Semi Charmed Life - 1. Chapter 1

Semi Charmed Life

Chapter 1

Jack’s feet slammed against the track. His arms pumped at his sides, and his breath whooshed in and out of his lungs, his heart beating fast. It was a familiar rhythm to him, and he gave his body over to it. Faster. Faster.

“Time!” coach called. Jack slowed his pace, dropped his arms, and took a few deep breaths, filling his aching lungs with air. “Proietti, Bills, Vorperian, take a two-minute break,” his coach barked. “Conlin, Modestino, Smith, you’re up!”

Jack jogged over to the side of the track and grabbed his water bottle to take a drink. He was pretty happy with his last sprint. Not his best, sure, but he was getting faster.

Jack surveyed the field, watching some of the high jumpers working and then grinned broadly when he noticed the slight, dark figure heading his way from the school.

“Hey D,” Jack called as Damon approached. He heaved himself up on the fence that separated the track from the bleachers. “Gimme a kiss,” he said, puckering his lips.

“Fuck off,” Damon said, but he was grinning as he said it. Damon, in Jack’s eyes, looked odd and uncomfortable in the bright afternoon sun. Damon was milk pale with long hair dyed dark. With his facial piercings, dark clothing, and weird spiky jewelry, he looked more at home in a Hot Topic store or club than out by the school track. Jack was his polar opposite. He was tanned where Damon was pale, and had blond hair and green eyes compared to Damon’s black and brown. Jack thought piercings were tacky (although he did admit a small, tasteful tattoo might be nice someday). Jack was more chinos and Sperrys, compared to Damon’s leather, fishnet, and abundance of black. Jack loved sports and the outdoors, and Damon preferred to hole up in his room with his paints and violin. The things they held in common were their love of video games, the street they grew up on, and the genuine affection that came from being friends for years, despite their differences.

“Can I have a ride home?” Damon asked.

“Detention again?”

Damon shrugged. “I fell asleep in Mr. Torrez’ class. It’s not my fault he’s so boring.” Damon’s voice took on a slow, droning quality that was eerily similar to the way Mr. Torrez actually talked. “Hola, clase. Como estas?”

Jack laughed. “Brutal. Sure, I can give you a ride after I’m done with practice. Why don’t you text Mom and ask if you can stay for dinner? I think she’s making tetrazzini.”

“Thanks man,” Damon said. A trio of girls walked past. One of them, a petite, slender, and curly haired blonde, smiled at him, and he winked back, sending her into a spate of giggles.

Damon settled on the bleachers, pulling out a textbook and reading with his earbuds in. The trio of girls also sat down on the bleachers, close to the front, watching the sprinters. Jack glanced over again as he ran, assuming one or all of them were probably the girlfriends of his classmates. The girl he assumed was the leader was a tall brunette, with her long hair in a high ponytail. She looked bored and was leaning towards one of her companions, a shorter girl with frizzy black hair, looking at something on her phone. The blonde with curly hair was sitting on one of the bleachers right above them, at a good vantage point to see the shorter girl’s phone, but wasn’t watching it. When Jack looked up, she was watching him.

It was flattering, but also made him self-conscious. He didn’t suck; he was one of their best sprinters, but it was still a little unnerving to feel that unrelenting stare on him.

After showering when practice ended, he packed up his stuff and met Damon on his way out of the locker room.

“Ready?” he asked, fishing in his pocket for his car keys.

“Um…Jack?” a soft voice asked from behind him.

He and Damon both turned. The trio of girls were there. The two darker haired girls were hanging back, but the blonde stepped forward. Up close, Jack thought she was pretty cute. She had light blue eyes, a small upturned nose, and sprinkling of freckles across her nose and cheeks. She was smiling in a slightly self-conscious way.

“Yeah?” Jack asked, smiling back.

“Um…hi. I’m Alyssa, and these are my friends, Deidra and Nathalie,” she said, gesturing behind her. “And…uh…we were wondering if you needed a ride?” the girl asked.

“Oh,” Jack said. “Um, no thanks. I have a car and I’m actually dropping my friend here off, so….”

The blonde colored slightly. “Hey, no problem. Have a good one.” She turned away and joined her friends, who giggled as they walked away.

Damon started to laugh too. “God, you’re so thick,” he said, starting across the parking lot.

Jack, who had been checking out the view from the rear, turned back to his friend. “What do you mean?”

“She was hitting on you, idiot,” Damon said. “You should have gone.”

“How would you get home?” Jack asked.

Damon shrugged as he opened up the passenger door. “Walked. I’ve done it before.”

“And what kind of friend would that make me?” Jack asked, sliding into the driver’s seat and closing the door.

“A shitty friend, but one who has a very slim possibility of getting laid,” Damon said with a grin.

Jack didn’t say anything as he started up the car and pulled out of the parking lot. Damon liked to tease him about his lack of dating experience, even though his friend didn’t seem to date that much either. Jack wasn’t averse to the idea, but most of his guy friends who were dating girls didn’t seem very happy, and he liked having free time to spend on video games, and his family, and Damon. He didn’t need a girl for that.

Jack drove them back to his house, and Damon followed him when he opened the door to the kitchen.

“Hello!” he called.

He heard Lucy greeting him from somewhere in the living room, where she was no doubt watching some Lizzy something Montana thing, or one of the girly Nickelodeon shows she liked, but Carson came running in on his little chubby legs, a huge grin on his face.

“Jack!” he cried, flinging himself at Jack’s leg and hugging it fiercely.

“Hey little bud,” Damon said.

“D!” Carson shouted, abandoning his older brother to cling to Damon’s boot clad leg instead. He held his arms up imploringly and Damon, grinning, hoisted him up. Jack suspected that Carson was more attracted to Damon’s weird clothing, hair, and jewelry, than to Damon himself, but Damon looked so happy whenever Carson ran up to him and asked him to pick him up that he never said anything.

“Where’s Mom?” Jack asked.

“Laundry!” Carson caroled. Jack went to say hi to her, as she always wanted to know when Jack got home, and Damon carried Carson to the living room to deposit him on the sofa.

“Hi Mom,” Jack said. She looked up from where she was pulling towels out of the dryer and into the basket. “Hi honey. How was school?”

“It was school,” he replied. “I brought Damon home with me. Is it cool if he stays for dinner?”

“Of course, honey,” she said absently. “It’ll be ready at seven when your dad gets home.”

Jack took Damon up to his room. Jack was limited to video games that were age-appropriate for his younger siblings. He had tried to sneak in one of the Grand Theft Auto games when he turned seventeen, but his mom found it while cleaning his room and confiscated it. However, Damon was allowed to buy whatever games he wanted, as long as he had money for it, and he would bring them over for them to play.

Damon dropped his bag on the ground. “Okay, I have GTA 5 and Overwatch.”

Jack grinned as he took the games. Damon let him play while he worked on more homework.

“So are you going to ask her out?” Damon asked, out of the blue.

Jack looked over at him. “Hmm?”

“That girl, from the track. Angela?”

“Alyssa.”

“Yeah,” Damon said. “Are you?”

Jack glanced at Damon again. He was bent over his textbook, pen moving over his paper. He was wearing black fingerless gloves decorated with metal studs. Jack didn’t remember seeing them before and guessed that Damon wasn’t allowed to wear them at school because they could be misused as a weapon.

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Maybe?” Damon asked. “You don’t like her?” He was still looking down at his books and papers, although his pen wasn’t moving anymore.

“I don’t really know her. I mean, she’s pretty, I guess, but I’ve never talked to her before.”

“She’s in our physics class.”

“No, she’s not.”

“Yeah, she sits up near the front; that’s probably why you’ve never noticed. Cause you’re in the back with losers like me.”

Jack frowned. Damon struggled in classes sometimes, but he managed to get passing grades.

“You’re not a loser,” Jack said. “Don’t be mean to my friend like that.”

He saw the hint of a smile on Damon’s face as he turned a page in his textbook. Jack noticed the gloves again, and before he could think too much about it, he was reaching over and grabbing one of Damon’s hands. “What are these?” he asked, running a finger over the studs. “Are they new?” He turned Damon’s hand to look at the palm of the gloves.

“Yeah, I just got them the other day,” Damon said. Jack found himself sliding his thumb along Damon’s palm, liking the feel of the leather and the warmth of Damon’s hand underneath. The leather looked rough on the outside, but on the palm, it was buttery smooth. When Jack glanced up, Damon was watching him. Jack knew he was holding Damon’s hand for much longer than he needed to, but he didn’t let go. Damon wasn’t talking, was hardly moving, just watching him with his dark eyes. Something sharp and electric crackled between them as their eyes met.

A creak on the top stair warned Jack someone was approaching, and he jumped up to turn off the television, breaking the weird spell between them. Damon slammed his textbook shut and shoved it into his bag.

“Dinner time,” Lucy said. “Hey Damon.”

“Hey, Lucy-Lu,” Damon said with a grin. Jack could see it was faked and strained.

“We’ll be down in a sec,” Jack said. Lucy turned and raced back down the stairs.

Damon was pink in the face and refused to meet his eyes. “Actually, I think I’m going to head out,” Damon said quietly, watching the floor as he slid his bag back across his shoulders.

“You’re not staying for dinner?” Jack asked, feeling confused and, if he was being honest with himself, a little crestfallen. Damon loved his mom’s chicken tetrazzini and would usually ask for second or third helpings.

“Nah, I have a fuckton of homework tonight.”

“I can help—”

Damon cut him off. “It’s no big deal, I’ll see you in class tomorrow.” He turned away and was down the stairs before Jack could come up with any further arguments.

What the hell? Jack thought. Damon hated going home, had ever since his mom had started dating her new boyfriend. Damon usually stayed over at Jack’s house for as long as he could.

And he left his games, Jack thought, carefully packing them away in his backpack to return to him tomorrow.

Damon’s abrupt departure continued to gnaw at him for the rest of the night, through dinner, when his mom asked about him, circling his mind while he did dishes, and troubling him as he showered. He must have done something to piss Damon off, but he couldn’t figure out what. His first thought was Damon might be worried about him striking up a friendship with Alyssa and leaving him left out, but he had been the one pushing him about seeing Alyssa in the first place. The only other thing he had done was check out his gloves. And yeah, that had been a little weird, but not to the extent he thought it justified Damon fleeing the house.

He was still thinking about it when he went to bed. He had trouble sleeping, as usual. If he was really struggling, he knew he could go to his mom and ask for his sleeping pills, but he tried other options first. Practicing his deep breathing technique didn’t help, and neither did tensing and then relaxing all of his muscles, starting from the toes and working up.

His mind kept going back to that evening. Things got weird after he had commented on Damon’s gloves. Maybe Damon had thought Jack was making fun of them. Or maybe he thought Jack liked the gloves too and was worried about Jack copying him by getting his own pair.

He remembered the way the leather felt under his thumb, the heat from Damon’s palm warming it. Something dark and secret stirred in his stomach, and he felt his face grow hot. He pictured the gloves again, the studded detailing, and the way Damon’s slender fingers looked inside the dark leather. He imagined feeling that leather against his skin, sliding across his face or down his chest. His cock stirred, and he felt his face grow even hotter.

Great, he thought. He pressed his cool hands against his overly hot face, feeling annoyed with himself. It was hard to tell what would turn him on these days.

He turned onto his side and curled up, ignoring the warm throbbing ache in between his legs, and waited for sleep to find him.

*** 

When Jack got up the next morning, he was none the wiser, just tired and cranky. He ate breakfast in a sullen silence and was on his way out the door when his mom stopped him.

“I boxed up some of the leftover tetrazzini from last night for Damon,” she said, holding up one of the insulated bags she used to pack food in. “I put in a cold pack, so it should stay fresh until he can get home and heat it up.”

“Thanks!” Jack said. It would be hard for Damon to be mad if Jack was offering him his mom’s cooking. Trying to capitalize on his mom’s generosity, he stopped by Starbucks to pick up a coffee for Damon. Damon joked he liked his coffee as black as his soul, which meant no cream, but lots of sugar. Jack picked up five packets of sugar as he left.

Jack felt well prepared for damage control, but when he found Damon, he was his usual convivial, sarcastic, and dark humored self. He was delighted by the coffee and tetrazzini.

“Wow, it’s like my birthday or something,” he said while emptying the sugar packets into his drink. “I hope I’m not dying or anything.”

Jack grinned. “Pre-emptive strike against whatever I did to piss you off last night.”

Damon’s smile faded, and he looked stricken.

“Oh fuck. No, no, I wasn’t pissed, I just--” Damon sighed and ran a hand through his hair and let it fall again. “I just---well, never mind. I just have a lot of stuff on my mind that I wanted to think about, that’s all.”

“Well, like what?” Jack asked.

“Well, like the guy Mom is seeing.”

“Claude?”

Damon rolled his eyes. “Yes. I was hoping she would have dumped him by now.”

“You don’t like him,” Jack noted. He had never even met Claude, just knew that it was some guy Damon’s mother knew from her job.

“He’s very…opinionated,” Damon said. “So far, I have heard his opinions on Muslims, Hispanics, Blacks, Jews, and homos.”

“Sounds like a charmer,” Jack said sarcastically.

“Yeah, he’s a fucking peach,” Damon said. He drained the rest of his coffee and picked up his bag. “Bell’s about to ring. I’ll see you in Physics. Thanks for the coffee, man.”

“Sure thing,” Jack said, watching his friends retreating back.

Jack mulled over Damon’s words from the night before during his first period Pre-Calc class. Maybe Damon was right. Maybe he should ask Alyssa out. She was pretty and seemed nice, and his mom kept making thinly veiled comments about dating to him.

So when he got to Physics class, instead of sliding into the back of the classroom with Damon, he searched the classroom for Alyssa and sat down next to her. She looked surprised at first, then smiled.

“Hi.”

“Hey,” Jack said. “Alyssa, right?”

“Yeah.”

He tried to think of something funny or cool to say, but it was like his brain had short circuited, and he came up with nothing. He glanced around and made eye contact with Damon who smiled and gave him a thumbs up. It bolstered his confidence.

“I like your shirt,” he said, gesturing to the T-shirt she was wearing. It had the name of a church on the front and a Bible verse on the back, all in blaringly pink letters on a neon green background. “Is that your church?”

“Mm-hmm,” Alyssa said, nodding. “Do you go there; I don’t think I’ve seen you around.”

“No,” Jack said. “We usually go to First Baptist.” In truth, it was mostly his parents who took the kids there, but he would tag along once or twice. Most Sundays he preferred to sleep in.

Alyssa leaned in towards him, twisting one of her curls around a finger. His sister Lucy did the same thing when she was nervous or worried. “Our church is having a youth group meeting tonight around six. We watch a short film and then discuss it, or sometimes play games.” She turned a little pink, and Jack thought it was adorable. “You can come and check it out.”

“Sure.”

Damon caught back up with him at lunch. Like most seniors, they were allowed to eat out on the quad. There were some picnic tables scattered around, but most people would just spread out a blanket or their coats to eat on the ground when the weather was nice.

When Damon flopped down next to Jack, he looked sheepish and asked, “Can I bum another ride?”

“Detention again?”

“Well, apparently, teachers frown upon carving the anarchy symbol in your desk with an X-Acto knife.”

Jack frowned. “That’s it?”

“Well, they also aren’t amused when, upon getting caught, you pretend to slit your throat with the X-Acto knife.”

“Jesus, D.”

“And it’s probably not a good idea to follow it up with an abortion joke.”

“I don’t want to know,” Jack interrupted. “I don’t want to know.”

Damon grinned, an expression of evil glee spreading across his face. “Are you sure? It involves the X-acto knife too.”

“Christ, no! God, Damon, are you trying to get expelled?”

“Suspended, actually, but they keep on giving me detention and making me talk to the school counselor. So…can I catch a ride?”

“Okay, but firstly, no abortion jokes—”

“No promises.”

“—and secondly,” Jack continued, ignoring the interruption, “I can drive you home, but I can’t have you over because I’m going out again.”

“Hot date tonight?” Damon asked suggestively.

“Alyssa invited me to a youth group thing at her church,” Jack admitted.

“You’re taking her to church?” Damon asked, looking appalled at the thought.

Jack shrugged. “She asked me.”

“Good luck, man.”

He was home long enough to eat a little dinner and change into something a little more formal than his usual jeans and T-shirt. He knew most churches were more relaxed about dress codes, especially outside of Sunday services, but his parents always made him dress up for church, so the least he was comfortable doing was changing into khakis and a nice button down.

He met with Alyssa at the church. The evening was…well, Jack thought it was a little weird. Not bad, just different. They watched a film about a teenager who used her religious conviction to triumph over her struggle with addiction. There was a discussion afterwards, and the group leader, obviously pegging Jack as a new face, made sure to keep asking him about his opinion. Jack, who knew no one there aside from Alyssa, felt flustered, and fumbled to speak when asked a question, but Alyssa would usually speak up to cover for him and divert the attention away from him. They teamed up when they played Codewords with some of her friends and won most of their games easily.

All in all, he had worse evenings, but he couldn’t help but grin when he thought of what Damon would make of all of this. He would probably laugh his ass off.

“I had a good time tonight,” Alyssa said from his passenger seat. Jack had chivalrously offered to drive her home.

“Yeah, it was a good time,” Jack said. “The movie was neat; I hadn’t seen it before.”

“If you like the church, maybe you could come to the Sunday service?” Alyssa offered. “Our choir is really good, and the minister is pretty young, and his sermons are fun and easy to understand. Our old minister was so stuffy, he used to put half the congregation to sleep.”

Jack had a sudden mental flashback of Damon imitating his droning Spanish teacher and had to bite the inside of his lip to keep from laughing.

“Or, maybe you like your own church?” Alyssa continued. She was talking faster, and Jack realized she was nervous. “I’ve not been, but I wouldn’t mind checking it out either. If that wouldn’t weird you out, I mean. I’m not trying to like, intrude upon your beliefs or anything, just—”

“Alyssa,” Jack interrupted as they pulled up to a red light. He glanced at her and smiled. “I’d be happy to go to your church with you on Sunday.”

She smiled and looked down at her lap. He pulled up to her house and wondered for a brief, panic stricken moment if he was supposed to kiss her or something. Alyssa moved in for an awkward hug instead and then was clambering out of the car and waving at him.

“See you at school tomorrow!” she called, before turning back towards the house.

“So, how was your church date?” Damon asked the next day. He was lying on his back in the quad, eating animal crackers. Jack wondered if he was worried about choking.

“It was…okay,” he finally said. “A little weird. I mean, I didn’t know anyone. But Alyssa is cool.”

“So are you taking her out again?”

“She invited me to church on Sunday.”

“Oh my God.” Damon turned over on his stomach. “And I bet you’re going?”

“Yes,” Jack said, a little confused by his friend’s reaction. “You have a problem with church?”

“Your girlfriend sounds super religious.”

“She’s not my girlfriend yet,” Jack said. “And it’s just church. Lots of people go to church.”

Damon turned onto his back again. He held out a giraffe shaped cookie, and Jack took it.

“Just promise me you won’t turn into one of those religious freaks.”

“Like the Westboro assholes? No way.”

“Can I at least get a ride home after school?”

“Detention again?” Jack teased, nudging Damon’s calf with his toe.

“Not really,” Damon said. “Just something I need to talk to you about.”

“Am I in trouble?” Jack asked, half teasing and half apprehensive.

Damon looked at him, but Jack couldn’t see his eyes behind his sunglasses. He grinned.

“No. I just have something I want to run past you. Privately.”

“Sure.”

Damon got to his feet, picking up his leather trench coat. “See you then,” he said. He knelt down and placed the box of animal crackers on Jack’s chest. “I saved all the giraffes for you.”

Jack couldn’t help but feel nervous as he drove them back home. Damon had told him it wasn’t anything bad, just private, but he sounded serious and Damon was never serious.

Jack pulled into his usual spot on the side of the road and led Damon to the house, unlocking it.

“Your folks aren’t home?” Damon asked.

“Dad is working late to catch up, Mom took the kids for haircuts, and I think they might be shopping too. They’ll be back in time for dinner.”

“Can I smoke?” Damon asked.

“Sure,” Jack agreed, shutting his door and opening the window. He didn’t smoke weed, but knew Damon liked to. Damon lit up and sat crossed legged near the window. He looked nervous.

“Hey, dude, c’mon,” Jack said, sitting on his bed. “You know you can tell me anything.” He grinned and tried to lighten the mood. “Even that crazy shit about the aliens you told me that one time.”

“I was high when I said that,” Damon retorted, trying to sound haughty. “It doesn’t count.”

“You said that Neil Armstrong was an alien!”

“I was just saying, that if you spell Neil A, backwards, that it spells Alien. That’s it.”

“And it makes way less sense than my theory about Cosmopolitan.”

“Oh my God.” Damon threw his arm dramatically over his eyes, coming very close to singeing himself with the lit end of his joint. “Not the Cosmo thing again.”

“Cosmo is written for the single female reader, right? That’s why they always have such shitty sex advice in them, so their readers stay single. I’ve read one of your mom’s Cosmo magazines, and you will not believe some of the stuff they’re telling girls to do to guys. Especially with our junk.”

“It’s not a conspiracy theory,” Damon said. “And it’s serious.”

“Okay. Well, I’m all ears.”

“It’s just---well—” Damon took a deep breath, and Jack could almost see the way he was trying to draw up his courage and steel himself. “I’m gay.”

Jack felt his eyebrows draw up, but tried to keep a neutral expression. “No shit, really?”

Damon nodded. “Yeah. I think….no, I don’t think, I know I am. And I’m not hitting on you or anything. Not my type, no offense.”

“None taken,” Jack replied.

“Well, that’s it,” Damon said. “That’s the thing.”

Jack nodded, trying to take it all in. Silence hung between them, unraveling into an uncomfortable, cold gulf between them. Jack remembered how awkward his first conversation with Alyssa was, how he struggled to find words. And complimenting Damon’s shirt was not going to cut it this time.

“Why aren’t you saying anything?” Damon asked.

“I’m thinking.”

“About what?”

Jack opened his mouth and hesitated, suddenly feeling the seriousness of the moment. This was important. Fragile. Vital. So important that he not say the wrong thing, that he not open his mouth and insert his foot in it like he so often did.

Say something. Anything.

There was a break in the silence, a stuttered, choppy breath that drew Jack’s attention. Damon was staring determinedly at the floor. Jack watched him bring the joint up to his lips with trembling fingers and something fell from his eye to slide down his cheek.

Shit, shit, shit.

“Hey,” Jack slid off the bed and sat down next to Damon on the floor, throwing an arm around his shoulder. The tear that he wasn’t supposed to see had disappeared. “Hey, c’mon, I’m sorry. You know I’m an idiot. I’m sorry.”

Damon let out a chuckle and took another drag, not looking at him. He slumped down, resting his head and arms on his upraised knees. The gesture spoke of unmistakable exhaustion and defeat.

“Hey, man, I’m really sorry,” Jack said again, rubbing his friend’s back.

“I just want you to tell me,” Damon’s voice was strained and held a hint of restrained anger, “-what you are thinking right now.”

“Hey, you know I don’t think,” Jack joked. “Hey, it’s really no big deal man. I mean, it is, but it isn’t. I mean…shit. I’m fucking this up. Dude, it’s totally cool.”

Damon snorted.

“No, seriously. If you’re into dudes, then that’s totally cool.”

“I—I don’t know,” Damon said shakily, sitting back upright and staring determinedly at a spot on the closet door. “I thought maybe it would gross you out or make you hate me.”

“Never,” Jack replied, and he hoped his friend could hear the confidence behind that word. “I’m not going to hate you for being you. So you like dudes. So what? You’re still my friend, my best friend, and nothing is going to change that. Especially not this. It’s not for me, but it doesn’t gross me out, and it’s absolutely not something to end a friendship over.”

Damon’s mouth twitched into an almost smile.

“Thanks man. That means a lot.”

“So…is there someone you’re into? Some guy?” Jack asked. God, that felt weird to say.

Damon smiled and colored a little. “I…have a crush,” he admitted.

Jack grinned. “C’mon, spit it out.”

Damon shook his head.

“Oh c’mon. Tell me. You can’t just tell me you’re into someone and not tell me who!”

“It’s…it’s complicated. I’m not even sure he’s gay. But if something happens, I promise you’ll know about it.”

“That’s fair,” Jack said. “Stay for dinner tonight, okay? We’re having fajitas, and I’m not taking no for an answer.”

Jack stood up and held his hand out towards his friend. Damon took it and let Jack pull him to his feet. “Alright.”

That weekend, he went with Alyssa to church. He was pleased to see she dressed up for church, the same as he did. He knew some people went in street clothes, but he would feel weird not wearing a suit. He went through the harrowing experience of being introduced to her parents, and after the service ended, he took her out to lunch.

“Sorry about my parents,” Alyssa said, dragging a french-fry through the ketchup pooled on her plate. “But they’re a bit overprotective. They always insist on meeting all of my friends.” “Only child?” Jack guessed.

“Yeah.” Alyssa shrugged her shoulders and looked down at her plate. “My parents were told they wouldn’t be able to have children, so it was a surprise when I showed up. My dad wanted to name me something stupid, like Miracle or Victory, but thank God my mom talked him out of it.”

Jack nodded sympathetically, having the suspicion that he might have been an “whoopsie” baby himself.

As he talked to Alyssa, he found himself warming up to her. She was smart and well-articulated, but extremely sheltered.

“You’ve never seen an R-rated movie?” he asked, as the waitress came by and dropped their check on the table. He quickly grabbed it.

Alyssa shook her head. “Nope.”

Jack gaped. “So you haven’t seen Deadpool, or The Matrix or…or The Exorcist or…anything?”

“Why would I want to watch The Exorcist?” Alyssa asked. “Isn’t it about demons?”

“Well, yeah. But it’s a horror movie.”

“I don’t like horror. And I don’t like a lot of comedies,” Alyssa countered. “I started to watch an R-rated movie at a friend’s house, and I couldn’t do it. I don’t like the things that make a move R-rated. The language, the violence, the sex.” She shuddered. “My friends insisted on watching it, though, so I went into the other room and read until it was over. They teased me all night about it.”

“Well, I think it’s kinda cool,” Jack said, as the waitress swooped by again to collect his cash. “That you have morals and virtues and stuff, and you care enough to stand by them, even when other people don’t.”

Alyssa turned a little pink in her face. “Thanks. My parents have always told me if I can’t stand up in the face of small things, then it’ll be harder for me to stand up in the face of big things.”

“That…makes a lot of sense,” Jack said. He had never thought about things like that before.

When he pulled up to her house afterwards to drop her off, he gathered up his courage to ask her out on a proper date.

“Would…would you like to go out this Friday? To a movie or something?”

Alyssa beamed at him. “That would be fun. Is there anything you want to see?”

“You pick,” Jack said. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow at school.”

Alyssa nodded. “That sounds…good.” She was still smiling when she exited the car.

Jack found himself smiling as he drove back home.

Damon would get a kick out of this.