Biker Class (34 page)

"AAAAHHHH!"

The light flicked on, and there stood Melanie, chest heaving up and
down. She smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry. Okay, let's watch the second one."

"WHAT? Are you crazy? I thought you were as freaked out as
me!"

"I was! Wasn't it awesome?"

"Say
what
?"

Melanie turned out the lights again and began to place the disc for
the sequel in the DVD player, but a sound startled her and made her freeze.
"Very funny, Rachel," she giggled uneasily, turning to smile at her
friend. Rachel was frozen, too, a horrified and confused look on her freckled
face.

"That... wasn't me," she squeaked, almost so quiet that Melanie
couldn't hear. Melanie just laughed.

"
Sure
it wasn't."

"Melanie, I swear on my mother's grave that that was
not
me."

"If you're kidding, please tell me now. Because I'm
gonna
start freaking out if you don't," Melanie
whispered. The room was deadly quiet.

BAM!

They both screamed, their heads snapping to the window. That was where
the sound was coming from. They both looked back at one another, shaking.

"It's the demon!" screamed Rachel. Melanie ran and launched
herself onto the bed to get under the cover with her. "I
knew
watching that movie was a bad idea! I
told you
! That's how it gets
people! If you watch the movie, it comes to your house through the
television!"

"I'm sorry!" Melanie yelled. "I thought it'd be
fun!"

They heard a faint voice.

"Holy crap, what was that?" Rachel muttered into Melanie's
ear, pulling the blanket over her face, covering all except her eyes. "It
sounded like a voice!"

"
Melanie
..."

Melanie winced, eyes shut tight. "Oh crap crap crap
crap
!"

"WE'RE GONNA DIE!"

"Melanie!" the voice said again.

"Oh shit, it wants you!" she cried.

"Wait," Melanie said, not fazed, sitting up straighter and
dropping the blanket. "That's not a demon! That's..."

"Melanie!" it called again. "You there?"

"
Jake
!" Melanie yelled happily, unlatching her window
and lifting it up. "Oh my gosh, you scared us! We thought you were a
demon!"

Jake's face screwed up into a clueless expression.
"...What?"

"Nothing," Melanie shrugged it off, just happy that he was
here. "What are you doing here?"

He smiled sheepishly, looking up at her like he hadn't seen her in a
year. "I figure that two weeks is long enough of a break, don't you? I'm
sure you're sick of ice cream by now, right?"

Melanie flushed. "How'd you know I—?"

"Not that hard to guess," he winked. He glanced around a
little awkwardly. "Um... you mind if I come up?"

"Not at all," she couldn't say quick enough, running
downstairs as fast as she could, leaving a confused blanket-covered Rachel on
her bed. Melanie turned the gold knob and attached herself to Jake the second
she saw him with a giant hug. He wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted
her into the air, holding her tight. They hadn't really seen each other in two
weeks. They were going to hug as long as they pleased. Melanie pulled away and
pecked him on the lips quickly. She took his hand and
lead
him upstairs.

"Missed you, Hart," Jake smiled, squeezing her hand.

"Missed you just
a little
, Cooper," she rolled her
eyes. As they came into Melanie's room, Jake instantly spotted the empty ice
cream tub beside her bed.

"Just 'a little'?" he asked skeptically, brows raised.
"Because..." he picked up the tub, turning it in his hands until the
label faced her, "Baskin and Robin tell me differently."

Melanie laughed. She turned to Rachel who was on the bed, still
looking like she just had a heart attack. "You don't mind if Jake hangs
around for a little while, do you?" She turned to her blonde boyfriend.
"It's our movie night."

Jake looked back and forth between them, smiling. "So, I'm
guessing the call worked out?"

Rachel grinned, still a ghostly white. "Sure did."

Jake looked her over. "What's up with you?"

"You scared us shitless!" Rachel shook. "We just got
done watching Paranormal Activity, and then we start hearing things bang the
window!"

"You didn't see the rocks?" Jake asked Melanie, eyebrows
raised in amusement.

"It was dark!" she cried defensively. "We scare just a
little
more easily than you do, Jake."

"Well," he scoffed, adjusting his jacket, "I'm
unscarable."

Melanie knew for a
fact
that wasn't true. He looked pretty
scared during The Incident. But she kept that to herself. That would be
inappropriate to say out loud. Rachel didn't need to know about that night,
anyway. Then she'd be able to say 'I told you so' about
something
.

As the night drew on, they watched the second Paranormal Activity, Jake
in a chair beside the bed, holding Melanie's hand, with Melanie and Rachel
lying on the bed, gasping or going 'oh my gosh...' every five seconds. The
biker had to admit, the movie was a little freaky, but he didn't see why they
were freaking out so much. It wasn't
that
bad.

Rachel was the first to fall asleep, crashing an hour after the sequel
was over. Melanie and Jake were talking about their favorite scary movies,
then
Jake noticed Rachel was out. He smiled innocently at Melanie.

"Rachel's asleep," he said nonchalantly, playing with his
fingernail coyly. After a moment, he glanced up at her from under is lashes.

"Aw, is she really?" she giggled nervously, turning around and
looking at her best friend's sleeping figure. "Aw! That's so sweet!"

"Okay?" he
rose
an eyebrow.
"So... Melanie, I haven't seen you in two weeks, and all I got was a
hug."

She rolled her eyes, cheeks pink. "I gave you a kiss."

"It must have been such a pitiful one that I forgot about
it," he mumbled. He gave her a look that he hadn't given her a quite a
long time.

Oh God
... she thought, pouting on the inside.
He's
trying to seduce me...

"Is my mere
presence
not enough?" she joked, smiling.
The blonde shook his head.

"You're about half way there."

"Fine!" she groaned, leaning towards him. He stopped her
with his hand.

"Whoa, whoa,
whoa
," he clicked his tongue, "what
is
that
I hear?
Attitude
?"

"Oh, shut up," the brunette laughed, capturing his lips in
hers. It wasn't long before she was sitting in his lap in the
only-made-for-one-person chair, head on his shoulder, holding his hand. He was
telling her a story about how on his seventh birthday, he had managed to trip,
twist his ankle, and fall into his fudge cake all within a ten second time
frame. She giggled and told him about on her third birthday, her mom had
ordered a clown for her party, but the company had gotten the addresses mixed
up with a college kids' house party down the street, and two strippers had
shown up at her party instead. Ms. Hart had to rush all of the kids inside with
hands over their eyes saying, '
Don't
look! Don't
look!'

Jake couldn't stop laughing at that one.

"Pretty sure that's the best thing I've ever heard," he
chuckled. He launched into a story about how Rage brought a stripper to the
bonfire one night, and how she'd given him advice on Melanie. But just as he
was getting to the Melanie part, he heard a soft snore.
She
was sound asleep on him
,
mouth slightly agape
.
"Pretty sure that's the best thing I've ever seen," he muttered to
himself, grinning boyishly.

Jake lifted her slowly, careful not to disturb her sleep. He placed
something for later on the
window sill
. He put her on
the bed beside Rachel, gave her one last look, and left the house. Rachel
cracked open one eye, glancing back and forth between Melanie and where Jake
had exited. She smiled to herself and then
actually
went to sleep.

Melanie yawned, sprawled sideways across her mattress. The sheets were
entangled around both her and Rachel, both of their hair sticking in every
direction. Her eyes opened slowly, greeting the sunny light pouring in from her
window. In an instant, memories of the night before came flooding back to her.
She hastily sat up straight, head snapping in every direction. It soon became
apparent that Jake had left when both of them were asleep, and she sighed in
relief. What would her mother say if she awoke to find Melanie's boyfriend in
the room with them? Her and Jake would never be allowed to see each other
again, that's what.

Melanie's sudden movements woke Rachel, making her groan as she
stretched. She sat up as well, rubbing her eyes with the back of her fists. She
asked, in a sleepy and cracking voice,

"What's wrong, Melanie?"

Melanie shook her head, getting the crust out of her eyes.
"It's... nothing. Jake left."

"Oh. Good. Ha ha, imagine if your mom came in and he was in here?
She'd have his head for it."

"Yeah, I know, right?" she yawned, stretching as well. As if
in slow motion, she untangled herself from the covers and trudged to her
closet, putting on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. She disinterestedly ran a
brush through her tangled hair. She turned to Rachel when she was finished. Melanie
almost jumped in surprise. Her best friend was sitting
there,
eyes wide awake, watching Melanie as if the Wisconsinite was trying to hide
something from her. "What?" she demanded, heart thumping wildly.

"So... what's...
up
with you and Jakey-bear?" Rachel
questioned lightly, playing with her fingernails. Melanie really didn't
understand what she was getting at.

"What?"

"Don't look at me like that," she shook her head, running a
hand through her disheveled hair. "You know what I mean. How...
far
along
are you and Biker Boy?"

"
Excuse
me?" Melanie coughed, almost feeling angry at
how red her face must be right now.

"Just... watching you two last night... I could tell,"
Rachel said nonchalantly, almost smiling. "You guys really like each
other. And, the way he looks at you and talks about you... you two haven't...
ya know...?"

"No!" Melanie exclaimed shrilly, cheeks and ears pink. Her
face felt so hot it was exhausting. "Are you—are you serious? Of
course not! I—I... no!"

"Relax! Relax! It was just a question," Rachel held her
hands up defensively. She looked at the ground for a second before looking up
to her best friend to continue. "But, you want to."

Melanie's mouth was agape. She was speechless, stuttering.
"I—uh,
what
... how could you even...? We haven't been dating
that
long, Rachel! I have self-respect, so I'm not just going to... to...! It's
not... I shouldn't—"

"Can you hear yourself?" she interrogated her. "You
just said, 'you
shouldn't
want to'. Not that you
don't
want
to."

"Oh,
whatever
!" Melanie threw her hands in the air
hysterically. "What does it matter what I say? I've only known him for a
couple of months. It's
way
too early to even be considering stuff like
that!"

"But you are."

"No I'm—what are you trying to say?"

"Just what you're thinking." Her tone was so nonchalant for
such a hectic moment that Melanie almost couldn't comprehend it. "Do you
love him?"

Melanie honestly was completely silent. She didn't know what to say to
that. She herself hadn't said the three fateful words to Jake, so why would she
confide them in Rachel now? How did she know that it wasn't just a teenage
fling that would last a while and then be over? How did she know that what she
felt when he was around wasn't just a toxic combination of overactive hormones
and a really big crush? How would she know that she was 'in love' and not just
'in like'?

How
did she know if he felt the same way?

That's the last thing any person—not just a teenage
girl—would want in a relationship. To say that you love that person to
their face, then have them not return the feelings.
Or at
least not yet.
Even if he needed more time, it was humiliating to tell
someone that you loved them, and then for them to reply, 'it's too early for me
to know if I feel that way'. Plus, it'd give him an unfair advantage. Something
to hold over her if the situation ever arose itself. But Jake wouldn't do
that... would he?

"If you're not answering, that tells me all that I need to
know," Rachel said, nodding, as if she were a doctor diagnosing a sick
patient. "If you didn't love him, or if you didn't love him
yet
,
you wouldn't really have any problem with saying no."

Melanie's accusing, yet confused eyes, swept from the floor where they
had been staring to her best friend. "How do you know that?
I
don't
even know—"

"Because," she cut her off simply, "it's obvious by
seeing the way you two act around each other. The way you feel about
him—and the way he feels about you." Melanie shook her head and her
brown eyes returned to the ground, but she didn't deny anything, which was
another signal to Rachel of her feelings. "I think you love him."

"I—I don't know!"

"You're just saying that because you're scared of what people
will think!" her best friend cried. "You're scared of what your mom
will think! You're scared of what
Jake
will think. But most of all... it
looks like you're scared of what
you
, yourself thinks." Melanie's
questioning eyes met Rachel's. "By that,
I mean
, you have this set
time frame that you think is appropriate for teenagers in a relationship to
know that they love each other... and you're
way
early. So you're
questioning yourself. You think just because you two haven't known each other
for at least half a year, you think that your feelings
can't
be legit!
You grew up with the ideal of if teens told each other they loved each other
before at least half a year, it was just lust or one wanted to get into the
other's pants. Come on, you're a goody-goody, Melanie. Am I right?"

She was struck speechless yet again. How was it that Rachel seemed to
have a clear view into the deepest parts of her thoughts?

"I—"

"But you
do
love him, don't you? You're just mad at
yourself because it's not 'proper', in your standards, to love someone in a
two-month long relationship."

Melanie didn't know how or why, but what came out of her mouth was,
"How do I know if he loves me back?"

"Well... it's pretty obvious to everyone
but
you,"
she shrugged. "You can tell that he adores you. Your mom knows, too."

"
My mom
?"

"We were talking about it last night.
While you
were fixing the popcorn.
She was just shaking her head, smiling. She
told me, 'I never thought I'd see it. The biker she was supposed to just 'be
tutoring' is totally in love with her'. Then she got all mushy at the fact that
her baby girl was
all grown up
," Rachel rolled her eyes, laughing. Melanie
was just staring at her, as if she'd grown a second head. "It's true.
But
,
my point is, those feelings of wanting to... ya know... with Jake are normal.
You guys are in love. And that's the important thing."

"But—but," she stuttered, "
I've
never...
and he has...
a lot
..."

"Okay, take a seat," Rachel patted the bed space beside her.
Melanie walked over to it, almost unseeingly. Everything was a blur.
"Here's how I know what I know. He doesn't just want sex, Melanie. If
that's
all he wanted, when you two are in a room together,
he'd be staring at your boobs instead of staring into your eyes. He would have
made his move the second you guys started tutoring. He never tried to take
advantage of you. Am I right?"

Melanie nodded slowly. "He's never really tried anything on
me..."

"It's
Jake
. Motorcycle-riding, drug-doing, drinking, strip
club-attending Jake. And he hasn't tried to invade you at all. What does that
say to you?"

Melanie's brows furrowed. "Wait... he goes to strip clubs?
What
?"

Rachel shooed that comment away like it was a fly. "I'm sure he
used
to
.
But not anymore.
I don't see that option in
New Jake's mind. Don't you see my point here? He obviously loves you! And you
love him back. Both of you are legally adults... there's nothing wrong with
feeling those feelings toward him!"

"I don't know, Rachel... I think it may be too early in our
relationship for...
that
."

"And it may be," she said. "That's why there's such a
thing as self-control. But when you two are ready, you'll know it."

"I'll
know it
?"

"You'll feel it. It'll feel right."

Melanie smiled to herself, her hands twisting and intertwining in her
lap. Suddenly, a thought came to her. "Wait, Rachel... how do you know so
much about this stuff?"

She shrugged harmlessly. "I don't know... that just seems like
the right thing to say. The right thing to feel."

Melanie hugged her best friend, smiling appreciatively. "Thank
you
so
much!"

"What are best friends for?" she asked, smiling back.

Rachel climbed into her mother's car, waving goodbye to Melanie as she
looked down at her through her window. Melanie smiled brilliantly, thankfully,
waving as well. Before she knew it, Rachel and the car were out of sight. Melanie's
hand dropped down to the windowsill, thoughtfully. She just couldn't stop
thinking about her and Rachel's seemingly life-changing conversation. But
something jolted her from her thoughts.

She quickly lifted up her hand, feeling something underneath it. With
a sharp gasp and a sigh of admiration, Melanie lifted the small object from the
sill. She rolled her eyes, smiling all the while.

Melanie remembered:

Grumble
.

"God, I'm sorry, Melanie," he apologized again. "I'm
hungry, too."

"For the last time, you couldn't help it," she smiled,
holding his hand. But another sound that came from her stomach silenced her.

"Let's see..." Jake said to himself, digging around in his
leather jacket pockets, turning so Melanie couldn't see what he was doing. In
the end, he held out two things to her. He held his head high and said in a
snooty voice, "Well, Miss Hart, I'm afraid all we have on the menu tonight
is..." he held up one of the items, which was circular "...a
refreshing pack of spear mint breath mints, and
..
."
Jake held up a square pack "... icy mint Stride gum."

"Ooh, it's such a hard choice," she pretended to be torn,
glancing back and forth between them. "I'm gonna go with the usual tonight
and take the gum, I think."

They laughed as he handed her the pack and she took out a piece and
chewed. The rumbling in her tummy ceased temporarily. Jake took a stick of it
as well.

"I think I may order this again," he told her, face
completely serious, and opened the blue pack again. He took another piece. He
popped it into his mouth and chewed awhile, then blew a huge bubble. Melanie
poked it when it got to it's biggest and it exploded, blasted all over his chin
and nose. She erupted into a fit of giggles. "Hey!" he cried through
all of the gum, wiping it off of his face with his fingers. He turned to her
after a moment, asking gravely, "Did I get all of it?"

"Not quite," Melanie giggled, reaching up to his face and
wiping off some on the corner of his mouth. He watched her with appraising eyes
as she did so, avoiding his gaze.

There, in her hand, was a single piece of Stride gum. The exact flavor
it had been that night. With it was a small little note. Almost so small that
she nearly missed it. She unfolded it until she could read every word Jake had
written in his messy handwriting.

Hey,
Hart :
]

I'm sick of this break. It's been two weeks. I think that's long
enough, don't you? I'm kind of tired of not seeing your face. Here's some gum.
Something for you to snack on besides ice cream ;) Think you could get your mom
to drive you to Main Street downtown tonight? Meet me in front of Raymond's.
It's a really great Italian place.

And don't even TRY to pay for your own food. I'm
gonna
give you the first date we never had.

Melanie giggled, reading it over and over again. Of course she would
get her mother to drive her! Melanie would kill her if she didn't. She sighed.
She
really
needed her own car. Melanie quickly popped the gum into her
mouth, smiling so much that she was sure she looked ridiculous. What would she
wear? How should she fix her hair?

Why was she
now
freaking out about this?