Take Me In (Jack Johnson)

04.

"What did you do?" I questioned, trying to hold in my irritation.

"So.. I set up an appointment to go in." He stated, avoiding eye contact with me at all costs.

I jumped off of the couch and threw my arms in the air, no longer trying to hide my emotions or hold anything back.

"Why the hell would you do that?! You're supposed to politely tell her that she has the wrong number and then politely hang up! We don't need to go to an orphanage because we don't need a kid! How legit can this even be if neither of us actually put your name down?"

Jack stood up as well, putting his hands on my arms and pushing them down to my sides. Without moving them he said, "first of all, there is no way to politely hang up on someone. I don't care what you or Shawn say, there is literally no way to hang up on someone politely. Second, I want to know if she can tell me or describe the person who came in and signed the paper. So, we are going... In an hour."

An hour later Jack and I sat in his car, driving down a slightly familiar road in silence.

Jack cleared his throat and glanced over at me.

"The good news is that in the hour you spent being pissed at me, I managed to get a job interview to teach summer school at the high school in the next town over."

I didn't acknowledge him. Cool, whatever, I guess. I would've been happier for him if we weren't driving to an orphanage at seven at night.

"Yep," he continued, "I will be teaching literature if I get the job. Five hours a day, five days a week for six weeks. Seven in the morning to noon. The first two hours I will be reteaching topics that kids were supposed to learn their sophomore year, the next two hours I will be reteaching topics kids were supposed to learn their junior year, and the last hour will be spent with kids wanting to get ahead in their education and graduate early."

I still didn't answer as he turned the car down a street. On the sidewalk was a line that kept going and eventually lead to a club. And, not just any club, but the club that we had gone to the night before.

"They are going to pay me thirty dollars an hour, which is three dollars more than regular teachers make, which is cool." He continued. "Hey, look! It's that club! I don't remember having to wait in a long line like that to get in, though."

"Where is this orphanage?" I questioned, even though I already had some idea of where it was. Memories from our drunken night were flowing back to me, memories that I hadn't forgotten, just hadn't thought about.

It was now Jack's turn to not answer me as we pulled into a small parking spot in front of a building about three floors high with light from the lobby shining through the glass doors. I raised my eyebrows at my boyfriend, knowing that he knew this was the exact building we went into the night before.

"It was me," he stated before opening his door. He was referring to who had put his name down on the paper.

The disappointment and defeat in his eyes made me smirk with pride as I grabbed his arm and held him, keeping him from fully getting out of the car.

"It's not too late to go home and pretend you didn't get the call. When we get home, I could serve you up some celebratory wine and we could light candles and I'll give you a show."

I really did not want to go inside the orphanage. I knew how Jack got with kids, we'd either end up staying in there for hours or leave with a kid of our own.

I looked up at him, hoping that he'd even consider my offer, but I knew he wasn't considering it. He simply turned his face and kissed my forehead before breaking out of my grip and getting out of the car, closing the door and running around to open mine for me.