Jake: Hey, wanna hang out tomorrow?

Was that really happening? I pinched myself and read that message again. He wants to hang out. With me. After knowing me for like 2 minutes.

Aila: Sure 😊

Sorry homework, but now I've got more serious problems, cause I haven't plugged my eyebrows for like 2 months, and that's just the beginning…

* * * * *

I really want to be a boy.

I know that lot of girls say that, especially when they are on period, but now I could really use a wish to just become a boy.

I plugged out my eyebrows, put on a facemask, then I applied some night cream that I found in my mother's bathroom that's supposed to make your skin look like a baby's bum, but I still look the same.

I mean, why do I even try? Why are there so many products when most of them don't seem to be working?

I don't usually care about these things so much, but right now I really wanted to feel beautiful. For a while, I was considering covering up my freckles and vitiligo, but knowing myself, I would probably forget that I'm wearing makeup, I would run my hand over my face and ruin the makeup completely. 

Why was I doing this anyway? It's not like I want Jake to fall for me. I don't think I'm ready for a relationship. I'd rather focus on school than care about boys.

I was just genuinely happy that there was someone who cared about me. That's maybe why I went to sleep with a huge grin on my face. And also some jelly things under my eyes to prevent swelling…

* * * * *

My night was terrible.

I was so excited about that whole 'hanging out with Jake' thing that I couldn't fall asleep. I kept tossing and turning for like 2 hours.

The good news is, that those things that I had under my eyes made it look like I slept for 12 hours. I may have to visit my mom's bathroom more often. 

I surprisingly wasn't in hurry in the morning, and that was really suspicious. I got to school on time, and I even found the right class before my first lesson started. Okay, maybe it took me 2 wrong attempts, but who cares? I definitely don't.

I seated myself next to Mary. I know what you're thinking. Something like "giiiiiiirl, why didn't you sit next to Jake" but honestly, I didn't want to be one of those clingy girls.

When I turned to look for him, I saw him staring at me. I smiled and waved him, and in response, he did the same. I could feel that my cheeks started to flush so I quickly turned back.

"Soooo, are you gonna tell me what's going on between you and one of the biggest players in the school?" Mary asked.

Jake was a player? He surely didn't act like one.

"Nothing is going on, we just talked a little yesterday, that's all," I stated.

That's really all we did. We literally knew each other just for a few hours. There was no way we could possibly have something special. Yet I felt different about it.

"Just FYI, he's still looking at you." She said and smiled.

That night cream really worked.

* * * * *

After the lesson ended I needed to visit the bathroom. On my way there, I saw our Barbie and her squad in the hall. They were standing in a circle close to the heater.

I tried to walk past them, but there wasn't enough space.

Great, just great.

"Ehmm, can you move a little?" I asked and I tried really hard to keep my head down. But of course that Candice noticed me.

"Ah look who's here!" Yeah, it's me you Sherlock…

" Oh hello, we meet again. Look, I don't really want to cause a scene here. Anyway, let me just give you an advice - if I were you, I wouldn't stand that close to the heater…" I said, not knowing where is that coming from.

" What? Why?"

"Plastic melts…" I snapped, and while they were all gaping I slipped past them to the bathroom.

* * * * *

During the lunch break, I saw Jake standing all alone in the middle of the hall.

" Looking for somebody?"

"Yeah, for one girl. You actually know her. She's got this really beautiful freckled face that she's trying to hide behind long ginger hair." He said and pretended to look around us to find that girl.

To say that my face was red like a tomato would be an understatement of the century.

Play along or not to play along? That is the question.

" I think I saw her in the bathroom like 5 minutes ago." I said and he chucked.

"What a shame, I really need to talk to her… Do you think you could help me? There is something I'd like to tell her, so what if I told you, and if you see her, you'd tell it to her. Is that okay with you?"

"Sure, why not. Soooo, what is so important?" I was really enjoying this little game.

"Well, yesterday she'd agreed to hang out with me after school, but we haven't discussed it yet. So I was thinking that I could wait for her after school, walk her home, then I'd go home really quick, I'd come back to pick her up, and then we could go for a walk. There is one place I'd like to show her. " I wanted to gape because I didn't see that coming. How could possibly this guy be a player? He's so nice it's not even possible.

" Of course, I'll make sure to let her know about it when I meet her. "

" Thank you so much, you're the best! " He said enthusiastically.

"Well, I'm not complaining about that. Look, I'd love to talk to you a little more, but my next class starts in like 7 minutes and I still have to figure out which classroom is it, and then I have to find that classroom in this maze, and  considering that I don't even know where I'm now, I'm pretty sure I'll be late. "

" We're in the same class if you forgot, we can go together. What class do we have now? " Why was he asking me? Do I look like I actually know that? Because I totally don't…

" That's something I'd love to know too." I said as I started looking through my backpack for my timetable.

" Ha! Found it! Fuck… We have PE. " I signed.

" You don't like PE?" He turned to me as we already started walking towards the gym.

"It's not like I hate it, but when I was younger I played tennis, I took it really seriously but I got hurt. When I recovered, my previous PE teacher started being really taught to me, saying that I need to work harder now because I missed a lot. So I do not hate PE at all, I just have bad memories… "

" Wait, you played tennis? For how long? "

" For almost 3 years. I started when I was 5, when I was 8 I broke my leg and it was a complicated injury so it took me almost 4 months to get back in shape. A lot happened back then… After that I no longer wanted to do that… "

I don't even know why I mentioned that. Those are some painful memories. Not some dumb broken leg, there's way more that happened back then. I felt that if I continued talking about it, I would surely tear up. Luckily he didn't ask any more questions until we were in the gym. That's where we parted our ways and both of us went to change.

* * * * *

Jake did as he said. He waited for me in front of the school.

"Oh heyyy, I got the message from some girl. She said that you'd wait for me here. For a while, I thought she was some creep and I wanted to enter the school through the backdoor. But I didn't find it…" I fooled around to see his reaction.

"You would really leave me hanging here? Waiting for you? I would stand here for hours if necessary!" He said in a playful tone, but his words made me feel warmth in my chest. He would wait for hours…

"Would you really?"

"Of course. You probably don't know the town yet, I'm scared you'd get lost. So from now on, I'm taking you home every day… I mean, if you agree, if you don't it's totally fine with me. Well you probably don't want to, you know me for like 2 days… I'm so stupid… forget about it… " He held the back of his head and looked almost devastated.

I freaked out. " No no no, stop putting words in my mouth! I never said I didn't want to. In fact, I would really appreciate it. I don't have many friends here, so your company is more than welcomed. "

"Really?"

"Yup, totally. Now walk me home before you get another panic attack." He smiled and started walking down the street.

* * * * *

He walked me home, just like he promised. We chatted a little in front of our house - I wanted to convince him to tell me where he's taking me today, but he resisted my pleads.

At one moment I looked to our window and saw a my dad looking at us from the corner of the window.

I bet he thought he's unnoticeable. So I smiled wide and waved him. His eyes widened and he kept stepping back until I couldn't see him. Gosh, this man will never grow up.

"I'll be back in like an hour okay? Wear something comfortable" he stated.

Wear something comfortable? To me, comfortable means my panda onesie…

"Why?" I asked, hoping he'd finally tell me.

"We'll be doing some walking, so trust me, you'll appreciate it." He said and winked. He winked. What the hell does that mean? Mary said that he's a player. Does he want me to be one of his toys? I made a mental note to myself to ask him about it.

"Okay," I replied, already lost in thoughts.

"Okay. See you in a while."

So, I have one hour to figure out whether this was a good idea or not. Well, let's just hope for the best…

* * * * *

I was already waiting when Jack knocked on the door. I don't know what he meant when he said 'wear something comfortable', but I'm not that type of person who loves sweatpants, so I just wore a pair of leggings, a plain black tee, and a jacket.

Yeah yeah, I know what you're thinking 'That girl is a monster, how can she not love sweatpants?', but it's not like I hate them. When a guy wearing them, I'm like daaaaaamn, but not really on myself, and I also don't find them that comfortable. If you want to kill me for this opinion, please get in the line.

I was halfway through the process of getting to the front door when my dad decided to answer the door.

So he just simply tossed me aside. Yup, just like that.

"What's up baby, ready to have the best day of your life?" I heard Jake.

I looked over my dad's shoulder and noticed that Jake wasn't looking at the door. He was leaning against the door and looking to the distance.

So he didn't know that he just called my dad ' baby'.

" Sure baby, let me just grab my lipstick," my dad said and that was the moment when Jake turned his head and knew he fucked up…

"I'm sorry, I probably got the wrong address ." he blurred.

The poor boy was struggling so hard so I decided to step into it. I pushed my dad aside and smiled at Jake. He seemed a little surprised when he saw me.

"No, you're at the right address. This is my dad. Dad, this is Jake, my classmate, he promised to show me around. Byeeeee!" I hoped my dad would let it go, but of course, he didn't.

"Nice to meet you, Jake." my dad said, leaning against the doorframe. I could tell that he was trying to look as serious as possible. He was never strict, but he always wanted only the best for me. Come to think about it, it would be weird if he didn't.

"The pleasure is all mine, sir," Jake responded. He looked kind of scared of my dad.

If he only knew that this man, that he's so scared of squirrels, loves watching Tom and Jerry and complains when he has to take out the rubbish.

"Where are you taking my daughter? " Jake swallowed and looked at me. Like, dude, why are you looking at me? Do I look like I know where are we going? Wasn't it you who refused to tell me?

"I'm planning on showing her the town. Sightseeing and stuff." he said, looking even more nervous than before. This boy has some guts, this obviously lying to my dad. He's lucky my dad can't tell when someone is lying.

" Okay, back before sunset. And just know, I have a  blackbelt in karate and I befriend Mike Tyson. " dad said with a straight face.

"Sure sir." Then my dad finally closed the door. Jake let out a breath and I laughed at him.

As we were walking away from my house, Jack looked back to make sure we were far enough and my dad couldn't hear us even if he was standing directly behind the door, which I was sure he was.

"He's kinda scary..." he confessed.

"Naaah, he's everything but scary. And he was lying about that karate and Mike Tyson."

  "Was he really? He looked bloody serious."

" Once he sprained his ankle when he was getting on a bus. If he ever tried to do karate, he would end up accidentally killing himself during warming up. Trust me, he can't hurt you. At least not physically. And he's too lazy to try to hurt you in any other way, so there's nothing to worry about."
We both laughed. That was when I discovered that he has an amazing smile.

"You're starring." he pointed out. I knew that I was, but I had an ace in my sleeve.

"Yeah, because you have a really huge pimple on the tip of your nose. Like, I've never seen bigger. "

His smile dropped. He raised both hands to his face and tried to find that pimple.

"Gotcha!" "No you didn't, I knew you were just kidding!"

"Sure Jacoby, just keep telling yourself that..."

"Don't call me that, I'm not a kid!" he pouted.

" What if I don't want to stop?" I teased.

"Than there will be consequences," he said in a serious tone. Not gonna lie, it scared me a little.

"Gotcha!" "Okay, okay, you got me! So, where are you taking me? And don't tell me that you're gonna show me around, I ain't buying that like my dad."

"Well, first of all, we're gonna get McDonald's take away, and then I'm planning on showing you the forest. It's probably the most beautiful place here. So calm." he looked a little lost in thoughts.

"Wait a minute, we're gonna get McDonald's take away? "

"Well, yeah, but if you don't agree, we can get something else."

"Noo, no, no, I love McDonald's. But I don't like that part when you said that we're gonna take it away. You have to eat in the actual restaurant. It' s like a rule." He laughed at my reaction.

"Well, not this time," he responded, and when I wanted to complain some more, he shot me a death stare. Guess it's already decided...

* * * * *

After we got out of the McDonald's, we started walking through some shady streets.

"I know it looks dangerous here, but don't worry, I'm with you, and I promised your dad that nothing gonna happen to you, and I'm willing to keep that promise," Jake said to me when he saw the expression of my face.

His words calmed me down, but the thought that he's just playing with me still hunted my mind. I will ask him as soon as we get where he's leading me.

After a few minutes, we were at the end of the street, and there was a huge plain land in front of us. "It's a bit of a hike, but nothing difficult. Ready? " he turned to me and I nodded.

The only thing I was hoping for was that I won't fall and drop my food. I think I would start crying if that happened.

* * * * *

I really wasn't anything difficult. The only problem was that Jake said that we were there, but the only thing I saw was the forest.

Oh my God, what if he brought me here so he could kill me and sacrifice my body? Now I really regret telling him that my dad isn't as though as he seems.

"It's beautiful." I lied.

"It's not. This is not the place that I wanted to show you, dumbass. Come on, we're really close."

We walked for about a minute (why do I get the feeling that we were just walking all the time? Maybe because we were...) before Jake told me to close my eyes.

"Jake, if you 're trying to kill me, I swear to God I will haunt you every single night!" "Don' t worry, you're gonna like this." Well, after all that walking, this better be worth it.

I did as he ordered. Then I outstretched my hands because I expected him to give me some more orders about what to do next. I didn't expect him to hold my hands.

Damn, his hands were so soft. I wonder what lotion does he use.

And guess what we did after that? Yep, we walked some more... My step counter must have gone crazy by now.

"Okay, open!" Jake said. I opened my eyes, and my jaw dropped.

_________________________________________

A/N - So, since I didn't post for a reaaaaly long time, I decided to make this update extra long ☺️ Hope you enjoy it, and please hit the 🌟 button, it means a lot to me 🥺🥺
Stay safe 🙌