Page 41 of Jacob Michaels Is Not Jacob Michaels

“I love you, too,” He said, “but…what’s going on?”

“I’ve loved you since high school,” I said. “I’ve loved you since you stood in front of me after a football game and asked me if I loved you.”

Lucas pulled back slightly as his brow furrowed.

“What?”

“I just remembered something.” I was shaking my head, still confused about what had happened, but knowing it was real. “You were at the bottom of the stairs, in your football jacket, after you guys had won a game, and you asked me if I had been waiting on you…and then we told each other we loved each other, and we kissed, and—”

“I don’t remember that, Rob.” His eyes were welling up. “But I know you’re telling the truth.”

“Is that one of the things you just know?”

“No.” He shook his head. “I can just see it in your face that you’re telling the truth.”

Lucas gasped with happy surprise as I yanked him forward again and smothered his mouth with mine. My lips savored his, and then I was kissing him all over his face, cupping his face in my hands.

“Why don’t we remember that, though?” He gasped as I kissed him and his arms went around my neck. “Or, at least, why don’t I? Why don’t we remember more?”

“I don’t know,” I said, still kissing him all over his face. “I don’t care right now. But now I don’t feel like you’re missing. I don’t miss you like I did. Now I’m just so glad that I have you back.”

“I don’t care right now, either.” He sighed as I moved to kiss his neck, still holding him tightly to me. “I’m just glad I have you, Rob. I’m so fucking glad to have you back.”

I shivered once again as I tightened my arms around him and hugged his body to mine, my face burying itself into his chest. Lucas held me to him, sighing contently as we held each other there in the stadium. Finally, I understood why Lucas felt like home, why I had missed him so much. All of the details weren’t there, but things were falling into place. After my encounter with Teenage Ghost Rob, and I started having flashes of memories and weird dreams, I felt like I missed Lucas all the time. My relationship with Lucas wasn’t new—even if we couldn’t remember being in one before. Things were coming back to me, though. I prayed that I could help Lucas remember the same things that I remembered, too.

“What’s that?” Lucas whisper against my ear.

“What?”

“That.” Lucas whisper-hissed. “Look.”

Pulling away from Lucas, but not quite letting go of him, I turned slightly on the bleacher to look up at the top of the stands where he was staring. I didn’t see anything.

“Did you see that?” Lucas jerked.

“What are you—”

Shadows moved at the top of the stairs as Lucas and I slowly rose to our feet, our eyes staying fixed in place. Our arms had fallen away from each other, but my hand grasped Lucas’, and I laced my fingers through his as I moved to his side.

“You did see that, right?” Lucas whispered.

“I saw…something.”

As if summoned by my words, the shadowy movement returned to the top of the stairs. The shadows fell away as two men stepped out of the darkness at the top of the stadium and into full view. Illuminated by the dim blue light of the quarter moon, it quickly became apparent why these men were not security guards coming to tell us to go smooch somewhere else. The most obvious clue was that they both had red eyes that practically glowed in the dark.

“Shit.” I gasped, walking back down the stairs.

Lucas followed my lead.

“Are they…”

“I don’t think they’re about to ask us to join in on a game of touch football.” I quipped.

Lucas nodded, and we turned in unison towards the field. Both of us jumped at the sight of the two men standing on the field just beneath the stands. Lucas twitched at my side.

“Rob.” He gasped.

Turning my head to look in his direction, I saw another two men with glowing red eyes walking through the bleachers towards us. A glance to my side confirmed that another two more guys with red eyes were in the stands, helping to close us in on the other side. There were eight guys: two behind, two in front, two on each side. Maybe we could have taken one or two, perhaps even three, of the guys in a fight. At least get away from them. But two against eight just wasn’t fair. Lucas and I whipped around as the men closed in on each side.