Ready to Take on the World

Chapter 15: Jake's version of the truth

Jake sat down on a bench and put his hands up to cover his face. He took a deep breath and then looked into my eyes and said:''I would never hurt Brian, he was my best friend. You know I ... I realised that us fighting over a girl was a stupid idea, so I wanted to talk to him and patch things up. But then one day he just stopped arguing with me. He wouldn't even look at me. I heard that he fell down the hill, so I didn't ask him about the bruises. I mean, I wanted to, but I couldn't. He stayed away from me and didn't want to talk to me at all. I didn't know what was wrong. I tried to tell him that I didn't care about that girl anymore and I wanted to be friends again, but he ignored all of it. So I backed off. I had no idea what his problem was.''

''Well now you know. He thought you ordered those guys to beat him. I mean you were young, to be honest, I don't think someone that age is capable of something like that. Especially not you. Or maybe you just changed a lot.'' I said and looked at the floor when I said those last words.

''No, I didn't do it. You have to believe me.'' He looked at me with his deep and pleading eyes. 

'How could I not?' His eyes, his body and his voice were telling the truth. He wasn't lying, I just knew it.

''It's OK, I believe you. I do. But we have to sort things out. Brian thinks you did it. After those guys were done with him, they said:'Jake says hi.' That's a pretty big reason to do the things he did. He was afraid of you. It's understandable he stayed away from you and didn't want to talk to you when he thought you were the mastermind behind that plan. Why didn't you tell me about this?''

''I didn't think it mattered. I didn't know he thought it was me. We wanted the same girl, fought over her and then he didn't talk to me again. Sounds kinda reasonable. Plus she moved right after that. Like two weeks after Brian started ignoring me, she moved and I didn't push him anymore.'' I heard a sadness in his voice and something like ... regret.

I nodded and another thing came to my mind:''But if it wasn't you, then who was it?'' 

Jake shrugged and said:''I don't know.''

I got a crazy idea:''Do you think it could've been her? Just to mess with you. You did say she enjoyed the attention.''

Jake frowned and responded:''I don't think she was capable of something like that. We were ,what, 13 and she was like one or two year older, so that would make her 14 or maybe 15. We were too young. I mean fighting over a girl and going from friends to enemies, well that seems reasonable, but ordering someone to beat someone else up, that's too much for our age. Maybe it could've been someone from her family, I don't know. I mean, we didn't really know her family that well. Maybe it was fucked up.''

''What do you know about her family?'' A detective inside me awakened.

''I know she had a sister and I think two brothers. I think they were all older than her, like 2 or 3 years. I know there was this incident with one of her brothers once. He got into some kind of trouble. Something involving drugs or alcohol, I'm not sure. I think he spent a year in juvie. But that was before we knew his sister.''

''So he was like my age or younger and he was already in juvie?'' I say in disbelief.

''Yeah, I guess. He was a troublemaker.''

''You think?'' I smiled. I realised I made a funny voice unknowingly. He laughed. 'Was it that bad?'

I sighed and said:''Look maybe we should do some investigation. I want to find out the truth. Otherwise my brothers will never accept you. Brian has no reason to believe you and I don't think he will. He's sure you sent those guys and he has no reason to think otherwise. So the only way to do this is to dig a little and find out what really happened.''

''Wow, my little investigator.'' He chuckled and gave me a flirtatious look.

''I'm not little.'' I said, ignoring the look, and continued with explaining:''Now, I can ask Dalton for help, but I'm gonna need a cover. We can ask mine and your friends for help. And until we're done, none of my brothers can know. When we know the truth, we'll tell them, OK?'' I put my finger up and pointed it towards him.

He raised his hands up in surrender. I didn't realise how harsh I was.

''All right, if you say so ... then so be it.'' He chuckled. I sighed and checked my phone. I had a few minutes left. I didn't know time passed so quickly. 'Damn, I lost track of time again, I have to be back home in a few minutes. How the hell am I gonna do that?'

I stood up and said:''I gotta go or my brothers will make a big fuss over how late I am. We don't want that, trust me.''

I turned around and wanted to step in the other direction, away from Jake, when he grabbed my forearm making me turn around towards him. Jesus, again. He knelt and said:''I know you already agreed, but I wanted to make it official.''

He pulled out a ring made of little branches and flowers. It was so pretty.  

'What is he doing? Is he gonna propose? WTF?'

He said:''Would you be my girlfriend?'' I smiled and nodded:''Yes, I would love to be your girlfriend.''

For the first time in my life I had a boyfriend. A real boyfriend. I had imaginary boyfriends before. Just ignore that fact.

''The ring is so beautiful. Did you make it yourself?''

He nodded and said:''Another one of my hobbies. But I don't do it a lot.''

''Well you should. You're really good at it.'' I gave him the biggest smile I could.

He grinned back at me, from ear to ear and said:''Maybe now I will, cause I've got a reason to do it. You.''

We kissed. His kisses were so gentle. We didn't kiss a lot yet, 'cause it was soon and I think he understood that. But now that he was officially my boyfriend, I had a feeling we were gonna kiss a lot more. 'No shit Sherlock, that's usually what couples do, you know.'

I pulled out of the kiss and said:''I really have to go. Do you want to have the whole police unit on your ass?''

He frowned, shook his head and I said:''I thought so.''

I walked home quickly. I wrote Dalton a message saying:''Don't panic, I'll be home in 10.''

He wrote back:''You better be or you know what happens.''

Would he really do it? I didn't think so, but I didn't have the guts to mess with Dalton. He was capable of anything. I didn't have any other plans anyway. So I walked home and I was home sooner that I expected.