What is Love? Ch 3
#3 of What is Love?
The third chapter!!! YAY!!! It's the longest yet, and this one's kinda slow in the beginning, but it get's better and there are definitely some hints of who Jake really is. Hope I'm getting better at writing! Please comment and rate! Tell me how I did! ^^
P.S. If the whole story's been slow far, don't worry ;D Some pretty exciting stuff happens in Chapter 4 ^^
Chapter 3
Jakob was going through massive loads of denial. How...no, she' s wrong, there is no way I have a crush on...Andy... thinking his name made him feel...awkward. I..I like girls, that's why I dated them for so long...
After his mother had told him that, he kept asking her if she was sure, only to get the same answer- "Yes honey, what else could it be? If it was just one time, then it's nothing to worry about, but if it happens consistently and only with that specific person, I'm afraid that means that you like them. I got it too, when I first met your father. Is something wrong?" He clearly remembered that day when his mother told him he was...different, but he never thought she meant this, and how did she know? Was there something about him that made her think that? Thoughts like this were swirling around in his head ever since she told him.
I... I'll just get some rest, maybe some of this will be clearer tomorrow when I wake up. He yawned. I am really, really tired... He laid in his bed with his hands behind his head like how he usually fell asleep, and slowly dozed off.
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"Jake! Wait up!" Chris yelled as he caught up to Jakob and Kate who were talking about the partner project they were just assigned for science. "Hey guys. What's up? Whatchya talking about?"
"Oh, nothing, just some homework. How have you been?" Her ears were pointed attentively towards Chris.
"Really good actually, but I really don't want to go to my next class, it's pre-calculus...ugh," he let his arms drop and slumped over as he walked to express his strong dislike for pre-calc.
He's in pre calculus?? I'm only in geometry... and we're both soft mores.... Jakob was being quiet, thinking to himself and listening to their conversation, he always heard that you hear more when you don't talk.
"Well, I better get going Kate," he moved to see Jakob who was on the opposite side of Kate. "Bye Jake," he gave that innocent smile of his.
"Wha..? Oh, see ya Chris," he put up his hand and waved.
"Bye Chris! Good luck in pre-calc!" Kate had to kind of yell now since he was already going into his classroom, but he turned around and yelled back "Thanks! I'm gonna need it!" He said as his last words smiling showing his teeth which were very well taken care of Jakob noticed looking back at him.
"You know Jakob, we're going to have that next year-IF you don't fail geometry that is," she said with a smirk looking at Jake from the side.
"Yeah yeah, but anyways, can I ask you something?" Jake asked her with a raised eyebrow. He figured maybe he could get a better answer from her than his mother.
"Yep, sure. Anything, what's up Jake?" She asked, looking at him directly now.
"Uh... if I get a stomach ache whenever I talk to someone, what does that mean? If anything," he asked her and swallowed, hoping so deeply that she'll say it has no meaning and is just coincidence or something.
"I suppose it might mean you're nervous around someone, or now that I think about it, I used to get it with Eli, but I never really had it with anyone else, why? Didn't you get one after you talked to Andy?"
"Uh...um...yeah...only twice though... do you..do you think that means anything?" He swallowed again, his nervousness was getting almost unbearable.
"Well, that really depends. Are you...," this time she swallowed. "you know... do you like..guys?" She asked and her ears moved forward a bit, easily showing her curiosity which she was trying to conceal by acting worried.
"NO!" Jakob nearly yelled, several people around them turning to look at him suspiciously. "No! It's just I asked my mom as well, and she said the same thing... I was hoping she was wrong... does that mean... I ...I do? I'm so confused Kate..."
"Look Jake, there's no way I can tell you that or not, only you'd know for sure. And just for the record, if you are, I won't judge you. We've been friends for how long?" Her smile was kind and pure.
"Best friends actually. And you won't have to worry about judging me because I'm not... weird. I think I know my....my preference," he said it with sarcasm and cockiness.
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"Yeah, that's right," Jakob said to coach Anders, an older, rather large raccoon whose black fur had started to turn gray and almost started to blend in with the white in some places, he had decided to join football.
"Are you sure you want to do this? It's not easy, and I have absolutely no idea how you are in sports. If you aren't ready, you could really get hurt," the coach was sitting on a bench outside of Jake's school, holding his clipboard. He only had a few minutes to explain to Anders that he was joining, Kate and Chris (who walks with them regularly now by choice) were waiting for him.
"Yes, I can show up for practice tomorrow. Just tell me when," Jakob was nervous, what if he wasn't aloud to join? His ears twitched and his tail was between his legs.
"Slow down there kiddo. First, we're going to have to have a lesson so I can see where your strengths are, I can't just assign you a random position you know."
"Okay, tomorrow?"
"On Friday, after school, we don't have practice then so it's your only chance," he gave a "Are you up for that, kiddo?" look.
"Yep, I'll here as soon as school ends! Thanks so much for giving me this opportunity, sir!" Jake ran to where his friends were waiting patiently.
"How'd it go?" Chris beat Kate to it, although it was apparent to both of them that something good had happened from his big, wolfish smile.
"I have to like, try out on Friday after school I guess. It's going to be so fun!!!" Jakob said it with a bit too much enthusiasm.
"We better hurry, I really need to get home," Kate said, beckoning to the two guys to start walking.
"Why? There's no hurry, it's hard to talk when you're so focused on walking fast...or at least it is for me," he whined to Kate.
"I want to get home and get my homework done with though! Unlike you, I actually care about my grades," she folded her arms and looked at him, giving a really stupid look.
"Hey! I do care! This has nothing to do with grades, I just got done with school and I want to relax a little, I should at least be able to walk home at the pace I want to, Chris doesn't want to walk fast, do you Chris?" Jakob shot him a threatening look to try and scare him into saying no.
"I really don't care, just being with you guys is enough for me!" He smiled and his tail started wagging playfully.
Jakob face-pawed.
"Oh well, no one cares about your opinion anyways. I don't know about you, but I am not going to walk fast for you, I know I'm being dramatic, but I'm tired."
"Oh, oh! I know!!! I could carry you on my back!" Chris said with a smile with way too much excitement.
"What?! ME?! There's no way a little gray wolf like you could carry ME!" Jakob was as usual with Chris, a little more harsh than he intended.
"Well okay, jeez... I was just trying to help... and I could carry you.." Chris' ears fell back, sad that his offer was rejected.
Doubt it.. Jakob mumbled through clenched teeth. "Let's go."
"Fine, we can walk lazily wasting away important time," she seethed, obviously agitated.
"Good," he approved as all three of them started walking having their very dramatic and rather pointless argument over with. "So, are any of you going to come and see how awesome I am when I try out?" He said, smiling from his victory.
"I will!" Chris replied eagerly. "It's right after school on Friday, right?"
"Yeah, what about you Kate?"
"Naw, I'll go to your actual games-if you actually make it that is," she smiled mockingly.
"Alright, and I will make it. It's just a try out to see my strengths, and I bet I have a lot. Have you seen these biceps?" He pulled the sleeves up of his black tee-shirt and flexed, Chris' mouth fell open as he stared in awe while Kate just rolled her eyes, unimpressed.
"Anyway,anyone have anything planned tomorrow? I've got absolutely nothing to do all day," his ears moved forwards showing his curiosity.
"No, but I don't really want to do anything anyways, I like being at home, it's relaxing," Kate giggled, smiling and her tail curling.
"I would Jake, but I don't have anything to do tomorrow, is there anything you were thinking of?" Chris made it so obvious that he really wanted to do something with Jakob again, he must have really enjoyed the concert with him.
"Um... no, I don't really have any ideas, don't you? I'd do anything rather than just sit at home, watching T.V. is so boring these days.." Jakob was warming up to Chris, ever since after the dance he had an actually honest liking of the other gray wolf. What could he say? Chris was hard not to like once you got to know him.
"Well, just off of the tip of my head, we could go to a movie, would that be okay with you? I'd buy your tickets if you want," Chris bargained.
"Hm.. yeah, I guess I could do that," he accepted, looking at Chris approvingly. "I'll pay for myself though."
"Cool," Chris was desperately trying not to wag his tail, "tomorrow at 6, sound okay? We can see that one movie that sounds really cool...uh...I can't remember the name.." he was snapping his fingers looking up at the sky trying to remember. "Ah! I remember, it was the....wait no... that's not it... what was it..."
"It's fine, you'll remember once we get there, I don't care, I'm just happy I have something to do," Jakob joked, but he was happy to be going with Chris, he thought it would be fun.
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Jakob was looking at himself in the mirror, even though he was going with Chris, he wanted to look good. He put on a tight, white tee-shirt that showcased his muscles nicely, along with some darker pants that were closer to the dark black of his fur.Not too bad. He looked at himself from the side, admiring how slim and built he was. He put on some cologne he thought smelled sexy and walked out the door and went down the stairs.
"Hey, mom? I'm going to the movies with Chris, sound okay?" He asked his mother who was sitting at their kitchen's island reading a cookbook. Jakob knew she was going to say yes, why wouldn't she?
"Sure thing Jakey, have fun," she looked at him and smiles kindly.
Just as Jakob was about to walk out the door, he remembered something. "Oh yeah, mom?"
"Yes, dear?"
"How's dad doing? I haven't seen him around the house for like, ever."
"Oh... I'm afraid he's only home at night because after work he's goes straight to that bar of his. I've tried to talk him out of his habit, but of course he has no reason after he's drank so much, it really worries me," she shuddered.
"Got it, maybe I can talk him out of it tonight. See ya mom, love you," Jake said with honesty.
"Yeah, come home right after you're finished please, I get worried when you're gone. I love you too Jakob," she smiled at him once and returned to reading her cookbook.
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Jakob saw Chris and snuck up behind him. "BOO!!!" He laughed out.
"WHA!" He whirled around and started laughing with Jakob. "Don't do that Jake! You scared the crap out me!" He smiled, panting a little from the surprise.
"Sorry, I had to! You were right there! I mean, I just had to," Jakob was using up the last of his laughs, and after he caught his breath, his voice became serious. "Okay, the fun's over, well, not really since this movie should be fun, but you get the point! We have to go buy our tickets still! What it they're out?"
"Oh they're not, I got mine, I almost got yours too but I remembered you said you wanted to yourself so I didn't," he declared, proud to have remembered that Jakob wanted to buy his own.
"Gotchya, let's get going." He walked in with Chris behind him, and they waited in line so Jake could get his ticket. It seemed like more than a little while that they were waiting in the line, luckily they were both there early, the movie started at 6:45.
"Hey, I just noticed. Did you... dress up just for me?" Chris wondered from behind Jakob as they calmly walked over to the stand where popcorn was.
"Uh...," Jakob blushed, he felt like he had to get dressed up, it was a movie, aren't you supposed to for a movie? He quickly came up with an excuse, "No! I did it for the girls, just look at all of them!" He waved his hand showing all of the girls, even though there were more guys than girls.
Chris' tail dropped and his ears flattened a little. "Oh... sorry..I wasn't thinking," he moped now, looking at the ground.
"Oh come on Chris, look, POPCORN!!!" Jakob tried to cheer him up a bit, forgetting to ask himself why Chris was even sad at all that he didn't dress up for him.
His head went back up at that and he ran over and stared through the glass at the popcorn, soda, and what he wanted the most, candy.
"Did you bring any money to get some for yourself?"
"Yeah, a lot more than enough, remember? I brought enough to pay for both of us, and money for food, but since i didn't have to pay for you, I have a lot more."
"Oh yeah, well, get what you want then. I can see you're really eyeing that candy, huh?" Jakob giggled.
"Hah, yeah, thanks," he smiled and walked in line in front of Jakob.
After getting their food and soda, Chris getting almost too much to hold (it surprised Chris could eat so much and still stay slim), they went into theater number 14.
"Oh, this is going to be awesome!" He said it in a quieter tone than before, even though the movie still had a while before it started and ads were playing, he didn't want to be loud and interrupt anyone.
"Yeah, I know. Where do ya want to sit? Back? Front? The Middle?" Jakob asked, not really caring where he sat.
"Um... let's go in the middle." They both walked to a row pretty close to where the exact middle of seat rows was and picked their spots. It was a little awkward for Jake since he wasn't used to being around.. strangers that close up. A younger deer with really pointy antlers was sitting in front of them, with a doe he suspected to be his girlfriend next to him. Behind him sat a fox and another wolf, both males, being really quiet and mysteriously watching the ads that Jakob would die of boredom if he watched for too long.
Chris took out some kind of chocolate bar and offered it to Jakob. "Want one? I have more than enough," he insisted.
Jakob shrugged and took the bar, staring at it's wrapper to see what exactly it was. "Uh..thanks Chris," he looked back at Chris and smiled, and in the dim light of the theater, Jakob thought just for a second through Chris' gray fur he saw him blush. It really reminded him of how odd Chris had been since basically the first day he met him and walked home with him. Chris had whispered to Kate something, which had already annoyed Jake, He turned his head the other way to pretend he was trying so hard to listen. Then he heard a 'mmhmm' from Kate, and the next thing he knew, Chris tried to tickle Jakob. He really disliked Chris after that, but since he apologized later that day he felt better. He shrugged off the blush he thought he saw.
After a while, it started. And they both quickly ended their small conversations and watched the screen attentively.
A little bit into the movie, Chris interrupted him with a whisper. "Hey, Jake, sorry to interrupt. This might be stupid to ask, but try this candy bar. It's like, chocolate with raspberry inside, it's really good." He showed a halfway unwrapped bar with a bite out of it.
"No thanks, I'm kinda full, I had way too much popcorn," Jake stated, rubbing his stomach to exaggerate the pain.
"Oh, come on! It's really good! You know you wanna try it," he said in a sing-song voice with a smirk on his face.
"Fine, give it," he demanded, opening his hand. Chris placed it and waited for how Jakob would think it tasted.
"Mmm, this is actually really good! You're right! Hah," he laughed, still keeping his voice down, apparently the fox behind him had heard it all though. He leaned forward in between both of their heads and whispered.
"Hey, sorry to interrupt, but are you two... you know.. like...together?" The fox's used his finger and made an imaginary line from Jakob to Chris and went across it again and again as he looked at each one of them, then back at the wolf who was sitting next to him and smiling.
"What?" Jake couldn't help his voice raising a little, hearing this over and over was really starting to aggravate him. It similarly reminded him of all of the dumb drama with the stomach pains with Andy. "No way, we're just friends! Why would you think that?"
"Well.. you... n-never mind, sorry to bother you two," even though he said never mind, the way he said 'you two' bothered him as well. He looked over at Chris who was pretending like he didn't hear anything, he just put his hand back out for the candy bar.
"Candy bar? Or do you want the rest?"
"No, you can have it." He put it in Chris' hand and moved the other direction to be a little farther away from Chris. Clearly aware that Jakob was now on edge, Chris remained quiet throughout the rest of the movie.
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"Do you need a ride home Jake?" Chris asked, pointing his finger at his shiny, white car.
"No, I have my own, thanks though," he smiled back at Chris, and wagged his tail once as in a friendly gesture of good-bye as he walked to his car, and drove home.