The Lakes

Chapter 7

       

7

"So it finally happened," Jocelyn said with an air of arrogance.

"What?" Chris replied trying to maintain her focus.  Mr. Lake had told her he wanted to meet with her about something not ten minutes after she'd agreed to go to lunch with Jeremy.  Five minutes after that Jocelyn had sat her impeccably dressed butt into one of Chris' chairs.  Needless to say she had a lot on her mind.

"You know what, don't be coy with me.  Those doe eyes of yours can only get you so far," she said with a jealous edge.

"Doe eyes?" she said finally turning to Jocelyn.

"Look Chris," she said leaning over again, "I really like you.  I think you're a nice girl, and I feel like we're friends."  Chris thought about this in the little bit of silence between that and Jocelyn's next sentence.  Tommy was her friend.  And in comparison Jocelyn was not, but she was the closest she'd had to a girlfriend in quite some time.  She would consider that later.  "So I want to give you fair warning: you're going to be in way over your head."

"What does that mean?" Chris asked feeling offended.

"You just seem to be a little naïve with boys," she said sounding motherly.

"I am not!" Chris snapped back.

She'd had her fair share of boyfriends over the years.  They were always hesitant to approach her because of her relationship with Tommy.  Then once she started dating them it always seemed to end because of Tommy.  They always became insanely jealous of him, without reason of course.  But it was hard to explain why Tommy would answer her cell phone, what all their inside jokes meant, why he was always hugging on her and calling her "beautiful."  Immature boys, she had always told herself.

"Sorry," Jocelyn said sounding like she actually meant it.  "Look, just be careful, okay?  Take it from someone who's been there."

"Are you ever going to tell me what happened with you two or are just going to continue with these cryptic warnings?"

Jocelyn started to speak but Chris' phone rang from Mr. Lake's office.

"Yes sir," she answered quickly.

"Ready?" he asked in a flat tone.  She simply could not read his mood.  Was he going to scold her for something?  Praise her?  She'd gotten through her first week, maybe this was standard, to meet and kind of review at the end of the first week.

"Yes sir," she answered again.  "I gotta go Joc," she said fumbling around her desk for her notepad and pen.

"Good luck with Mr. Lake," she said as she rose gracefully and left.

Chris couldn't decide which Mr. Lake she referred to.

She practiced her breathing exercises as she left her office and quietly knocked on the big wooden door.

"Come in," she heard from the back of the room. 

She entered quietly, but trying her best to not be timid.  A thousand thoughts swarmed her brain.  Had she done anything wrong?  She didn't think so, but his tone had been so even, it was not interpretable in the least.

She looked at the senior Lake and studied his body language.  He was hunched over his paperwork as he had been that first day.  Expressionless and extremely focused.  She felt a chilliness as she had that first day.  Even though he'd told her to come in she felt as though he didn't realize she was in the room.

She was going to say something but what?  He knew she was there.  He hadn't just said "come in" without realizing it right?  Why did this man make her feel so uncomfortable sometimes?