FicWad

Author's Note: Sorry for not updating. I swear I haven't given up on this. Well... I kind of have, but I'm still writing. I'm trying to wrap it up and such. Thank you so much for reading and keeping up with this.

Chapter 28

I thought the weekend was gonna be great. I was finally speaking to Jackie again, I thought she liked me back, I was gonna have a rockin' concert with my brothers, even if it was at amall, and then we were gonna head back home to hang out with Jackie and I was gonna ask her to be my girlfriend if I didn't do it before we left.

I was wrong about everything.

I guess she did like me, but some senior, pretty boy, jock shows up and sweeps her off her feet. He just comes out of nowhere, like out of a movie or something. Then I got mad and Isaid something I shouldn't have, that I didn't apologize for before leaving to our gig.

Speaking of our gig, it turned out really bad. There were mostly old and middle aged people there... and they booed! Aren't older people supposed to be more polite than us kids? I was more than happy to leave and come back home.

On the way back Kevin told me that Jackie's waiting for me to talk to her. That was a relief. At least she's not mad, but honestly, I'm a little scared. What if I really messed things up his time? How many times is she gonna forgive me for being a jerk?

"You know, Jackie must really like you if she keeps forgiving you," Kevin said from next to me in the back of the van. It's like he can read my mind. "That or she's just really nice."

"Girl problems?" Garbo, our bassist in out backup band said turning around in the seat in front of me. He was really cool and easy to talk to.

I saw Alex our drummer, turn to look at me from the other side of Kevin and JT turn around from next to Garbo. JT is our musical director, but he plays the guitar in the band and he's been through a lot with us. Nick was all the way in the front, in the passenger seat and he turned around too. I even saw dad look back at me in the rearview mirror.

"Now I know what a fish feels like," I mumbled under my breath. They were all still looking at me. "Yes okay! Geez, its no big deal."

"Girls and trouble, story of my life," Alex said.

"Every boy and man will have these girl problems Joseph. Things will work out," Dad said from the driver's seat.

"Just talk to her," Kevin said.

"Yeah, if she wants to talk then it probably won't turn out so bad," Garbo added.

"Yeah, I guess." I just said that to get them off my back. I didn't want to talk about it.

The rest of the day I just sulked in my room. I thought about going over to the Mathews' house, maybe climb up the trellis, but what if she wasn't there? She's probably off with Ryan. I heard him asking her to "hang out" after church when we were getting ready to leave Berna's house on Saturday. He probably had more than hanging out in mind. They're probably sitting around somewhere in his stupid Mustang while he... woos her.

Woos her? I must be crazy.

To get my mind off of everything I took Frankie outside to play. After about an hour I saw Ryan's Mustang drive up to Jackie's house.

So he's a senior, jock, can drive, and has a nice car, of course Jackie likes him. Maybe he's nicer to her too.

Jackie walked up to her door and watched Ryan drive off. Her eyes wandered over to me and she gave me a small half smile. I smiled back and a little wave before going back to entertaining Frankie. I didn't feel like talking to her just yet.

--- --- --- ---

The next day everything seemed like it was normal. Jackie gave me a little smile before we all piled into the car and headed to school. We didn't really talk to each other, but she wasn't avoiding me and she didn't look mad at all. I guess she really was waiting for me to talk to her.

She's too good for me.

I walked into the cafe alone today. JD and Berna took a little trip to the library before heading to the cafe and I wasn't sure where Jerby was. He just left class saying he was gonna meet up with us later.

I walked in to see Jackie and Ryan sitting at our table. They were talking as Jackie worked on a paper or something. I stood there for a minute deciding on whether I should join them or go to another table. Before I could make up my mind Jackie looked up. She waved and called me over with a wave of her hand, so I walked over to them.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," I said back. She was acting normal all day, so I should too. It would make apologizing later easier. "So what are you working on?"

Jackie closed the notebook she was writing in. "Oh, nothing, just... writing."

"Don't be offended, she won't let me look either," Ryan said. I just nodded.

I don't care how nice this guy seems, I still don't like him and the fact that he didn't know what was in that notebook made me feel a little better. He didn't know more than I did when it comes to Jackie.

"So, where is everyone?" Jackie asked.

"They'll be by later."

Luckily Jerby chose that moment to walk into the cafe. About ten seconds later JD and Berna walked in.

"Jerb, we were calling you in the hall," JD said when they sat down.

"Are you def or do you just hate us?" Berna asked.

"Oh," Jerby said. "Sorry I guess I didn't hear you."

He had a big smile on his face. Either his mom packed him a pudding cup or he talked to a cute girl.

"Not sitting with your football friends today Ryan?" Berna asked.

"What are you talking about? JD's right here," Ryan said.

"I think she means the football group that hangs out outside," Jerby explained before shoving a spoonful of pudding into his mouth.

"Exactly," Berna said. "I mean, all the football guys hang out together. Well, except for JD, but he, Jerby, and Joe always hang out together, so JD doesn't hang out with them. I just assumed you did."

"I never hung out with the football guys. I would always go to the library," he said smiling at Jackie.

Stalker! I guess he saw her before meeting her at the game. But then he must have seen me with her in there last Wednesday.

"Oh," Berna said. She had aweird look on her face. "Were you there on Wednesday? I walked up and down every aisle that day looking for Jackie and I don't remember seeing you."

"If you're talking about last week then I was out that day... why?"

"Oh, no reason."

It got quiet after that. I guess everyone at the table knew what happened between me and Jackie in the library that day, except for Ryan.

"So," Jackie said breaking the silence. "Joe, how was your gig?"

I groaned. "I don't wanna talk about it."

"That bad?" JD asked. I just nodded. "Don't worry man. Some people just don't appreciate good music."

"Speaking of good music," Ryan said turning to Jackie. "What's that song you sang at that one competition afew weeks ago?"

"It was a song my mom wrote. She taught it to me when I was really little."

Ryan just nodded his head thinking that Jackie was talking about Mrs. M, but I knew she was talking about her real mom and that gave me a good feeling inside. Once again Ryan didn't know more than I did. Jackie and I shared something, she and Ryan didn't.

"So you were at the contest?" JD asked.

"Yeah, my cousin was in it."

"Oh yeah, you keep mentioning a cousin," Jackie said. "Who is your cousin?"

"Kristine Koonz."

Yes! Now Berna's gonna hate him. If Berna hates him and I hate him, then Jackie will probably stop hanging out with him.

"You just lost some brownie points," Berna said with a mad look on her face. "First of all, you never say that name in my presence and second you're her cousin."

Ryan just let out a chuckle. "Yeah, she a little..."

"Bitchy," Berna finished his sentence.

"Yeah, but she's my cousin you know."

"Just don't bring her around here," Berna said. It actually sounded more like a warning. "And do not try to get her back together with Joe."

"So you're her ex-boyfriend," he said with a laugh. "She's always talking about you guys, but I always tune her out, so I didn't know until now. I guess inviting you guys to her party this weekend is out of the question?"

"Technically we were invited, but we just don't want to go," Berna said.

"Aww, come on. I'd feel more comfortable if you guys were there. Don't make me beg," Ryan said giving Berna puppy dog eyes.

Pussy.

"I'll go," Jerby said. That surprised us a little.

"Alright, Jerby, my man," Ryan said giving him a hi-5. "What about you Jackie?"

Everything always goes back to Jackie with this guy. He's starting to look desperate.

"Umm..." Jackie looked at me before saying, "I'll go if Joe's okay with it and goes... same with Berna. I mean, it's gonna be awkward since Kristine hates me."

Berna practically growled at Kristine's name.

"Well?" Ryan asked looking at Berna and me.

Before we could answer the bell rang.

"Joe and I will think about it," Berna said. "We'll let you know if we decide to go."

Does that mean she's considering it? She's supposed to hate Kristine and her family and shun them. Is she trying to keep me from dating Jackie? Well, that's not gonna happen. Ineeded to apologize to Jackie and fast.

Before we separated to our separate classes I asked Jackie to help me with the math homework, so after school she came over to our house. It felt a little weird and normal at the same time. The only time she talked to me was when she was helping me with a problem. Other than that she'd just read a book.

"Jackie, do you know if you do your homework you could easily bring your grades up?" Mom asked when she walked into the living room.

"Mom's been talking to you hasn't she?" Jackie asked.

Mom nodded at Jackie's question. "She just wants you to apply yourself."

"Okay," Jackie sighed before pulling out some paper and doing the math homework.

Even though I was halfway done with the homework when Jackie started, I still had one problem left when she finished. She really was smarter than her grades showed.

"Done," I said throwing my pencil on the coffee table.

I looked up at Jackie. She was leaning back on the couch, hugging her book to her chest, and looking at me with an awkward smile on her face. I got off the floor to sit next to her on the couch.

"I don't deserve a friend as great as you, you know that?"

She looked at me with a bigger smile. "I know," she said.

"So... did your real mom really teach you that song?" I asked.

"Yeah, I visited her once while she was in the hospital. Miss Maggie... I mean Mrs. Hoffmann brought me to visit her once. It was pretty scary with all the tubes and machines." She shook her head a little and let out a little laugh. "That's how I know she didn't commit suicide. I didn't understand it then, but I understand it now."

"And the song?"

"Ever since that day I've always had the melody in my head," she told me. "I could hum it, but I never really remembered the words. Then year after year the melody got a little fuzzy. I had the music book all this time, but I never knew how to read it and there were no lyrics written with them. That's why I asked Kevin for guitar lessons. I though, maybe if I learned, then I could go through each song and hopefully I'd find the right one. And then you brought me to my mom's diner and Carmen gave me the lyric book." Jackie was looking at me with some tears in her eyes, but they were happy tears. "You don't understand how happy that made me. Two days after we got home I finally found the music and the lyrics."

I put my arm around her and pulled her to me. Just like the other night she willingly leaned into me. "That will be a great story to tell our children," I said smiling at our little joke that we've had for years. Actually it was a joke for me and more like torture for Jackie.

She nudged me and said, "Don't throw that in my face."

"It's not my fault you said it."

"Yeah, whatever," Jackie said.

This was the first time ever that we've repeated this joke and I didn't end up on the floor because Jackie would push or hit me.

We stayed in the same positing on the couch, my arm around her shoulders lightly rubbing her arm as she leaned her head on my shoulder. Things were good again, better in a way, but it wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. We can work on that later.

"So," Jackie said after a few minutes. "What happened to make the gig so bad?"

I groaned. Way to ruin the moment, but luckily she didn't move away while I told her about the old people booing us at the mall.