She is the One (Part 16)

Foreword:

Hey, everyone! So, you may have noticed that I have been splitting these parts into various ‘chapters’. Some people have asked if I have a name for each chapter and you know what? That’s not a bad idea. Since I’m a huge fan of Dragonball Z, how about we call them ‘sagas’. It’s just a fun word to say, isn’t it? So, here’s how we’ll divide them up:

Parts 1-8: The Kayla Saga
Parts 9-15: The Jessica Saga

And now I am happy to introduce you to Part 16.

The beginning of The Tara Saga

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I woke up the next day feeling different.

I couldn’t put my finger on why. What was it? I wasn’t sick. I wasn’t overly happy or anxious or sad or…anything really. In fact, as I lay under my blankets, staring up at the ceiling where the extending sunrise portended that resistance to the morning was futile, I realized that I wasn’t feeling anything at all.

That’s what was different!

I mean, okay, I was still in a shit-ton of pain; my head throbbed painfully, my face felt scrunched where Brad’s head had hit it, and I could hardly move without groaning in stiffness. But that’s just the physical stuff and I’ve dealt with that before. I’m talking about I didn’t feel any…feelings (ugh, I wish I could describe this better). I didn’t feel anxious about how I’d be fucked with today. I wasn’t worried about anything being put in my locker. I wasn’t scared that I might have to take somebody apart with my bare hands.

It was just another day. God, I haven’t had one of those in a long ass time.

So it was with unusual cheerfulness that I bounced out of bed and picked out my clothes for the day. Hell, I was in the mood to whistle a tune as I walked to the bathroom for my morning shower, something I’ve been unable to fully enjoy since Homecoming.

Alan and Amanda’s door was already open and they weren’t inside. Weird. Wonder what they were doing up so early. Oh well. Maybe they were just more hungry than usual. Come to think of it, I was pretty hungry myself. God damn, where was this cheerfulness coming from? I could feel myself grinning broadly. It was over…finally, it was over.

The hot water of the shower drumming against my skin was…unbelievable. I couldn’t believe I forgot how much I loved this. I let out a long sigh and dipped my head back, letting the water thump against my skin like bullets, massaging my tension away. The steam, the water, the cleanliness…doesn’t get much better than this. Yeah, the pain of the fight was still there, but so what? They’d be memories soon, like the fight.

Like Brad.

You’re a fucking act!

His words slammed into my brain so unexpectedly I had to put out a hand to steady myself. Damn it, why was he still in my brain? No, I’m not an act. I’m genuine. Always have been. Is it really so hard to accept that I just want to be a decent guy, not screw over people to get what I want?

Besides, Kayla was right. He was just jealous of the fact that I had Kayla and he didn’t have anyone.

You think everyone who doesn’t like him is jealous of him!

Damn it…okay, he was jealous of all of us. All of us had someone: Craig had Becca, Joe had Belle, Alan had Amanda (though that was my nice little secret). If he had just waited, actually been a decent human being, maybe he could have gotten someone, too. It’s not like the old Brad was completely devoid of anything likeable. If he had just asked me instead of demanding that I let Amanda go out with him, maybe I could have done something for him…

You treated our friendship like you were doing me and Joe a favor by being our friend!

Damn it, damn it, damn it! I put my hands to my head, trying to push his words out. He had been angry, enraged…he would have said anything to hurt me, to bring me down, to make me want to fight him. And I didn’t, at least not because he had wanted me to. I didn’t have a choice. I didn’t want to hurt him. He attacked me. He attacked my friends. He was going to attack Kayla.

I was in the right here. It’s not arrogance or cockiness or anything saying that. It’s me saying that. It’s good old morality saying that.

Still, his words echoed in my brain. Was I a goody two-shoes who only cared about making people happy because it got me something? No, of course not, that’s not why I did it. But did it come across like that to other people?

Suddenly the shower wasn’t as refreshing anymore. Damn it, Brad, you’re in jail now. Can you get yourself out of my head?

Think positive, Jack. No one else thought you were. Kayla certainly didn’t think so. Alan and Amanda didn’t think so. Hell, being a ‘goody two-shoes’ helped Craig get a girlfriend and some friends for once in his life. Joe…

What did Joe think? He said Brad was wrong yesterday but…I had to ask him.

God damn it, I thought this was over. It was over but now I was left sweeping up all the trash from the party.

I couldn’t wait to talk to Kayla. I needed her sunshine right now. And Tara…God, I couldn’t wait for her to visit at Christmas. Just thinking about it…there we go, my smile was back. I hummed a little as I washed my hair and soaped myself up. Positive attitude, positive attitude, positive attitude.

Everything is awesome.

By the time I was out of the shower and toweling myself off, I was in a fairly chipper mood. Five minutes later, I was dressed and shooting a message to Kayla.

Me: Good morning, gorgeous 🙂

I peeked out my window and saw her stretching in front of her window. She looked down and picked up her phone. She typed on it for a second, then turned around to give me an enormous smile. I blew her a kiss, which she returned.

My phone buzzed.

Kayla: Good morning, slugger <3 how are you this morning?

I looked up at her and made an over exaggerated stretching motion, complete with the ‘Ahhhhhh’ face of someone who has just chugged a desperately-needed beer. She laughed aloud and sent me another text.

Kayla: That good, huh? Lol

Me: I don’t know. The world just seems like a much happier place now.

Kayla: Yes it does 🙂

Me: And I’m looking at the person who makes the world perfect 😉

She looked up with an ‘awwwww’ expression and blew me another kiss. She checked behind her really quick, then lifted up her pajama shirt to flash me her breasts. My jaw dropped open and my dick instantly slammed against the wall. My eyes were glued to her gorgeous breasts, the sunlight dappling them with a radiant glow so they may very well be the tits of an angel (a phrase so sacrilegious, I should probably say a Hail Mary to cover for it).

I stared at her perky nipples until the shirt came back down. My face must have been utterly distraught, for she started laughing her head off and kissing the glass. She pulled out her phone and shot me a text.

Kayla: Awwwww, baby 🙂 don’t worry. You’ll see them again very soon 😉

Me: How soon?!?!??!

Kayla: Lol a secret 😉

Me: Tell meeeeee. Please?

Kayla: Nope nope nope 🙂

Me: Ugh you’re lucky I love you so much.

Kayla: Yep, I am lucky <3

Me: Gotta go eat breakfast. See you in a few <3

Kayla: Awww, okay. Bye, handsome <3

Me: Oh, one more thing.

Kayla: What???

I waited until she looked up from her phone to me and I dropped my pants, letting my hard dick bounce out for her to see. She whooped and covered her mouth, staring at my cock with a look that said, ‘Feed me that!’ I pulled up my pants after a few seconds and blew her a kiss. I distinctly saw her mouth, “Nooooooooo!” as I turned away.

I laughed to myself as I tromped down the stairs. Before yesterday, I don’t know how keen I would have been to do something like that, what with the gloomy mood I had been in. But now…it was just one more confirmation that the Troubles were over and that I could relax (I wish I had known that there was one more to come). In fact, after everything, we deserved a vacation. I mean, we had Thanksgiving coming up in a couple of weeks…and the play before then.

Shit, the play. Well, hopefully Jessica will be in a better mood. If we have to recast her now…ugh.

Anyway, back to the vacation. It couldn’t just be a few days at home off of school. I mean, I loved free time with her but I wanted to take her somewhere. Maybe I could ask the Hannigans if we could borrow their cabin for a weekend.

Yeah, right. They’d want to know why we wanted it and I couldn’t exactly say, “Why, for porking your daughter silly, sir!” What if I got the group to go? Now there’s an idea.

God, I was way too chipper today. If I went to school like this, I think most of the students would be obligated to slap me.

At least they wouldn’t punch me…

You’re a fucking act!

Damn it…

The memory of those words was not helped by the look my parents gave me when I entered the kitchen. Alan and Amanda were already there, looking like they had just gotten a thorough dressing-down. And I think I knew why.

“Sit down, Jack,” mom said harshly.

I thumped down into my usual seat, pulling the plate of waffles towards me. I knew what this was about: the fight. Not necessarily the fight itself but the fact that she was going to call me out on lying to her about knowing who was messing with me. Yesterday, they’d been too busy making sure I was all right and trying to get ready for work to do much more than lay me down in bed and insist that I not move too much for the rest of the day (a request I broke ten minutes after they left). With a full day and night to think about it, it’s no surprise they were less than pleased.

Well, dad seemed less than pleased. Mom was just angry.

“You lied to me,” mom said flatly.

“Mom—”

“Stop.” That one word sent a chill down everyone’s spine. “You promised me, Jack. You promised to tell either us or the police first.”

“I said I’d tell the proper people,” I replied calmly, “And Brad’s parents were—”

“No, no, you promised me it would be either us or the police. I made sure that you promised that specifically.”

I poured syrup on my waffles, knowing she was right, but also knowing that I had not been wrong. “Mom, there were…reasons why I couldn’t let anyone else know. If it wasn’t for—”

“What reasons?” she demanded.

“If I could finish,” I said a little sharply, risking upping the anger level more, “I was going to say that they involve stuff regarding other people. Stuff that I can’t reveal without breaking their trust.”

“So you break ours instead,” mom said.

She sounded really hurt. Damn it, now I was feeling bad. I reached across the table for her hand. “Mom,” I said gently, “It was the only way I could think of to make sure everything worked out for the best. I promise.”

“And what about warning Amanda?” mom asked sourly, “Why didn’t you even bother to warn her?”

I glanced over at Amanda, remembering she had asked me the same thing yesterday. “Mom, I only had Jessica’s word that—”

“It seems there’s an awful lot of people who know about this before we did,” she said loudly, her eyes flashing.

“I only had Jessica’s word that it was Brad! If I told Amanda that Brad was messing with me so he could get to her and it turned out to be a lie, then I’ve suddenly turned her against him for no reason!” Even as I said it, a billion counterarguments were sounding in my head. Brad had not lacked for reasons to dislike him before then. “I just…he didn’t know I knew so he wasn’t going to do anything dangerous until he found out. And when he did find out, I made sure his parents knew right away. There wasn’t any way—”

Mom interrupted (yet again), “Well, clearly there was, since you decided to have a brawl outside of your school yesterday morning! Jack, you seriously didn’t think letting you sister know that a hulking psychopath wanted to…” She couldn’t even finish the sentence. She just slammed her hand down on her plate, flinging her sausage across the room.

“Mom, he wanted her to come to him,” I said, pushing away my barely-eaten waffles, “I didn’t know that was his plan. I thought it was all about me.” All about me…sounds like something Brad would say… “I mean, I thought he wanted me to do something about it. I didn’t know it was Amanda he was waiting for. And he was going to continue to wait so it’s not like he was going to break into her room or anything.”

“Jack,” she said slowly, leaning close, “Everything about this was dangerous. A million things could have gone wrong. There was—”

“Mom,” Amanda said suddenly, looking up from her plate, “I’m not mad at Jack.”

Mom glanced at her sharply. “This isn’t about whether or not you are mad at him. This is—”

“Yes it is, mom!” Amanda shouted, making us all jump, “All of this, apparently, has been about me so I think that my feelings count too! It’s all done with, mom. All the stuff Jack had to deal with for a month…it’s over now!”

“Young lady, if you—”

Interruption Junction continued. “It’s over!” Amanda looked close to tears. “Can’t you give us that? Can’t you just be happy that the stuff that could have been dangerous and hurt me actually didn’t?”

Mom and Amanda glared at each other for a minute. Dad coughed slightly. “I think…” he said, throwing a worried glance at mom, “That both of you have a good point.” He turned to me. “Jack…basically, you were wrong to lie to your mother.”

“I know. I’m sorry, mom.” She didn’t look happy but at least she looked like she believed I was sincere.

“But honey,” he said to mom, “I don’t think Jack would do it unless he saw no alternative. I mean, it’s not like he wanted a fight.” He glanced at me significantly. “Did you?”

“Of course not!”

“Well…there it is,” he said with a small smile, taking a sip of his coffee, “Honey?”

Mom continued to stare at me. “Jack…what am I learning in my class right now?” she asked.

Her class? Oh, her culinary class! Shit, had she been talking about that? Damn. “Um…cooking?” I offered weakly.

“We’re working on Asian-inspired dishes,” she said archly, “What about before that?”

“I don’t know. Sorry, mom.”

“Well, maybe with all of this stuff solved, you can start taking an interest in our stuff to, hmm?”

I shrugged. “Sure.” That wasn’t really fair. I was always interested in what mom was doing. Just because I didn’t ask for updates every single day…

Dad tried to lighten the mood. “Well, if you want to hear about my new job, we—” A simultaneous groan from everyone silenced him with a chuckle.

“I’m just sorry for the Nightingales,” mom said, taking her plate to the sink, “With Brad in jail…”

“I don’t think they’ll lose any sleep over it,” I replied, “Not after he what he’s done.”

“Jack, you could rip someone apart with your bare hands and we would still hate to see you go to prison.”

“Thanks mom. You won’t have to worry about that any time soon.”

“Uh uh!” mom snapped, glaring at me, “We won’t have to worry about that at all.”

“I can do that.”

We finished up breakfast and went to get our backpacks ready. As I was loading up the last of my books, Amanda came into my room. “Hey, Jack.”

“Hey,” I said, “Thanks for talking to mom.”

“No problem. I mean, I was kinda pissed that you didn’t tell me but…” She shrugged. “I guess it’s just good to have it over and done with.”

“Yeah, it is!” I grinned at her, “Now you can go back to enjoying freshman year!”

She closed her eyes and stuck out her tongue. “Joy,” she said in the most joyless voice she could manage.

I laughed. “Oh, you’ll get numb to it soon.”

She twisted her foot, looking like she wanted to say more. I waited and finally she looked up and said, “So…all of that stuff with Brad was because of me?”

“Hey!” I snapped, going over and putting my hands on her shoulders, “Don’t even think about blaming yourself. This is all because of some stupid, fucked-up plan of Brad’s. You didn’t know, you had no way of knowing, and if you did know, what the hell could you have done? Like you said, it’s over.”

“Yeah…” She wrapped her arms around me and pulled me in for a hug. I hugged her back, getting that sensation again that I was an older brother rather than the same age as her. “Thanks for fighting for me.”

I chuckled. “No offense but if I could have done it without fighting, I would have.”

“I know,” she sighed, “But thanks all the same.”

She pulled out of the hug and I gave her a smile. She smiled back and just stared at me. I blinked. “What?” In response, she leaned forward, inclining her head and letting her eyes slide closed. I was confused at first…then I got it. “Amanda!”

She blinked and snapped her head back. “What?”

“What are you doing?” No, no, no. Not this again. We went over this before. We fixed it.

She looked as confused as I was. ‘Nothing,” she replied, putting a hand to her mouth, “I just…um…I gotta go get ready. See you at the car.” She scampered out of the room.

I slapped my hands to my face. No. This couldn’t be coming up again. We resolved this weeks ago. She was in love with Alan. They were happy together. Why, in the name of Poseidon’s engorged blue pecs, would she want to…

I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. Maybe I was overreacting. She was grateful that it was over. Hell, she was probably more grateful than I was since she had unknowingly been the target the whole time. It’s only natural that she should be relieved and…well, okay, maybe she got a little carried away but that was all. She got carried away. It happened.

I wanted this to be a good first day of freedom from stress and aggravation. So far, it wasn’t exactly up to snuff.

Thankfully, Kayla could always be counted on to lift my spirits. After a fairly quiet car ride to her house (Amanda was avoiding looking at me and Alan was still a little glum from breakfast), all of us perked up when she opened the car door and bounced inside. “Hey everyone!” she sang, leaning in to give me a long, passionate kiss.

The kiss alone was enough to put the entire morning behind me. “Hey yourself,” I replied, grinning. “How you feeling?”

“Ahhhhh,” she sighed, stretching herself in a fairly accurate imitation of what I had done earlier, “Just wonderful.”

She buckled her seatbelt and it was then I noticed that, instead of her usual pants, she was wearing a skirt. “Since when do you wear skirts?” I asked, plucking at the fabric.

She swatted my hand away and grinned. “I just felt like it,” she replied. She was lying. I could tell. I gave her a narrow look and she winked in response. Oh, so that’s how it was going to be.

“Okay,” I said, giving her a small wink. She grinned broader.

I pulled back out of her driveway as she turned around and said, “How you guys doing?”

“Okay, I guess,” Alan said, shrugging.

Kayla picked up on their glumness at once. “What’s up?” she asked.

“We got the riot act at breakfast,” I said.

“About what?”

“Not telling them about Brad before we did something about it.”

She looked confused. “Well, what were we supposed to do? Just let him—” I cut her off with a sharp look and she checked herself. “Just let him…continue to mess with us?”

Alan raised an eyebrow at the lame response but didn’t seem interested in pursuing it. Instead, he said, “Mom was also mad at Jack for not telling Amanda about what Brad wanted.”

Kayla looked horrified. It had, after all, been her idea not to warn her. Thankfully, Amanda came to the rescue before she said anything: “I told them it was fine. I mean, it’s all done. Who cares?”

“Well…I’m sorry we didn’t tell you,” Kayla said, looking back with a look that would have broken the heart of a mountain.

Amanda reached forward and gave her a hug. “It’s okay,” she said calmly, “It worked out fine. Everything’s fine.” She gave me a look that I couldn’t read. Everything better be fine, Amanda.

Kayla sighed and then drew her face into a smile. “Well, thank God for a day off, huh?”

Alan snorted but grinned. “I love getting rewarded for fighting.”

“Fighting?” Amanda said, smirking at him, “One punch and you were out.”

Alan looked offended. “I tried!” he said angrily, “I’m not a good fighter. I admit it. But at least I tried. And I got him away from Jack!”

“Yes you did,” I agreed.

“Fighting is done!” Kayla said firmly, “It’s all peace and sunshine and shit now.”

I looked at her and grinned. “It’s ‘sunshine and shit’ now, huh?” I said in amusement.

She stuck her tongue out at me. “You know what I meant!”

“Something about shit, I think.” The twins giggled behind their hands.

Kayla gave me an irritated look. “Keep that up and I won’t tell you my surprise?”

“A surprise?”

“Yes. Too bad you won’t find out what it is.”

The light to cross over into the school parking lot was red and I turned to her once I had fully stopped the car. “I’ll kiss your butt and call it ice cream.”

She laughed. “You already kiss it and call it a boner.”

“That doesn’t make any sense!”

She put her hands behind her back. “Nope!”

Alan and Amanda were leaning against each other, trying not to laugh out loud. I gave them a dark look. “Everyone who wants to laugh at me can get out right now!” I said loudly.

A horn blared behind me and I realized that the light had turned green. “I guess not,” Kayla said smugly as I pulled through the intersection. I promised myself her ass would get a severe spanking later.

We pulled into the parking lot and I noticed a significant number of glances our way as we walked towards the building. Two fights and we weren’t even to Thanksgiving yet. I could only hope I wasn’t getting something of a reputation. Get a reputation for fighting and everyone who wanted to make a name for themselves would be crawling out of the woodworks, looking for a challenge. And I had only so many ass-kickings in me.

One was missing from the group that waited for us out in front of the school. Craig. Craig was missing. I felt the cold hand of panic on my heart for a second before I realized that, if anything serious had happened, I would have been told before now. Besides, Becca was there, looking none to worse for it. “Hey, guys,” I said as we approached. They all gave mumbled greetings, looking like the felt, as I did, the full weight of memories from yesterday.

Even Kayla felt it. “Is Craig okay, Becca?” she asked urgently.

Becca gave a wan smile. “He’s still at the hospital,” she replied, “Brad’s punch…well, Craig’s neck is sprained and they want to keep him there another day to make sure there’s no damage to…I don’t know, his nerves or something. It’s not life-threatening or anything,” she said quickly, seeing our alarmed expressions, “He’s fine. He just…well, he’s gonna need…” She choked back some tears and gestured at her throat.

A neck-brace. Oh, man. Belle put an arm around her and Becca leaned against her shoulder, clenching her jaw and letting only one or two tears escape. “It won’t be for long,” I promised, “He’ll be back and head-banging in no time.”

Becca smiled a little. “Thanks, Jack. They said he should be out in a couple days.”

Joe blew out his cheeks and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I never thought I’d say this but…thank God for Craig.”

“Yeah,” I replied, glancing toward the stretch of sidewalk where we had fought on Homecoming night. I remembered the anger, the desire to hurt him, to make him suffer as much as possible. I remembered Kayla and I standing together against him, forcing him to back off.

Now she and I were on his side, hoping he’d get better. What a weird world.

“Any word on Brad?” Belle asked. Joe stiffened and pretended to focus on something in the distance.

I shrugged. “Don’t know that we’ll hear anything unless his parents contact us.”

“God damn it,” Joe muttered.

Belle put a hand on his arm. “What?”

“I thought we were all done with Brad yesterday. Now we can’t get off him.” He ran a hand violently through his hair. “I just…want things to get back to normal.”

“Didn’t normal used to be hoping Craig would take a spill down the stairs?” I asked.

Joe snorted in amusement. “Yeah…well, normal without the whole not-liking-Craig thing, I guess.”

Alan and Amanda had been very silent. I guess, among all of us, they still felt the most like outsiders. I looked around at everyone, so silent and awkward, and I couldn’t take it anymore. I hated this awkwardness. I hated that Brad still cast a shadow over everything. We deserved to be happy, damn it. It was time to turn things around!

“Hey,” I said, looking around at everyone, “How about we all do something on Saturday? Take some time off and just hang together.”

“Where?” Joe asked, none too enthused.

“I don’t know.