Page 29 of Jake Forever
Chapter 12
Standing in the quiet space, Jake looked at me like I'd lost my mind.
Who knows? Maybe I had.
Finally, he said, "What girl? The one from last night?"
I felt myself nod.
"You serious?"
Of course, I was serious. And honestly, I was a little surprised that he didn't know exactly what I was talking about. Or was this all some sort of act?
Looking up at him, I said, "Well, you're being kind of secretive, so you know, I just thought I should ask."
He made a sound of disbelief. "Secretive?"
"Well, yeah."
"Let me get this straight," he said. "You think that I’m so fucking stupid that I'd be messing around on you, putting the moves on some other girl…" He made air-quotes. "In secret, in front of six million other people?"
I heard myself mutter, "Probably seven million by now."
"Screw the numbers," he said. "Why would you think that?"
I gave him a pleading look. "Do I even need to explain this?"
"Yeah. You do."
"Well, you were carrying her–"
"Not my idea."
"Oh, please," I said. "What'd she do? Force you?"
"No. What shedidwas sprain her ankle." He gave a half-shrug. "Or so she said."
"So she said?" I hesitated. "So she might've been lying?"
"Don’t know, didn't ask."
"Why not?"
"Because I didn't care."
"You cared enough to carry her."
"As opposed to what?" he said. "Taking off, and letting her deal with Dorian on her own?"
I was glaring at him now. "Well maybe Dorian wouldn't have been so mad if she wasn't usingyourcrotch as a napkin." At the image, I felt that sick feeling grow in my stomach. "And the way it looked, you weren't doing a whole lot to stop her either."
"Sorry, I was kind of busy."
I gave him a good, long look. He didn't sound very sorry. My voice was shaking now. "And you were smiling. You smiled straight into the camera like you were loving every minute of it."
"Yeah?" His jaw clenched. "Well, I wasn't."
"Could've fooled me."
