A World Apart The Jake Thomas Trilogy - By Steven A. Tolle Page 0,2

between Jake and me."

"Next time, why don't you just man up and do your own fighting?" Mike replied, voice steady and firm, smile gone. "If I catch you running up three-on-one on Jake again, then I will make this my business. Trust me; you don't want any part of that. Your daddy's money won't do you any good then." A smirk crossed his face. "I'll make sure your girlfriend is taken care of, though."

Donald flushed at the last remark, but wisely bit back a reply. He glared at Jake and said. "This isn't over." He turned and walked away, John and Robert sheepishly following. The quiet that had descended on the table area broke into a multitude of voices as it seemed that everyone began speaking up all at once.

"Thanks, Mike." Jake said as he exhaled sharply. "You know how my folks feel about me fighting, especially at school. Not only that, I can't have something like that on my record as I'm trying to get into some good schools." He hesitated for a moment. "You going to college in the fall, Mike?"

"No." Mike replied shortly, face unreadable. Then a smile reappeared. "Did you really ask out his girl?" Mike said with a soft chuckle. "Your timing with the ladies has always been lousy. Hell, if I was in his shoes, I'd probably want to kick your ass too."

The smile slowly faded, his dark eyes meeting Jake's. "Watch yourself. That rich dickhead is used to having things his way. If he tries anything, you let me know. I'll teach him a lesson he won't forget." Mike turned to head back to the gangster table. "Peace out."

Jake stared sadly after Mike for a second, regretting that their friendship had drifted apart. He heard the guys at Mike's table give him grief about ruining a perfectly good fight. Jake turned to head for his table and saw Matt and Sean weaving their way through the crowd that had gathered to watch the show.

"Man, we didn't know you were involved or we'd have been there to back you up. We figured it was a couple of jocks messing around." Sean said as he came up to Jake. "We heard it was Donald and a couple of his buddies. What's up his ass?"

Sean and Jake had been friends since grade school. He was about Jake's height with wavy dark hair and bright blue eyes. Even Jake had to admit that Sean was a good looking guy. When they went swimming or to the beach, Jake found it was hard not to feel a little jealous of Sean. He looked like a swimsuit model when he pulled off his shirt, lean and muscular. That generally would bring the girls around; unfortunately, Sean was pretty reserved and even more awkward around girls than Jake.

"I asked Sabrina to prom." Jake replied, blushing slightly, embarrassed. He had not told anyone, including Sean and Matt, about the call and Sabrina had promised not to say anything. Well, that apparently did not work out.

"Dude, seriously, you didn't know she was dating the Donster?" Matt asked, a broad smile on his face. Matt always seemed to have a smile on his face. Jake had met Matt their freshman year in math class. Matt was shorter than Jake and Sean and a bit on the chubby side. His shaggy brown hair always looked like he did not own a comb; it was always hanging down in his glasses. Matt's personality was the opposite of Sean's in that he was anything but shy. He acted as if he did not have an off switch; he always had something to say, most of the time trying to be funny. In fact, Jake could not remember if Matt had ever been quiet for more than a couple of minutes.

"You've actually got to use the Facebook account I set up for you." Matt continued. "I saw that she had changed her status and posted about it a couple of weeks ago. When you said you were going to ask someone to prom, I figured it was Tina."

Tina Rostell was one of Jake's chemistry lab partners and had a not-so-secret thing for him. They had drunkenly made out at Matt's house a couple of months ago when his folks were out of town. Matt had invited about twenty people over and, naturally, they had gotten into his dad's liquor cabinet. Several drinking games later, Jake had found himself with Tina in the spare bedroom on a dare