The next few days passed slowly. I did all I could to avoid thinking of him. Luckily, Jonathon kept sending me cheesy texts that made me smile. Even though he could not make my heart pound, he was a pleasant distraction.

I was more grateful than ever that he was shy and took things at a glacial pace. I didn't need someone to go a hundred miles an hour at that moment, just a perfectly placed speed bump.

Passing Jake in the hallways was the worst kind of torture. He was always with his boys. Every single time I passed him, he looked so miserable, like someone had just sucked the life out of him. I noticed him stealing glances at me and hoped he didn't notice the same look staring back at him.

When I passed him, it felt like those slow-motion scenes in movies. Time was moving at a normal pace but my mind was soaking up every second looking for any sign that he was would suddenly tell the world he loved me.

Every time I saw him, my mind went back to that weekend. How he rescued me like freaking Clark Kent, and how safe and easy everything felt. When I would glance down at my tattoo, I thought of him. We came from different worlds, but somehow we were both still messed up, each in our own way.

And then I would think of how he didn't want me. In all honesty, I wouldn't even have gone through with it. I would have been way too nervous and scared if it ever came down to it. That did not make the pain of his rejection sting any less.

I had known that I was unwanted my entire life and what happened with him triggered all of my insecurities. In his own way, he was attempting to be a stand-up guy by defending my virtue. It still sucked, and I could not stop replaying it in my mind. No matter his intentions, it still felt like cold, hard, rejection.

That night Jenny asked me over to her house to study and I was glad. It was always so comfortable at her house. As soon as the bell rang, I ran to my locker and made it to her car as fast as possible. Jenny jumped in the driver's seat and sent a sweet smile my way.

We were both so happy to be free of that high school, at least for the afternoon. She turned up the radio, and it was already on our favorite eighties station. "Once Bitten-Twice Shy" by Great White burst through the speakers. Jenny's parents had made sure she received an education in all things "eighties." Since I had spent more time at her house than my own, I earned the same degree.

We pulled up to Jenny's house and just parking in the driveway brought a sense of calm to me. Her house was gorgeous, two stories, with white lap siding, and a front porch that felt warm and inviting. Many conversations had taken place on that swing. It was such a special part of my childhood.

Jenny jumped out of the car, still humming tunes, and I was following close behind her. As soon as we entered the house, we could smell the cookies baking. Jenny's mom was standing in the kitchen with her trusty apron on, playing her own eighties music in the background.

"Girls, I am so glad your home," she said while walking up to give Jenny a hug. When she finished, she came over to give me one too. It was the sweetest, warmest hug and each time she gave me one I knew that it came from the most genuine place. It was a place of love. We sat at the bar and ate cookies while she told us about her day, and then she rushed us off to "hit the books" as she referred to it.

Sitting in Jenny's room with books spread all over her bed, I heard her phone vibrate. She checked it and shot me a quick glance. From the look on her face, I could tell that it was Tripp. It reminded me of something that happened in the hall today.

"Hey Jenny, did you notice when we passed Jake today that Tag was giving you a weird look?"

She never looked up from typing but replied, "Yeah, he has been acting weird lately. Dude has never spoken a word to me. Lately, every time I pass him he stares at me like he is hungry and I am dessert."

Jenny always had a way with words, even when she wasn't trying. I thought about that for a minute and pondered how odd it truly was, wondering what he was up to. Turning my thoughts back to studying, I tried to focus on the task at hand.

After finished studying, Jenny dropped me off at home and I headed inside. Each time I came home from her house it never failed to escape me how different our homes were. Her home was so full of joy and love, mine was empty and cold.

I reminded myself again, that when I become a mom, I would be just like Jenny's, sweet and full of love. Heading straight to my room, I was glad that I had dinner at Jenny's. As usual, mom was nowhere in sight and dad had excused himself to his room, a repetitive picture.

At least my room was my haven, my fortress of solitude. Plopping down on the bed, I was thankful for a wonderful night with my best friend and for being prepared for my exam tomorrow. I absolutely had to make a good grade, I would not let myself accept anything less than an A.

Just as I snuggled into bed and started dozing off, my phone rang. I glanced down, seeing it was Jake, and I wondered if I should accept it. "Don't do it Sky, he is just going to draw you back in," I told myself but I still couldn't help but wonder if it was important. "Stop being a coward and answer the phone freaking phone," I shouted at myself. Hesitantly, I hit the green button and braced myself.

"Hey sweetheart, what are you doing tonight?" Right away I knew that something wasn't right. He sounded off.

"Nothing Jake, what are you doing?"

There was a pause and then I heard, "Thinking about you, isn't that what I am always doing?" The last part of his sentence trailed off with a bit of a slur and suddenly, I realized why he sounded off.

"Jake, are you drunk?"

"Hmmm, well let's see I just finished partying at Toby's, so yeah, I'd say I'm probably drunk," he slurred more.

"Jake, who is driving you home?" I asked, praying he had the common sense to set up a DD before he started partying.

"Me silly," he replied, making my heart stop. No, no, no, absolutely not!

"Jake, are you still at Toby's?" I frantically asked, the fear beginning to crack my voice.

"No, I just left and stopped at this store right by his house, I need a coke."

I thought as quickly as possible, I could not let this happen, no way was I letting him wrap himself around some tree.

"Hey Jake, you know how you wanted to talk? Well, I am ready and I am going to come to you so we can discuss everything, can you sit tight for me?"

There was another long pause and then he finally replied, "You better hurry Sky, I am not waiting here all night."

"Don't worry, I will be there in just a few minutes. I am leaving now, can you just keep talking to me so I am not bored on the way?" There is no way I am letting him off of that phone.

Jake agreed and was even patient while I persuaded my dad to let me borrow his truck. Luckily, he was already asleep or depressed or whatever he did in there for hours and days on end. When I asked he just shouted at me not to wreck his truck, reminding me it was the only one he had.

I drove as fast as I could, not caring if I got a ticket. His life was more important than some freaking ticket. Luckily, it was late, and no cops were in sight.

When I pulled up at the store Jake was sitting on his tailgate. At least he had the sense not to stay in the driver's seat. It took all of my strength to drag Jake to dad's truck and buckle him in the seat belt. He was being stubborn, and it was very frustrating.

I inquired whether his parents were home and they were, so I headed to the cottage he took me to when we first started talking. As we pulled up, I remembered where he hid the key and let us in.

Luckily, he had been sleeping the whole way there. Plopping Jake down on the couch, I attempted to get the bed ready for him but he caught up to me and wrapped his arms around my waist. Where was all that energy when I was dragging his butt inside?

He whispered in my ear, "Thanks for rescuing me tonight, Sky, you're my hero."

Even after everything that had happened and the smell of beer that hung on him, he could still make me weak in the knees. How did he know, even when he was drunk right where to place his lips to make me go insane? I tried to be strong as he peppered me with kisses, "I am not your hero Jake, I just don't want to see you kill yourself."

"So, you love me, is that what you're saying?" he inquired, curling his eyebrow up and looking way too cute for a drunk.

"No, Jake, that's what you are saying, I am just trying to get you settled," I replied. He kissed me again, and I was fighting the urge to hug him or kiss him, anything to be closer to him.

"Please don't leave me Sky, I am alone all the time, I don't want to be tonight," he pleaded with me. Those words broke my heart, but I couldn't let them change things.

I got him into bed, taking off his baseball cap and belt, placing them on the dresser. Sitting down on the bed next to him, I was hoping he would go to sleep so I could get home. To my surprise, he pulled me down onto him and whispered once more, "Sky, just lay here with me for a while, please," he begged.

I couldn't resist so I climbed under the covers and snuggled up to him, placing my hand on his chest. He was so warm, so comfortable, and I wished that I could stay that way forever. He stayed silent for a few minutes, and we just laid there. I knew that even in his drunken state he was deep in thought.

"Sky, I am sorry, I hope you know that," he finally admitted. I didn't interrupt him and just let the thoughts in his head spill carelessly out. If the old saying was true, that people were more honest when they were drunk, then I figured this might just be a golden opportunity.

"I want you so much baby, I want to tell the entire world that you are mine but you just don't understand what I have to lose. My friends would be bad enough, but I can deal with that if I have to. I can't deal with disappointing or hurting my parents. It's not you that would disappoint them Sky, please know that. It's just the dream they have for me, the life they have planned for me. I want to go to UGA and play ball, I have a scout interested and I want so much to go but I am scared. I even applied, but I know I would never have the nerve."

"Jake, why are you so scared of hurting them, they are your parents, they will love you know matter what you do," I insisted.

"That's just it, Sky, they're not my parents. Well, he isn't. My mom was pregnant with me when they met and he took me in and raised me as his own. My mom had nothing when she met him, she was a waitress without two pennies to her name and he saved us. He gave us everything. I owe him for both of us and I cannot let him down," he confessed.

I was trying to wrap my head around everything he was saying. So that was why he had been so weird the whole time? It all made sense to me, but it didn't make how he was treating me okay. Still, I couldn't shake the sadness I felt for him or the admiration that he would do anything, even forsake his own happiness for his father's.

"Sky?" he whispered.

"Yeah?"

"This may mean nothing to you now but I just want you to know that I am in love with you. I have loved you since the first day I saw you." Those words slipped out just before he drifted off to sleep. He loved me, Jake loved me.

That was the first time he had ever told me that and even though he was drunk, I knew he meant it. I laid there and held him for a while longer. Even drenched in alcohol, his intoxicating smell fought its way through. I let myself drink him in before kissing him goodnight and heading home.

******

A/N

At least we know why Jake has been acting so weird. Does this change your opinion of him at all?