Well no song for this chapter because I couldn't find one that would fit properly. To the right when you scroll you may see a picture of Brando Eaton one of the choices for Jake. The picture just reminds me of Jake. Spencer Boldman being the other choice.  It is still undecided. Heather Kelley is still unknown too.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

                                                             Danny

I kept replaying the kiss in my head over the weekend. That time when I first came to Jake’s house. Not enough to the point that it screwed with my football practice. Did I think he came on too strong? At first yes but it was all very welcome. He was doing his best to show he wasn’t emotional player. I remembered what that felt like. 

I got up for school kind of wishing I had the time to visit Jake again. Homework and football practice was tiring. I hardly had much time to myself in result. The only time I had to myself was sleep. Not that I was really complaining. 

Daniel had been picking me up and dropping me off everyday to school. Maybe he was trying to make up for his drunk night. 

A pair of white laced panties was almost shoved up my nose just as I clicked my seatbelt in. 

“Dude!”

Daniel pulled them back before I could swat him and grinned.

“You got some,” I bumped fists with him because after all he was still my best friend.

“We are still young but not so dumb,” He started driving, “Higher chances of coming across a virgin at this age.”

My face pulled up into a common grin whenever he was around. He had the mind of puppy that wasn’t always so one tracked. We could be talking about a bird for example then end up talking about woodwork. How we got on to that, we never knew, nor asked.

“Sometimes I don’t think I know what I am missing,” he was still saying, “but I gave it to her anal.”

I kept my comment about Gary to myself.

“Oh joy.”

“That’s about as close to it,” he bumped his horn where there was no traffic yet, “that I can ever get. But it must feel like the first time every time I bet. Eh?”

I didn’t reply because in truth I didn’t care to talk about it with him.

“Dude the look on your face!”

Damn.

“Like tomato red!”

He laughed at me.

“Watch out for that deer right there.”

“What deer? There wouldn’t be any-” he caught on, “I’ll remember that one.”

He was smiling anyway.

“You talk to Jake again yet?” he took a moment to look at me before looking back at the road.

“No,” I couldn’t really look at him, “Is he still down in the dumps?”

“I don’t think so, he seems happier lately,” he replied.

We didn’t say anything to each other right away after that.

I broke the silence, “I’m thinking about visiting him again but maybe after he’s off being grounded.”

Daniel took a hard look at me, well as hard as one can do when they are driving at the same time.

“Admit it,” he said, “You’re scared.”

“No I wouldn’t say that,” I said.

“Danny,” he had a tone like my father, “You are.”

I didn’t want to argue with him so I stayed quiet.

“This is your chance bro,” he said, “you are like a brother that accidentally went to another family or something to me. I know you better than you know.”

I just nodded in agreement my mood getting snarled.

“You gotta take the best things in life while you can,” he told me.

He waited for that to sink in.

“You got me?” he spared another glance my way.

I nodded.

“You got me?” he repeated. “You got me? You got me? You got me?”

He added a dance to it swaying to the left and right. The car swayed in harmony which got us a horn blown at us. It sped on like a maniac which Daniel ignored completely. 

My lips tightened up into the natural smile because he wasn’t going to stop until I spoke out loud.

“Yes, I got you.”

He went back to a normal driver when he said, “Good.”

                                                          Jake

I felt myself running letting the newly grown grass beneath my feet pass motionlessly under my feet. This reminded me of the times when I used to go for a night jog years ago. I would sprint down the streets as if I was running for my life. The way the wind would rush past my ears as I closed my eye’s. Then open them to turn my head to the side to look at something. It would feel like I was in one of those action movies for just a moment. 

I always loved to run. Running was when I felt the most free.

Most of the field was clear and the goal was completely open. 

My eye’s snapped shut savoring the smell of the earth and the silence. One of my favorite smells in the world is the smell of newly cut grass. The sky was clear and the sun was in my face making the back of my eye lids only see red. Only the wind whipped past my face making everything seriously go into slow motion. It was as if I just noticed that there were people here with me. 

The stands were full when my eyes opened. Lillian and Heather we the ones I picked out from the distance smiling at me. Then the other players appeared. I couldn’t get a good enough look at the other team because their faces were blurry. It was just myself, the field, the sky, and… oh crap I’ve got the football!

The sound came to life. The announcer was obnoxiously loud saying things I paid no mind to. I needed only to focus on the goal ahead. Everything else was just a distraction.

I tried looking to my team mates which were all too far away.

With just my feet pumping my body forward as my breaths came in through the nose and out the mouth. Using my right arm to pump more speed I dodged a tackle. My right hand formed into a fist in determination with only twenty yards left. The time didn’t matter because I was sure I was going to make it.

“Jake!” Someone shouted over me which I barely heard. “Over here!”

Someone was waving me down but they were so far behind. Throwing the ball to that person would be pointless. We might loose the game my intuition told me.

Intuition on the field was another source I relied on besides speed and team mates.

“Jake! Jake!” the same voice kept shouting.

I faced forward coming up to the last ten yards feeling the other players close around me. This wasn’t like those dreams in which I could never run fast enough. Instead what happened was the air got thicker. I felt aggressive with the ball suddenly.

“Jake!” it was Danny who was yelling for me. 

I almost responded or turned around.

Someone got within inches of the foot ball in my arm. I spun a full 360 letting my feet twirl in the air successfully. Once my feet touched the ground I pushed myself harder. A lot of people were counting me.

Gosh I have missed this.

“Jake! Dude!” I recognized Charles.

Oh this must just be a dream.

Just as the thought formed in my head the announcers voice turned into that annoying buzz of an alarm clock.

“Crap…” I said to myself out loud.

I was almost late to school because I overslept. Everybody stayed over late and my parents never said anything about it. They were long gone by the time I woke up. I had a lot to think about over night which is the other half to why I stayed up so late. I wasn’t thinking about Danny coming to visit anymore because what would come, would come.

I drove like a maniac that I didn’t realize the car in front of me was swerving like a drunk when I blasted my horn at them. I sped on past them in a hurry feeling foolish for sleeping in like that. When I got to school I felt worse because I forgot I had set my clock fifteen minutes early in my car.

Good thinking Jake!

Frustrated I sat on the picnic tables that we could eat out on good weather fuming. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you grouchy in the morning before,” Nick said approaching Nikko on his side. 

“Hey by the end of this week you’ll be a free man again,” Nikko rubbed my back that was supposed to be sympathetically.

I perked up at that thought.

“Oh no I was just up too late last night is all,” a yawn crept up then.

“Yeah we heard about that,” Nikko sat up on the table while Nick took the bench.

The comment confused me which Nick caught on to.

“We saw you driving like a maniac,” he answered.

“One of those red headed nerds claimed you almost pulled a Final Destination on him,” Nikko said.

“What did you guys do last night?” I made it sound innocently as possible changing the subject.

“Well lets see,” Nick said, “It involved a chainsaw, a shovel, a hole, duck tape, rope, and some sleeping pills.”

Nikko was ticking his fingers off at each item.

“But really what we did was find the freshman that caused the problems for Heathers reputation,” Nikko motioned a halo around his head.

“We got our bikes when we caught them walking together at a park over by the junkyard,” Nick said but used his fingers as horns on his head, “with a few of our other friends shouting threats and circled them on our motorcycle‘s. We made them wear potato sacks over their heads and made them go into the junkyard.”

“We just threatened them of course,” Nikko said as if it was no big deal, “Some of them cried but no one pissed themselves.”

I was smiling at the idea.

Nick caught that and took a bow.

Lillian then walked up with Jimmy to sit with us. School hadn’t started yet and wouldn’t for the next half hour. We talked more on how else we could keep up with the homework the school was giving us this week. Charles, Marcus, Andrea, and Katie then joined us when the school yard filled with more students. 

I pushed Danny and the dream further out of my mind because I felt I had everything I needed right here. Things just went back to normal because that was the way life was.

We were walking into the school to stand by our lockers when the gunshots started.

                                            Danny

Daniel wanted breakfast because he forgot to eat and he wanted to buy me breakfast. I kept telling him he had nothing to make up for but he wouldn’t listen. So he drove us out of town to a Sonic that was recently built. 

To avoid trouble with a police officer that happened to be there we ordered to go. We pulled up into a mall parking lot fifteen minutes at the most from the school.

“Talk to me Danny boy,” Daniel said before shoving a burger into his mouth. If he could have put the entire burger in his mouth he would have. 

Ha I would have to tell him that joke sometime!

“About what?” I asked him.

Daniel started talking again but his mouth was full. At least I think that was what he said.

“I am scared,” I admitted, “I should be right?”

Daniel looked like he was thinking and then nodded.

“I’m not as scared as you think. Things are just a bit complicated with my head right now.”

Daniel stared at me hard not accepting excuses. If he was going to be like that…

“What about you? Let’s talk about you.”

Daniel took an annoying long time chewing. I knew he was being dramatic.

“Life isn’t always about Daniel,” he said.

“Life can’t always be about Danny,” I countered.

“Right now it has to be because you deserve to be happy and move on to something better because you are smart, hardworking, and a good person.”

“Dude I’m speechless.”

“Don’t smart off at me like that this wall of sarcasm you have built up here isn’t going to keep me out.”

A rare fact I knew about Daniel: he can be so much wiser than he lets on.

I stayed quiet.

“Now like I said,” he turned his head away from me and out the window, “I am not going to pressure you because that might make you go in the wrong direction. A direction I don’t want to see you to go. I know all about that wrong direction.”

“Stop,” I told him.

“Stop what?”

“Don’t go there man because its over,” the muscles in my arms stiffened, “You can’t use that card on me, its not right.”

“It happened to me,” he said looking back at me, “I can admit it because it was real.”

“Yes,” I agreed with him, “You had a very sick uncle but you can’t keep bringing that up.” I wouldn’t say anymore even though this was not really my burden to carry.

“I cant look the other way like it never happened man. Because it did. And it made me into something bad for a while there. I got over it.”

This really went in a bad direction. What happened was that Daniel was molested by his uncle since he was three. He made Daniel do things with other people. It continued up until he was twelve. He cut off his uncle’s nose off in his sleep. Then that got him the attention he needed for him to tell his story. His dad got into a fist fight with his brother and spoke to each other since.

There just was a lot of drama that went on his family that he would never tell anybody about. His mother committed suicide back when Daniel was two yards old. She had a on again off again drug problem. So after being rehab three times she ran her car off a bridge in Nevada. Yes looking at Daniel you wouldn’t see any of that. There was more but I didn’t want to think about it.

“Take the shot Danny boy,” he said getting ready to eat some more, “Ready or not. That’s all I can say.”

We ate the rest in silence and headed back to school.

                                                     Jake

Lillian shrugged when she saw our faces. It sounded like things popping off. Hard to explain except a pop, pop, pop.

“Sounds like a bad prank,” Nick said with his arm around Andrea.

Running foot steps.

Charles was laughing at a joke Jimmy said behind me. Most of the kids around us continued on their day as if nothing was wrong. But something felt wrong.

Someone screamed and those footsteps came right into view. A girl that had to be a sophomore in a white blouse. There was blood on her shoulder blades. Her face was full of tears with her blonde hair sticking to her face. She was clumsy while she ran in a zigzag formation past us. 

My stomach got real sick when I smelled the blood.

It was Katie who screamed with her hands over her mouth in horror. It caused fear to ripple through the hallway we stood in and into my heart. No one else screamed but stood very still. Everything was silent.

I looked at all my friends that I might never see again.