Biker Class (29 page)

They were dark.
A vengeful dark.
It was cold,
calculating,
emotionless
besides anger. The small part
of her that feared her new boyfriend surfaced. She was scared to speak, but she
knew that she had to if his anger was to be released... and hopefully it
wouldn't be on her.

"Ja-Jake?" she asked gently, softly prodding his shoulder.
It was like a scene from a horror movie. He didn't move. All that moved was his
eyes, as they snapped to her and stared at her. "What—what's
wrong?"

His mind raced with things that didn't need to be revealed to someone
as innocent as Melanie. He couldn't believe this! Some jerk was trying to make
a move on his girl! It was odd... he'd never encountered this problem before,
considering that no one had ever been incredibly
stupid
enough to mess
with his girlfriend. But now that someone had, the feeling encompassing him was
perhaps one of the most furious he'd felt in a long time.

But Melanie was waiting for an answer. And he had to phrase it in a
way that didn't scare her off. The last thing he wanted was for someone as
important in his life as she was to be afraid of him. He glanced at her
frightened face, down at the ground, back to her, then to the book in her lap.
Poetry
for Amateurs
it read.

"You know what, Melanie? Here's a poem for ya," he muttered
angrily, fury radiating from every inch of his being. He sarcastically looked
up to the sky, his knuckles white now. "Here is what I'd tell him. 'Toby,
roses are red, violets are blue, Melanie is for me and not for you; if by any
chance you try and take my place, I'll take my fist and smash your face."

Melanie's eyes widened. "Oh, Jake, please don't do anything like
that! I'm sure he—he doesn't know better!"

"He sure as hell knows better, Melanie! You and me were the talk
of the whole freakin' school for a week! There is no way he missed that!"

"Okay, you have a point, Jake, but that doesn't give you the
right to go beat up people!"

"Why the hell not?"

"Because...!"

"
Because
why?" he demanded of her, mockingly.

"You—you have to be the bigger person here!" Melanie
told him, not believing that she was able to say all of this. She was still as
scared as heck.

"Well what if I don't want to be the bigger person?" he
yelled. "Some creep makes a move on my girlfriend, and I'm pissed! He's
got to be taught that he can't follow you around like a freakin' puppy when
you're taken!"

"Just—just forget it, Jake. Please?" she begged him,
caressing his arm. Jake took a deep breath and released it through his nose like
an angry bull. He continued to stare at her with his cold, dark eyes. When his
frightening glare continued without wavering, she met his eyes and pleaded.
"Calm down, please. It's not like I'm hurt or anything! He isn't harassing
me. No harm done."

"I can't just let guys make moves on you and then nothing
happens!" he exclaimed, furious. "Otherwise they are just gonna keep
coming back! They're gonna think I've gone soft!"

"I'll—I'll take care of it if he comes up to me
again," Melanie told him gently, still rubbing his arm. "It's okay, I
promise. He's a nice guy. I'll just explain to him how... um, you don't like
other people... hitting on me."

"Because you're mine!"

"I know, I know," she patted his hand, smiling. "It's
not that big of a deal, Jake. Okay?" He refused to meet her eyes. He was
looking everywhere, trying to get his mind off of it. "
Okay
, Jake?"
she repeated, her tone more like an irritated mother's now. He sighed deeply
and looked at her again, her irritation looking funny to him for some reason. Jake
shook his head and looked away from her, getting tickled. "What?" she
demanded. "You're laughing now? You're bipolar."

"It's just," he tried not to smile because he was supposed
to be mad, but it was getting hard, "when you're angry or aggravated, it's
not scary. You look more like a mad puppy." Melanie scowled and glared,
which made Jake audibly laugh. "Like I said:
puppy
." He said
this while messing up her hair.

When they both ended up laughing, Melanie hesitantly asked,
"So... you aren't going to go hurt Toby, are you?"

He sighed and licked his lips, looking to the skies for help.
"No, I guess not, Hart. But if he does anything
one more time
, God
so help me, I will—"

"Yeah, I know, I know," Melanie slapped his shoulder
lightly. "You'll 'smash his face'." She giggled cutely and thought
for a moment. "That was a horrible thing to say, don't get me wrong,
but... it was actually a pretty good poem!"

"Can I
please
just write that down and turn it in?"

"No. It'd be plagiarizing. I know you'll think of
something."

"Crap." He was quiet a moment. "You know what, Hart?
Once I think about it, you're the only one who's ever seen me really pissed and
lived to tell the tale."

She rolled her eyes, but knew that he wasn't exaggerating. "Don't
your friends help calm you down?"

"Psh, no!" he scoffed. "They stay quiet and just watch
me punch things... or people."

Jake smirked and leaned in to kiss her, but he found that his lips did
not meet hers, but the plastic cover of a book instead. He leaned back to see
that Melanie was holding the poetry book in front of her face. She peered over
it and
laugh
lines crinkled around her chocolate eyes.
She lowered it and
rose
her brows, pointing to it in
an important way.

"Nice try, Cooper, but our break has been long enough. Poetry
time!" she announced, looking very satisfied with
herself
.

He groaned like he had earlier, letting his head fall back against the
trunk as he closed his blue eyes. "Come on, Melanie. You can't
honestly
tell me that you would choose poetry over all of
this
." He motioned
from his face to his body. Melanie smiled smugly.

"Believe it, Biker Boy," she grinned. Jake couldn't help but
notice that she had surveyed him a little longer than was necessary.
"We've got work to do. No homework, no fun."

"Ugh, now you sound like my mom."

"Then I must be doing something right," she stuck her tongue
out at him. "I'm your tutor right now, not your girlfriend. Come on, what
kind of poem do you
wanna
do? The average one or a
haiku?"

"What do you mean you're my tutor right now and not my
girlfriend?" asked Jake. "What was that whole dill-hole-Toby thing
about then?"

"That doesn't count, it was on our
break
. Now, stop
distracting me. What kind of poem do you wanna do?"

"I don't care! A... a normal one, I guess. I don't know what the
other one is."

This would be a long afternoon.

The final school bell rang for the day, making
all
of the
students smile. It was a Friday.
Everyone
loved Fridays.
Especially Jake.
Used to, this day never stuck out from the
rest, considering the rest of the students liked it because they were away from
classes, but he just ditched whenever he wanted, anyway. But he
was
excited now. He was planning on maybe surprising Melanie with something tonight
(another chance at a
date
, he means). As he wandered into the hallway,
waves of rushing students surging past him inattentively, his phone began to
vibrate.

He felt more stressed than he should have when he saw one of his 'best
friend's name cover the ID screen: Lawson. Why now? He was busy! Why couldn't
that drunken idiot stay out of his life?
At least for
tonight, anyway.
He groaned to himself, venting, before hitting the
answer button and raising the phone to his right ear.

"Hey, what's up?" Jake asked nonchalantly, knowing exactly
what was probably on the man's mind.

"Hey, Jakey boy," he smirked on the other line. "I've
got a bone to pick with you."

"What did I do now?" the blonde asked uninterestedly,
leaning against some nearby lockers and crossing his arms. A couple of girls
who's lockers he apparently was leaning on approached, but when spotting him,
backed away with uneasy smiles, deciding they could come back later.

"Where in
the hell
have you been, man?"

"Excuse me?"

"For the past week or two! You barely ever come down to the dock
anymore," he spat into the phone. "I don't know what's up with you. I
like to know how my guys are doin', ya know? But that's kind of hard to do when
one of 'em won't
show up
."

"Relax, dude," Jake rolled his blue eyes, trying to calm
down the biking leader. "Look, I've just been busy. I
do
have a
life outside of you and the guys, believe it or not."

"Psh, please, no, you don't!" Lawson snorted. "You live
with Rage, you hang out with us almost all weeknights, all of us
kindly
lend you money and pay for our... uh...
special medicine
that we like to
get into, and you've never once bought a cigarette pack of your own. You always
mooch off of me, man!
You having a life?
That's a
bunch of
bull shit
! We
are
your life!"

It seemed to hit Jake in the gut right then how much of a painful
truth that was. His whole life seemed to revolve around that gang in some way
or another, examples: he lived with one of them, he got all of his cigarettes
and drugs from them,
he
made the bet with them that
seemed to be running his life now. Did it ever end?

"Well..." Jake trailed off, running a hand through his hair,
"I
do
have something else going on now, and it's taking up a lot of
my time. It's not like I'm not showing up because I don't feel like it!"

"
Oh
," Lawson chuckled darkly. "I see what you're
getting at here. Little Miss Hotty Virgin, am I right? Well, on second thought,
dude, please tell me you've taken away the virgin part by now..."

"No," Jake shook his head, "but—"

"No freaking 'but's, Cooper!" he exclaimed over the phone,
making Jake having to hold the phone away from his ear, wincing. This wasn't
good. Lawson was getting pissed, because he never used Jake's last name unless
he was ticked. "It's been
two-and-a-half freaking months
! You
still
haven't gotten to her yet?"

"I'm working on it, Lawson!"

"'Working on it'," he repeated incredulously, shaking his
head, "
working on it
? Jake, you've been 'working on it' for almost
three months! Have you made
any
progress
at all
?"

Jake debated with himself on what to answer. Part of him wanted to
explain how him and Melanie were now in a relationship, and they had kissed, so
he
had
, in fact, made progress. But at the same time, another part of
his mind told him that elaborating on their situation wasn't a good idea.
Giving Lawson details about Melanie didn't exactly make him comfortable. Plus,
Lawson would scold him repeatedly about how he needed to be a man, get down to
business, and get it over with.

"Cooper! Are you there?"

Jake shook his head, trying to release his thoughts. "Yeah, yeah.
I'm here."

Silence.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Don't play dumb-ass with me. Have you made
any
progress
at all with our little bet?"

Jake's mind raced and he worded his sentence carefully. "Yeah...
uh, she's—she's letting me in. It's going pretty good."

"Idiot! God, why don't you just push her against the wall and get
it done? How hard would that be? And it'd take just a few minutes, dude!"

"Well... I
could
do that, but I'm not," Jake hissed.

"Why the hell not?"

"Because..." his brain raked for an excuse, "... don't
you think it'll be
so much
...
better
when she's taking part in
it, too? I mean, it's no fun if she's squirming the whole time trying to get
away, am I right? Plus, I won't have the police on my ass."

"That's true, I guess," the leader muttered, not liking to
admit that he was wrong. "See, that's the good thing about you, Jakey boy.
You think things through. See, it wouldn't be a good idea to have the police on
your tail since we have a very healthy amount of... um...
special medicine
."

"Exactly," Jake nodded unsurely, just deciding that he'd go
with that. Why not? Lawson was basically doing all of the excuse work himself!

"But
still—
" crap "—that doesn't
excuse the fact that this bet is taking
way
too long.
Get the job
done
." The blonde biker gulped. His tone was dangerous. "Hey, by
the way, dude, where are you?"

"Right now? School..." he responded, not sure why this
question was relevant in their conversation.

"All right, then. See you and Miss Sunshine in a few."

Jake froze. "Wait,
what
?"

All that answered was the long tone after someone hung up. Jake stared
at his phone unseeingly. This couldn't be happening, it just
couldn't
! Melanie
was in so much danger right now, not to mention how much danger
he himself
would be in when Lawson would try and make a move and he would get protective.
There was a
reason
Lawson was in charge, after all. He had an uncanny
ability to
always
win his fights and get what he wanted. And Jake knew
him well enough to know that when he saw Melanie, he'd want her. And he always
got what he wanted.

Maybe he should grab Melanie and they should leave? But she'd want an
explanation, and Lawson would know something was up if they fled since he'd
told Jake ahead of time that he was coming. They were stuck in a corner. There
was nothing to do but wait. With regret,
Jake headed towards Melanie's
locker
,
his shoulders slumped
. Unfortunately,
there was no solution to this horrible problem.

As he approached Melanie, who was turned around, putting stuff in her
locker, his eyes wandered over her from head to toe. She was beautiful. Lawson
would surely be all over her, even if he had been the one who'd basically
assigned Jake to her. He sighed irritatedly as he wrapped his arms around an
unsuspecting Melanie's waist.

"Hey," he smiled into her ear.

"Hey, Jake," she returned, grinning. "What's up?"

"Nothing," Jake shrugged, resting his chin on her shoulder.
He quickly got to the point. "Melanie, I need to tell you something."

His tone caught her attention. Melanie turned her head towards him.
Her brows creased in concern. "What is it?"

"Look, Lawson's coming, and—"

"
What
?" That sentence was all it took to get Melanie
in panic mode. "Why? Why would he come to the school?"

"I don't know..." he lied guiltily, "but he just called
me and told me that he was stopping by. I think... I think he wants to talk
with me or something... and meet you."

"
What
?" her eyes bulged. "Jake, we have to
leave!"

"We can't!"

"Why not?"

"He'll think something's going on between us."

"Well, there is. Why can't he know?"

Jake's mind raced for an excuse. "Because... he doesn't believe
in real relationships, and he'll give me so much crap about it if he
knew."

The rumbling sound of a bike was heard. The two looked at each other
with wide eyes.
What were they going to do
? Jake ran down the hall to
the doorway to peek outside, and sure enough, there was the G-Strider, Lawson
dismounting.

"Is he here?" Melanie whisper-screamed down the hallway to
him. Jake ran back to Melanie. They were now the only ones in the hallway, they
noticed. The rest of the student body must have been very anxious to escape. Jake
heard the school door open, and suddenly, an idea came to him. His head snapped
from the person entering to Melanie in panic.

There was no other option.

"Sorry about this!" Jake muttered quickly to her, an
apologetic look in his eyes. Melanie was lost.

"Huh? About wha—?"

It soon became apparent. Before Melanie knew what was going on, Jake
had shoved her back against the lockers, making them clang loudly. He was
suddenly on top of her, his lips crushing against her own. Melanie's eyes were
wide with shock and confusion at first, but slowly, her eyes began to close. Melanie
began to kiss back, surprised at how hard her heart was beating, making hot
blood rise to her cheeks. Jake kissed her in a completely new way, much
differently than he had in the tree house. There, he had been gentle and was
acting as if she was breakable.
Not now
.

He was kissing her the way she had always thought a kiss with Jake
would be like:
rough
. His lips were moving with passion, heat, urgently.
Melanie was almost disgusted with herself at how much she actually
liked
this. It was new... but she found herself enjoying it deeply. One of his hands
cupped her neck, making her escape from his lips impossible. His other hand,
however, slowly wandered down to the middle of her back, then down to the small
of her back. Before she knew it, Jake's hand was equal with her tailbone and
hips. He suddenly pulled her to him, until there was no space between their
bodies. The heat and hormones bouncing between them was dangerously high.

Lawson was just then walking through the doorway, looking around for
his hopefully-soon-to-be-gang-member. It didn't take long for him to spot the
two, considering they were the only ones in the hallway. He stopped in his
tracks, watching with an approving smile. It looked like Jake was taking his
advice and about to get the job done! The two were glued together, Melanie pressed
against the lockers,
Jake's
hands lower than was
appropriate. It was obvious that it would only be a few minutes before they'd
have to find a supply closet somewhere. Quietly, Lawson walked backwards out of
the school, nodding. Maybe he
had
underestimated Cooper. He climbed back
onto his bike, smug, and took off loudly.

Jake heard the sound, knowing that it was technically safe now, but
since this was her first time... well...
doing this
, she was too caught
up in the moment to pay any attention to her outside surroundings. Melanie
nearly fainted from a crazed adrenaline rush when she felt something
unfamiliar. His tongue was slipping into her mouth. Her knees gave out, but
only but for a few seconds, before she forced herself to stand up again and
thrusts herself at him. She quickly slipped her tongue into
his
mouth,
her arms tightly winding around his neck. He impossibly deepened it, making Melanie
run her hands up through his hair longingly.

Both of their heart rates were so fast that their faces were red,
their
breathing ragged. A never-before-felt fire ignited
within Melanie, and Jake instantly felt it in her body language. Since their
bodies were pressed together,
any shift in position or weight
could easily be felt by the other
. They began to kiss faster, but what Melanie
did made him freeze. She moaned.

As if someone had turned on a light switch, Jake's mind was suddenly
back. With some regret and somewhat pride in himself, he pulled away from her.
His lips left hers completely, his hands went back to his pockets (where they
should
be
, he reminded himself), and he didn't dare look at her, afraid he would
lose the little willpower he had left and continue where they left off. Jake
was panting, running a hand through his hair and walking down the hall to check
out the door to ensure their safety.

As her boyfriend was checking their security, Melanie was glued
against the lockers, rigged, breathing heavily, her cheeks a rosy red. Only one
thing ran through her mind right then: