Shattered Ties(16)

“So, I’m assuming you already told him yes. When are we meeting?”

“Well, the tattoo place is closed on Sundays, so I thought he could come over then, and we could all have lunch together.” “Sounds exciting,” I said sarcastically.

“You’d better not be rude, or I’ll take my mama’s paddle to your ass,” she scolded.

I couldn’t help but laugh. My mom had threatened to use that paddle more times than I could count when I was a kid, but she’d never used it.

I saluted her. “Yes, ma’am.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.”



I arrived at school early the next morning, hoping to beat Emma there. As soon as I pulled in though, I saw her sitting in her car. I parked next to her and shut off my car.

She smiled and stepped out of her car when she saw me. “Morning,

Jesse.”

I got out and walked around my car to stand beside her. “Morning.”

I knew she was waiting on me to start talking, but I was enjoying watching her squirm too much. She shifted her weight from foot to foot as she waited. Finally, she couldn’t stand it anymore.

“You said you wanted to talk?” she asked.

“Yeah, I did.” I didn’t elaborate. Messing with her was too much fun.

“Okay, about what?” she asked impatiently.

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe about the fact that you had my car fixed for me. Why would you do that?”

Her eyes widened. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I didn’t have your car fixed.”

“Bullshit. I know it was you.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because you and Andy were the only ones who knew what was wrong with it. I talked to him last night after I got home from work, and he confirmed that it wasn’t him.”

“Oh,” she said as she looked away.

“Yeah, oh. So, tell me why you did it.”

“Fine. Yes, it was me. I knew you needed help, and I wanted to help you. I heard you talking to Andy about not being able to afford the part, and I didn’t want you to have to worry.”

“You don’t even know me. Why do you even care?” I asked, truly curious as to why she would help me.

“I don’t know. I guess it felt like the right thing to do.”

Wrong answer. I didn’t want to be a charity case for anyone. “So, you did it out of pity?” I asked, getting angry.

“What? No! I just wanted to help a friend.”

“But I’m not your friend. I’m nothing to you.”

“That’s not true! You’re my friend...or at least I thought so.”

“I don’t have friends here.” I knew I was being an *, but I couldn’t help it. I didn’t want the rich girl to befriend me out of pity.

“You would if you tried, but instead of trying to meet new people, you ignore everyone.”

“I’m not here to make friends with the rich kids. I’m here to get good grades and get a scholarship for college.”

“Can’t you do it all at once? I know you well enough already to realize that you always put what you want last. You’re a teenager. You need to have some fun.”

“I have fun,” I replied stubbornly.

“Really? What do you do for fun?”

“I work at the tattoo shop. I consider that fun.”

“See—you work for fun.”

I wanted to beat my head against my Jeep. This conversation was not going where I had planned. “Look, I just wanted to talk to you to thank you for helping me, and I was hoping to repay you in some way. Since we both know that I can’t afford the damn part, I was going to see if you wanted to get something to eat after school.”

“Like a date?” she asked with a small smile.

Shit. I hadn’t intended for her to think of it like that. Then again, I guessed it could be considered a date. Since when did I date?

“Uh, I guess you could call it a date if you wanted to. If not, you could think of it as the poor kid trying to break even with the rich princess.”

I realized my slipup as soon as the word princess was out of my mouth. I’d been referring to her making her princess castle in the sand the first time I’d ever met her. I was praying that she still didn’t know that I was that little boy. Hopefully, she assumed that I was just being an * by calling her princess.

“First of all, I am not a rich princess. My parents have money, not me. When I graduate, I plan on running as far away from my mom and her money as I can. And second, we won’t call it a date. We’ll call it two friends getting something to eat.”

“Sorry, princess. Do you want to do it tonight?” I asked.

When her face turned red, I realized how that sounded. “I mean, do you want to grab something to eat tonight?”

She snickered. “I’d love to do it tonight. Want to meet here after I finish my cheer practice?”

“Works for me,” I replied.

She started walking up the steps to the school. “Great. It’s a date.”





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My legs couldn’t carry me fast enough to get to Lucy to tell her about my not-a-date plans for this evening. I wanted to jump up and down and scream like a girl right there in the middle of the hallway, but I didn’t want to take the chance that Jesse might see me. There was no need for him to realize how excited I was. He had seemed less than enthused when I asked if it was a date, but I was going to ignore that and focus on the fact that I was going out with him tonight. This day is going to drag by.