating one of my best friends.” Drew said like we were old friends meeting for the first time in years.

“I know the feeling.” I sighed

“How long has this been going on?” He said getting serious.

“Drew!” I whined “You seriously don’t believe me when I say today?”

“You really meant today?”

“Yes”

“Did he ask you out or is he just using you?” Drew asked sitting up.

“Well after you two walked away we totally had sex on the Wentz’s floor. So… Yeah.” I replied leaning against my headboard.

“Stop, I don’t want to imagine you and Jake”

“Drew, we haven’t, he’s not using me, he had just asked me out when you came in.”

“So that’s why you were sucking his face off”

“Um, no, he kissed me. You’re not going to break your promise are you?”

“What promise?”

“That you’d give me and Jake at least two weeks.”

“You think I’m crazy enough to tell mom and dad? No. As long as you don’t like… Just give me awhile okay? I have to get used to it too, as I’m sure you had to with me and Kayla.”

“Thanks Drew” I hugged him tightly.

“Aww” Dad’s voice carried from the hallway into my room. I closed my eyes tightly hoping he didn’t hear that conversation.

“How cute. They don’t hate each other.”

We turned to look at mom and dad standing in my doorway. They were smiling a little.

“Go to bed” my dad said harshly before turning to head to their room. Mom rolled her eyes and followed him. Drew turned to me and attempted to smile.

“If he’s what you want I can’t stop you. Night Katie”

Drew got up and walked towards my door.

“Night Drew”

He turned around and smiled before turning off the light.

I changed into shorts and a t-shirt to sleep and grabbed my phone out of my jeans pocket to charge it. I opened it and it said I had one new message. ‘ sweet dreams’ from Jake.
I smiled and responded with ‘ night’.”
I plugged in my phone to its charger and curled up under the blankets
Hiding this might be harder than I thought.

Drew knows, so does my best friend, plus Amanda.
My parents almost walked in on me talking about him.

I don’t know how long I can last doing this.