Wake (73 page)

“Are you trying to avoid me?”

“Not you—Paige and her Inquisition.” I pat the tabletop beside me but he doesn’t sit there. Jem sits between my knees, resting his elbows over my legs. Within minutes he’s a mil ion miles a way, thinking of music. I watch the fingers on his left hand move unconsciously over invisible strings while his right wrist twitches and his toe keeps time on the pavement. I want to hear what he’s playing. His fingers are so agile, but I can tell by the way he moves his fourth finger that the dry skin and scars around that knuckle make it difficult to move. Regardless, he still plays beautiful y.

My hands move from the slope of his shoulders, down his arms to weave between those long fingers. “I want to hear you play,” I whisper in his ear. Jem smiles.

“I’m not that good anymore, you know. I’m out of practice and my dexterity is crap.”

“You play beautifully and you know it.”

“I’ll show you a recording sometime,” he says. “You can compare before and after.” I don’t know why he imagines I would want to do that. I suppose because he’s constantly mourning the difference, but I have no interest in the before.

“You shouldn’t hate your body,” I murmur in his ear. Jem looks at me out of the corner of his eye.

“Wouldn’t you hate this body?”

“I love this body.” I wrap my arms around his chest. Our fingers are still intertwined, so his arms come with me, hugging himself. It’s a damn shame that he hates his own skin. I reckon he just doesn’t know what to do with it anymore. He’s grown so used to his body being the source of pain and discomfort that he’s forgotten that it can also be the site of pleasure and contentment.

“Wait till your body betrays you,” he says quietly. “You’ll get old. You’ll break down too.”

“Come over tonight.”

Jem nods. He’s got his thinking face on—the one that makes him look like he’s contemplating the fastest way to kill a goldfish with a screwdriver.

“I’ll make soup.” That gets a smile out of him.

“What kind?”

“What kind would you like?”

“Um…” He licks his lips, considering the possibilities with obvious excitement. “Carrot? No—

chickpea. Wait…maybe that one with broccoli…or beans. No—peas.”

He’s so adorable I can’t help but smile. “You can get back to me on that.”

“Can I say all of the above?”

I kiss the back of his head. “Why not?”

*

The soup turns out to be a stew of sorts, using some every vegetable in the fridge, chicken stock and a scoop of honey. Jem actually asks me to leave chunks as I set up to run it through the blender. I think someone’s proud of his ability to handle solid foods.

He takes our bowls into the living room while I move a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer, and when I get back to the living room I find that Jem has finished his bowl and started on mine.

“You’re supposed to eat slowly.”

“But it’s good,” he answers with his mouth full .

“If you throw it up I’m not making more.” Jem grudgingly slows down, complaining for form’s sake, and I let him have my portion. A toasted Eggo can be my snack.

We watch crap TV, lounging on Frank’s couch and saying little. Jem leaves an entire couch cushion between us, and I don’t know what to make of that. Maybe he’s trying to maintain a respectfull distance, after what happened the last time Frank came home and found him here. I want to test that hypothesis, so I scoot closer to him. Jem doesn’t look up from the TV, but he puts an arm around me.

When the timer on the dryer buzzes he almost jumps out of his skin. “Sorry, it’s just the dryer.”

“Yeah? Do you need help folding?” I don’t think I’ve ever heard a guy sound so eager to do laundry before. But if he wants to help, I’m not going to say no. I bring the clothes into the living room and we start folding on the coffee table. Jem tactfully avoids touching any of the underwear and sticks to folding shirts and pants. I like watching him do these homey, domestic things. I can watch his face and see his thoughts drift, and there is always something undeniably sexy about a guy who does housework without complaining.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. I like doing laundry.” Jem presses a hand towel to his face and inhales deeply. “You use Ultra?”

“You can tell just by smell ing it?”

Jem’s ears turn pink, but he smirks. “I really like doing laundry. It smells so nice and it’s relaxing.”

I take one of the bath towels and throw it over his head, blanketing him in the scents of Gain and Ultra.

He laughs and leans back on the couch, pressing it tighter around his nose and sighing dramatical y. He just lounges there for a few minutes, enjoying the warm towel.

“Are you going to help fold or what?” I say eventually.

“I’m not home.”

“Jem.”

“Leave a message.”

I lift up the edge of the towel and find him smirking at me. “Damn it, she found me.” He looks so sweet, wrapped up and warm. So I slide under the towel with him for a kiss. And by a kiss, I mean Jem grabs me in such a way that I couldn’t leave the towel fort if I wanted to. He kisses me slowly. He doesn’t push for depth or tongue, which is a nice change. He does let me nibble at his lip, though. I shift to sit on his lap when we pause for a breather. It’s hot under the towel but he won’t let me push it off.

“Can I ask you something?” he says between leaving little kisses on my cheeks.

“What?”

“Do I smell okay?”

I sniff his underarm. “Your deodorant’s working.”

“That’s not what I meant, but thanks.”

“What did you mean?”

Jem shrugs like it’s no big deal, but then proceeds to get all embarrassed and fidgety. I lean in so he can whisper it in my ear instead of having to say it to my face.

“When Emily visited she noticed I smell ed…off. It bothered her.”

I move my face away from his cheek to smell the crook of his neck. He has always smell ed the same to me, so I really have nothing to compare to, but he doesn’t smell bad. He smells like clean skin and unperfumed soap and that unique scent that is simply Jem. Mingled with that is a faintly medicinal scent that could be skin cream, but more likely it’s his medications making themselves known.

“I like the way you smell .”

Jem finally pushes back the towel and wraps his arms comfortably around me. “You smell nice too.

Like lavender and fear.”

“Oh shut up.” My hands run languidly from his shoulders to his hips, simply feeling him. I know Jem likes attentive touches like these. His ribs aren’t as distinctly felt as when I first met him.

“How much do you weigh now?”

Jem blushes. “About one-thirty.” I feel bad that my curiosity has made him self-conscious again. “Thank you for feeding me.”

“You’re welcome.” I stroke a stretch of his newly fill ed out waist. “One-thirty, hmm? Soft enough to cushion me if I decide to jump you.”

Jem smiles. “Yes, there is that.” He gives me a kiss.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

He has such a devious little smile when he’s anticipating something he wants. His fingers flex around my sides, holding me tighter.

“I wonder if you’ll seem pudgy when you’re back to normal weight. I’ve only known you to be very thin.”

Jem quirks a finely haired eyebrow at me. “Pudgy?”

“Pudgy.” I pinch his cheek to piss him off. Jem mock-glares at me and says that the term ‘pudgy’ is only to be applied to small children and animals.

“Does that mean I can still call you pudgy when you act like a brat?”

Jem growls with frustration. “Will you get off pudgy and jump me already?”

“Right now?”

“Yes.”

“Right this minute?”

“Yes!”

I oblige by diving at him. Jem tips back on the couch with me sitting over him. I like the way he pecks when he kisses. The soft suction feels nice, like he’s trying to pull me into his mouth, while at the same time pressing his tongue into mine. This feels…innocent. That’s new for me. I lower my weight against his front and his arms wrap around my back. “Pudgy, she says,” he mutters against my lips. I can hear Jem roll ing his eyes.

“So what”—kiss—“do I”—kiss—“call you if”—long kiss to shut me up—“you do pudge-up?”

Jem huffs. “You really want to talk about this right now?”

“Only because it bothers you.” I poke the tip of his nose. “It doesn’t really matter; I’m only joking. You’re sexy no matter what you weigh.” Jem’s face turns sad. He pets my hair and kisses my cheek softly.

“If I do gain too much I want you to lie to me exactly like that.”

I smack his hand away. “I’m not lying.”

“Can we not talk about this?”

“Are you always this bad at taking compliments?”

He pouts. Damn it.

“Don’t you dare.”

Jem starts with the low whine in the back of his throat that reminds me of injured puppies. I can’t hear that and not want to cuddle his manipulative ass. I drop my head to his shoulder with a groan and Jem winds his arms around me with a smug smile.

“You’re not all owed to do that ever again.”

“I’ll consider it.” Jem nudges my cheek with his nose. “Kiss me.”

“No.”

“I’ll do it again.”

“Dick.” He ignores my insult and hums pleasantly against my lips. I express my irritation by skimping on enthusiasm, but Jem seems to enjoy the chal enge of slowly but surely getting me to kiss him back, with tongue. His fingers slip under my t-shirt at the small of my back, teasing the skin.

“You’re so soft,” he murmurs.

The front door opens, quickly followed by the rug-stomp of work boots. Jem and I both freeze, knowing we’re caught. My brother can see right into the living room from the foyer. Frank just stands in the threshold with his hand on the doorknob, staring at us. I can’t decide which is more worrisome: that the gun cabinet is unlocked and a mere ten seconds away, or that the vein in his temple looks ready to burst.

“Uh, hi Frank.”

“You’d better be doing CPR,” he says.

“It’s not what it looks like.”

“Right. You tripped and he fell .”

Let’s hope that vein holds up. “We’re dating.”

Frank doesn’t say anything. He stares at the two of us for a long time, and when he speaks again his voice is quiet. “I think it’s time for you to leave.”

Jem gets up to go. We don’t chance a kiss goodbye, but he squeezes my hand with affection. Jem even apologizes to Frank on his way past.

The door closes and I try not to think about the fact that I am in such deep trouble. Frank can smell fear.

I try to stand up and he tells me to sit down.

“We’re talking about this.” Frank sits in the easy chair across from the couch, but he’s too restless to stay sitting, so he stands up and paces the room with his hands on his hips.

“You said you weren’t going to date anymore,” he says. “That was part of your idea of a clean break—

no more smoking, no more drugs, no more motorcycles, no more bad influence friends, and no more boys.”

Should I tell him that I have almost all those things here?

“You’re digging yourself into a hole, Willa. It’s one thing to get involved with a boy when you’re still …

figuring things out. But
that
boy—”

“He has a name.”

Frank sighs. “Harper—”

“It’s Jem, Frank.”

The vein twitches at me. “Jem isn’t good for you. It hurt you so bad when Tessa passed away”—when I helped her kill herself—“and even if he stays in remission, you don’t need to be dealing with his problems on top of your own.”

“And what do I need?”

“You need to focus on your schoolwork.”

“I’m getting A’s and B’s in all my classes. I haven’t cut class since I’ve been here.”

“Why do you feel the need to date? Your life is orderly here without all the…
drama
of dating.”

Oh, the reasons...

“Is it Jem you don’t like, or my dating in general?”

Frank hesitates, a sure sign of a lie. “Like I said, schoolwork—”

“What about Chris Elwood?”

“What about him?”

“Or Luke. Would we be having this conversation if I was dating Luke instead of Jem?”

“Luke’s a nice kid.” I knew it. “If you wanted to date someone who is
good for you
, and you had a nice, respectfull and
slow
relationship, I could maybe be okay with it.”

“So what did Luke tell you when he explained the black eyes?”

The frown slips from Frank’s face into the calculating expression of a big brother. I’ve as good as told him that I was involved, and he knows I’ve got a history of solving problems with a well -aimed punch.

“He said some of the boys were wrestling and it got out of hand.”

“And how does it get out of hand so bad that he ends up with two black eyes and a sprained wrist?

Did you see the bruise under his jaw, too? And I can tell you his ribs were probably purple.”

Frank cuts to the chase. “What did you see, Willa?” Poor Frank. He wants to cling to the idea that I was a witness instead of a participant.

“I saw him put his hand down my pants and proposition me for unprotected sex.” And the vein goes wild. “He seems to be under the impression that I should be gratefull for the attention, since I’m a murderer and nobody wants me, right?” I give Frank a hard smile. “But where would he have heard about that, hmm?”

My brother has his thinking cap on. I can see it. “No one else was home…”

“well then Luke has some sick intuition.” I get off the couch while Frank puzzles over the facts. “Jem doesn’t do that kind of shit to me. Stop looking at him as a problem and notice that he’s good for me.” I head into the kitchen to start dinner. A sense of normalcy might help Frank’s blood pressure. “Oh, and if you decide to report me for assault—”

The front door slams. Did he leave? I go to the front window in time to see Frank peel out of the driveway. He takes a left, toward the highway and Port Elmsley.

This isn’t going to be pretty.

*

The glare of headlights on the front window wakes me up. I sit up on the couch and look to the clock on the ancient VCR. It’s after midnight. Frank has been gone for six hours. He comes in, looking haggard and pissed off, and hangs up his jacket and belt without a word.