Page 115 of Jake Forever
"Yeah. But it still seems odd."
His fists tightened on the steering wheel. "You really wanna play this game?"
"It's not a game," I said. "I really want to know."
"Yeah? Well, there's stuff I wanna know, too."
"Like what?" I demanded.
His voice hardened. "Like, why didn't you tell me that Rango's been hassling you?"
I froze. He knew about that?Oh, crap."Who told you?"
"So it's true." He made a sound of disbelief. "And you didn't tell me."
I squirmed in my seat. "Maybe I didn't want to ruin your night."
He took a sharp turn. With a start, I realized we were pulling into the turnaround of his building. He stopped just outside the main doors and sat for a long, painful moment, looking straight ahead.
Finally, with the engine still running, he turned to face me. His eyes were dark, and his mouth was set. "You've got some guy calling you, giving you a hard time, and you think I don't wanna know that?"
"That's not it," I said. "I just feel bad, you know. It's like you're always riding to my rescue. I feel kind of guilty, like I should be solving some of these problems on my own."
"Maybe Ilikeriding to your rescue."
"How could you?" I said. "I'm a mess. It just doesn't seem fair."
His mouth tightened. "Fair is for pussies."
"What does that even mean?"
"It means I don't give a shit about keeping things 'fair.' If somebody's hassling you, I need to know."
Unsure what to say next, I glanced toward the building and saw Pete heading toward us, as if preparing to get my door.
As friendly as I could, I waved him away and turned back to Jake. "Let's talk about this upstairs, okay?"
He shook his head. "I've gotta go."
"What? Where?"
Jake glanced toward the building. "You need me to walk you up?"
Oh, so that's the way it was? Defiantly, I lifted my chin. "No."
"Alright." He turned his head, looking forward now. "Suit yourself."
"When will you be back?" I asked.
"Monday."
I did a double-take. "Monday? That's like two days from now."
"Yeah."
Again, I asked, "Where are you going?"
"Why?" His tone grew sarcastic. "You wanna come with me?"
