Chapter 5

Georgina

“Aren’t you a little old for an Iron Man bedspread?” I ask as I finish making Jake’s bed.

He turns around and sticks his tongue out at me. His dad got here today with the truck full of things from their old house, and Jake and I have spent the evening setting up the guest room as Jake’s new bedroom.

“Never too old for Marvel,” he chuckles. I sit cross-legged on his bed, leaning against the wall, watching him try to decide where to hang his posters.

It took him all of two minutes to unpack his clothes, just upending his bags into the drawers until they were full. But he’s been fussing over his precious posters for nearly an hour and so far has only tacked up two.

“Come ooonn, Jake! I thought we were going to be watching our second action movie by now.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He waves my whining off and continues to stare at the wall and the two posters of Winona Ryder. His phone rings, and he glances at it before smiling and picking it up.

“What up, dude!” He puts the posters down and leans back on the dresser, crossing his legs at the ankles. “Nah, sorry, dude. My dad just got here with the truck.”

I roll my eyes.~ Just got here?~ Boys really have no sense of time.

Jake is still talking, “…so George and I are helping unpack.”

I snort, and he flicks his eyes up to me, sticking his tongue out.

“But I’ll hit you up later, kay?” He pauses. “Always do, man.” He answers with a grin.

He hangs up and walks over to the bed, flopping down and resting his head in my lap. “What’s with the frown, Georgie?”

“Me and George are catching up.” I try to mimic his deep voice, and he chuckles. “Maybe I wanted to go out to party with, I assume, your bestest friend, Andy.”

“Yeah, it was Andy.” He traces over my lips with his finger. “But I thought you wanted to chill with me tonight, one on one. Mano et mano. Just you, me, and the small screen, baby.”

I laugh as he tries to pull puppy dog eyes on me and push him off my lap.

“I did, but you’ve spent the last hour trying to decorate your bedroom.”

He frowns and looks at his watch. “Fuck, I really did. Sorry, Smidge.”

I groan at his old nickname for me.

He always used to call me Smidge because I was taller than him, which hurt his fragile adolescent ego, but only by a smidge as he’d say indignantly until he turned fifteen and shot up to five-nine.

I sigh and shrug, wrapping some of his long brown hair around my finger. “You can make it up to me by letting me play with your hair while we watch ~Rocky~.”

“Again?! What’s with you and boxing movies?”

“I just love me some old boxer.” I waggle my eyebrows suggestively. Jake mimes throwing up.

***

“Christ, kids!” I open my eyes a crack and see my dad with Jake’s in the doorway, smiles on their faces. “Jakey, is there something you wanna tell me, son?”

Ok, so maybe I got a little carried away last night.

In addition to the numerous little plaits which are now situated in Jake’s chin-length hair, I painted his nails, fingers, and toes in hot pink and decided to practice my contouring technique out on him.

We fell asleep before washing it off, so now a sleepy-looking Jake looks like a confused teenage drag queen and not a very convincing one seeing as he is sporting week-old stubble.

I shove a fist into my mouth to stop myself from laughing as Jake sees himself in the mirror.

“Georgina May Evans! Stop laughing and help me clean up.”

“I don’t know, Jake. I think you already look like you’ve cleaned up real good.” My dad smirks. “Didn’t think I’d have to worry about you going through my daughter’s underwear drawer to ~borrow~ items…”

He and James try to hold back their laughter as Jake cuts them a look.

“I hate all you guys so much right now.” He pushes past us and slams the bathroom door.

***

The rest of the weekend is spent with him trying to get me to take the nail polish off his hands and feet. I relent…a little. I take the polish off his fingernails but refuse to do his toes. It’s so fun to wind him up.

I roll out of bed when my alarm goes off, signaling it’s six a.m. I do my mini yoga routine before having a quick shower and brushing my teeth.

My poker-straight hair means I don’t have to do any styling, just a quick brush through. I pull out a cute little gray mini skirt from my closet and slip it on over my plain white cotton underwear.

~Why bother getting sexy lingerie if nobody is going to see it?~

I team it with a sweater that nearly matches my strawberry blonde hair.

After putting my contact lenses in, I sweep a little blue eye shadow on, outlining my eyes with a thin black line of eyeliner and covering my speckle of freckles with a layer of foundation and blush.

As I’m pulling up my knee-length gray socks, Jake pushes open my door, his toothbrush in his mouth. His jaw goes slack as he looks me up and down.

“Jakey, you’re gonna dribble toothpaste on my carpet!”

“Shit, sorry.” He wipes his chin. “You look…different.”

“Good different, or bad different?” I suddenly feel nervous again as Jake’s eyes rake me up and down.

“Good…just not used to seeing you look like a girl.” He grins. “At least my first day sees me walking into school on the arm of a hot girl.”

He starts brushing his teeth again. “Good going, Smidge.” He turns and saunters back into the bathroom.

I feel my cheeks warm slightly at his compliment. Shaking my head, I put my feet into my Doc Marten Mary Jane’s and buckle them tightly.

“You better be ready to go in ten minutes, Jake,” I call through the open door. I can hear him taking a leak in the toilet and grimace.

Gonna have to remind him that doors need to be closed when using the bathroom. Too many holidays have seen me stroll in on Jake with his dick in his hand. Thankfully not in a sexy way.

“No worries, Smidge.”

“And please don’t call me that at school! I don’t mind George, but everyone calls me Gina here.”

“No worries…~Smidge.~” He chuckles, flushing the toilet and washing his hands, before slinging his arm around my shoulders and pressing his lips to my temple.

“I promise I won’t embarrass you in front of all your friends. I’m just psyched to have the dynamic duo back together at last. To be honest, my high school experience has sucked without you.”

“Awww! Jakey-poo been missing me?” I tease, tickling his waist. He easily grabs my hands and shakes his head with a smile.

“Naw…I just know that hot girls have hot friends—” He is cut off by my hand slapping over his mouth.

“You are not, I repeat NOT, hooking up with my friends, Jake Nelson. That’s one of the many reasons I hate AJ so much. He’s such a little man whore.

“My friends are stupid enough to have fallen for his silver tongue more than once. I don’t need you stepping in to collect his leftovers.”

Jake nods and makes a cross over his heart with his finger.

***

Jake decides that being the passenger means he’s in charge of music in the car.

To be fair, his musical taste is much better than Katy’s or Macy’s, and I actually enjoy his pick, the new record by Kurt Vile. Jake sings along, mimicking the lazy drawl perfectly.

It is a perfect day for him to start; my three closest friends are off today, traveling back from a gymnastics meet over the weekend.

This means another day not having to introduce Jake to the blonde sharks, which are Katy, Macy, and Robyn.

I walk him to the office to get his class schedule, trying to ignore the buzz in the corridors which surrounds every new student—especially the good-looking ones.

I know Jake is gorgeous, and his longer hair has added to his sex appeal, but to me, he is always going to be little Jakey who wet the bed until he was six and who threw up all over me the first time we went on a rollercoaster.

I’ve seen him in all states of undress over the years, and sure the abs are nice and all, but I am about as attracted to him as I am to my dad, who, for a guy in his mid-forties, still rocks a tight stomach.

“Fuck! George, we’re not in any classes together.” Jake pouts, comparing our schedules.

“That’s because I’m smart, and therefore in smart classes, and you’re normal and therefore in normal classes.” I stick my tongue out at him, and he promptly tries to grab it. “Point proven.”

The first bell sounds.

“You good? Need me to walk you to your first class?”

“Nope. I’m sure I can find a willing victim…I mean, volunteer to help me out.” Jake grins, watching a gaggle of girls walk by, not being inconspicuous in his checking them out. They return his flirtatious looks.

“Give me a hug.” I roll my eyes, holding out my arms. He squeezes me tightly. “See you at lunch, okay? Be good!”

“Always am…” Jake drifts off toward the girls. “Girls, nice to meet you all. I’m after someone who can show me to room 101.”

I sigh. Jake is here. He’ll have more friends than me by lunch, I’m sure.

As long as none of them are fucking AJ McGabe.