“I know.” He was still smiling, but he sounded regretful. “Okay. I’ll drop you off and then you can take some time to think about things and decide if hanging out with me seems worth it. And then, if you still wanna hang out, you can text me. Okay?”
“Okay.” I tried to sound as dejected and pouty as possible, hoping that would change his mind somehow and he would divulge all his classified information to me. But I think we both knew that I didn’t actually need time to think. Whether I liked it or not, I was going to have to settle for his restrictions.
When he dropped me off, I was still trying to look deeply offended, but Jack completely saw through it. He laughed and said he’d see me soon, then sped off down the street. I stood outside my apartment building for a few minutes, trying to imagine what he could possibly be hiding from me. Weird government experiment? CIA? Werewolf? Nothing really seemed to fit.
I tried to make a mental checklist of what I knew about Jack. He claimed to have some kind of medical condition (a rare on) that made everyone in love with him. Even though he didn’t look like it, he was probably stronger than anyone I had ever met. His skin was devoid of any real temperature, or at least a human one. He was positively entrancing to everyone else, and while I didn’t feel that way about him, I couldn’t help but want to be with him. And for some very peculiar reason, he seemed to feel the same way.
After the concert (and a brief interrogation from Milo), I laid awake in my bed for hours upon hours running a million different theories about Jack. My most promising one was that he was a celebrity of some kind pulling some ridiculous Hannah Montana lifestyle. That would explain why everyone else was attracted to him, and he probably had a personal trainer, thus explaining his uncanny strength. And, obviously, if he was going for some kind of secret hidden identity, then he couldn’t tell me. That still didn’t explain why everyone else would recognize him but me, or why he’d want to live incognito. But at least it was a theory.
Since I had been up until the wee hours of the morning trying to figure Jack out, and I didn’t have school, I fully intended to spend the entire day sleeping, curled up in the soft comfort of my down blankets. Unfortunately, my Jane embargo fell through. Or rather, burst through my bedroom door, destroying any chance of sleep with a heart-pounding adrenaline rush awake.
“What the hell is going on?” Jane hissed after she’d thrown open my bedroom door so hard that the door handle would leave a mark in the plaster.
I jumped up with a start, tangled up in a mass of blankets and sleep induced confusion. I could barely focus my eyes on the blurry vision of Jane, standing in my doorway, with her hands on her hips glaring down at me. Milo cowered behind her, muttering things about how she needed to keep it down or Mom would completely freak out. Whenever Jane was around, Milo acted like a puppy about to pee on the floor, and it drove me nuts.
“What are you talking about?” I mumbled groggily. I flopped back down in bed, trying to remember the dream that Jane had unceremoniously ripped me from.
“You know what.” Her lips curled back into some kind of sneer and she carefully stepped her Prada heels over my dirty clothes strewn about my room.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the alarm clock telling me it was 11:13 am, and I grimaced. It wasn’t even noon yet, and Jane was in heels and red lipstick. She was made for a world entirely different than the one I existed in.
“I really don’t,” I yawned and pulled the covers up over me more.
“Why haven’t you answered my zillions of text messages or phone calls?”
Apparently, Jane thought it was the perfect time to argue, and she yanked my covers off of me, forcing me to talk to her.
“Because there were zillions of them,” I retorted and grudgingly sat up.
“Ugh,” Jane groaned. She sat down on the bed next to me in a terrific huff and exhaled dramatically. “There wouldn’t have been so many if you just answered me.”
“Sorry,” I muttered.
“Well?” Jane looked at me.
Her expression had softened and she’d apparently forgiven me, which was pretty amazing actually. There was only one Cardinal Sin for her, and that was ignoring her, which I had somehow managed to do for almost two days.
“What?” Her quick forgiveness stunned me, and I didn’t really know what she was trying to get at. Was I supposed to thank her or something?
“Have you talked to him?” she asked plaintively, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. I should’ve known. All she really cared about was Jack, otherwise I doubt she even would’ve known that I hadn’t talked to her in two days.
“Him who?” Milo visibly puffed up at the mention of a guy, preparing himself to defend my honor or whatever would need defending. That was completely ludicrous since Milo was the kid at school that got shoved into lockers, and he was younger than me. I don’t know who exactly he could protect me from, but it would be a pretty sorry excuse for a guy.
“Jack!” Jane answered him like it should be completely obvious. What else in the world could she possibly be talking about? Then when she realized by Milo’s expression that he had no idea who she was talking about, she looked completely stunned. Her mouth literally fell open. “Oh my god, Alice! You didn’t tell him about Jack?”
“I have not, no,” I shook my head. In fact, I hadn’t planned on telling Milo about Jack until I had things sorted out better, but thanks to Jane, that would no longer be an option.
“How could you not tell him?” This fact just completely flabbergasted her.
She couldn’t grasp a world where one didn’t incessantly talk about Jack.
“I don’t know, Jane,” I sighed. “It just didn’t come up.”
To be honest, her instant obsession with Jack was the first thing about him that truly made me nervous. If he had this affect on her, what was he doing to other people? And why wasn’t I the same way? And why would he even want to bother being around me when girls like Jane would do anything just to be near him?
“Wait.” Realization flashed across Milo’s face, and I would’ve cut off my leg to keep him from completing his thought. “Is Jack the guy you went out with last night?”
“You went out with him?!” Jane gasped. Her eyes got so big, it was almost cartoonish.
“We just went out to a concert. It was no big deal.” I used every fiber of my being to keep my tone casual and nonchalant, but I heard her sharp intake of breath.
“Who is this guy?” Milo demanded. Jane’s expressions were making him nervous, and he was really doing his best to look as threatening as he possibly could.
“Jack is just like the most amazing guy ever,” Jane explained eloquently.
“He’s just a guy,” I countered, once again using my ultra-casual voice, and even adding a shoulder shrug for good measure.
“How can you even say that?” She was offended that I’d referred to him as “just as a guy.” In her mind, he’d been stacked up with the gods and should only be gushed about in revered tones normally reserved for shoes and hand bags.
“You know what, I just don’t get it.” I decided that I’d been going about things the wrong way. I’d been asking Jack why other people liked him when I should’ve been asking the people why they liked him. “What is it about him that you like so much?”
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
“I’m not.” By then, I was already beyond irritated, but I tried not to let on.
“But you’ve met him!” Jane insisted.
“I know that!” I gritted my teeth and plowed on. “And I still don’t get it.
You’re like crazy about him. You’ve got to be able to articulate what it is that you’re attracted to.”
“He’s just…” Jane fumbled for words, which I didn’t get. He’d obviously been the only thing on her mind, so why couldn’t she explain him? “It’s like…