Changing With Autumn

Chapter 9

I stood with the car door ajar for a few seconds in an awkward silence while my thoughts ran through my head of just how much I hated my life right now. It wasn’t until he cleared his throat and gave me a very amused look that I came back to my senses.

“Um, hi. Um Aaron called me and said you were giving me a ride home?” I very embarrassingly squeaked out.

He chuckled at my awkwardness. Alright I really hate this guy. He didn’t respond right away and I was getting more and more annoyed as he began giving me a “this girl is so weird” kind of look. It really made me want to hit him as hard as I could right in the face and smack it off of him. 

“Well Aaron asked me to take the weird girl from the party home, sooo I’m assuming that would be you right?” He asked

Ok so now I hate this guy and I hate Aaron even more than I already did, if that was even possible. I had to make a mental note to myself to kick his dumbass in the balls as soon as I got back to Erika’s house. 

“You know what, it’s fine. Sorry to waste your time, I’ll just walk home. Thanks anyways.” I said, anger clearly evident in my voice. I was already trying to hold it all together thanks to this whole situation so I definitely wasn’t in the mood to deal with some dude that was just an asshole on top of it all.

“Wait, wait. I’m sorry. It was just a joke. Seriously jump in. I’ll take you wherever you need to go.” He tried to stop me before I slammed the door, but I wasn’t about to deal with this and I wasn’t about to continue this conversation with him. 

I harshly shut the door closed behind me and I began to walk away. I could hear him jump out of the car and he tried to call me to come back. I continued to walk away faster, but I didn’t take into account that this guy might actually be that determined to take me home. I heard his footsteps coming closer and in what seemed like no time he came up beside me and grabbed my elbow to pull me to a stop.

“Wait seriously,” he said. “Look, it wasn’t funny. I’m sorry. I was just making a joke. Aaron is a d**k. He shouldn’t have said it and I shouldn’t have repeated it. Please just let me drive you home.” He apologetically tried to backpedal and appease me. 

I tried really hard to run through any other options I had. If I could just think of a way out of this I would take that option in a heartbeat. I couldn’t walk. It was already dark and we were way too far from my place or Erika’s. I wasn’t trying to end up on a milk carton. I also couldn’t call anyone to come pick me up; my parents would literally kill me if they found out that I was at a party, and I would be under house arrest for the rest of my life. Not to mention that Erika would be the only person I know who I would call under different circumstances. Freaking Erika. I grudgingly admitted that I had no other options and gave him a slight nod turning back to the direction of his car. 

We were quiet on the walk back and when we made it to the car he opened the door for me. I gave him a quiet thank you and reluctantly slid into the passenger seat. I watched him walk around the front of the car towards the driver’s seat and tried to convince myself that maybe this wouldn’t be too bad. He seemed like he was genuinely trying to be nice. I could handle a car ride to Erika’s house and then be on my way. I doubt he would try to talk to me so we could just sit in a blissful awkward silence. Plus he wasn’t from around here so I wouldn’t have to deal with awkward run-ins with each other after this.

He slid into the driver’s seat and started the car then looked over to me expectantly and smiled. He just sat there looking at me and I began to shift in my seat uncomfortably. The uncomfortable silence continued for a few moments longer while I tried to avoid eye contact and he began to chuckle.

“What?” I asked, looking over at him and getting annoyed again.

“Uh, I don’t know where I’m headed. Kinda need some help here. I have the GPS, if you have the address you can just type it in.” He said with an amused and cocky grin.

“Oh s**t, sorry.” Embarrassed, I mentally headbanged while typing in the address to the GPS. The mechanical voice began her directions and he started driving, but not before I noticed from my peripheral vision that his cocky grin had turned into a full blown, hundred watt smile. I turned my face to look out the window and hid behind my hair to cover the red tingeing my face. Stupid Erika. Stupid Aaron; and now stupid, stupid asshole eye candy sitting next to me.

We drove in silence with only the sound of the radio lightly playing as a slight background noise. I wasn’t entirely paying attention to anything going on around me until I heard the radio turn up a little louder. The speakers then began to play the sweet sounds of Lincoln Park “Numb,” which of course is the type of song that you just can’t resist the temptation of moving or singing to. Without thinking about what I was doing and what my situation was in this uncomfortable moment, I began to unconsciously hum along with the tune. 

“Oh, the girl has some good taste in music.” He startled me out of my music induced trance. I could hear the smile still in his voice.

I jumped slightly and instantly felt the blood drain from the rest of my body and rush up to my face. How stupid of me. It was so quiet in the car I had forgotten that he would be able to hear me. I was trying desperately to pull it together and play it cool even though I know my face told a different story. So to buy myself a couple more seconds to collect myself I gave him a shrug. 

Trying to sound unaffected I told him, “Yeah Lincoln Park is legit, and my name isn’t ‘the girl’ by the way. I do have a name.” 

“Ok. What’s your name then?” He asked, trying to keep the corner of his mouth from twitching into his very annoying and ever present smirk.

“Willow.” I said barely loud enough for him to catch it.

“Willow. I like it. It suits you.” He said while nodding his head.

“What does that mean?” I asked, with a twinge of annoyance but mostly wondering where he was headed with this. 

I couldn’t tell if he was messing with me. My defensive stance was taking place and I was ready for battle if need be. It was typical that there would be just another person trying to get under my skin. Distance doesn’t change people. Jerks are jerks everywhere and the weirdo-s are taunted for being weirdo-s everywhere also.  

“Nothing, just it suits you. It stands out. You don’t hear it very often, and plus it’s kind of cute.”  He said with a side glance at me.

My head snapped up towards him, and I let out a tiny snort. Now I was positive that this guy was screwing around with me again. Claws were officially extended now. 

“What?” I said, trying not to let my rising anger lace my voice. “It’s not all that, it's just a basic name.”

“Well, I like it.” He said with a shrug. “My name is Jake by the way.” 

He took his hand off the steering wheel and held it out towards me. I looked at him for a minute with my eyebrow c****d up. I couldn’t help but wonder what was up with this guy. He looked over at me expectantly and I watched him with scrutiny trying to figure out what game he was playing. He raised his eyebrow in return and hesitantly, I took his hand in return and gave him a small and guarded smile.

“Tell me about yourself Willow. What other music do you listen to? What do you like to do? Give me the deets.” He asked, continuing this increasingly weird car ride conversation.

“Uh, not much to say really. I read, I listen to everything basically. I have a very eclectic playlist. Other than that I am just basic, boring Willow.” I replied nonchalantly.

“Aw come on. I know there is a lot more to you than just basic and boring I’m sure. How do you know Aaron then? He doesn’t seem like the kind of person you would hang out with.” He asked.

“I don’t hang out with Aaron. He’s my best friend’s on and off again, and since she can’t seem to get rid of him, I unfortunately, am stuck dealing with him more than I would like to be.” I said

“Oh, so you don’t like him.” He stated matter of factly.

“No. I don’t like him.” I said simply and honestly.

“Cool, me neither,” he laughed. “I don’t like Ricky either honestly. I didn’t even want to go tonight, but Ricky kinda forced me into it. Something along the lines of bro time and babes.” 

“Yeah that sounds familiar.” I said, looking back out the window again.

Thankfully, the drive to Erika’s house didn’t take too much longer. This weird back and forth with Jake trying to make small talk was super awkward. He was being really nice, and because of the fact that I was actually extremely thankful that he was willing to drop me off and me not becoming a pedo play toy, I simply played along. He could have left me at the party, but he didn’t, even after I stormed off in a failed attempt at fleeing. Plus it did seem like he was trying to make me feel comfortable but that still didn’t mean that I wanted to spill everything about myself to some guy I didn’t know. I wasn’t one of the girls desperate for his attention at the party. He was hot, but he wasn’t the make a fool out of myself kind of hot. 

I would have been fine with not talking at all the whole ride back. Plus in all honesty, it was kinda weirding me out that he was being so nice. Wasn’t Erika telling me that this guy has a bad boy reputation? I couldn’t help but think that that couldn’t be right. They had to have been talking about someone else because this guy didn’t seem to have it in him to be the bad boy they were talking about. I couldn’t see him as the kind of guy getting kicked out of school for getting into fights constantly. I couldn’t even see him as the kind of guy that ever got into trouble at school unless it was getting into trouble for being a distraction to the girls drooling at him. 

He really, really didn’t look the bad boy part either. You think bad boy and you automatically think of a person that walks into a room and people take notice. My mind connected the bad boy type with the likes of Johnny Depp in Crybaby. Or John Travola in Grease. Jake just seemed to be a normal cute guy. He looked like every other typical high school boy. Full of confidence and cockiness. Definite eye candy for sure, but basically just a regular high school boy.

The GPS gave it’s ending directions and we finally had made it back to Erika’s house. He pulled up next to the curb and put the car in park, shifting himself in his seat to face me. 

“Um, thanks for the ride Jake. I really appreciate it.” I said, reaching to open the car door.

“No problem. It was fun trying to get a glimpse at the world of not so basic or boring Willow.” He smiled his cocky grin at me again.

I gave him a little smile and slid out of the car. Before I could close the door he called for me to wait. I let out a breath, squeezed my eyes closed and scrunched my nose up before quickly controlling my features and lowering my head back down into the car.

“Hey, so uh, this was fun. You wanna get together sometime? I wanna get to know you more. I can hit you up next time I come back into town.” He asked, completely catching me off guard.

“Yeah. Um, Sure,” I said, just trying to end this conversation as quickly as possible. 

His smile spread across his face and he gave me a quick ok. I gave him a small smile in return and shut the door, turning to walk away. I pulled out my keys from my pocket and used my spare key to Erika’s house to let myself in. Behind me I could hear the window roll down on Jake’s car.

“Night Willow.” He called out to me.

I raised my hand in a small wave to him and watched him as he pulled away from the curb and drove off. I shook my head as I turned to walk into Erika’s house and closing the door behind me I couldn’t help but think, “What the hell was that?”