Page 69 of The Second Kiss
“Why not? You don’t want your friends to know what you’re really like?” He turns around, his voice getting louder as he addresses the circle around him. “She looks innocent doesn’tshe? Don’t let her fool you. Jess has kissed me, Gage, and our brother Jacob, a guy three years older than her and a sergeant in the Army. Good job, Jess, you’ve completed your Rick’s brothers collection. No one will ever remember that fat little girl now.”
“I didn’t kiss him,” I say quietly, but Nate still hears me. He turns around like he's ready for round two. “I didn’t kiss Jacob that night in the barn. He was telling me about his friend that was killed in Iraq. We talked, that’s it. I just wanted to make him feel better.”
Nate takes a breath that sounds loud in the silence of the room. “Don’t make me into the bad guy. I’ve seen the way you look at him. I’ve seen the way he looks at you. Something is going on between the two of you. You used me to get to my brother. Don’t try to deny it.”
“I’m sorry,” I barely get the words out. They’re all I have left.
“Not good enough this time, Jess,” Nate says. “Not good enough.”
thirty-three
Breaking In
Ilie in bed for a long time without sleeping. More than anything I want to go tell Nathan I’m sorry again and try to explain, but I can’t. Everything he said is true. Well almost everything. He’s wrong about the way Jacob looks at me. And anyway, if there was ever something between us, I ruined it.
“Jess.”
I’m dreaming,
"Jess.”
The voice comes again. I open my eyes and stifle a scream. There’s a face at my window. It takes me a few panicked heartbeats before I realize who’s there.
“Gage,” I hiss, “how did you get up here?”
He pulls himself the rest of the way through my window and sits on the windowsill. “I climbed the tree. I’m surprised that your dad hasn’t cut it down yet. It leads right to your bedroom.”
I get off the bed and look out the window at the long spindly branches he climbed to make it to my window. “You could have broken your neck! What are you doing here?”
He steps into my room, bathed in moonlight like some fairytale prince. But this isn't a fairytale and Gage was never meant to be my prince. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“I’m not,” I say miserably. “How’s Nate?”
“Gone. He found a flight back to Florida. I don’t think it leaves until tomorrow morning, but he said he’s sleeping at the airport. Mom couldn’t talk him out of it.” Gage sits on my bed. “I’m sorry Jess. I didn’t know he was so...so hung up on you. If I did I would have never let things go as far as they did tonight.”
I slump back on my bed, “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have let them go anywhere at all.”
“He’ll get over it. Every guy has to have his heart crushed at least once.”
“You aren’t helping.” I lie back and pull my pillow over my head.
Gage pulls it off gently. “Sorry. I’ve never been good at saying the right thing when someone’s upset."
I stare at the ceiling. “That’s pretty obvious.”
"I'm much better at providing physical comfort." He climbs on the bed and lies next to me, so we're both sharing my pillow.
I don't look at him. "Why are you here, Gage?"
“I just came to let you know; I’m leaving too.”
For some reason the thought of him leaving makes me depressed. I let him slip his arm around my shoulders. “I thought you were going to finish your senior year here.”
Gage shakes his head. “Naw. My dad’s coming back early, and really I don’t want to start over. I have some stuff to make up, but it looks like my old school will let me back in. Besides, your friends are great, but maybe a little too tame for me.”
“What about Jasmine?”
He grins, but it’s a sad half-grin. All traces of the cocky, confident guy I met on his first day back are gone. “You think she'll ever forgive me?"
