That night, Emma and Jakob were hanging out by the pool, while Lilja, Anna, and I were on one of her balconies.
"Hey Nate... I have something I gotta tell you." Anna broke the silence. I turned and looked at her.
"What is it?" I asked.
"You can't tell anyone." Lilja said with a panicky air.
"I won't... but really, tell me what it is."
"There's this guy, David... he's a friend of Emma's boyfriend." Anna said.
"David... Andrews?" I asked curiously.
"Yes... but there's more to it."
"What's going on?" I asked suspiciously.
"I've been texting him in the past few weeks... but I didn't want to tell you and Jakob, because you know how Jakob is..." she said.
"Go on." I really didn't like where this was heading.
"I've personally invited him to the party." My jaw dropped.
"Are you two... dating?"
"No, no; nothing like that. It's just, you know... I like him like that. It's the whole 'does he like me' thing." She said.
"Wouldn't you rather Jakob know now since he'll probably scare the guy off at the party anyway?" I asked.
"No, that's the thing. I'm tired of having to get Jakob's approval for everything. I'm a big girl; I can make my own choices."
"Anna, you know that's not fair; he's just trying to keep you safe." Lilja interrupted.
"But I know this guy! He's not malicious!" Anna cried out.
"And I thought I knew Cody." Lilja said quietly.
"But that doesn't mean we gotta assume the worse out of people! You know that Jakob will judge-"
"Anna, he's a jock."
"And Jakob isn't?"
"There's a difference between a jock and an athlete-"
"You don't even know him, Nate!" Anna said.
"I know his kind."
"Yeah? 'Cause that's what homophobes say about gay people, too; and look how wrong they are."
"She has a point, Nathan..."
"Fine, but why are you telling me?"
"Because you're my friend." Anna said lightly.
"Well, fine. But what do you want me to do about it? Talk to the guy?"
"No. I can do that," she said matter-of-factly, "I want you to convince Jakob not to throw the guy through a wall." She winked.
"I'll try." I snickered. There was obviously only one way to do that; seduce him.
"So.. have you guys ever seen Jakob drunk?"
"Yeah. We all got drunk for the first time with some other people last year at a summer party."
"What're y'all like then?"
"Anna and I are pretty mellow, but..." Lilja trailed off.
"Jakob's pretty energetic, you might say. Not dangerous though." Anna added in response to the scared look on my face.
"Look Nathan, Jakob can be scary; but he'd never hurt the guy he'd die for." Lilja said.
"You guys are right." I said.
"Aren't they always?" Emma said, walking onto the balcony with Jakob close behind.
"Unfortunately." Jakob said grumpily.
"Yeah yeah. Hey guys, have you all told your parents about the suspension?" Lilja asked.
"My mom doesn't blame me for what we did." I said, which was true.
"My mom is glad that I walked out. I mean, he did push me down and call me a bitch." Emma said, rolling her eyes.
"I still can't believe you slapped him." Jakob said, laughing.
"That's nothing! I mean, Nathan threw a fucking desk at him."
"Seems like everyone has a vicious side." Jakob grinned, not taking his eyes off of me.
"I can relate." I grinned back at him.
"Great then!" Emma said.
"Wait-what about Jakob's parents?"
"Well, they didn't say anything, so I guess they don't mind! We don't really talk anyhow." Jakob said. This was a good thing.
"Well, since we have that cleared up, us girls are gonna turn in." Emma said, as though this were a privilege.
"Um, okay." Jakob said, looking at her peculiarly. I knew that they were just leaving us alone so I could talk to Jakob about David.
"Bye." Lilja said quickly before rushing Anna inside.
"Wonder what's up with them..." Jakob thought outloud.
"Actually," I said, turning towards him. "I know. They gave me the joy of telling you something." I stepped in front of him.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Well," I started, putting my arms around his waist, my hands in his back pockets. "Anna invited a jock to the party; one whom she likes." I tried to word the question carefully.
"But... why?" he asked, looking more hurt than sad.
"I don't know Jakob... just don't break him in half if you see him a little close to Anna. Give him a chance." I said, somewhat relieved.
"Ohh hell no. I barely gave Cody a chance, and you know what happened."
"Jakob," I said delicately, putting my head on his shoulder. "If everyone always assumed the worst in people, then mankind would just die out."
"Nate, baby, you gotta understand... Lilja was raped by Cody. I can't act like that had no effect on me, because you know it did."
"You don't think Anna hurts because of it too? That's her best friend, yeah? But she really trusts this guy; just give him a chance. Get to know him yourself if you want. Be intimidating, I don't care, but Anna deserves this."
"I don't-" He stopped midsentence as I sunk my teeth lightly into his neck. He had thick skin, so it didn't hurt him, but I could tell it was turning him on.
"What are you, a vampire?" he gasped.
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" I snickered.
"Maybe." He grinned, putting his legs around mine. "Look who's stuck." He snickered, his eyes glimmering.
"Look who doesn't mind." I pulled my hands out of his pockets and went to tickle him, but was stopped abruptly.
"Don't even think about it." He said, not being able to suppress his laughs.
"But-it's-so-fun." I said, struggling to free my arms from his strong hold, to no avail.
"I know it is!" he grinned.
"What, tickling people, or captivating me?"
"Both." He finally let me go.
"You would think so." I said slowly, looking up into his eyes. One thing that I couldn't brush off was that the bright stars reflected in his extremely light blue eyes. "Wow." I said with uneven breath.
"Ditto." He said, leaning down and looking straight into my eyes. I had a feeling that he wasn't talking about HIS eyes. "I hope no one ever takes away the opportunity of this..." he said, his overwhelmingly pleasant breath filling the air around me.
"Opportunity for... what?" I asked, somewhat rhetorically. I lifted the tight black Rancid shirt that he was wearing over his large abs which, to my great surprise, stayed in place.
"This." He whispered, placing his soft lips on mine. We were frenching under the stars. An Icelandic guy was frenching me under the stars. Jakob Eriksson was frenching me under the stars. It took a few minutes to take it all in, but after that, it was my turn to shock him. I put my arms around his broad shoulders and began to nibble his lips. It came and went quickly, though, because I felt like talking for once.
"You know," I said, my hands holding his cheeks. "I'm real surprised that you didn't get angry when I told you about David."
"Yeah, I've been trying to keep my anger under control for you." He blushed as he massaged my shoulders gently.
"You're doing well." I smiled at him.
"I just know that I'm going to be watching this boy very carefully."
"You'll be wanting to keep your eyes on me at the party, actually. There'll be a lot of gay guys coming." I grinned.
His jaw dropped somewhat. "Who?"
"What, don't tell me you thought that we were the only ones at school?" I snickered.
"I just haven't really thought about it. Well, I doubt anyone will be hitting on you, 'cause they'll all be hitting on me." He grinned.
"Hey jackass!" I giggled, playfully backhanding his stomach.
"Ouch! That might have hurt if you were stronger!" he said, with feigned pain.
"Grrr." I growled, pushing him back as hard as I could. I managed to knock him back some, grinning with triumph.
"Damn, you're feisty." He grinned, lifting me quickly off of the ground with one hand.
"What, are you gonna use your insane karate moves on me now?" I said cockily.
"You wouldn't like that."
"Yeah? Wipe that smirk off of your face and try it." I knew that I was really pressing my luck, but I also knew that he wouldn't hurt me. The girls' words echoed in my head: 'he'd never hurt the guy he loved.'
I was somewhat right. He pulled me into a bearhug and slammed himself to the floor. I was pretty sure he hadn't been hurt, but I didn't really get the point of it.
"Was that your best move?" I snickered. This time, I had really gone too far. He rolled me over and got on top of me. He lazily held my arms in place and whispered sweetly into my ear, "If I tried my best on you, you would have about five minutes to live, baby."
"That's horrifically hot, somehow." I said, bursting out laughing.
"There's seriously something wrong with you." He said genuinely, holding my head up.
"But that's what you like about me." I grinned.
"It would appear so."
"Nate-dawg! Jakob!" I heard Emma's voice call from inside. I shuddered at my nickname.
"Come on Nate-dawg!" Jakob cajoled.
"What's up?" I asked, somewhat grumpy that our fun conversation had been ruined.
"WE made the party's music soundtrack while Y'ALL were getting off on each other."
"We did nothing of the-"
"Anyway! Tell us what you think of it." Emma interrupted.
"I can't believe you guys didn't consult us. I'm like, the music god of Clouder High!" I said.
"Really? 'Cause I know a million others that claim that too... odd." She said.
"Fine, we'll listen to it." Jakob said for me.
"Great!" she said.
"But I thought you guys said you all were going to bed?" I asked.
"We decided not to, but now we are! Have fun kiddos!" Emma said, skipping downstairs.
"She's insane." Jakob grinned.
"Guess we had better check this out." I said, walking into the living room.
"Can you dance, by the way?" he asked.
"Totally. Can you?" I asked with high hopes.
"Like I was born to." He grinned.
"Perfect then." I smiled as hip hop filled the air.
"This is going to be the party of the year." I whispered in Jakob's ear, and I truly believed it.