Crushing On The Enemy (Crushing on You 1)

“Why do you care what they think?” he asked.

“Because it's bad for school spirit for us to be seen together,” Alyssa sighed.

She took a deep breath and stomped off leaving her trash behind. Usually, she had better manners than that, but today just seemed to be getting worse by the second. Alyssa went home and made her way upstairs. She could see that her mother had been through her things. Usually she would storm downstairs and raise hell, but today she was too tired and felt too defeated to do anything more than cry. She didn't understand why her mother felt th

e need to go through her things. She never caused trouble in school and always kept her grades up. She never sneaked out to meet boys or go to parties, but yet her mother and Cody made her feel like a criminal everyday of her life.

Chapter 6: Jake

Jake was more confused than ever about the girl's behavior. He had been happy just to see a familiar face, even if it wasn't a friendly one. Usually the mall wasn't a place Jake enjoyed going, but today anywhere was better than his house.

It entertained him that all it took was a few seconds of talking to someone in a parking lot for people to assume you were dating her. He chuckled to himself.

“I could do worse,” he mused.

Although he wasn't sure he wanted to date a girl who was caught up in what her 'friends' thought of her. Although, he guessed that he wasn't being very fair to her. She had been quite upset the night before and he knew from watching his mother that girls don't recover from emotional situations as quickly as guys did. Anyway, the girl wasn't his concern. She most likely had just gotten into a fight with her boyfriend and they'd kiss and makeup on Monday, or at least Jake hoped so, because if he was honest with himself he hated to see a pretty girl cry.

He ordered some tacos and ate them slowly. He hadn't told his dad, but shopping and tacos weren't his real motive for coming to the mall today. He was putting in applications at the sporting goods store and a couple of the restaurants. Jake knew that his father wouldn't be happy about it, but he would just have to learn to deal with it.

Jake could hear his father's probing questions even now before they talked about it.

“What girl are you trying to buy a ring for?”

“Who are you saving up to run off with?”

“Is she really worth it, son?”

Jake hated how his father would often reflect his emotions onto him. Just because he had been girl crazy as a teenager, didn't mean Jake was. Actually, most of the time girls confused him. There was no understanding the female gender. A few girls had shown interest in him in the past, but it quickly faded away when they found out that he didn't want to get serious with anyone until after high school. One had even broken down and cried. It was a dirty business dealing with girls and their emotions.

It was still early in the afternoon when Jake finished eating and he didn't want to go home yet. He sent a quick text to Craig to see what he and the guys were doing tonight. His reply made Jake laugh, because surely it must be a joke.

“We're going to TP the Panthers' football field!!!!! lol”

“R U serious?” he text back

“Yep, U should come with us,” Craig answered.

“I don't think so,” he wrote back, shaking his head.

His teammates were out of their minds if Craig was being serious! They could get arrested for vandalism!

“Come on, chicken!!” Craig text back.

“No!” he replied.

He turned his phone off and left the mall, heading towards Craig's house where the guys usually hung out on the weekends. Usually, his parents both worked most of the time, so it was a convenient place for the team to chill.

The lights were all out and the door was locked, which usually meant no one was home, but Jake knocked anyway. When no answer came he knocked harder. He banged until his knuckles were sore before he gave up.

“Damn it to hell, guys,” he swore under his breath, “the coach is going to kill you if you go through with this.”

Jake got back into his truck and drove back towards the Panthers' territory. He'd just have to make it to the field before the rest of his teammates to ensure that he was there in time to stop them. Jake didn't understand how anyone could be so dumb!

His hands shook as he drove and he caught himself speeding several times.

“Easy does it,” he said out loud, “all I need is to get pulled over on the way to stopping a crime.”

It did occur to Jake that he could call the coach and he would prevent the team from committing such a blunt act of vandalism, but he didn't want to be branded as a snitch for the rest of the year. His home life was bad enough without creating a disaster at school. Besides, he didn't have any friends that weren't teammates.