Miss Taken

Chapter 1

         Finally, I'm home.  I've had to go out every day this week.  I just want to relax!  I have a funny story to tell Alice, though, so I'm going to text her first.
         A couple of weeks ago, Alice had given me her new cell number.  She wanted a change, she told me.  I already had it saved under her name.  I press her name and a blank message pops up.
         “You'll never guess what happened at the bookstore yesterday!!  Call me when you get the chance!”
         [Send] and Sent!  I really hope she reads it soon.  I put my phone down and get out my books from school.  I figure I might as well study while I wait.
         About ten minutes into studying, my phone vibrates with a new text.  I open it.
         Okay?  Give me a min.
         Hmm. . . That wasn't as cheery as I expected.  I hope she's okay!  I wait a minute and my phone starts ringing.          “Hey!” I answer cautiously, “You okay?”
         “Umm. . . yeah.  Why wouldn't I be?”
         My face drops.  What I expected to be Alice's peppy voice is instead a smooth male voice on the phone.  Who am I talking to?  I recheck the number Alice gave me and it matches.  Maybe she lent her phone out?  Nah. . .
         “Hello?  Nicole?  Are you okay?”
         Well he obviously knows me, but I don't recognize his voice.  It seems like it is his own phone, so why would Alice give me this number?                                                            
         “Yes.  I'm fine.  Just – confused, a bit.  Are you with Alice?”  I thought asking directly would be simpler.
         “Alice?  No. . . Why would I be?”
         “Aren't you using her new phone?”
         “She hasn't gotten a new phone, has she?  And no, this is mine.  I've had this phone for months.”  Months?  His?  And how could they have the same number?  I still don't even know who he is!
         “Who is this?”  I was getting kind of embarrassed.
         “Jake.”
         Jake.  Jake?!  NO WAY!  Alice got me back.  That little devil.  She gave me his number on purpose.  She knows I like him.  I just never had an excuse to get his number before.
         “Jake?  How did you know this was me?”
         “I . . .uh . . . recognized your voice.”
         Jake, flustered?  I can almost sense him blushing.
         “I honestly didn't mean to call you.  I guess I was mistaken when Alice wrote this number.  I thought she said she got a new one.  I don't know why I got yours.”  There was a brief pause.  “I'll see you tomorrow, I guess.”
         I waited for him to say bye, but all I heard was a sigh.  “Jake?”
         “Yeah?”
         “I said bye. . .”
         “Huh?  Oh.  Yeah, I know.”
         “Umm . . okay, then bye again.”
         I had my finger over the [End] button when I heard, “Nicole?”
         “Yes?”
         “I'll text you later.”
         I smiled.  “Okay.”
         “Bye.”
         Click.          
         I realize that I am still smiling after laying my phone down next to me.  Just hearing him say my name gave me a giddy feeling.  I still wonder how he knew it was me, though, and why he suddenly became flustered.  It seems like he is hiding something and is too shy to tell me.  I never thought of Jake as a shy person.
         The rest of the night, I continue to finish my homework and study in my more difficult classes.  I try to stay focused, but I find that it is hard to do.  I am very anxious now because Jake said those four words.  “I’ll text you later.”
         He never had any reasons to talk to me before.  I don’t know what would change his mind.  But whatever it is, it makes him different, almost appearing happy to talk to me.  And that is something I am fine with.
         At about ten o’clock, the exhaustion hits me and I just want to sleep.  I lie down on my bed, grab my MP3 player from my bedside table, and put on my Relaxation Playlist.  I lay my phone on my stomach; I always find the supine position to be more comfortable when I first try going to sleep.  I close my eyes, finding myself drifting into another place.
         “Nicole!”  I turn around at the sound of my name.  The voice is very faint, so it must be in another room.  My location doesn't register in my head at first.  Just before she walks into my eyesight, I recognize the room as Alice's living room.  “There you are Nicole!  I thought I heard you walk in.  What's up?”
         “Um. . . I'm not really sure about that.”  I finally hear distant music playing, from what sounds like the basement.  “What's with the music?”
         “I'm getting ready for the rest of the group to show up for my party!  Jeez, Nicole, what is wrong with you?  You were all peppy about it this morning.”  Alice laughs, but it holds a more nervous feeling.
         Just as I am about to say something, I am interrupted by a knock on the door.  Alice skips on past me and opens it, revealing Jake and his sister Laura.  “Hey guys!  Glad you could make it!”  Alice moves away from the door to give them space to walk inside.
         “Hey, Nicole!  Nice to see you again.”  Laura gives me a very heartwarming smile.  This makes me uncomfortable because I have never spoken to her before in my life.  What makes me even more uncomfortable is Jake walking up to give me a hug.  He stretches out his arms, and as soon as his hand slips around my waist I get a chill and shiver.
         Instantly, my eyes flutter open.  Sometime during my nap, I had turned over onto my side and curled up into a little ball.  My room feels very cold.  Moments after coming back to reality, my phone vibrates on my bed.  I reach out my hand and press a button on the side so it lights up, showing the time on the display.  11:24P.M.  I slept a little over an hour.  That isn't too bad.
         I go to my text inbox and see that I received a text from Alice. 
         Hey Nicole.  I hope it's not too late.  Jake!  As soon as this registers in my mind, I replace Alice's name with Jake's, and enter Alice's old phone number as her own contact.  I start to remember the very short and very unlikely dream I just woke from, resulting in another chill.  I don't know if it is from the exciting feeling or the coldness of my room.
         I hit reply and started filling the blank message.  Hi Jake I actually just woke up, so you're fine.  How are you?  The message is sent and I spend the rest of the night talking to Jake.  We just talk about anything; what homework we have, what classes we are taking, and little questions like what is your favorite color.  It isn’t until three in the morning when my phone finally dies.  I plug it in, go to sleep, and have more dreams like before.

         I hear a car honking in my front driveway before I open my eyes.  It takes me a few seconds to get my eyes to focus.  Once I can see, I look at my clock and it is flashing 7:02.  It takes me a few more seconds to understand that I am running late for school!  Alice is in my driveway honking because she is my ride and I haven’t even begun to get ready. 
I grab my phone and call Alice’s old number and tell her why I am not out there.  She stops the car and comes inside to help me get my things together.  I don’t really pay attention to what clothes I am grabbing, and I just throw them on without a second thought.  I already had my books together, so I grab a small breakfast bar, grab my backpack, and we head out to her car.
Once I am in, I feel her eyes on me.  I slowly turn my head, almost like those scary movies when you know something is going to jump out at me, but I know that won’t happen.  Her face is passive, but is still looking in my direction.  “Yes. . .?”  I draw out my question to show that I am uncomfortable with her staring at me.
“Oh sorry, Nicole!  I was definitely spacing out.”  Alice looks away and starts the car so we can head to school and not be late.  “I hear something funny happened at the bookstore?  Care to fill me in?”
Now it is my turn to stare at Alice.  Obviously the only way she knows about this is because she Jake told her.  I know she is aware of my knowledge of this, too, because she starts laughing.  She looks over at me and says, “You look like a deer caught in headlights.  Chill out.”
I let out a small laugh and relax.  Alice is my best friend and now is the time for me to fill her in on juicy details of last night.  “So thanks to you, Little Miss Hoodwink, I talked to Jake last night.  We were texting until about three in the morning.”
The grin on her face grew so quickly and her eyes lit up.  “Ahhh!”  She squeals.  She definitely just squealed.  “I knew it!  I'm so happy for you!  I knew giving you that number would be a confidence booster.”
“Confidence booster?  That didn't boost my confidence!  That embarrassed the heck out of me.  It was even more awkward that he knew it was me and I was left oblivious.  How did he know it was me?”  I turn in my seat to face Alice.
She doesn't change her expression much, except one corner of her mouth drops the slightest bit.  “Well, I may have helped with that.  He asked for it a long time ago.”
We pull into school at just the perfect moment for her to say, “Come on, Nicole!  We can't be late!”  She winks at me as she gets out of the car and starts to lock it up.
“Don't think that we are through with this conversation, girl!”  She waves her hand above her head as she runs to her own building for class, as I go the opposite way in the mornings.  I know I will not be able to focus on school for a few minutes after that conversation, but I head into class trying to clear my mind of those stray thoughts.
I must be stupid to think that I can clear my mind of those thoughts.  I walk into my first class and set my eyes upon my desk, only to see someone sitting in the seat next to it that is normally not there.  I didn’t think it was possible to miss the minute detail of Jake being in half of my classes.  I walk up to my desk cautiously, but also quite happy.
“Hey, Nicole.  I hope you don’t mind me sitting here.  I thought, since we are sort of friends now, we could be partners.”  He is so beautiful, I think to myself.  That short, dark brown hair and those emerald green eyes just melt me.
We could be partners. . .  Partners?  No, stop thinking like that!  He’s talking about school partners, not a relationship.  I really need to sort my own thoughts from reality.  “Reality Check,” I mumble really low.
“Huh?”
“Oh, nothing.  Sure!  That’s great.”  I’m not making this up, at least. 
I smile at him and take my seat.  The desks in this classroom are actually tables that seat two at each.  They are not particularly long, so we are almost forced to sit unusually close together.  There is hardly any room for all of our books to fit.  I think Jake notices that too because he reaches for his pile of books, or so I thought that was what he was reaching for.  What he actually reaches for is a journal sitting on top of my stack.  He turns it over in his hands, clearly observing the outside cover.
“What do you use this for?”  he asks.
“I just write whatever is on my mind, or anything I need to remember.  I have ideas for writing or taking pictures.  I also keep some pictures in there.  It’s an all purpose journal.”
“Can I look inside?”  I nod my head and he continues to open it.
Jake takes the time to read little notes that I have written in the journal.  He reads part of a short story I wrote in there and also a few poems.  The next page holds two pictures, one on each side.  The first picture is of Alice and me during one of her winter parties.  We always take a picture of just the two of us.  It was such a beautiful day, with blankets of snow covering the ground, not yet walked upon.  We were in the park standing in front of a bench that sits in front of a tall pine tree.  This is my favorite picture and it is very special to me.
The next page holds the same setting, but it is a picture of the entire group from the party.  Alice is standing on top of the bench and we are all gathering around her.  I notice something, though, as Jake is looking at this picture.  I forgot that Alice has always been friends with Jake’s sister Laura because they grew up together, meaning that Jake usually came to the parties too.  I hardly talked to him during the parties, but I do remember him showing up at every single one.  I notice that in the picture Jake has his arm around someone’s shoulders and is looking at her face.  The faces are small, but it takes me only a moment to realize that it was me.
I look up at Jake as he continues to look at the picture.  His eyes close for a brief moment and I quickly turn my head as he opens them back up.  I can feel my cheeks starting to turn red as I continue to think about that picture.  Why have I never noticed that before?  Becoming shy about seeing that in the picture leads me to think about other things he could see in my journal.  Suddenly, I can't remember if I have written anything embarrassing in there.  I feel like I am about to panic.  I close my eyes and try to act normal.
I snap out of my concentrated state when I feel Jake's hand brush against mine as he puts my journal back onto the stack of books.  I hesitate looking at him but soon give up and take a side glance.  He is smiling, and at no one in particular.  I have never seen anyone smile this much, especially Jake.  Of course, he turns his head and catches me looking at him.  I don't even have time to look away before he starts talking.
“Sorry if I kept you up last night.  I mean, it was nice talking to you.  I just feel a little bad because you seem really tired today.”  He continues looking at me, but his smile has faded a little.
“I'm not really too tired.  It's fine.  I would've been up studying anyways.  I have an English exam today.”
“Yeah, I know you do.”  He lets out a somewhat nervous laugh.  “I'm in your class, silly.”  Why does it keep slipping my mind, the fact that I have most of my classes with him?  I must seem like a jerk to keep forgetting about him.
“Oh. . . that's right.  Sorry I keep forgetting.  I think I’m starting to get pretty tired now.”
“Well, maybe we could study together a little bit during lunch?  We could get a few chapters done before the class starts.  I mean, if you want to.”  He's being very friendly towards me today.  I wonder what the deal is.
“Sure.  I guess that's fine.  I probably need it 'cause I wasn't too focused all week during the review.”
Jake smiles at my response, but is interrupted before he gets to say anything else.  “Good morning, class.  I hope you all understood last night's homework because we have a lot to cover today for the rest of the chapter.”  I smile back at Jake before we both turn our attention to the dreadful teachings of trigonometry.

I go through my morning classes like usual, except a little more anxious for lunch.  I find it silly that a simple wrong call can lead to a whole new outlook on my day.  The bell finally rings to signal the start of lunch.  I grab my stack of books and rush to Alice's locker to stash the unneeded ones.
         I walk down the hall a little to the nearest water fountain because I know I have plenty of time before slowpoke gets here.  I start to pull my hair back into a ponytail just when a hand reaches out from my right and presses the fountain button.
         “Excuse me.”  Jake smiles warmly before continuing to drink. 
         I force a cough.  “Ahem.  You could form a line.  I was first you know.”  I try to glare at him, but it's too hard when he's smiling like that.
         I lean over with my hair pulled back as Jake presses the button again, but this time for me.  “Go ahead,” he tells me.
         “Hey, thanks.”  I am definitely embarrassed right now.  I hope I'm not blushing too badly.
         “So are you ready to study for English?”  Guess he doesn't notice.
         “Sure thing!  Just have to wait on Alice.  She should be at her locker by now.”  We turn to look down the hall and see her waiting on us, impatiently tapping her foot.  I walk back to her locker with Jake lagging a bit behind.
         “Well look who it is, if it isn’t mister knight in shining armor himself,” whispers Alice into my ear.
         Jake catches up and leans against the lockers.  “Hey, Alice.  Mind if I join you girls for lunch today for some English studying?”
         “Not at all!  Just don’t bore me too much.”  Alice uses a very sarcastic tone and winks for emphasis.
         “Well, let’s get going.  We’re already late thanks to you,” I say as I glare at Alice.  She sticks her tongue out at me.
         I talk to Alice while walking to lunch and through the lunch line.  Jake just follows behind, keeping to himself.  I feel weird not saying anything to him, but I’m not used to talking to him.  Plus it doesn’t seem to bother him too much.
         We walk to our usual table and say hi to our friends who are already seated.  I sit towards the end of the table so I can focus on studying.  Alice sits next to me to talk to the rest of the table, while Jake sits across from me and takes out his English book.
         “Well, I guess we can start with the Shakespeare biography,” says Jake.  Of course we are on the Romantic unit of our book.  I can’t hide the fact that I put Jake’s face in my mind when reading most of the stories in it.  I just hope I don’t say anything stupid.
         “Alright then.  That works for me.”
         The rest of lunch goes pretty quickly.  I finish my food and still have time left to focus on Jake.  I mean on studying.  I study Jake.  We get off topic a little and start talking about other things, like ourselves.  Just getting to know each other more.
         I realize that I’m having a really good time and frequently catch Alice glancing over at us with knowing eyes.  I’m not too sure what she knows, but I’m sure I’ll hear it soon enough.  But that’ll have to wait because I still have three more classes left.  She goes to her next class, while Jake and I walk to English.