My Blood Approves

Chapter 1

The goose bumps were standing all over her bare flesh and she stomped her foot, at least partially because of the cold. Jane would claim it was wholly because of her frustration over the length of the line and continue insisting that chain smoking cigarettes kept her warm. The law stated that people had to be at least twenty feet from the door of an establishment to smoke, and fortunately, we were much farther than that.

“This is truly disgusting,” Jane grunted, flicking her cigarette to the dampened sidewalk and smashing it hard with her stilettoed boot.

“Maybe we should just call it a night,” I suggested hopefully. Our fake IDs had not been as impressive as Jane’s connection had promised, and this would be the fifth club we would be turned away from, if we ever managed to even make it to the door.

Since we were going out, I had reluctantly allowed Jane to dress me, so everything was ill-fitting and far too revealing for the cold Minnesota night.

There was a heavy mist settling over us, and I felt chilled to the bone. Jane’s top was completely sleeveless, but she refused to shiver or admit that any of this fazed her. Her plan was to get crazy drunk and hook up with somebody completely random, and there was very little I could do to reason with her.

“No, no!” Jane shook her head shook ferociously and rolled her heavily lined eyes dramatically when she looked at me. “I have a good feeling about this place.”

“It’s after midnight, Jane,” I persisted. The pair of heels I had borrowed from her were causing permanent damage to my feet, and I shifted my weight in hopes of easing the pain.

“I just want to dance and be stupid!” The night had begun wearing on her, so she had started whining. It made her seem much younger than seventeen and made us even less likely to get into the club. “Come on, Alice! This is what being young is all about!”

“I really hope not,” I grumbled. Waiting in line for hours and being turned away from clubs did not sound like the way I had planned to spend my youth.

“We can try again next weekend. I promise. It’ll give us more time to find better ID’s.”

“I don’t even have any alcohol.” Her expression had gone all pouty, but I knew that she was starting to cave. Her boots could not be comfortable, and the cold mist had to be getting to her.

“I’m sure we can find some somewhere,” I reassured her. In truth, Jane could find alcohol the way I found water. She had an endless stream of guys that were eager to buy her drinks and let her get stupid and dance. I wasn’t actually sure what she was complaining about. Wherever Jane went, a party was sure to follow.

“Fine.” Sighing deeply, Jane stepped out of line and grudgingly started walking in the direction towards my apartment, away from the bright lights of the clubs and crowds of drunk people smoking cigarettes. “But you owe me.”

“Why do I owe you?” I demanded. We’d barely made it a few feet from the line when I couldn’t take it any longer. I stopped and ripped off the borrowed shoes, preferring to walk barefoot on the cold, dirty cement than risk any more blisters or injuries to my body. Most likely, I’d get spit or gum or something in a fresh wound and end up with typhoid or rabies, but it still seemed like a better option.

“For making me leave early.” Jane cast a disapproving look down at me and shook her head. I was short to begin with, but after wearing heels and walking next to her while she still had hers on, I felt like an awkward hobbit.

“Why’d you take off your shoes?”

“Cause they hurt.” The relief of being shoeless was almost painful. I could feel my feet expanding back out to their normal size and my calf stretching to reach the ground. My whole body seemed confused by the sudden lack of four inches and I struggled to keep up with Jane’s rather slow pace.

“Beauty is pain.” For some reason, Jane felt obligated to take me under her wing and try to improve my status, no matter how hard I tried to resist. I was all too comfortable in jeans and Converse, but that was definitely not good enough for her. At any mention of comfort, she would spout a sermon about the essentials of beauty. “Alice, you’re never going to get a boyfriend if you don’t step it up.”

“I am stepped up, and its not my life’s mission to find a date,” I muttered.

Fortunately, she didn’t bother to ask me what my life’s mission was because I was pretty sure I didn’t have one.

“Some days, I don’t even know why I bother.” Jane sounded completely exasperated, as if I was the one trying on her. Here I had gotten all dolled up the way she wanted and stood out all night in the cold for her, but I was wearing on her.

“We should get a cab soon,” I suggested. We had walked far enough away from the clubs where it was starting to feel deserted, and two teenage girls walking around in downtown Minneapolis wasn’t the safest thing in the world.

“Not yet.” The problem was that we didn’t have very much money, so the farther we walked, the shorter the cab ride would be. I lived by Loring Park, which really wasn’t that far from where we were, but it still wasn’t within walking distance.

“Soon?” I asked plaintively, looking up at her. A green and white taxi sailed past us, but Jane didn’t even look towards it. My feet were killing me, and the night felt too long. I just wanted to go home, put on sweats, and curl up in my bed.

“We need the exercise anyway,” Jane hedged my question. Maybe I needed the exercise but Jane could’ve passed for a supermodel easily.

“But my feet hurt.” It was my turn to sound like a petulant child, but I couldn’t help it. It was late and I was tired. I don’t know why I ever agreed to her shenanigans. They were always much more fun for her then they were for me.

Being the less sexy sidekick wasn’t a very glamorous life.

“Beauty is-”

“-pain, yeah, yeah, I get it,” I grumbled, cutting her off.

Jane lit another cigarette, and we walked in silence. I knew she was sulking about the club and trying to plot some exciting adventure to drag me into, but I wouldn’t fall for it this time. By the morning, it would probably hurt to even stand, and while I hadn’t officially checked yet, I was certain the blisters on my feet were at least the size of quarters.

Even though I was mostly just concentrating on the pain in my feet, I felt them before I saw them. There was suddenly this weird sensation of being followed, and the sound of the traffic from Hennepin Avenue had faded enough where I could start to hear the footfalls echo behind us. Jane seemed oblivious, but I didn’t want to say anything. Either I would let onto them that I knew they were there, or I would just once again confirm Jane’s suspicion that I was certifiably insane. Instead, I just quickened my pace, which pleased Jane as she easily met it. Her constant complaint in life was that I was too slow and she had to spend the majority of it waiting for me.

Then the footsteps behind us started to hurry up, becoming heavier and louder, and there was the sound of heavy breathing and hushed male voices.

Jane looked over at me, and the panic in her eyes meant that she heard them too. Out of the two of us, she was the braver one and managed to steel a look back over her shoulder at them. I was about to ask her what she saw when she started sprinting forward, and that was answer enough for me.

Futilely, I tried to catch up to her, but she wasn’t about to slow down for me, remaining a few steps ahead. It reminded me of that joke about how fast I had to run to get away from a grizzly bear — faster than my friend. Still following her, we ended up in a mostly deserted parking garage, and I wondered why this seemed like the logical choice to her. There were so many other places we could’ve gone where there would be crowds, but her first choice had been a dimly lit underground parking garage.

Jane dashed around the side of a van, and I allowed myself a look back behind me for the first time. In the darkness, I could see very little, but I knew there were four large guys, and when they saw me looking at them, one of them started to cat call. I ran forward, only I realized Jane wasn’t in front of me. I didn’t have a very good fight or flight reflex, so I just froze when I didn’t see her.

“Over here!” Jane hissed, but the acoustics in the garage were awful and my panic had completely set in. I couldn’t tell where her voice was coming from, so I just stood frozen underneath a flickering yellow light and hoped that my death would be quick and painless.

“Hey little girl,” one of the guys purred in a voice that sounded anything but friendly. Stupidly, I turned to face them. Since I had stopped running, so had they, and they were casually strolling over to me.

“Do you always run from a good time?” another one asked. For some reason, the rest of them thought that was hilarious, and the garage was filled with the sound of their laughter.

The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and I opened my mouth to say something, maybe even scream, but I just gaped at them. I was standing in a pool of cold water and oil, and the light above me apparently decided to go out for good. This was not how I imagined that I would die. At the very least, I always assumed that I would fight back instead of letting it happen like a fool. I think there are many assumptions that we make about ourselves that are completely untrue.

Closing my eyes against the dark, I knew that I didn’t want to risk seeing anything they did to me. Maybe if I just squeezed my eyes, it would all be over faster. They were talking amongst themselves, laughing and making perverted jokes, and I knew I was going to die. Somewhere behind me, I heard the screech of tires, but I was trying separate myself from everything going on around me. I had never understood astral projection, but I desperately hoped I could master it in the last few minutes of my life.

“Hey! What are you doing?!” a voice shouted to the side of me. There was something warm and oddly familiar about it, and I knew that it didn’t belong to the group of guys closing in on me. As soon as I heard him speak, I opened my eyes.

“What’s it to you?” a large tattooed guy growled, but he started taking a step back. A car must’ve stopped in the parking space to my right, because I could see the bright headlights shining past me.

“I think you should just back off,” the familiar voice said.

I peeked over to the side to see him, but the headlights shining in the opposite direction made it too dark for me to make much out, except for the fact that he was wearing a pink tee shirt. He took another step forward, and my would-be-attackers continued taking steps back. But they didn’t seem to be moving fast enough, because I saw the blur of the pink shirt rush towards them.

It must’ve been the darkness and my fear, because I couldn’t seem to trust my eyesight anymore. It almost looked as if the pink shirt was moving faster than I could imagine humanly possible, and when I heard the guys yelling, it looked like they were being thrown. But that wasn’t possible, so I blinked my eyes to adjust them better, and then everyone was gone.

Not everyone, exactly. The light above me suddenly flickered on again, and the guy in the pink shirt was standing next to me. In big black letters across his chest, his shirt read, “Real men wear pink.” I stared at him, probably longer than was polite. Something about him felt so familiar, but I couldn’t place him.

He looked older than me, probably in his early twenties, and he wasn’t particularly muscular or tall. In fact, he leaned more towards wiry than he did muscular, and I couldn’t imagine what had frightened off the other guys. His face was open and friendly, and he had an easy smile that I couldn’t help but respond to, even though I had just been a few moments away from death.

“Are you okay?” he asked, appraising me up and down. There was something weirdly comforting about the way he looked at me. It wasn’t the way the other guys looked; he really just wanted to be sure I was alright.

“Yeah,” I said in a voice that barely sounded like my own. “You saved my life.”

“You shouldn’t be out here alone,” he replied, completely ignoring the fact that he’d done anything heroic.

“I’m not.” Suddenly, I remembered Jane and started looking around for her. A part of me was angry that she had done nothing to save me, but then again, neither had I, and I didn’t think that I should hold her to a higher standard than I did myself. “My friend Jane is around here somewhere.”

“Two girls?” Even the dark, I saw him raise an eyebrow and shake his head. “Real safe.”

“I think Jane has mace,” I mumbled lamely.

“Where is this alleged friend?” He took his turn scanning the parking lot, and then pointed to something by a van parked on the other side. “I think I see her over there.”

“Where?” I squinted at where he was pointing, but I couldn’t see anything.

“Over there,” he repeated, then took a step towards the black Jetta parked next to me. “Come on. We’ll go over and pick her up, and then I’ll give you guys a ride. You shouldn’t be out here like this.”

I walked around to the passenger side of the car, and it never occurred to me to say no. There was something about him that made me trust him implicitly. His car stereo softly played Weezer, and in the warm glow of the blue dashboard lights, I got my first real good look at him. His skin looked perfectly smooth, like porcelain, but his hair was a perfectly disheveled mess. His eyes, which looked almost gray in the light, were the happiest eyes I’d ever seen.

He sped off across the parking lot, and I finally pulled my eyes away from him to look out the window. Jane was cowering down behind a large white van, and I wondered if she’d even bothered to call the police or anything. The car stopped next to her, and he rolled down the window so he could lean out.

“Jane?” he said, and she turned to look at him.

I expected her to be afraid, maybe even bolt and run, after what had just happened. Instead, she gave him the strangest look. It was almost as if she was in awe. It didn’t make any sense to me. Sure, I did think he was attractive, maybe even very attractive, but I’d seen Jane go home with guys far more attractive then him. But she looked absolutely stunned by his beauty, and I was surprised she wasn’t drooling.

“Hi,” Jane stammered. It wasn’t her normal sultry, flirty voice, even though I’m sure that’s what she was trying for. She sounded too star struck to be sexy, and I wondered if I was missing something. I looked back over at him, trying to figure out if he was famous and I just couldn’t place him.

“Jane, he’s giving us a ride,” I explained when it appeared she was just going to stand there staring at him. “Get in the car.”

“Sure.” Jane finally seemed to regain herself a bit and smiled at him before sliding into the backseat. When she got in, I swear that she leaned forward so she could sniff him. Naturally, I tried to inconspicuously inhale to see if I could smell anything, and admittedly, he seemed to smell good, but it was nothing spectacular.

“Are you okay?” I asked, looking back at her. Maybe in her fear, she’d popped an ecstasy tablet or something.

“I’m great,” Jane cooed, still gaping at him. “Who’s your friend here?”

“I don’t actually know.” It had never occurred to me that I didn’t even know the name of the guy driving the car.

“I’m Jack,” he offered, filling in the blank. “And you’re Jane.” Then he looked over at me, his eyes dancing. “And you are?”

“Alice.” Out of the corner of my eye, I could see jealousy flash across Jane’s face. She seemed threatened that he was even looking at me, which was very un-Jane like. Even as conceited as she was, or maybe because of it, she was never, ever threatened or jealous of me.

“Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I could really go for a cup of coffee right about now.” Jack dropped the car into gear and sped off without waiting for either of us to respond. It wasn’t really a question anyway, and neither one of us would’ve protested. When I glanced up in the rearview mirror, I could see Jane staring at him with this intense expression and leaning forward, as if she couldn’t get close enough to him. Even with her rather storied history, I had never seen her look so desperate before.

I was afraid she’d catch me staring at her (which was silly because I doubted that Jane would notice anything but Jack), I turned my attention out the window. The city lights went past us in a blur, and I wondered how fast we were going. There was no sense of fear of getting hurt or even pulled over, though.

Ever since I had heard Jack’s voice, any real worry I had had completely dissolved. I felt completely at ease with him, and that fact should’ve been somewhat concerning, but I just couldn’t seem to muster any.

“This is a really nice car,” Jane said randomly, and her voice had fully regained that sickeningly sweet tone that made me want to vomit all over her pair of stilettos I had on my lap. Leaning even farther forward between the seats, she gingerly brushed her fingers along Jack’s bicep, and he responded by letting his arm fall lax, so it was further out of her reach. None of this made any sense to me. In all my many irritating years of being friends with Jane, I had never seen her fawning over anyone so badly, or being just as blatantly rebuffed.

“Is this Weezer?” I asked, mostly to fill up the awkward tension that was developing.

“Yeah,” Jack nodded.

“I like that song ‘Pork ‘n Beans,’” I commented. It seemed like a rather trivial thing to say, but at least it kept Jane from adding something in her overly flirtatious manner. As soon as I mentioned the song, Jack quickly flipped it to the track, and Jane opened her mouth to say something more, but he cut her off.

“I saw them when they were on tour with The Matches.”

“Really?” I ignored the annoyed glare Jane was giving me and continued on. “I really like them. How are they live?”

“Pretty good, I guess,” Jack shrugged, and then turned sharply into the parking lot outside an all night diner. The trip felt ridiculously short, and I realized that we had to have been going well over the speed limit to get there so quickly.

When we got out of the car, Jane scampered over to him, looping her arm through his. He didn’t look pleased by it, but he didn’t pull away either. Outside in the bright glow of the streetlights, I looked him over again, trying to understand what had possessed her so much. He had on pair of Dickies shorts, skater socks, and light blue Converse, along with the pink tee shirt. He more closely resembled cotton candy than he did a love interest for Jane.

“Oh crap,” I grumbled after I’d gotten out of the car, and looked down at my dirty, bare feet. There were small cuts and blisters and oil all over them, and I couldn’t imagine cramming my swollen feet back into Jane’s shoes.

“What?” Jack asked, and then followed my gaze down to my injured appendages. “Oh. Just don’t wear shoes.”

“I can’t not wear shoes.” I didn’t see much of another option, but I couldn’t go into a restaurant without shoes.

“You can wait in the car,” Jane offered up helpfully with a smug smile and leaned in closer to Jack. That must’ve been where he drew the line, because he pulled his arm free from her and took a step away. She looked a little defeated, but I knew she wouldn’t give up that easy.

“No, you’ll be fine,” Jack insisted confidently. “If they hassle you, I’ll take care of them.”

“What does that even mean?” I muttered, but he’d already convinced me.

After all, I’d seen the way he chased a gang of unruly guys, so I imagined that the graveyard shift at a Denny’s rip-off wouldn’t stand a chance.

“Just don’t worry about it.” Jack held the door open, but Jane seamlessly cut in front of me, smiling widely at him. He ignored her, but grinned boyishly at me when I walked in behind her.

As predicted, nobody noticed my lack of footwear. In fact, nobody even noticed me, or even Jane, which was incredibly odd. The waitresses practically tripped over themselves trying to seat us, all the while keeping their eyes completely focused on Jack. It felt like I had been dumped into some strange episode of the Twilight Zone. When the waitress put us in a booth, Jack sat down first, and naturally, Jane squished up next to him, so he kept moving over until he was plastered up against the window. I sat down across from them, and Jack rested his arms on the table, leaning towards me.

“What can I get you?” the waitress asked. The question was theoretically for all of us, but everything about her said it was meant for Jack only.

“Just coffee,” Jack answered, but then remembered that we were there too. “Or did you guys want something else?”

“Coffee’s fine,” I said. Truthfully, I was a little hungry, but I felt uncomfortable eating in front of him and Jane, and everyone else that was staring at us. All the patrons and staff couldn’t help but look in our direction, and I was starting to feel like I was missing out on some kind of joke.

“Are you sure you’re not hungry?” Jane pressed, once again running her fingers on his arm, but this time, he actually recoiled from her touch. She still didn’t get the hint, and I wanted to snap at her to leave him alone, but then I should probably snap at everyone else too.

“Nope,” Jack sighed, then muttered under his breath, “But I wish I was.”

“What?” the waitress asked, leaning in closer to hear his voice.

“Nothing.” Jack waved her off without looking at her. “Just the coffee.”

“Thanks,” I told the waitress when she lingered at our table. Finally, she pulled herself away, and I wanted a chance to look over Jack to see if I could figure out what all the fuss was about, but he was too busy looking at me. It wasn’t one of those longing gazes, not like the way Jane was looking at him, but he was looking, so I averted my gaze and pretended to be focused on the dark green place mat in front of me.

“Thanks again for saving us,” Jane murmured, trying to slide herself up next to him. “If there’s anything I can do to repay you, just let me know.” I could tell by the way he ran his fingers through his hair that he was getting irritated, and then I wondered how I knew that. We’d just met. How would I be an expert on his mannerisms? There was definitely something strange going on, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

“Are you famous or something?” I blurted out, and Jane looked embarrassed enough for both of us so I didn’t bother blushing.

“What do you mean?” He sounded confused, so I finally looked up at him.

He had sandy hair that stood up in a disarray that I’m sure he had planned. His skin was utterly flawless and beach bum tanned, and that was unnatural for people in Minnesota in March. His eyes were a weird blue-gray color, and there was something tremendously boyish about them, about him really, but otherwise, nothing seemed to stand out as overly attractive. I just didn’t get it.

“Everyone’s staring at us. At you,” I corrected myself. Jack just shrugged and looked down at the table, but didn’t bother checking to see if I was right.

Even Jane peered out behind her long eyelashes and reddened cheeks to confirm my statement, and I knew she saw it too because she blushed even deeper and put her hand possessively on Jack’s thigh.

“I’m not famous,” Jack replied quietly. He looked like he wanted to explain things more, but then the waitress appeared with three mugs and a pitcher of coffee.

“Is there anything else I can get you?” the waitress batted her eyes at Jack, who continued to ignore her.

“We’re fine, thanks,” Jane snapped. She had claimed him all for herself, and she had just noticed that everyone in the room was competition, so her claws were coming out.

“Just let me know if there’s anything at all.” The waitress reluctantly walked away, and Jane glared at her the entire time.

“Come on.” I rested my arms on the table and leaned in closer to him because I’d lowered my voice. “You had to have noticed that. You seem like a pretty observant guy.”

“I don’t have an answer for it.” He picked up the pitcher of coffee and poured a cup for himself and me, and then as an afterthought, filled Jane’s too.

“Do you take cream or sugar in yours?”

“Both.” I was perfectly capable of doing it myself, but I think Jack wanted to occupy himself somehow so I would be less likely to notice him hedging the question. He dumped a creamer and two packets of sugar in my coffee, and stirred a creamer in his, then settled back in the booth.

“I take cream and sugar too,” Jane added meekly, and Jack pushed the bowls of creamers and sugar packets toward her. Her face crumbled a bit, and she slowly added them to her coffee.

“So you’re not famous?” I refused to let it go without a direct answer.

“I can assure you that I’m not famous,” Jack smiled broadly. This one thing I would say about him; he had to have one of the greatest smiles of all time. It wasn’t particularly sexy or anything like that. It was just so natural and carefree, as if his face had been made to do only that.

“You just look so familiar to me,” I admitted, growing exasperated. As soon as I said that, I knew that wasn’t exactly it either. I could almost guarantee that I’d never seen him before, but there was something undeniably familiar about him.

“I know, right?” Jack gave me a perplexed look that I’m sure mirrored my own.

“So do I know you from somewhere?” It didn’t sound right to me, but I couldn’t think of anything else. There was this strange non-sexual intimacy with him, so I had to know him, right?

“That’s not possible,” Jack said simply, shaking his head.

“How is it not possible?” I asked incredulously. “Did you just move here or something?”

“It’s complicated.” He touched his coffee cup and made like he was going to drink it, but he never even lifted it off the table. Jane, for her part, seemed to have resigned herself to drinking her coffee and watching us talk. She finished one cup and poured herself another.

“How is it complicated?” The whole issue of whether he was from the Twin Cities seemed like a very simple yes or no question, but he was hesitant to answer it, and I couldn’t imagine why.

“It just is,” Jack replied, flashing me another one of his amazing smiles.

“How old are you?” I asked pointedly. This would have to be a simple question, even though it was one that I couldn’t really decipher. Somehow, he managed to look very young, like he was fifteen or even younger, while simultaneously looking older than me. It was something about his eyes. They were very young and very old, at the same time.

To my surprise, Jack laughed in response, and I found something even more incredible than his smile. Hands down, he had the greatest laugh in the universe. It was this completely perfect sound that I can’t even explain. When he laughed, it sounded so clear and perfect and hearty, and he laughed with everything in him. Somehow, it warmed me through and through, and I realized that I would trust him with anything.

“How old are you?” Jack countered, grinning at me.

“I asked you first.” I had finished my cup of coffee, so I leaned back in my seat, crossing my arms over my chest, and for some reason, that made Jack laugh again.

“Why does that even matter?” Jack wondered aloud. “You want to know more.”

“I’m seventeen,” I sighed. Jane cast me a look, and I knew that she was hoping I would lie about my age. Most of the time, she’d tell people she was nineteen or twenty, but unfortunately, I knew I could never pass for nineteen.

Besides, I didn’t really want to lie to Jack.

“Twenty-four,” Jack replied with a wry smirk.

“Don’t you feel a little odd running around with two seventeen year old girls?” I don’t even know why I asked that. In some part of my mind, it did logically seem wrong for a twenty-four-year-old to be picking up two random teenage girls. But sitting here, in the booth with him, nothing had ever felt more natural or safe. This was where I was supposed to be.

“I’m mature for my age!” Jane suddenly spouted, but Jack didn’t even glance in her direction.

“As I recall, if I hadn’t been around, you would’ve gotten yourself killed.”

He rested his arms on the table, leaning more towards me. “What did you think you were doing anyway? Walking around in a parking garage in the middle of the night?” He trailed off, but there was genuine concern and almost a protective edge to his voice.

“We were trying to get into a club, but my feet were killing me and I just wanted to get home,” I explained. He looked at me for a minute, the serious expression looking out of place on him, and then shook his head and refilled my cup of coffee.

“Well, don’t do that again,” he said finally, and added the cream and sugar to my drink. I noticed that he had yet to touch his own cup, but I decided not to say anything. As it was, I’d probably annoyed him with my game of twenty questions.

“Yes, sir.” I saluted him, and he laughed at me, breaking the uneasy moment of gravity. His laugh was so easy and contagious that I couldn’t help but joining in.

“What club were you trying to get into?” Jack inquired.

“I don’t know,” I shrugged. Honestly, I hadn’t even really been paying attention. I just let Jane drag me wherever she wanted to go, and hoped that by the end of the night, I managed to make it home in one piece. “Hey, what were you doing downtown? Clubbing it up?”

“Hardly,” Jack snorted. “I was… getting something to eat.”

“At midnight?” I raised an eyebrow at him.

“I’m kind of a night owl.” Time must’ve just occurred to him, because he glanced over at a clock hanging on the wall and exhaled deeply. “It’s getting really late. I should probably get you home.”

“I’m wide awake,” Jane chirped, but unlucky for her, I didn’t feel the same way. Even with the coffee and the adrenaline rush from earlier (or maybe because of that), I suddenly felt very tired. Admittedly, I wanted to continue hanging out with Jack (although, not for the same reasons as everyone else), but my whole body had started to ache, especially my legs and ankles.

“I’m starting to drag.” As if to punctuate the statement, I yawned loudly.

“Yeah, we should get going.” No sooner had the words left Jack’s mouth than the waitress appeared with the check. She smiled coyly at him, making another comment rife with innuendo, which Jack ignored. I made some kind of tired play to pay for the check, but he wouldn’t have any of it. I knew it was only like a three dollar tab, but considering he’d saved my life, it was the least I could do.

When I stood up, my legs fought to give out underneath me, but I managed to stay up on my feet. For a second, though, I thought Jack was going to pick me up and carry me out to the car. Jane must’ve gotten the same idea, because she inserted herself between us so he couldn’t reach for me. I had stabilized myself enough, otherwise he probably would’ve pushed her out of the way. For the first time ever, a guy preferred me to Jane, and I couldn’t help but feel a smug satisfaction about it.

Almost the instant I sat in his car, I fell asleep. I remember a brief discussion about who he was going to take home first, with Jane insisting on me and Jack leaning towards her first. Before I could find out how it turned out, I fell asleep. It was probably for the best because then I got to miss out on Jane’s whining.

I woke up just as Jack pulled up in front of my apartment building. Jane was already gone, so I guess that he had won. I’m not sure how he knew where I lived, but it didn’t seem important then. He got out of the car first so he could open my door and help me out. Sure, I was tired, but more than that, my legs felt stiff and uncooperative. This time, he actually did offer to carry me inside, but I knew how that would look to my mother, who would most likely just be getting off her shift from work.

So I left Jack standing outside the entryway of my brownstone, and I waved forlornly at him. Part of me instantly regretted going inside. We had obviously made some kind of connection, but I would probably never see him again. That definitely made the most sense, considering he was older and everyone randomly seemed to be in love with him except for me, but it still saddened me.

Fortunately, my mom wasn’t home yet so I wouldn’t have to deal with any of her questions, and my younger brother Milo was already asleep in his room.

Painfully, I stripped off the ridiculous short-skirt get up that Jane had dressed me in, and pulled on an oversized tee shirt. I normally would’ve opted for sweats, but my legs felt too sore to push through pant legs. Then I pulled my cell phone out of my skirt pocket with the full intention of plugging it in, but I collapsed onto my bed with my phone in my hand before I had the chance.

Just as I started passing out, I felt the phone vibrate in my hand, startling me awake. I assumed it was Jane, but I knew that I should put it on silent and plug it in so I could sleep undisturbed.

Sweet dreams:) — Jack The text message was from Jack, and I felt my heart beat faster.

Somehow, when I had been sleeping, Jack had gotten my phone number from my cell and programmed his number into my phone, under the name “Jack the Magnificent.” Under other circumstances, that might have been a little creepy, but in this case, it just made me feel happy and relieved. Clicking off my phone, I set it on my bedside table and promptly fell asleep.