Chapter Text
He stops by Rosa’s house before he does anything else. She’s watching TV in her room, sitting on her bed when Jake barges in and plops down next to her.
“What are you doing here, Peralta?” she asks, raising her eyebrows as he lies down, his muddy sneakers dirtying her pink bed sheets that her mother refuses to her change.
“Teddy told me that Amy likes me. Or liked.” He furrows his eyebrows.
“Why were you even talking to Teddy?”
“I wasn’t. some of the tennis guys came up to me after detention and he was with them.” He looks over at her as he defends himself. “And he asked me about the bet and about Amy and then he just told me that he thinks that Amy sabotaged herself so I’d win.”
“And you really believe that?” Jake furrows his eyebrows. “You think Amy Santiago would really throw away a game so you’d win?”
“Well, no.” he says and pauses for a second. “He also insinuated that I was the reason that he and Amy broke up.” He adds.
“Wow.” Rosa says. “What are you going to do about it?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re going on a date with her tomorrow. Who’s to say it has to be bad.” She says. Jake slowly turns to her, his eyes brightening. “Make the best of that date. Make her night. Do all of those dumb things that she likes, like museums and dumb art. Whatever.”
“Okay.” He smiles. “I’m going to do just that. You know, you have such a nice romantic-“
“Call me romantic again and I’ll murder you while you sleep.”
Jake grins and nods. “I blame Gina.” He says and dances out of her reach. “Be right back, I have some calls to make.”
-
That night, he waits nervously for her outside of her building. He curses himself for the third time for wearing his itchiest but fanciest shirt, the one without any food stains on it. After the clock on his car turns from: 59 to: 00, he gets off and nervously locks it, almost dropping his keys into a storm drain.
Afterwards, he nervously combs his hair in the elevator reflection. (Although he later untamed it so he doesn’t seem as nerdy).
When he gets to her apartment, he clears his throat and knocks, cursing when he notices the doorbell right next to it.
He anxiously awaits for a moment, growing weary as the door goes unopened for a whole minute and a half. Then, it’s opened but it isn’t Amy, but a taller man, with her same expressive eyes. Right now, they’re twinkling with mischief as he half-smirks.
“Oh, hey. You here for my coming out party, right?” he asks. “Or did my little sister finally boss-up and finally hired me a stripper?”
“I-um.” Jake’s stunned and the guy chortles, pulling him by his arm into the apartment, where loud voices, not Amy’s, talk in fast and loud Spanish.
“Come in. You must be here for my sister. She’s here, somewhere.” Jake tries to wrestle his arm away but this guy is strong and leads him towards the loud voices.
“I can wait for her outside-“
“It’s okay. They don’t know about that Valentine’s Day night.” He winks over his shoulder and Jake blanches. “I’m Fran, by the way. Or Francisco, I guess but everybody calls me Fran.”
“I’m-“
“Jake. Yeah, I know.” He says. “You’re interrupting my coming out party, by the way. Did I mention that already?”
“In a way.” Jake says back, still taken aback by that Valentine’s Day comment.
They make it to the kitchen, where an older couple and two others guys sit at the table. Jake tries to shrink behind Fran, who pushes him forward. The room grows quiet slowly and Jake smiles awkwardly as they all stare. He finds Amy by the edge of the room, sighing as she spots Fran’s semi-evil look behind him.
There’s a cake in the table, abandoned and Jake can still make out most of the congratulations on it. For a cake, it doesn’t look appetizing.
“Everyone this is Jake. He’s here for Amy. He’s also interrupting my coming out party but he’s very sorry about it.” Fran sits on one of the chairs, leaving Jake all on his own.
Amy’s dad, who he’s seen in passing, is staring at from his seat in the table. He’s a tall man, with a fierce stare and Jake can feel himself shrink small. And the man isn’t even standing.
“Awkward.” One of them coughs, the one with long hair,more likely one of Amy’s older brothers and Jake blushes. Amy stands, glaring at the cougher and he shrinks into his seat.
“Sorry, Jake. I’m almost ready but my pain in the ass of a brother decided to have a coming out party.” She says as she makes her way to him.
“I’ll be right back.” She says and leaves the room. Jake stares after her in despair, thinking please don’t leave me alone here. I think your dad is going to eat me alive.
She doesn’t seem to hear.
Afterwards, her mom jumps to her feet or Jake thinks that it’s her mom. She looks like a slightly older Amy, down to the tight coiled bun at the nape of her neck. “How rude of me. Would you like some cake, Jake?”
“It’s fucking disgusting. It’s vegan.” Her cougher of a brother says.
“It is not disgusting.” Her mom says. “What’s disgusting is that mouth of yours, Vincente. You’re going to wash all the dishes now.”
He grunts and scowls, looking more like a child than a grown man. Jake’s mouth twitches but his smile disappears when he meets Amy’s dad’s eyes, who is still watching him from his seat on the table.
“No, thank you.” Jake answers.
“Answer me this, Jake.” Fran asks and Jake nearly groans at the twinkle in his eye. “How in the hell did you get my sister to go on a date with you? Do you know how long Teddy had to plead so Amy would go on a date with him?”
“Oh, god. That poor boy.” One of her brother snickers, a tall one who is an exact replica of his father.
“I liked Teddy.” Amy’s dad speaks for the first time and Amy’s mom rolls her eyes as his eyes don’t leave Jake. Then, she smiles at Jake.“He was a good boy, hardworking and smart.”
“He was a huge boring nerd.” Fran says. “Tell me Jake, you don’t want to be a mechanical engineer do you?”
“Nope.” He shakes his head. “I want to be a cop.” Amy’s dad looks interested at this. “Well, a detective.” He clarifies and the whole room groans. Amy’s mom winces as she puts the leftover cake in the fridge.
“A detective?” Amy’s dad asks. Jake nods.
“You’re going to regret saying that.” Vicente says, now beginning to clean the table.
“Is your father a cop?” Amy’s dad asks in his slight accent.
Jake shakes his head, trying his best not to frown at the mention of his father, who still roamed around their apartment. “Nope. He’s a pilot. I actually want to be a detective because of Die Hard.”
“Die Hard?” Amy’s dad’s twin asks incredulously.
“Yeah, my favorite movie. The best cop movie, in my opinion.” The whole room groans again.
“Oh, Jake. You’re going to regret saying that, too.” Vicente says again.
“Really? That movie is highly inaccurate. Let me tell you,” Amy’s dad shakes his head and opens his mouth, with no doubt going to go in a long, long speech but Amy appears. Amy notices her father’s demeanor and she groans.
“You mentioned Die Hard, didn’t you?” she sighs. “Let’s go before he starts.” She tugs his arm as they leave the room and Fran calls out to them before they can leave.
“Wait, you didn’t answer my question. How did you get Amy to go on a date with you?”
“She lost a bet.” He says simply, not wanting to get into the logistics of it and Amy scowls next to him, pinching the arm she was still grabbing onto.
The whole room turns to him with surprise.
“A bet?” Amy’s mom asks.
“Yeah, I beat her in a test.”
Fran snorts and begins to laugh loudly.
“Let’s go.” She says again, frowning, and pulls him out of the room. “We’ll be back later.”
“No later than eleven, Amy.” Her father calls out to her and Amy groans.
“Have fun!” Fran says as they open the apartment door. His voice is slightly muted as he says, “And I forgive you for ruining my coming out party, Jake.”
-
“That was painful.” He says.
“Yeah, sorry about that.” She says as they await the light to change from red to green. “My family can be a bit…much.”
“Your brother is a hoot.”
“Fran? He’s a pain in the ass. My only cool brother is Luis but he’s in the Maldives right now.”
“Fran came out yesterday?”
“Nope. Five years ago.” She rolls her eyes. “But he insists on a coming out party every year.”
“I wish my mom threw me a party. All my mom did was buy me a shirt.”
“You can share Fran’s coming out party. Next year, you’ll both get cake. He’ll hate not having all of attention on him.”
“Thanks.” Jake says as the light turns green, he goes. It’s quiet for a second and Jake’s taps his fingers on the steering wheel as he drives.
They’re in a comfortable silence as they drive and Jake’s glad that Amy hasn’t asked about their destination because he isn’t quite sure how he would explain it. Oh, hey Amy just trying to take you on a pretty good date so that you can forego that rule of yours and actually date me.
Uh, no.
It’s twenty minutes in when he notices the slight smoke coming out from under the hood. His car skids for a moment and then it starting slowing down. It’s done this before and usually Jake would just park in the side of the street and pick his car up the next day but right now, in the middle of an empty road, on the outskirts of the city.
“Oh, noooo.” He says, cursing slightly as he drives off the road. Amy looks around in alarm as the front of the car starts smoking.
“What’s going on?” The car skids slightly on the wet ground and she grabs tightly onto the door. “Oh, my god.”
Jake presses down on the brake hard and the car lets out one loud sound before it stops completely. They can hardly see out the front window due to the smoke and they cough as it comes in thru the windows that don’t go up.
“Oh, my God.” She says again, amidst all her coughing. Jake cover his mouth with his itchy shirt, now itchier than ever. After thirty seconds of coughing, the smoke stops coming so thickly and they’re able to breathe. “Jake?” Amy asks from within her shirt.
“Hmm?”
“Are we stranded?”
“Yes.” He sighs. “Why did this have to happen? We were almost there.”
“Where were we even going? Were you going to murder me in the middle of the woods?”
“What? No.” he groans.
“Or, God, is this the beginning of your bad date, Jake? Because I really don’t want to die.”
“Nope.” He says. “I promise.” The smoke stops coming out and they uncover their mouths, breathing in the clean air deeply.
“God, where are we?”
“Halfway to Jersey.” He says. Amy turns at that.
“Jersey? What were we going to be doing in Jersey?”
He sighs, because the tickets in his pocket are going to waste anyway and now there’s no way to salvage this date.
“There was an old book expo-“
“The Hartfield Book Society’s Book Exposition?” she asks in awe and Jake nods. He glances at her and she’s watching him with wide eyes and he looks away. “Why?”
“Because the font one was sold out.”
“Jake.” She shakes her head. “No, I mean, why are you doing this? You won, remember?”
“Well, yeah.” He looks at her and swallows at the fragile look on her face. He doesn’t look away. “But, I thought, it’d be, I don’t know- fun. Or, I guess I thought-“ he stops and Amy looks away blinking with wide eyes. He fiddles with his fingers in his lap.
“Well, thank you. I guess for the thought. That was nice of you.”
“Yep.” He says simply. It’s awkward for a moment and Jake bites his lip from speaking. “I guess I better call a taxi.” She nods and he steps outside of the car. She stares out the window as he makes the call and he thinks about calling Rosa and asking for her advice but decides against it.
She turns to him as he sits back down.
“Uh, he said he’d be a while. Apparently there’s like a big accident so they’re going to take a while.”
“Okay.” She says.
There’s a moment of silence as they sit there, both unsure of what to say.
“What does your family have against Die Hard?” he asks suddenly.
She turns to him with raised eyebrows. “What?”
“Yeah. You’ve never seen it; it seems like your dad hates it. Are you a family of Die Hard haters?” he asks. Amy scoffs, relaxing a little as she rolls her eyes.
“Good god, Jake.” She shakes her head. “We’re not really having this conversation, are we?”
“I think we are.” He says back and she tries to hide her smile. Jake is relieved because that cloud of weird uncomfortableness is gone. “How can you hate something that you’ve never seen, Amy?” he asks.
“The same way you hate broccoli even though you’ve never had it.”
“That’s different. Broccoli is evil!” he retorts. “I can’t believe it. I don’t think I can be friends with someone from a family of Die Hard haters.”
“Well, you’re stuck with me for quite a while. Now that my dad knows you want to be a cop, he’s not going to leave you alone.”
Jake laughs to cover up the fact that he wouldn’t mind that one bit.
“Anyway,” he begins, glad that there’s no awkward moment between them again. “What should we do to pass the time?”
“We could name all the books that were going to be in the expo?” she suggests. “I’ll start! The first edition of-“
“Or we can just watch a movie on my phone?”
“Mine sounded better but okay.” She shrugs. Jake shows her the right way to recline the seats and he loads the movie.
They’re quiet in the beginning of the movie and Amy narrows her eyes suspiciously, opens her mouth to speak and changes her mind at the last minute.
“What?” Jake asks. Amy purses her lips and sighs, shaking her head. Jake pauses the movie not wanting to be distracted from whatever is bothering her.
“It’s just, this movie is grossly inaccurate.”
“Grossly?” he asks, unable to keep the amusement out of his voice.
Amy glares at him and rolls her eyes. “You know what I mean, Jake.”
“Okay.” He nods and sets his phone down, ready for her. “What did they get wrong? Do ants not have hair as beautiful as Paul Rudd’s?”
“The thing is: they wouldn’t even have hair but, you know, Hollywood doesn’t really care about the science of it, do they?”
“They do not.” He states and Amy narrows her eyes at the slight smirk gracing his face.
“You can laugh at me all you want, Jake but the reality of it is that Hollywood only cares about money.”
“I’m not making fun of you.”
“Start the movie again, Jake.” She says, rolling her eyes. Jake grins as they lie back down and focus in the movie. Fifteen minutes in, she sighs loudly again and Jake pauses it, raising his eyebrows. She purses her lips, not wanting to give him more material to make fun of her with but she can’t help herself. “First of all, the water would not shove him like that; if anything they’d drown him. Also, how is he moving so fast?”
“I mean, he is ant man.” Jake argues but not entirely meaning it.
“Yeah, but even ants don’t move at that velocity.” She retorts.
“So, do you want to stop watching it?”
“No. Continue it.” She replies
This time, she gets through five minutes of watching it before she’s sighing loudly and Jake pauses it.
(That happens six more times until the taxi arrives)
-
They leave Jake’s car in the side of the road and Jake mentions coming for it the next morning. The taxi takes them the city, where they buy vanilla ice cream and walk around central park. Afterwards, they sit on the bench and let their feet dangle as they let the silence engulf them.
The cars wheeze on around them, the sound of the taxis is earsplitting but they’re deaf to it all.
“Were you really going to take me to the old book expo?” she asks after a moment.
“Yeah.” He nods and doesn’t say anything else. Suddenly the air is too think and he feels like he can’t breathe. Amy beside him, in her thin shirt, shivers. He takes off his jacket and hands it to her in what he hopes is a non-romantic matter. “Here.”
She takes it hesitantly and slides it on quickly. The slightly padded shoulders hang limply around her and the sleeves are too long, leaving only her fingertips exposed.
It’s adorable. Jake tries not to stare for too long. It’s quiet between although the quiet sits calmly between them.
“Well, thanks.” She says after a moment.
“We didn’t even make it.”
“It’s the thought that counts.”
“Wish you would’ve told me that before I spent all that money on the tickets.” He jokes and she rolls her eyes. They smile softly at one another, warmth radiating between them both. “You’re welcome.”
“I can’t stop thinking of how wrong that movie was.” She says after a moment and Jake groans loudly. “Listen to me, it was-“
“Grossly inaccurate, I know.” He says and rolls his eyes playfully. Amy’s lip twitches and she smiles slightly at him. He smiles back.
In the eve of the night, as the cars blare around them and as the night grows colder, they sit on a park bench and smile at each other like weirdos.
-
It’s not until later, when she’s in her room, that she realizes that she still has his jacket. She starts taking it off but stops and remains enveloped in it. It’s soft , plus, it smells good. Her brother Fern, like the uneducated fool he is, bursts into her room and sits on her bed as she’s brushing her hair back.
“So?”
“So, what?”
“So how did everything go?”
“Good.”
“DId he, you know, try anything?”
“What?” she asks, surprised. Fran rolls his eyes. “Why would he do that? Jake and I are friends.”
“Come on, Amy. He’s totally into you.”
“Jake? No, he isn’t.” she shakes her head and sits in her desk chair, determined to do some homework before it’s too late. “We’re friends, that’s all.”
“Uh-huh. Friends do not look at each other the way that he looks at you.”
“You’re being ridiculous.” She tries to swat him away as he leans in close to her.
“No, I’m not. I think you’re being ridiculous by refusing to see what’s in front of your eyes.”
“No, he doesn’t.” she establishes, her voice sturdy and her brother rolls his eyes.
“You’ve definitely noticed it, haven’t you? And now you’re scared to think of ‘what if’.” He hires her voice to match her timbre. “’Hmm, I’m Amy and I have no idea as to why this guy bet on me to go on a date with him. I’m Amy and I’m so blind to what’s so bluntly obvious in front of me.”
“Ugh.” She says because, okay, she might’ve suspected something. But it was hard not to. And okay, after tonight, she was more than sure that he liked her or had slight feelings for her.
But that doesn’t mean she does for him or that she wants to ask him. Anyway, what good would that do? It took her forever to shake Teddy off and plus, she has a rule: no dating until college. Sure, it’s a self-imposed rule and sure, she could just cancel it all but Amy Santiago doesn’t break rules.
Nor does she bend the rules for herself. It’s not the Amy Santiago way.
“Can you please go away so I can do my English homework?”
“Fine. I’ll leave but just think, Ames. Why do you think he’s gone through all this trouble just to go on a date with you? Why do you think he’s done all of this for you?”
Amy’s quiet as he leaves and as he shuts the door tightly behind him.
Amy groans and covers her eyes with her palms. It’s strange to think that Jake might like her in a way that’s romantic, especially after being around him for so long and something settles in her stomach as she pictures herself dating him, not like tonight but an actual date with flowers and kisses and-
Beside her, her phone lights up with a new message, interrupting her mid-thought. It’s Jake. It’s a screenshot on some of the inaccuracies that she had mentioned. Caught u cheating, he says.
Amy grabs her phone, smiling slightly and already crafting a message. But then, her brother’s words ring in her ears and she just deletes the message. If Jake asks, she never received it.
Then, she decides that there are rules for a reason. That nothing is meant to be broken. Especially rules.
She’s moving next year and it’ll be her last year before she starts college and she wants to be fully prepared. And, okay, if Jake wants to ask her out in two years, she wouldn’t be awfully opposed to it.
But for now, as she ignores another text from him, she tells herself that she doesn’t need the distraction and Jake is full of distractions.