First Kiss (Heavy Influence) (8 page)

PART TWO

FIRST KISS

8

Jake

             
I could still feel the warmth from her body on the sheets when I reached over, searching for her, and for a moment I wondered…had it been real? Bleary eyed I stared at the clock. It was only 7 in the morning. The sound that woke me must have been the door shutting – Aly sneaking away. We must have fallen asleep sometime after midnight.

She shouldn’t have stayed over. She’d kept trying to leave, but I’d keep pulling her back into the bed. Not that anything had happened. We’d just talked and hung onto each other, horsing around. Kid shit. I sighed, rubbing my eyes as I sat back down on the edge of the bed. What did I expect? She
was
a kid. Alyssa Montgomery. What the hell was I doing, hanging with a girl her age? If her parents caught her sneaking back in this morning…

I swore
and tripped on the sheet tangled around my leg as I climb out of bed. I opened the door to the back yard to see if she was still visible, but I was too late. It was quiet and cool. I shivered, standing there, wondering when I’d see her again. I went back inside and reached for my phone as I climbed back into bed and saw that three texts had come through. They were all from Rachel Schaffer.

I didn’t read them – I just tossed my phone to the foot of my bed. I seriously didn’t even
wanna deal with that shit right now. One drunken hook-up and what, she thought she had dibs on me? Yeah, she was an old friend, and she helped out with our band stuff…but I’ve seen how she plays hot and cold with other guys, she should know what’s up. And it’s not like I’ve ever shown even the slightest interest in her. But still, I just
knew
that it was gonna rain shit-balls once she realized that I was into Aly. I pushed the looming issue from my mind and tried to go back to sleep. This was my last summer vacation and I wanted to go into my senior year with my future in music secure.

I could smell Aly’s strawberry scented hair lingering on my pillow and closed my eyes, reliving our night. When she’d first arrived I’d sat down on my bed and she paced back and forth in front of me, I recalled how she looked in h
er little black cotton shorts. Her long legs tan and smooth, it’d taken everything in me not to reach out and touch them. When I finally did, she had the softest skin I think I’d ever felt on a girl.

I guess I finally drifted off to sleep because I was startled awake by a knock at my door.

“Yeah, what?” I groaned.

“Rachel is here. It’s eleven o’clock,” my mom’s muffled voice informed me.

Shit. Are you kidding me? “Alright, tell her to come in.” I threw off the blankets, sat up, and before I knew it Rachel was standing there, glaring at me.

“What’s up, man? What’s so important that you had to wake me up?” I stood, grabbing a shirt off the
back of my chair and pulled it on.

“Really? Man?” she huffed, shoulders slumping.

“Dude, what is up with you?”

“Me? What about you?”

“Are you kidding me, Rachel? I was up all night, writing.” I turned, holding my arms out pleading. “Come on. What’s up? What’s this all about?”

“You totally blew me off, Jake. You fuck around with me and then you ignore me?”

“Ok, wait a second. I could say the same thing about you. You fucked around with me too, Rachel.”

I knew trying to put it on her was a dick move, but I didn’t even care. I’d had enough of this.

“Yeah, but I’m not blowing you off.”

I stood there, mind racing to find something to smooth over our exchange.
              “Look, I don’t mean to blow you off. Come on, I’m just doin’ my thing. You have no idea the shit that’s about to go down – I have to focus.”

She stood silent as her eyes searched me up and down, then they roamed around my room. Slowly, she began to walk around, searching as if she finally sensed
that someone else had been there. My stomach sank. I could still smell Aly’s scent on me and Rachel could probably smell it too. I backed away and went into the bathroom, turning on the water. I rinsed my face. I didn’t want to deal with the drama of it all. I walked out, drying my face as I waited for her to say something.

We stood there, silently staring at each other. She was trying to read me. I didn’t know what to say.

She broke the silence first.

“I don’t want things to change, Jake.” Her voice was void of her usual bitchy tone, which only made this harder. It’d have been easier to ignore her if she was being her usual overdramatic self.

“Rachel, nothing’s gonna change if we just move past what happened.”

“What am I supposed to do with that?”

She moved close to me, taking my hand. Her fake nails raked against my palm. I looked down at her perfectly painted red lips and could only think of Aly. I laughed at the absurdity of the moment, gently pulling my hand away from hers and grabbing her shoulder.

“We’re gonna chalk up that blurred night to something that just happened and chill. I don’t want things to change.”

“Then don’t ignore me,” she said, standing on her tiptoes trying to kiss me. I turned my head away, and she stiffened.

I could hear her breath escape her.

I backed away. “Rachel, I’m sorry. I have a million things on my mind and it’s got nothing to do with you.”

Her eyes flashed with disappointment. I waited for her to berate me but she surprised me once again with silence. Sadly, I knew it would never be the same between us and it was only
gonna get worse.

“I’m sorry too,” she said quietly. She kept looking around my room and walked toward my bed. Panic filled me. My eyes dashed around the bed and floor, looking for any trace of Aly. I didn’t see anything.

“Look, Rachel, I don’t’ mean to blow you off but I gotta meet with Notting. Apparently we got some sort of a licensing deal for a movie or something.”

Her eyes lit up. “Wow, that’s awesome. Which one, what’s it all about?”

“I don’t know anything yet,” I said, maybe a little too harshly.

“Geez. Ok. Grumpy.” She shook her head. “I’ll just talk to you later then. Um, and just ignore those text messages. You obviously didn’t read them yet.”

“Yeah, ok.” I replied, grabbing the back of my neck and rubbing it. The tension was giving me a headache.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“No, Rachel, there isn’t.” I sighed deeply, deciding just to lay my thoughts out there. “Don’t worry about helping with anything right now. I don’t have it in me to deal with it. Just chill, ok?”

I could see her swallow.

“Alright then,” she replied, obviously trying to play it cool. “Whatever. I guess call me later. Or not.”

She left her sarcasm hovering over me. I just stood there unable to say anythin
g. I felt like a jerk. It was weird seeing her like this; all vulnerable and unsure of herself. I pushed it from my mind.

It seemed that every other thought throughout the afternoon was about Aly. I sat talking with Notting, my manager and father figure, and tried to focus on what he was saying. A production company had commissioned us to write an original score. Even though the movie was a low budget flick, it had some well-known actors attached. I was stoked. After Notting left, the guys and I sat around the garage, tinkering with our instruments. I got up and hit the switch to open the door.

“Dude, it’s fucking hot out there – you’re gonna let all the cold air out,” Mike whined. I ignore him.

“What are you doing?”
Bobby chimed.

“I’ll
close it in a sec.” I said, and walked out to my truck pretending to look for something. I glanced over at Aly’s house, hoping she’d miraculously appear. I didn’t have her phone number and wondered if she’d surprise by coming back over later that night – I thought back to our conversation the night before.

“You don’t think this is weird?” She’d asked in a whisper.

“Don’t be silly. We’re just watching a movie.”

Our legs pressed against each other and I recalled how hard it had been not to be all over her. I wanted it to be chill – but it was far from that for me.

“It’s nice to have someone different to hang with, you know,” she said quietly. “And it’s cool that you’re next door.”

“Yeah. If you see lights, come over anytime.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, sure.”

I thought about how the light from the TV had made her eyes sparkle as she’d smiled, clasping her hands and pressing them under her chin before she rolled over onto her side. Her reaction was so endearing it pulled me in even more. With her back facing me I pictured myself running my hand gently down her arm, down to her side. I wanted to touch her legs so bad. Just thinking about it made me tug at my pants.

             
I hoped she’d take what I said to heart and come over later.

             
Dump’s drumming and Bobby’s baseline pulled me back to reality.

             
“Hey, that sounds good,” I shout over the music. “Start over.”

             
I needed to focus on the music.

             
Over the next hour we hashed out something pretty clever for the film, though I was so distracted that my shit was rough around the edges. Dump and Bobby’s parts were solid. Mike would draft off me when I was finished. But no matter what the other guys did, my mind kept drifting back to the song I’d written the night before about Aly as I’d waited for her to sneak over. It’d come easier than any song I’d ever written before – like magic. There was something about that girl…

Finally, I gathered the courage to say something. “So I wrote a new song the other night and it’s a little different, kinda, and I wanna know what you think.”

              “Shoot,” Dump encouraged.

             
I took a deep breath and began. I couldn’t look any of them in the faces for the entire song. After it was over though, I looked up, steeling myself for their reactions. Bobby wore a huge grin. Dump nodded his head and tucked his tatted arms to his chest. Mike’s mouth hung open with raised eyebrows.

             
“Interesting lyrics, where’d you pull those from?” Mike remarked.

             
Again, I ignored him. No one else said anything.

             
“So?” I asked. “Any other commentary?”

             
“Nope. I dig it.” Bobby approved.

             
Dump still sat there nodding his head with his eyes closed. “I’m bumpin’ some shit around. Alright. It’s a little lighter, but I gotcha. The lyrics are cool.”

             
I smiled, satisfied.

             
Later on, I sat at my computer watching random YouTube videos. The day had flown by; it was already 8:30. The bright light from my computer screen cut through the gray haze of fading sunlight that consumed my room and reminded me to turn on the lights. The code now set. Would Aly remember that I told her if she saw my lights on to come over anytime?

             
A rush of adrenaline coursed through me when I heard the faint rattle of the gate in the distance. I jumped up, going to the door, wondering if I was hearing things. Euphoria overcame me when I saw Aly’s darkened figure come through the bushes.

With a grin, I stepped out to meet her.