Page 99 of Jake Forever
Chapter 35
I woke to the sounds of tapping. Still half-asleep, I rolled over in bed and felt for Jake.
I paused. He wasn't there.
I opened my eyes and sat up, naked and confused. Pale moonlight filtered in through the partially open window blinds, making me squint in confusion.
I heard another series of taps and looked around. The tapping was coming from the closed bedroom door. When the tapping stopped, I heard my sister's voice, just above a whisper. "Hey Luna? You awake in there?"
I rubbed at my eyes. My sister spent half of her time ten hours South in Alabama, and the other half two hours North in our hometown.
What was she doing here? And more to the point, what was she doing here in the middle of the night?
Instantly, I was wide awake. I glanced at the clock on the nightstand. It was past five o'clock, less than an hour before sunrise. Okay, so it wasn't exactly the middle of the night. But it wasn't quite morning yet either.
"Hang on," I called, jumping out of bed and flicking on the lights. I threw on the same clothes that I'd been wearing the previous night and flung open the bedroom door.
And there Selena was, looking surprisingly awake, even if slightly disheveled.
Her long, dark hair was pulled into a loose ponytail, and her clothes – casual shorts and a yellow tank top – were definitely on the rumpled side.
"Is everything okay?" I asked. "What are you doing here?"
She glanced down the hallway, toward the condo's main living area. "I came along for the ride."
It was then that I noticed it, the muffled sounds of male voices. The way it sounded, Jake was talking with Bishop, one of his brothers, who happened to be my sister's fiancé.
I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the conversation didn't sound terribly friendly. No surprise there. From what I'd seen so far, Jake and Bishop didn't exactly get along.
I looked back to my sister and asked, "Are they arguing?"
Selena sighed. "Probably."
"Why? What happened?" I paused. "And what are you doing herenow?Why didn't you call?"
She gave a small laugh. "What? You're not happy to see me?"
"Oh come on. You know what I mean. This isn't exactly normal."
"Tell me about it." She moved forward and quietly shut the bedroom door behind her. "And just so you know, I did call. You didn't answer. I left a message around midnight. Didn't you get it?"
I shook my head. "Actually, I can't find my phone."
"You lost it?"
"Nah," I said. "I had it here last night. I just kind of lost track of it, that's all."
Just before bed, I'd made a half-hearted attempt to find it. I'd even asked Jake to call my number, hoping to locate the phone that way. Unfortunately, I'd had zero luck, probably because I'd turned off the ringer to avoid Rango's calls.
Still, I wasn't worried. The phone would turn up. It always did, usually within a few minutes of doing whatever around the condo.
Inside the bedroom, Selena sank onto a nearby armchair and stretched out her bare legs. "Would you believe we've been driving all night?"
Well, that explained the rumpled clothes.
"From Alabama?" I said. "Wait, I thought you were spending the summer in Michigan."
"I am," she said, "but I had to run down South for something. It was supposed to be for a few days." She sank deeper into the chair. "Wanna know how long I was there?"
