Generations 2.7 kindle (38 page)

Jackson was a little confused. “With who?”

“Her,” the lady motioned in the direction of Ben and Kat.

Ben and Kat were still near the center of the rink. They were skating in a tight embrace. And technically, they weren’t really skating. They were barely moving. Shouldn’t Kat be embarrassed? Holy PDA.

The lady continued, “Katrina Hayes. You were here with her.”

“I
am
here with her,” Jack corrected.

“Doesn’t look like you are. Not anymore.” The lady gestured back to the center. She was eyeing up Ben … almost like he was the opposing team.

“What’s it matter to you?” Jack challenged.

She shrugged. “Just looking for a way to help my fellow man.”

Jack laughed. “You here on charity work?”

Again, she shrugged. “Not really. I own the place. With Dudley—my husband. And I like to make sure all our patrons are having a good time. So if I see a need, I do my best to fill it.”

“And what,” his voice cracked. Seriously embarrassing. “What need do you think I have?” A thought occurred to him belatedly. Was this a prostitution sting? Was he under surveillance?
 
His mind screamed at his feet, telling them to skate away. Fast!

“You need to get your girl back. You need to show her that you’ve got more to offer.”

“Ah, we’re not … she’s not my girl. We’re just friends.”
“Mmhmm,” she said. She sounded like Queen Latifa. Then she grabbed his butt again. “So you don’t want to show her what a man you are?”

Jack moved her hand. “Stop,” he said, his voice firm and commanding. “You’re scaring the crap out of me.”

She laughed a laugh that came deep from within her chest. It sounded like she hadn’t had a good laugh in over a decade. Maybe since she was in high-school. “Coming on too strong? You must be more boy than you look.”

He glared. He didn’t need to get assaulted
and
insulted. All while listening to cheesy “Far Away.”

“I’m not
that
kind of guy,” Jack said staunchly.

“Hmm,” she said. She steered him around a crowd of people and backed him up against a wall in the darkest corner. Hey, hadn’t this been that same dark corner he and Kat had found four years ago?

“Your friend,” she said with derision, “knows that you are not that kind of guy—or any kind of
guy
for that matter. Do you want to be her
girlfriend
forever? Or do you want to show her that you have balls?”

This lady—Mrs. Dudley—was really starting to tick him off. She was being all sexy and flirty, but at the same time, she kept insulting his manhood. And it wasn’t like he needed to prove to Kat that he was a man after all. She knew. Didn’t she? Or did she really think of Jack as another one of the girls? He thought about his relationship with Kat—of all the things they did together. Board games. Moped rides. Paper crafts. Drama club. Oh. Oh boy. He did look like the gay best buddy. Did Kat wonder about his sexual orientation?

Jackson felt his teeth clench together. Tim. He’d thought that Jackson was gay. And that was why Tim had taken Jackson under his wing. So that Tim could be a mentor. A shoulder to cry on as soon as Jackson was ready to come out. Jackson tried to shake away the thought—the thought of everyone assuming that he was gay. He liked girls. He knew he did. He wasn’t gay. He was just … particular. And he had control over his hormones. So that meant he had priorities. And girls just weren’t at the top of his list.

But, for the first time, Jackson realized that this strategy might be doing him more harm than good. He looked like he was swinging the other way. Not good.

“What are you proposing?” Jack asked.

“Give her reason to be jealous. Show her how … hot … you really are.”

Jack agreed. But not because he wanted Kat to be jealous. Not really. But because he had something to prove: his manhood.

……

O
nce the slow song ended, it only took about thirty seconds for Kat to realize that Ben was a horrible skater. He tripped twice as they joined the orbiting ring of fast skaters.

“Slow down, Kat!” he yelled.

She wasn’t even going fast. But she obliged. He held tightly to her arm. Not out of romance this time; he was holding on for dear life. But he was smiling: he was having fun. Until they would come to the turns. He obviously didn’t know how to steer. On the straightaway’s, he wobbled. On the turns, he all-out flailed. Kat couldn’t stop laughing. And that didn’t seem to help. He laughed back and then lost whatever semblance of balance he had. He fell to the floor, pulling Kat down with him. They laughed even harder.

Once she made it back on her feet, she pulled him up and they started again. “Haven’t you ever skated before?” she asked.

“Only once,” he responded. “I broke my tailbone and never tried it again.”

She laughed again. He fell on his butt. “I’m sorry,” she giggled. She helped him back up.

He wasn’t smiling as much. “That one hurt.”

“Tailbone?”

“Actually, yeah. I’m going to have to sit on a donut again.”

She stifled the laughter. She didn’t want to make him fall again. They got going on the straightaway, a decent speed even. Ben didn’t stumble once. And they made it through the turn. “Hey, you’re getting better,” Kat said. She jinxed him. He wobbled and fell again, though this time he fell forward onto his knees.

“Crap,” he muttered. “I tore my jeans.” Sure enough, his well worn jeans gave way at the knee. “My favorite ones too.”
 

“Should we go get you some kneepads? I bet one of Jackson’s little brothers would have a pair. Probably Transformers. Or Hotwheels. You’d look jammin.”

“Don’t make fun of me, Ms. Stars on Ice.”

“Actually, I can’t ice-skate. I’d be the one needing pads. You’d be making fun of me.”

They got going again. Really, Ben was getting better. He just needed a little more practice, especially on the turns. And he didn’t need Kat to lose her balance—which she did when Jack zoomed past. It wasn’t so much the fact that he cut in front of them—Kat could have easily steered clear. But it was the way he skated, and the
who
he skated with. He was letting some … some vixen use his body as support while she shook her booty. They were only separated by an inch. On skates! Kat didn’t know how they were keeping their skates from tangling. She pictured Jack and his partner
causing a twenty-skater pile-up. And it would include her and Ben. She looked at Ben; had he seen that, or was she hallucinating? Ben’s mouth was agape just like hers. She tried to catch up with Jackson—to ask him what he was thinking—but Ben couldn’t take the increased speed. He fell again. And he’d had enough.

“Can we get out of here?” he asked.

She led him toward the food court. He went to the DJ’s booth and spoke a few words with Dudley. The music stopped literally in midsentence. The skaters complained. Dudley got back on the intercom and announced the next contest. Essentially, it was red-light green-light played with music. And the first ten skaters to make it across the rink won an autograph from Ben.

While Ben waited to meet ten eager skaters, Katrina went to find Jack. He was huddled in a corner of the rink, still with the blonde babe. She had him pinned against the wall, her face only inches away from his. It looked like they were about to kiss. Kat had never seen Jack this close to a girl before—and it wasn’t even a girl: it was a lady. No girl had curves like that.

“Jack?” she asked.

He turned to face her. He looked her up and down. “Hey, Kat,” he said. Then he turned his face back to the lady and whispered something to her. She laughed. Then she whispered back to Jack. Kat felt invisible.

“Sorry to interrupt Jack, but can I talk to you for a sec?”

“Ah, no. I’m busy.”

“I can see that,” Kat mumbled. She was getting irritated. Way irritated. What did he think he was doing? “Now, Jack.” She knew she sounded like his mom. But maybe that was what he needed.

The lady backed up a few inches and looked at Kat with distaste.

“No, Kat. Not now. I’m not at your beck and call,” Jackson said.

Kat glared back. And now that the lady had stepped back from Jack, Kat got a better look at the vixen. She was old. Old enough to be Kat’s mom. Or Jack’s mom. Ick. Seriously ick. “Who’s your friend?” Kat questioned.

“This is … ah, what’s your name again?” Jackson asked her.

“I’m Stacey” She smiled at Kat. She even reached out to shake Kat’s hand. Kat didn’t take it.

“How old are you?” Kat asked.

“Excuse me?”

“I asked you how old you are. ‘Cause you know he’s only sixteen, right?”

“Sure, I know that,” Stacey said, putting her hand on Jack’s chest. “That’s old enough for me.”

Yaak. Disgusting. “But it’s illegal. You’re at least fifteen years older. That’s wrong.”

“Twenty,” Stacey said with a wink. “But who’s counting? And there’s no law that says we can’t flirt a little, right Jason?”

“Jason?” Kat asked. She didn’t know if the lady’s hearing was bad or if Jack had given her a fake name. By the way Jack glared at Kat, she figured it was the latter.

“Ben’s going to take me home, kay ‘Jason’?”

“Perfect,” he said. He turned back to his slutty friend and his eyebrows lifted, like he was trying to be seductive. Kat didn’t know if she should laugh or throw up on his shoes. So she turned and left.

H
eaven. Ben had finally found it, after a solid week of hell. It came in the form of a helicopter ride, a girl by his side, and the sun setting over the ocean. He’d arranged this to impress Kat. But he didn’t realize how much he needed this: this euphoria. His soul—which had been anchored to refuse buried deep within the earth—was finally soaring again. Floating above humanity.

While Kat seemed nervous at first about boarding the helicopter, he could now see the excitement on her face. Uninhibited delight. And that added to Ben’s joy. Not only because he was the one who had brought her that happiness, but because she wasn’t holding back. He’d disengaged that internal kill switch.

Kat had her arm intertwined with his. It felt like she had his hand in a death grip. Which—although slightly uncomfortable—was fine. Better than fine. It had been too long since he’d been able to touch her. And, at one point, it had seemed like he’d never get to touch her again. She must have had the same feeling—that feeling of deprivation—because she was holding onto his hand for dear life. And while the cabin of the luxury helicopter was more than spacious, she was sitting so close that she probably could have shared his seat belt.

“I have never been this far out on the ocean before,” she said.

“You don’t get out much, do you?” he teased.

“This is a really cool surprise,” she said. “But it’s unfair.”

“Unfair? How?”

“Because now I can’t say that I’ve never been in a helicopter before. And I’m still losing. I can’t think of a way to one-up you.”

“Sure you can. I bet you’ve never broken your tailbone before. Or tore a pair of jeans while roller skating. Or humiliated yourself in public.”

 
Her smile—which had been huge—grew smaller. Tight, shy like. She bit on the corner of her lip. “What?” Ben asked.

She looked hesitant, like she didn’t want to reveal what she was thinking. Dang. That kill switch must have still an external override. But then she spoke. “That was … incredibly … sweet.”

She inhaled deeply and said, “I’ll never—ever—forget it.”

“Really? You enjoyed watching me make a fool of myself?” Was that all there was to it? Was that all he needed to do to impress Kat? If only he’d known that months ago. Here he’d been trying to be flawless. To be so suave and tantalizing.

“You didn’t make a fool of yourself,” she started out flatly, but then she laughed, “…entirely.” She laughed again. She let go of his hand and grabbed his knee, where his jeans were torn. Her hand tickled his bare skin before she gave his knee a squeeze. “You just looked … real.”

He gave a small chuckle and held her gaze. Her eyes were glowing—both from excitement and from the sky, which was streaked with amber. He didn’t want to look away—to lose that connection with her soul. He’d never seen such a beautiful spirit. The brightness, the vivacity, the tranquility that she carried with her—it was unparalleled. It wasn’t anything he would ever find in a pill bottle. And that was why he was here, with her now. Even after she’d nearly shattered his heart. He needed her. He couldn’t make it through the chaos that was his life without her sanguinity.

“That surprises me,” he said, “that you want me to be normal.”

“Not normal. Just … real. You have this amazing image—this image of perfection—and as … cool as it is to see that you’re all that, what’s even … cooler, is to see that you’re more than that. To know that your heart beats just like mine.”

His lips couldn’t help but upturn. That was adorable … to see how hard that was for her to put into words. And even though her words were muddled—almost ineloquent—they sounded melodious to his ears. It was affirmation that he desperately needed. Especially since his heart was still partially bruised from her hesitance when he asked her to the prom. Could that have been any more painful? He would have died first from the embarrassment. And then he would have been revived, brought back to life, and then quickly tortured back to death with the implication of her rejection. And because of her hesitance, he needed to continue to look for any further confirmation of her affections as the night went on: as he wasn’t quite ready to expose his heart to the open air just yet. He needed to know that the air was habitable before he made that kind of life-altering gesture.

 
“I don’t know, Kat,” he said, feeling his smile grow large enough to expose his teeth, “I don’t think my heart beats like yours. I think mine is beating twice as fast.” He wasn’t being a sycophant; that was the truth. His heart was racing like he’d just performed an entire set in front of twenty-thousand screaming fans.

She bit on the bottom of her lip again. “I don’t think that’s possible. You’d be having a heart attack if your heart was beating any faster than mine.”

So they had to compare. He placed two fingers on her wrist, she placed two fingers on his. And they counted. Kat’s was faster. By a long shot. “You always have a rapid heart rate?” he asked. Hers seriously was beating like she’d been jogging for an hour. His only felt that way.

“It has been … ever since January.”

“We met in January.”

“Exactly.”

Ben wanted to kiss her, but he restrained himself. He planned on saving that for later. So he had to joke—to try to distract himself. “So you’re saying that I’m bad for you. I’m hazardous to your health.”

“Hmm, maybe,” she feigned a look of contemplation and then she shrugged, “but I feel like takin’ a walk on the wild side.”