"It"s fine." I smile at her. "Honestly."
"I"m Cameron, or just Cam," the guy next to them says. I think Heidi is relieved to move on. "That little lady," he says, pointing to the girl on the other side of Jake where we share a bench seat, "her name"s Lucy."
Lucy looks up from what looks to be an e-reader with a timid smile on her face. "Hi, Mikayla. It"s nice to meet you," she says quietly, then resumes her reading. I look over at Cameron, he just shrugs. "She"s on the last few chapters of some book she"s been reading. She can"t stay away from it. We"re used to it now, we always find her reading at the oddest times. Don"t we, babe?" He says the last sentence a little louder to get her attention.
What! These two are dating?
"uh-huh," Lucy says, not looking up from her book.
"I have the biggest d.i.c.k you"ve ever seen, don"t I, babe?" Cam yells at her, trying to distract her.
The car erupts in laughter, me included. Jake shakes his head next to me.
"Yeah, babe. I know exactly what you said, and I"d deny it if it weren"t true, but your right, it"s true, it"s definitely the biggest I"ve ever seen," Lucy says with a small smirk, eyes never leaving her book.
"Awwe, I love you, babe. Best. Answer. Ever." He smiles a s.h.i.t eating grin.
"But... Babe," Lucy says, eyes still on the book, "yours is the only one I"ve ever seen so I have absolutely nothing at all to compare it to, it could be tiny and I wouldn"t have a clue. Now let me finish my book."
Everyone laughs again and Heidi leans over to give Lucy a high five which she enthusiastically provides.
I smile at Lucy. She"s something else. "What are you reading?"
She looks up at me and blushes a little, "um, it"s called The sea of tranquility", it"s by-"
"Josh Bennett, right?" I interrupt. She smiles a huge smile, like she"s finally found someone she can talk to about this stuff. Inside, I"m kinda feeling the same way, none of my friends read the kind of books I enjoy.
"I"ve definitely found my new book boyfriend," she swoons, holding her e-reader close to her heart. Cam just shakes his head at her.
"I bet you"ll never look at wood the same?" I say faking a dreaminess in my voice. The car is silent for a second and then everyone cracks up, including Lucy. Then it hits me, what I just said.
"NO!" I yell "I mean, because he likes to build things, from wood." I"m animated now, trying to prove my point, and backtrack my words. I start using my hands to explain further. All eyes go to my hand and everyone starts laughing harder. I look down at my hand and almost die of embarra.s.sment. Who would have thought that motioning sanding a chair leg, which made total sense in my head, would look the same as jerking off.
I make a moaning sound of defeat and embarra.s.sment and try to hide my face on Jake"s shoulder. He chuckles into my hair and adjusts us so he can put an arm around me. I"ve known this guy for a minute and I"m already comfortable with him.
The laughing at my expense is still going strong when the door opens and Logan looks inside.
"What"s so funny, a.s.sholes?" He looks around the group and no one bothers to fill him in. "Fine, don"t tell me." He starts to look at the seating arrangement, and though it would make complete sense to sit on the opposite side of me, he squishes in next to me, forcing us all to move along to the point where I"m nearly sitting on Jake"s lap.
Lucy, who is still enthralled in her book, works out what"s happening and moves to the other side to sit on Cam"s lap. I smile at her, she reminds me of me a little.
"Tell me when you get to the last two words," I tell her.
"Almost there," she says, lifting her finger to shush me. Then her eyes go wide and I know she"s done. "No s.h.i.t," she says.
"s.h.i.t," I nod my head. "It"s my favorite book."
"We should totally be book best friends."
I laugh, "Yeah, sure."
"What the f.u.c.k are they talking about?" Logan looks between me and Lucy. No one says anything.
"Hey, uhhh..." he nudges my leg with his.
"Her names Mikayla, a.s.shole." Jake says, slightly tightening his hold on my shoulders.
"Mikayla," Logan nods, "I owe you an apology about the beer thing... it was an a.s.shole thing to do. I wasn"t think-"
"Hey," I cut him off with my hands. "it"s fine. Don"t worry about it. Actually, I should probably be thanking you. If you hadn"t spilt that drink on me I would"ve never walked in on what I did. I"d probably be at my own prom right now, dancing with my so called perfect" boyfriend, clueless to the fact that he and my best friend were f.u.c.king for two years behind my back." I try to smile but the anger overcomes me.
There"s an awkward silence in the car.
Jake slowly removes his arms from around me, probably because I"m bats.h.i.t crazy.
Just as I"m about to apologize to them for my instant display of wack job, Lucy pipes up, "You should totally key the d.i.c.kheads car," she says mid yawn. Everyone turns to her, then slowly to me. I should laugh it off as a pa.s.sing comment, a little joke between friends.
"Well, I do have his keys. I know his trucks at his house and no-one"s home." I can"t help the smile that creeps on my face.
I look at Jake and he grins, eyeing me sideways.
"Wait..." Cam breaks the silence, "are you saying you have his car keys, you know where his car is, and no one is around?"
I nod my head slowly, glancing at all of them.
"uh-ohhh" Heidi coos.
"Operation Mayhem!" Dylan declares loudly, as he pulls Heidi off his lap and places her to his side. It"s the most I"ve heard him say.
In two seconds flat the boys have somehow repositioned the girls to one side of the limo while they discuss whatever it is they"re discussing on the other side.
"What are they doing?" I ask Heidi, but its Lucy that answers. "Trust us, it"s better you don"t know. It"s more fun this way."
Chapter 4.
*Mikayla*
"You guys..." I say, trying to catch up to the boys as we walk towards the 24 hour Walmart, "you"re gonna miss your senior prom."
"No one cares, as long as we"re there at end when they declare little miss Heidi Prom Queen, we"re all good, and that"s hours away," Logan says as he taps Heidi on the a.s.s. She squeals and hides behind Dylan.
"Touch her again and I"ll break your arms, a.s.shole," Dylan glares at Logan, who throws his hands up in surrender. Dylan"s one of those guys that doesn"t say much, so when he does, you listen. Now that I see him at full height, he"s huge. Bigger than all the other guys. He seems loyal and protective, willing to give his all to his girl. I can see why Heidi loves that kind of a guy. I would to. I thought I did.
We walk into the store.
"What are we doing here? I mean, what are we getting here?" I ask no one in particular.
"Don"t you worry your pretty little face," Logan coos while his hand rubs down my back, lower and lower, until his hand is cupping my a.s.s.
"Get your hands off me, before I get Dylan to break your arms." It"s said as a joke, but I"m serious.
"I don"t think it"s Dylan I have to worry about," he mutters as Jake gets between us and shoves him to the side.
"Leave her alone you a.s.shole," he holds his hand out, "come with me?"
I take his hand, "Um, okay. What about the others?" I ask.
I really want to know what their plan is, what this Operation Mayhem" is. s.h.i.t, I hope its nothing permanent, or illegal. I don"t know these guys at all, they could be buying stuff to bomb his truck, or his house. Oh my G.o.d, what if they"re going to ki- "Relax," Jake laughs. "s.h.i.t, Mikayla, we"re not gonna do anything crazy. It"s just a bit of fun, trust me okay?" He must have seen the internal meltdown I was having.
I smile and nod. Because I do. Trust him.
"Now, help me choose please, I don"t know anything about this stuff," he says, pointing his finger in the air and motioning around us.
"Huh?" I take a look around and see that we"re in the mens formal wear section, "Oh, okay." I look over at him. He"s still wearing his suit pants and the plain white tank. His broad chest and muscled back defined behind the material.
"What"s wrong with what you"re wearing?" I ask with a raised eyebrow, mocking him.
"Ha Ha" he says flatly, "It would be fine if I wanted to look like Eminem circa 2001." We both laugh. "I"m thinking black shirt, to go with your dress, and blue tie, the same as the flower at the front." He starts going through the racks.
I look down at myself. I"d forgotten what I was wearing. My mind is still a little hazy. He pulls out a black dress shirt, tries it on, shrugs it off, rips the tag off, puts the tag in his pocket, shrugs the shirt back on and starts b.u.t.toning it up. I look away because it feels too intimate, watching him get dressed. Plus, I think he might be stealing, and I don"t want to be an accomplice, or whatever.
I head over to the ties, two dollar ties galore. I find a blue one that matches the flower of my dress, it"s a little dahlia planted in the middle just under my b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "Um, here, this one should do."
He saunters over to me and smiles, "Perfect." He grabs the tie from me and then frowns. "s.h.i.t, my mom"s gonna be so disappointed." He laughs once. "I have no idea how to knot a tie," he says, looking at the tie in his hand.
"I can totally help you with that." I grab the tie from his hands and begin to knot it the way mom"s shown me. She said one day I"d meet a man that would appreciate this random skill. Who knew she"d be so right. I start to do up the tie around his collar when I realize how close we are. My heart thumps in my chest, and my brain goes fuzzy. I can feel his breath on the top of my head. Im surrounded by his cologne, it"s only a small amount, but it"s enough to make my head swim. I close my eyes for a second to calm my nerves. I can feel his eyes on me.
I take a small step back before opening my eyes, and force a smile. "There, now you"re more Eminem circa 2005." I tap his chest. He laughs as we head to the front of the store.
Everyone else is already waiting. Whatever they bought, is now secured in plastic bags so I can"t tell what it is. Jake walks through the only aisle open and then stops abruptly in front of the cashier, forcing me to b.u.mp into him from behind, and lose my balance. He turns quickly and steadies me with his hands on my elbows. Once I"m settled, he pulls two tags out of his pocket and gives them to the cashier. She"s a few years older than we are but she has no shame in eyeing Jake up and down and winking at him.
"I uh, need to pay for these," Jake says, adjusting his tie and looking past her.
She doesn"t say anything, just keeps eye licking him. He seems uncomfortable.
After the transaction, we make our way back to the group and walk towards the limo.
"Dude," Logan says, "that chick would"ve totally banged you in the store room."
"Not everyone"s a pig like you, Logan," Heidi huffs as we settle back into the Limo.
"I can"t stand girls like that," Jake shakes his head, "I mean, I"m not saying we are..." He looks over at me quickly then back to face Heidi. "But I mean, what if Mikayla was my girl, and we were on a date. It"s obvious we were kind of together, I mean, we walked up together. I don"t know," he shrugs. "It just seems disrespectful to Mikayla, you know, I mean, if she was my girl."
I blush and look to the floor. I can sense Heidi staring at me but say nothing.
"Awwwwe, Jakey, always the gentleman," Cam coos.
"Whatever," Dylan huffs, "let"s cause some Mayhem."
A bottle of food dye, hundreds of post-its, a death metal c.d, a bag of sugar, 5 garbage bags full of popcorn and one roll of serene warp later, and we"re standing, admiring our masterpiece, laughing to ourselves.
To the outside world, we"re just a group of crazy kids, playing an innocent prank on one of our friends. Even the limo driver has a chuckle to himself.
"How much do I owe you guys? I mean... money... this couldn"t have been cheap... and it"s... I mean, I"m the reason we"re here, right?"
Logan looks to Jake, who clears his throat, "It"s nothing, Mikayla. We have a Mayhem fund. We all put in and do stupid s.h.i.t like this. It just happens that this time it"s not happening to someone we know. These a.s.sholes love this s.h.i.t, don"t even worry about it."
I look to Logan and he just smiles and nods enthusiastically. I feel Jake bending down to place his mouth near my ear, "All good, Mikayla?" he asks.
I nod once and smile up at him.
And then I make the mistake of looking next door. To the single light that"s on in the bedroom window, with the silhouette of a girl watching us. To the bedroom where my boyfriend, or ex boyfriend, has probably had s.e.x with my ex best friend hundreds of times. I feel a sob coming but I cover my mouth, I know tears will fall the second I close my eyes. Jake notices and follows my eyes to the girl in the window. Logan must too, because he asks, "Is she going to be a problem?"
I shake my head no, "That"s Megan."
"f.u.c.k." I hear Jake mutter under his breath. A sob takes over, and his arms are around me as he envelopes my body with his and I bury my head in his chest. He holds me.
"Umm guys," it"s Heidi. I don"t look up from Jake"s chest, "they"re announcing prom king and queen in twenty minutes."
Chapter 5.
*Mikayla*
Megan and I were not at all what you would imagine best friends to be. We were polar opposites in almost every way. She was the head cheerleader with the smokin" hot body, shiny long blond hair and sparkly blue eyes. She played boys, and boys were all for it. Megan knew who she was, and she used it to her advantage. People tended not to take her seriously, she played the airhead role to perfection but she was so much more than that, and I was one of the lucky few to see that side of her.
I met her when we were in fifth grade. She had just moved here for her mom"s job. I remember sitting in front of her in cla.s.s while she chatted with everyone around us. All I could hear was her talking about her stationary. Girls love stationary. I was facing the front of the cla.s.s trying to concentrate on the puzzles we were meant to be doing while she was giggling along, talking to whoever would listen about how she had two of everything. Emergency things she called them, emergency ruler, emergency eraser, emergency sharpener , etc. By that point I had lost focus and turned in my seat to glare at her. She just looked at me and smiled, a full teeth baring smile. I huffed and turned back to face the front fishing through my pencil case for a ruler to mark the margins of my next page, only to find that I didn"t have one, I must have left it in the book I was reading during lunch. I raised my hand, "Miss Spencer?" The teacher looked at me from her desk, over the frames of her gla.s.ses. "I uh... I don"t have my ruler... Can I um... May I please go to my locker to get it?" Before she could answer, there was a light tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see a ruler inches from my face. I looked at Megan questioningly, she just smiled back. "For emergencies," she shrugged.
We became best friends.
The summer before freshman year, we were hanging out eating popsicles on Megan"s roof, that lead to her bedroom window. We were working on our tans, apparently that"s what high school girls did.