My blood approves

He sped off across the parking lot, and I finally pulled my eyes away from him to look out the window. Jane was cowering down behind a large white van, and I wondered if she’d even bothered to call the police or anything. The car stopped next to her, and he rolled down the window so he could lean out.

“Jane?” he said, and she turned to look at him.

I expected her to be afraid, maybe even bolt and run, after what had just happened. Instead, she gave him the strangest look. It was almost as if she was in awe. It didn’t make any sense to me. Sure, I did think he was attractive, maybe even very attractive, but I’d seen Jane go home with guys far more attractive then him. But she looked absolutely stunned by his beauty, and I was surprised she wasn’t drooling.

“Hi,” Jane stammered. It wasn’t her normal sultry, flirty voice, even though I’m sure that’s what she was trying for. She sounded too star struck to be sexy, and I wondered if I was missing something. I looked back over at him, trying to figure out if he was famous and I just couldn’t place him.

“Jane, he’s giving us a ride,” I explained when it appeared she was just going to stand there staring at him. “Get in the car.”

“Sure.” Jane finally seemed to regain herself a bit and smiled at him before sliding into the backseat. When she got in, I swear that she leaned forward so she could sniff him. Naturally, I tried to inconspicuously inhale to see if I could smell anything, and admittedly, he seemed to smell good, but it was nothing spectacular.

“Are you okay?” I asked, looking back at her. Maybe in her fear, she’d popped an ecstasy tablet or something.

“I’m great,” Jane cooed, still gaping at him. “Who’s your friend here?”

“I don’t actually know.” It had never occurred to me that I didn’t even know the name of the guy driving the car.

“I’m Jack,” he offered, filling in the blank. “And you’re Jane.” Then he looked over at me, his eyes dancing. “And you are?”

“Alice.” Out of the corner of my eye, I could see jealousy flash across Jane’s face. She seemed threatened that he was even looking at me, which was very un-Jane like. Even as conceited as she was, or maybe because of it, she was never, ever threatened or jealous of me.

“Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I could really go for a cup of coffee right about now.” Jack dropped the car into gear and sped off without waiting for either of us to respond. It wasn’t really a question anyway, and neither one of us would’ve protested. When I glanced up in the rearview mirror, I could see Jane staring at him with this intense expression and leaning forward, as if she couldn’t get close enough to him. Even with her rather storied history, I had never seen her look so desperate before.

I was afraid she’d catch me staring at her (which was silly because I doubted that Jane would notice anything but Jack), I turned my attention out the window. The city lights went past us in a blur, and I wondered how fast we were going. There was no sense of fear of getting hurt or even pulled over, though.

Ever since I had heard Jack’s voice, any real worry I had had completely dissolved. I felt completely at ease with him, and that fact should’ve been somewhat concerning, but I just couldn’t seem to muster any.

“This is a really nice car,” Jane said randomly, and her voice had fully regained that sickeningly sweet tone that made me want to vomit all over her pair of stilettos I had on my lap. Leaning even farther forward between the seats, she gingerly brushed her fingers along Jack’s bicep, and he responded by letting his arm fall lax, so it was further out of her reach. None of this made any sense to me. In all my many irritating years of being friends with Jane, I had never seen her fawning over anyone so badly, or being just as blatantly rebuffed.

“Is this Weezer?” I asked, mostly to fill up the awkward tension that was developing.

“Yeah,” Jack nodded.

“I like that song ‘Pork ‘n Beans,’” I commented. It seemed like a rather trivial thing to say, but at least it kept Jane from adding something in her overly flirtatious manner. As soon as I mentioned the song, Jack quickly flipped it to the track, and Jane opened her mouth to say something more, but he cut her off.

“I saw them when they were on tour with The Matches.”

“Really?” I ignored the annoyed glare Jane was giving me and continued on. “I really like them. How are they live?”

“Pretty good, I guess,” Jack shrugged, and then turned sharply into the parking lot outside an all night diner. The trip felt ridiculously short, and I realized that we had to have been going well over the speed limit to get there so quickly.