Those who rush stumble and fall
I woke up to my brother opening up the door to the bedroom. I looked around and realized I was on the boat and that JJ was asleep next to me. He didn't wake up when Jasper came up, but he stirred a little bit. I slipped out of his arms and walked upstairs with Jasp.
"Dad is on his way down here!" he said. My eyes went wide and I told him to stay down here and guard the door. I ran up the steps and out to the deck. I saw my dad walking down the dock and ran up to meet him.
"Jasper said you finally wanted to talk," I said, trying not to sound guilty. He kept walking towards the boat and I kept trying to stop him. It was no use though. He walked right up to the boat, went into the cabin and stopped. Right next the door was JJ's boats. I watched as my dad stopped and stared. "Those are Jasp-"
"No they aren't," he said. I could tell he was angry, but he was unusually calm. "If you're going to sneak guys in, I would prefer it if it was under our roof, in different rooms, with your mom's and I's knowledge."
"What?" I asked.
"If that Maybank kid is staying over, sleep in different beds," he said and walked away. I stood there, mouth agape and confused. What just happened?
"You're so lucky," Jasper said, coming up the steps. "Dad must really feel bad and you know he'll never admit it."
"Shut up," I said. I let out a deep breath and tried to ease my nerves.
"Don't forget that we have dinner with the Thornton's tonight and there is no way you're getting out of it," he said.
I let out a groan of frustration and went back down to the bedroom. I laid down and felt JJ pull me into his arms.
"Where'd you go?" he muttered in a raspy voice. I smiled and pushed his long blonde hair out of his face.
"To talk to my dad," I said. "Good news is that you can stay at my house whenever you want. Bad news is that I have to go to dinner with the family tonight, so I won't see you until later."
I listened to him say he had plans with Pope anyways and prayed that he wouldn't ask who dinner was with.
"You coming back over tonight?" he nodded and let out a big yawn. "Okay. We should be back by 8 or 9 and you can come to the front door."
"Like of your house?" he asked. He was now wide awake. I nodded. I explained to him what my dad had said about coming over. He was just as confused as I was, but that didn't change the fact that we had basically got my dad's blessing to keep dating. We both got ready for the day. He kissed my cheek before leaving and told me he would be back around 9. Everything was perfect for a second.
The rest of the day was spent baking with my mother. She was going crazy trying to think of things to impress the Thorntons. I didn't really care about that, but if something wasn't right, we would have to hear about it forever. After an hour of unsuccessful cake frosting, my mom turned to me and told me I needed to make a pie. I sighed and got to work. Pie was my specialty. I baked up a classic apple pie and my mom hugged me tightly. I knew how much this meant to her. I went up to my room to change into a nicer outfit. I settled on this army green romper I had and some wedges my mom wanted me to wear. I heard my brother yell at me that we were heading out and ran down the steps.
I could feel the dread building in my stomach as we pulled into their driveway. After yesterday's weird encounter with Topper and the whole boat reciprocity situation, this seemed like a horrible idea to me. Still, here I was. We parked the car and I got out quickly. Topper and his parents opened the front door and welcomed us in. His mom gave all of us hugs and his dad shook our hands. I exchanged an awkward look with Topper and stepped inside. The inside of his house looked like a million bucks. It was even nicer than our house and couldn't believe the detail.
"The parents are going to chat for a while," Mrs. Thornton said. "Why don't you guys take the boat out for a ride? Dinner will be ready in an hour."
Top led Jasper and I outside and onto the new boat. We were all awkwardly quiet as we departed. The truth was that Jasper was Topper's friend through Rafe. They had never really hung out, one on one. None of us really knew each other. Even though Topper and I were in the grade, didn't mean we ever spoke. I sat down and watched as the two boys awkwardly talked about what they've been up to without Rafe around. I didn't pay too much attention to them though. I just felt the water misting me as I leaned over the side of the boat. I glanced up to see my brother taking the wheel and jestering at Topper to come talk to me. I felt him sit down next to me and ask to talk.
"About what?" I asked. Wasn't yesterday enough? I thought I made it clear that there isn't really much to talk about.
"I just want to apologize without getting interrupted," he said. "I want to be friends."
"Why?" I blurted out. They don't care about me. They never have so why now?
"You were friends with Sarah," he said and I rolled my eyes. "Which means you're not a shitty person."
"That's horrible logic," I said. She was friends with everyone, but me for the longest time. "She was also friends with you and Kelce and Brittney, Carmen, Jane. Should I go on?"
"Just hear me out," he said.
"No," I answered. "Everything you do is because of Sarah Cameron. Start doing things because of you and maybe then we can be friends."
We decided that was enough boating for one night and headed back to Topper's. When we got back, the food was ready and the table was set. Even the food looked more expensive than ours. The dinner was going surprisingly well until dessert. We were chatting over the apple pie I made when his mom decided to make a comment.
"Wow," she said. "This is really good Savannah. It's really a shame that all your talents are being wasted away over on the south side."
"Excuse me?" I said. I felt my mom's hand on my arm, stopping me from getting up.
"I didn't mean to offend you," she said with a coy smile. "I just think that that $30k could've been spent in a bunch of... better ways. That poor Maybank boy is following in his daddy's footsteps."
"You know nothing about him," I calmly said back. "Don't ever compare JJ to Luke. They are nothing alike."
"Poor boy was beating so badly as a kid, it was only a matter of time before he lived up to his name," she said, completely ignoring me. My hands were balled into fists, my nails digging into my skin.
"Mom stop," Topper said sternly.
"I just feel bad for the girl is all," she said. "She's had a rough time dealing with everything."
My dad rubbed his face with his hands out of frustration. I got up, threw my napkin on the table and stared coldly at Mrs. Thornton.
"Thank you for dinner, but I'll be leaving now," I said and walked straight out the front door. I instantly regretted the choice of footwear, but I wasn't staying in that house any longer.
"Hey, wait up," Topper said, following me out. I could hear his mom yelling at him to come back, but he just walked over and opened up the passenger door for his Jeep. "I'll give you a ride, hop in."
I looked at him, hesitantly. I couldn't figure out what motive he had by doing this. It was completely uncharacteristic of him. I looked at the road and knew my feet would have blisters if I tried to walk it in my wedges. I sighed, knowing my only option was to get in the car. What was five minutes going to hurt? I climbed in and sat quietly. He got in and we pulled out of his driveway. I didn't say anything, just listened to the radio as my hair whipped around in the wind. We were coming up on my house when I noticed we weren't slowing down.
"Hey!" I said as we passed it. We pulled into the marina a couple miles up. I tried to open the door, but he locked it. "This is kidnapping, you know that right?"
"I just want you to listen," he said. "I'm trying to do the right thing and I keep messing up over and over. I just don't know who I am without Sarah."
Finally, he said something real, something I could understand. Without JJ, who would I be anymore? I smiled at him.
"That's a good start," I said. He looked at me with a confused gaze. "If you want to be friends, that's what you need to do. I hate all the bullshit. I want people to be real with me or I'll never actually know who I'm friends with."
"You're pretty cool Savannah," he said. I faked a gag and laughed.
"None of that!" I said. He laughed with me and for a second it might've looked like we were good friends. I couldn't help, but wondering if this counted as betraying the Pogues. "Can you please take me home now?"
"Yeah," he said, knowing he had made some progress. I still couldn't quite tell if this was a guilty conscious thing or what, but I was willing to find out. He drove me home, telling me about some embarrassing story involving my brother and we laughed. We pulled into my driveway and I was smiling ear to ear. I was so into the story that I didn't even notice the bike parked less than 100 ft away. I got out of the car and instantly heard a voice behind me.
"Since when are you two friends?" JJ asked. I turned around to see him leaning against my front door.
"JJ!" I said. I could tell he was only seeing what was right in front of him, not the full story. I opened my mouth to say something, anything, but he just hopped down the steps to his bike.
"Maybe I'll just stay at home tonight," he said. He put on his helmet. "Sorry Sav."
He sped away before I could even say another word. I was so in shock by what had just happened that the feeling welling up in my throat took me by surprise. My chest felt heavy as Topper got out of the Jeep. He tried to apologize, but I wasn't even listening. I pushed my hair back and tried to think about how to fix this, how to explain without him getting mad. I told Topper to just go home and sat on my front steps. How do I explain this? How do I make him see that it was a misunderstanding? Was it though or were Topper and I becoming friends?