The Best Year - 3. Chapter 3

When I got home, Mom and Dad were both already home and it was starting to get dark. I frowned feeling in my pocket, out of habit, for my cell. Not having it and not hearing from anyone by now made the day seem longer. The fact that I was about to step foot inside of a house with an angry mother and disappointed father didn’t make me want to get out of Coach Tate’s car, but he shot me a glare and I opened the door, he probably would lecture Derek pretty hard when he got home.

“How did it go?” Mom asked after I closed the front door behind me.

“About as bad as you wanted, I guess,” I grunted, shrugging my shoulders as I stepped around the couch and went into the kitchen.

“That’s not the point of what you’re doing,” Dad countered sitting across from Mom in a chair. They never really showed much affection in front of me, but I didn’t mind that.

“I know,” I said just loud enough for them to hear me as I fixed a plate of leftovers from their dinner, that I was always late for when I had practice. “You want me to change into the two of you.”

“Jack,” Dad started, but I heard Mom whisper his name. So far she hadn’t seemed to remember what I told her before I stepped out of my car this morning. I didn’t feel like having a discussion about today, I wanted to take a shower and go to bed. I wanted to go out. I wanted to forget this shitty day and look forward to tomorrow. None of those I knew would be happening though, not until they were satisfied.

“Really Jackson,” Mom said as I stepped back into the living room with my lukewarm food. “How was it?”

“I picked up trash all day with Cindy’s annoying son,” I answered shoveling some rice into my mouth. Mom fixed baked chicken casserole, since she had all day by herself, she liked to fix these grand dinners for Saturdays she knew Dad would be home. Most of the time we fixed our own food as we came through the door, I wouldn’t have been here at all usually. I would be out eating somewhere Coach Tate would kick my ass for eating at.

“Luke is a sweetheart,” Mom countered smiling. “A very sweet boy.”

“Boring as fu.. dirt,” I argued, turning away from the glare she shot me when I almost cussed. “Maybe you should ask Cindy and Henry for a trade, me for him.”

“I may not have as many grey hairs to cover up,” Mom joked trying to lighten my mood. When I turned back to her, I saw her eying my sunburn. I would be tanned in a couple of days, but my burning skin only added to my irritation right now.

“Can I go to bed?” I asked only half finishing what I loaded into my plate. “I have another early morning tomorrow.”

“No you don’t,” Mom responded, rolling her eyes. “They won’t work until after church, it ends at Noon. Maybe you should come?”

“Not likely,” I said standing and walking back into the kitchen.

I could hear their muffled discussion about me as I walked to the trash can and dumped my scraps then put my plate and glass into the sink not caring to rinse them and put them into the dishwasher.

“Jackson,” Dad said when I stepped around the corner. I planned to ignore them and go take a shower, but I stopped when he raised his hand to his face to remove his glasses. He slid them up over his head, he had a book open on the coffee table and would be returning to that as soon as he was finished with me. “You need to at least try to meet us halfway on this.”

“You need to understand…” I started then shook my head and walked through the living room and up the stairs to the bathroom. I quickly stripped down and stepped into the shower. The cool water from the pool eased my sunburn significantly, but now that I was an hour from practice my skin began to feel hot again.

After my shower I walked across the hall and shut the door. I turned the lock behind me planning to leave my door locked all night. It wasn’t like I had any way of leaving, I lived too far away from anyone that I would visit. I guess Cindy and Henry were our closest neighbors, just down the road. Rolling my eyes I slid on a pair of boxer briefs and pulled down the blankets all the way down to the foot of the bed then sprawled out on my back and stared at the ceiling.

I didn’t know how long I laid there when I heard a sharp tap on my window. It was loud enough to startle me and I sat up thinking a bat just plastered itself all over my window. When I didn’t see anything but the blackness of nightfall I turned to lay back down when another sharp tap struck my window and this time I saw a small piece of something bouncing away from the window just outside the light coming from my room. Smiling I went over to the window and quietly opened it and looked down expecting to see Toby or someone sneaking around outside.

“Who’s out there?” I whispered trying to see through the darkness past the light from my window on the lawn. I couldn’t see anyone at first and I frowned when the person stepped into the light.

“Hey,” Luke greeted, both of his hands stuffed inside the pockets of his jeans. He was wearing a white t-shirt and his hair looked nearly dry from a shower. He didn’t smile at first, but when I glanced over to the driveway and back, he smirked.

“Don’t you have homework to do for church or something?” I asked, wanting to close the window. I wasn’t hiding my disappointment of seeing him outside my house instead of any of my friends. In this small town, I think this was the longest I went without talking with any of them outside of the few times Toby’s family dragged him away to some family reunion up state.

“No?” Luke said, a question in his tone. He shook his head and slid one hand out of his pocket and waved for me to come down. “I wanted to talk.”

“I don’t want to talk to you,” I countered, “I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon anyway.”

“I know,” he said shoving his hand back into his pocket. Even though it was still hot and muggy outside this time of year, I couldn’t help thinking that he looked cold. His shoulders were tense and with his hands in his pockets he didn’t look as easygoing as he had the last time I saw him. He looked nervous and I saw him look towards the living room window.

“Can’t, I’m grounded,” I said, feeling my face flush having to admit that. Usually the excuse wouldn’t even slow me down, but I just wanted him to leave. The prayer he said before they ate lunch told me everything I needed to know about him. That he wasn’t at all like me, that he would grow up and be just like his parents. Their easy smiles only made them boring, boring like this town they grew up in. Boring like my parents.

“I didn’t think that would stop a person like you from sneaking out,” he countered smiling and I flipped him off and closed the window.

I looked behind me to the closed door. There would be no way for me to sneak outside until my parents went to bed. Luke wasn’t good with this whole sneaking around thing, he should have known better to come so early, but the fact that he had made me curious to know why and why my house of all the places he could have gone.

Sighing I walked to my bedroom door and bumped into Mom heading for bed. She eyed me suspiciously, but I didn’t have anything on, but a pair of shorts. Dad was a few steps ahead of her, I heard him turning on the television to kick off their predictable night time routine.

“Forgot to brush my teeth,” I said and she smiled and I let her kiss me on the cheek before she walked past me.

Instead of hovering in the hall I walked directly across it to the bathroom and I waited until I heard Mom shut the door behind her before I tiptoed out of the bathroom and down the wooden stairs. Then I squinted against the darkness in the living room holding out my hands to keep from running into the couch or the standing floor lamp beside it.

When I got to the locked front door, I cussed under my breath when the deadbolt seemed to echo through the house. I listened for any sign that they heard me, but when I didn’t hear their bedroom door open I turned the doorknob and opened the door.

We both jumped seeing one another, but I frowned when he smiled and nodded his head towards the railing on the porch farthest from the front door. I frowned, closing the door gently behind me and started walking with him to the dark corner of the front porch.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” I asked leaning against the cool bricks.

“I told my parents I was going for a walk,” he answered shrugging. “I guess I walked too far and saw your house.”

“They usually let you out to walk around in the dark?” I asked knowing that wouldn’t have worked on my parents, grounded or not. They had tried the strict curfew thing for years, but I never cared enough to worry about being home on their time.

“I like being outside during the night,” he said shrugging as he leaned against the railing facing towards the darkness he probably walked through as he made his way to my house. “I like the stillness and the stars, makes it easier to think.”

“I guess,” I offered watching him seem to relax as time passed between us. I, on the other hand, couldn't help feeling more tense than I was when I was up in my room. “How did you know where my room was?”

“Your parents were still downstairs and that was the only light on upstairs,” he answered, turning to look at me. “I took a guess.”

“So why are you here?” I asked knowing I sort of already asked him that and he hadn’t answered.

“I wanted to talk to you about earlier,” he answered, still looking at me. His steady eye contact didn’t fit my idea of him. I didn’t expect him to be confident, especially around me.

“Nothing really happened worth talking about,” I countered crossing my arms and winced when the movement irritated my sunburn. “We picked up trash and then went home.”

“Mom and Dad want me to drive you around from now on, instead of Dad,” he answered, turning to face me completely. “Dad wants me to be a good example for you.”

“My parents would be fucking thrilled,” I said shaking my head. “I’ll have my car back before long, I think.”

“Well until you do,” he said smiling. “I guess I’ll be your driver.”

“I wish they’d all leave me the hell alone,” I countered, unfolding my arms I reached up and rubbed my hand through my short hair.

“You need to watch your mouth around my parents,” he said. “They still believe in the soap method.”

“They can try it,” I said rolling my eyes.

“Mom’s stouter than she looks,” he joked his smile turning into a grin. “Tiny, but scrappy.”

“I’ll try not to cuss around them,” I said, dropping my arm to my side. “No promises though. So you came to give me a lecture?”

“No,” he said, his grin faltering.

“Your Mom could have called and told me about the new driving arrangements,” I added stepping away from the wall.

“I told you I was just out walking,” he said as I took another step forward. I wanted to get back inside before they realized I was missing from my room. After another successful escape last night, I expected them to at least poke their head inside my room to check on me before they turned the television off and went to sleep.

“Fine,” I countered, “shouldn’t you be getting back?”

“My parents trust me, so not really,” he said as he glanced towards the front door. “Surprising what you can get away with when you’re a good guy.”

“What do you do for fun anyway?” I asked, smirking. “Play Bible Bingo?”

“No,” he answered laughing. “I just do stuff, go camping, fishing, stuff like that.”

“By yourself?” I asked, noticing that my two steps away from the wall had placed me closer to him than I wanted to be.

“Yeah,” he answered and for the first time since meeting him I saw him frown and I knew why he showed up at my window.
“Aren’t there other bible huggers your age at that school you go to?” I asked and his frown deepened and he turned away from me to stare out into the darkness again. For a moment I wanted to nudge him with my elbow and tell him I was joking, but I stopped myself. I knew I didn’t want to be his friend, I had friends. It was too late for me to make new friends here, I’d be leaving for college soon enough and we were too different besides.

“Plenty,” he said after an uneasy silence fell between us and I noticed his jaw clench and relax. He glanced at me then smiled as he pushed himself off the railing and took a few steps towards the front steps before he stopped. “See you tomorrow.”

“Sure,” I said shrugging and he nodded and turned his back to me and walked down the steps. I watched him walk down the sidewalk and out into the street. I watched until he stepped out of the lights that illuminated the street and he disappeared in the darkness.

I only realized how lonely he must be when I was safely back inside my bedroom. I found myself hovering by the window. My friends weren’t the ones that threw pebbles. They went tubing down the river while I picked up trash and without my phone or keys to my car I didn’t know what they were doing now. I couldn’t handle too many more nights like this one, with nothing to do and no one to talk to. I felt trapped, but I didn’t want to understand Luke Clarke. I didn’t want to feel sorry for him. I wanted to be at the bonfire or at the movies or at the lake that the river feeds. With friends that I knew since grade school. That knew me.

“Fuck,” I whispered turning away from the window I walked to my bed and sprawled back out on it. This time I turned the lamp on my nightstand off and closed my eyes and after I forgot about Luke Clarke standing outside my window and my sunburn, and how much of a fucking loser I was for being here on a Saturday night, I finally was able to fall asleep.

The next morning I woke up earlier than I ever have on a Sunday morning. Early enough to hear Dad and Mom busy getting ready for church. I could hear Mom’s Sunday heels clicking on the hardwood floor and their muffled voices as I sat up on my bed and shrugged off my lingering sleepiness.

I stood and walked to my bedroom door and opened it, glancing down to make sure my morning wood had gone away I stepped out into the hall. I instantly smelled Mom’s perfume, something she only bothered to wear when she dressed up and I wrinkled my nose at the scent, it was too old fashioned to be appealing to me, but Dad kept buying it for her, since he liked the way she smelled when she wore it. It only added to how boring the two of them were.

“Jackson is that you?” Mom asked from somewhere inside their bedroom.

“Yeah,” I answered just before I entered the bathroom. I held the door cracked knowing she had more to say.

“Did you change your mind about church?” She asked and I rolled my eyes about to close the door.

“No, I hate being awake this early on a Sunday, means last night sucked,” I answered and it surprised me when she laughed.

“You might as well come since you’re awake,” she said and I groaned and closed the bathroom door and walked over to the toilet to relieve myself.

When I washed my hands and brushed my teeth I stepped back out into the hallway to see they had taken me up on my silent dismissal and had already left for church. Smiling I nearly ran the two steps across the hall to my room and slid off my shorts and quickly pulled on a pair of boxer briefs and a clean pair of shorts and a t-shirt.

I was in the living room when I noticed the note on the coffee table written in Mom’s neat handwriting.

“Don’t think about sneaking out, I have all of the keys and you won’t get to anywhere interesting on foot by the time church is over and your outreach at the park starts. You’ll see Derek and Toby tomorrow at school. Love Mom and Dad.”

“Fuck,” I groaned as I slammed the paper back down on the coffee table. I knew it was stupid to try, but I was going to anyway. I didn’t want to see those people or that park today. It would take them a while to find me and I had three days of Principal Steve Welker to look forward to, but at least I would have Toby and Derek in there with me.

Ignoring the letter, I opened the front door to look outside. The sun was already brightening the day and the dew was so heavy it made the grass fold over. The hint of oncoming autumn was in the air and I bent over and slipped on my socks and shoes before I stepped out onto the porch. The house felt more like a prison now that I realized I had no easy escape. I looked longingly at my Mustang sitting in the driveway, the windows still fogged over.

After a short pause to breathe in the crisp morning air I bounded down the front steps and jogged down the driveway. I was about to step out onto the road when I slowed to a stop just beside our mailbox. Only then did I realize I really had nowhere to really go. Derek, Toby, Allison, and anyone I would have wanted to see would still be sleeping off their Saturday night or be at church. Welker made sure Allison was getting a nice dose of religion every weekend. If he got a look at her neck I doubted I would see much of her outside of school.

After walking for a while, I expected a car to come flying by me, but I didn’t expect to look up and see them stop. When I walked up to the car I frowned when I saw Luke rolling down the window of an old blue-gray Taurus.

“There you are,” he said smirking. “Your Mom is furious with you.”

“Didn’t think I had it in me, did she?” I asked, leaning against his car.

“Why do you do this to yourself?” He asked, nodding his head to the passenger side. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get away with just ignoring him. He had the car and unless I bolted into one of the hay fields that made up most of the view here, I wouldn’t be able to get away. Instead I cussed and walked around the front of the car and slid inside the passenger seat, at least he had the air running.

“I want them to finally realize I’m just gonna do my own thing,” I answered, shutting my door behind me. He waited until I slid the seatbelt across my chest and buckled it.

“Can’t you do that without outright ignoring them?” He asked as he slowly eased his car into drive looking to make sure the road was clear.

“No, you don’t know what it’s like,” I said, leaning my head back against the headrest slumping down in the seat. I didn’t want to be caught in the car with him.

“I still can’t watch R rated movies,” Luke countered glancing over at me momentarily. “I think I can guess. Although, I also wouldn’t slide across a gym floor butt naked.”

“Well your loss, it’s pretty fucking fun,” I said and smirked when he laughed shaking his head as we made our way towards the junk yard of a park again. At least today we may get finished with the trash pick-up and the snake wrangling so we can mow the overgrown lawns and baseball fields.

“Don’t you get it though?” He asked slowing down for a sharp curve. “You can still have fun, but within the rules they want you to follow.”

“Says the guy that’s never watched an R rated movie,” I argued rolling my eyes.

“I say I’m not allowed to watch them,” he countered, smirking. “Not that I haven’t.”

“Yeah?” I asked not really interested in what he had to say.

“Yeah,” he answered looking ahead.

“What a little rebel you are,” I said looking out and seeing the welcome sign for the small town. It was newer, the old one having been wacked too many times with baseball bats by drive bys. I think Toby’s last hit took out the weather faded W. I was the one driving the car that night. Now it was lined with bricks.

“Try to watch your mouth, okay?” He reminded as he slowed and pulled into the parking lot. We were late, most everyone else was already scattered around picking up the remaining pieces of trash. There were already a couple of trash bags in the back of one of the trucks.

“Fine,” I answered unbuckling my seatbelt as he picked a spot. I shot out of the car before he killed the engine and walked to the shade tree where the extra garbage bags were and unrolled one for myself. Then I quickly scanned the grounds, the people that volunteered were more scattered out this time, having less trash to pick up so I had to walk a lot farther away to get away from everyone.

Looking around the tall grass to make sure a snake wasn’t lurking around, I started picking up trash ignoring the footsteps I heard coming towards me. It was easy to see that the volunteers stayed past the scheduled time to continue to pick up trash after I left for practice yesterday. I didn’t feel bad, I wouldn’t have stayed even if I didn’t have somewhere else to be.

“Next week we’ll get to mow this,” Luke said as he walked a few feet ahead of where I stood and started picking up trash.

“Don’t you feel like shit for running all the wildlife out of the park?” I asked scanning the grass for more trash. “At least they’re using it.”

“Like they’re hurting for space here,” he answered and I glanced up to look at him. “You still don’t think people will come to the park if we do this?”

“No,” I answered, “maybe, but shouldn’t the town pay for this?”

“They’re helping fund it a little,” he answered, “we’re just providing free labor.”

“Well I wish you didn’t, maybe I wouldn’t be out here,” I countered and he smiled and like all the other times I saw him, those easy smiles annoyed me. I just didn’t know why they did. I didn’t know if it was because he seemed so enthusiastic about picking up garbage in a run-down park or if it was the fact that I was here with him. Looking around at everyone else that I didn’t care to get to know, I saw that they were talking, some laughing as they worked, but they all seemed to share the same enthusiasm. This wasn’t a prison sentence like it was for me though, they could think about the good they’re doing. All I could think about was all the shit I could be doing besides this.

“So how’s swimming?” He asked shoving a piece of paper in his bag. It was taking us considerably longer to fill the bags. Maybe we would finish early and go home. We couldn’t do much else until the grass was cut, so we could at least make sense of the landscape and not have to worry about snakes.

“It would be better if I didn’t show up tired yesterday,” I answered, pulling at the collar of my t-shirt.
“How did your parents react to the hickies?” He asked and I stopped mid-bend to look at him. “I saw them last night, you were shirtless.”

“That’s how you became my driver,” I answered as I started moving again. “And how I lost my phone.”

“What do you think will happen when you get home?” He asked, smiling when I rolled my eyes.

“They don’t have anything left to take from me,” I answered, “not like I got away, you rounded me up and got me here.”

“Yeah, I’ll be sure to tell them that when I drop you off,” he said laughing.

By our first break we had to dump my trash into his bag. It looked like most of the stuff had been cleared away. The dew had dampened my shoes and I was starting to feel it through my socks. It wasn’t as uncomfortable as my sweat drenched t-shirt. It definitely seemed hotter than it was yesterday and since we were working on borrowed time, being a Sunday, we worked longer before Cindy called us in for a water break.

Like before, I took my water bottle and left the cluster of people. They were talking about what to do for the rest of the day, not having the mowers ready to go until next week. They were still asking around the neighborhood for people to allow them to borrow their lawn mowers for the job. Henry had just announced that he could get a tractor when I finally got far enough away to easily ignore them, but I still watched as Luke broke from the group after patting some guy on the shoulder to excuse himself. He jogged over to where I sat finishing off my bottle of water. He handed me another one and I opened it not thanking him when he sat down beside me.

“You know,” he said, smirking when I shot him a glare. “We don’t bite.”

“I’m working, no one said anything about talking,” I countered as he tested the soundness of the old picnic table we sat around. I jumped slightly when it groaned underneath us as he pushed against it.

“Like I said,” he said as he seemed to study what was carved into the top of the table. “It goes by quicker if you try to enjoy yourself.”

“And I’m still wondering why you care,” I argued holding the water bottle out in front of me.

“Do you think LN and TC are still together?” He asked, pointing to where he was looking. “It says forever, but do you think they are?”

“How the fuck would I know that?” I asked and he laughed, but looked around to make sure no one else was in earshot.

“Well are you ready to go?” He asked standing up. It was then I noticed that the group under the shade tree had dispersed and a lot of them had walked to their cars.

“Why, are we leaving?” I asked standing to follow him to the parking lot.

“Sunday,” he answered, glancing over at me as I fell in step beside him. “People need to get home and shower for evening services.”

“Oh,” I said, “well that’s good at least.”

“I don’t go to those,” he said shrugging.

“You’ll probably burn in hell for it too,” I joked and he laughed loud enough for people not in their cars to stop and look in our direction. One of them I noticed was Cindy. She had her door open as Henry started their truck. She didn’t smile when her eyes locked with mine. Not until a few moments later, when I was about to look away. It was easy to read her expression though. She probably worried that I would be a bad influence on her son and lead him astray. It almost made me want to try, it would serve them and my parents right for forcing me to do this. I knew I wasn’t going to get anything out of this outreach thing, besides maybe a tan. I thought she had agreed to allow Luke to be a better influence on me, but her expression said otherwise. There was definitely more going on than what I knew, I almost wished I cared enough to figure it out.

When we were in the car, Luke turned on the radio. I had expected some sort of interrogation from him. He hadn’t missed an opportunity yet, but he didn’t seem annoyed with me. I wanted to change the station from the oldies country station he had it on. It had poor reception and when I reached for the buttons on the dashboard I looked up to see his eyebrow cock.

“No respect for the oldies,” he said, shaking his head.

“None,” I said and he let me shuffle through the stations for the one I usually listened to. When Maroon 5 sent his speakers thumping I leaned back and relaxed against the seat.

“This is Mom’s car,” he said over the music and I rolled my eyes turning the music off now that he seemed to be in the mood to talk. “They’re borrowing my truck for the trash stuff. I didn’t think you would want to go to the recycling center.”

“You thought right,” I said as we left town and he headed back towards our neighborhood. “If her eyes could shoot lasers she could have killed me.”

“Yeah,” he said, “I noticed that.”

“Afraid I’m going to get you sent off to jail or something?” I asked, trying not to smile.

“She trusts me more than that,” he answered hesitating slightly. “I think.”

“Maybe she knows about those R rated movies you watch,” I countered and he laughed again.

We rode in silence the rest of the way home. It was just getting around to supper time when he pulled into the driveway. He let the car idle until I slid out of the car. That is when Mom opened the door and I started shaking my head when she started waving for Luke to kill the engine and come in.

“Don’t,” I started, but he already turned the key and killed the engine.

“What?” He asked, shrugging out of his seatbelt smiling innocently, even though he knew what I had meant as he opened his door.

“Hi Luke,” Mom greeted from the front porch after Luke shut the door. I slammed the passenger door and we both made our way towards her. “How was the work boys?”

“Fine,” I answered. “Luke has to go, right Luke?”

“No,” he countered not looking at me, but he smiled up at Mom.

“I have dinner on the table,” she announced. “Come on in and eat.”

“Mom,” I groaned. “Cindy probably fixes dinner for them…”

“We eat take out on Sundays,” Luke interrupted and I sighed crossing my arms as I stomped up the stairs behind him. Mom started asking about the park and how the work was coming along, but I couldn’t help thinking that we usually had take out on Sundays too and wondered what she had up her sleeve.