Page 57 of The Second Kiss
I lean against the building beside him and sip the hot chocolate. I don’t like the cigarette smoke, but I don’t want to go back to the car with Jasmine and Gage either.
Raymond blows out a long breath of smoke. “So... should I be worried about that guy with Jasmine?”
I shrug. “Probably.”
He shakes his head. “I guess my cousin can take care of herself. Have you ever seen her mad?”
I laugh. Jasmine definitely has a temper. I watch Raymond smoke for a minute. Questions catch on the tip of my tongue. I’m not sure if I should ask them. After a long moment, I let them out. “Iraq, huh? What was that like?”
He flicks his cigarette butt into a puddle, retrieves it and puts drops it in a trashcan. “Weird. Hard to describe. Not like you see it on the news. I actually went into one of Saddam’s palaces. I have pictures.”
“That must have been cool.”
“It was—rich, over-the-top, like you wouldn’t believe.” He turns towards the movie and watches for a minute, without really watching. “The rest of the country isn’t like that. The whole place is kind of destroyed right now. It’s a different world. Torture, bombings, people disappearing in the night—all of that’s their norm. Lots of things you wouldn’t want to know about.” He doesn’t say it like he expects me to be impressed.
I think about everything I want to ask him, about what it's like to go to war, what it might be like if Jacob or Matt end up over there, but I barely know him. We sit in awkward silence, me eating handfuls of popcorn and him smoking.
Jasmine comes around the corner, crying.
“What happened?” Raymond and I ask at the same time.
“Nothing, I just…Gage–”
Before she can finish, Gage comes around the corner. “Jasmine, wait, I didn’t–”
If Raymond was looking at me the way he’s looking at Gage, I’d shut up and run. Gage isn’t that smart. He keeps talking, trying to apologize, or more likely trying to justify whatever he did.
Raymond doesn’t wait to hear what Gage has to say. In a quick motion he has Gage pinned against the cement building by his neck. I eat another handful of popcorn, enjoying this more than I should.
Jasmine lets Gage hang there for a minute. Then she waves her hand like a queen granting a reprieve. “Let him go.”
“Are you sure?” Raymond says without releasing his hold.
“Yeah. I just want to go home,” Jasmine says.
Raymond escorts us back to Jasmine’s car. Gage takes my spot in the backseat.
It's a long, icy ride home. Gage sits in the back with his arms folded, for once not even trying to talk his way out of being in trouble.
As soon as Jasmine drops us off, I confront him. “What did you do?”
He shrugs. “Nothing. You know Jasmine. She gets mad over dumb things.”
“Dumb things like what?”
He squirms. “It’s been nearly three weeks. We’ve seen each other almost every day.”
“And?”
“You know how she acts around me. Like, I don’t know, like she’s ready for something more.”
I'm piecing together what must have happened, and my blood boils. “You think that makes it okay?”
“You think it's okay for her to send me all these mixed signals, lead me on and then get mad when I–”
"If I'd known you were such a creep, I would have never let you near my friends." I stalk toward my house.
He slumps against a tree. “You don’t need to be jealous, Jess.”
