Jake smiled at me, and my stomach felt all fluttery. His smile was a lot better than Jeremy DeFoe's. "Good job," Jake said. He held out his arms. "Wanna get out?"
Before I could think about it, I pushed myself up and practically leapt into his arms. He felt really nice and smelled good too. But then, he set me down next to the cart.
He turned back to the two guys. "Alright," Jake said, "which one of you wants to go first?"
The two guys looked at each other. The redhead took a step backward. "What do you mean?" he said.
Jake pointed to the shopping cart. "Get in," he said.
The redhead took another step backward. "No way."
Jake turned to the long-haired guy, who stood a lot closer. "How about you?" Jake asked.
The long-haired guy swallowed. He shook his head. He glanced toward the car. "Uh, we gotta go," he said.
Jake turned to me. "You wanna see them go for a ride?"
I didn't even have to think about it. I nodded.
Jake started walking toward the long-haired guy, who said in a high, whiny voice, "Seriously, Jake! Quit messin' around!"
"I'm not messing," Jake said. He gripped the guy by his shirt and said in a quiet, but kind of scary voice. "Now get in. Or I'll put you in."
The long-haired guy glanced at the shopping cart, and then, he turned to his friend. He gave a nervous-sounding laugh. "Can you believe this shit?" he asked.
The redhead looked at his car. He looked at Jake. And then, a split-second later, he dove into the car and powered up the engine. The car squealed backwards, turned sideways, and sped out of the parking lot like two seconds later.
The long-haired guy stared after the car. His mouth fell open, and his head tilted sideways. The wet clump of hair flopped over his mouth, giving him a weird fake moustache.
I heard myself giggle.
Jake turned to the give the guy a long look. "We're waiting," Jake said.
The guy's shoulders sagged, and then he started trudging toward the cart. With a huge, overdramatic sigh, he grabbed the edge of the shopping cart and climbed in. He was kind of tall, and his long legs flopped over the sides. He looked really stupid.
Jake turned to me. "You wanna push?" he asked.
I gave it some thought and then nodded.
"Okay," Jake said, "What you gotta do is this. Grab the handle, run as fast as you can toward those bushes." He pointed at the big green bushes that lined the walkway in front of the skating rink. "Then, when you're almost there, let go." He smiled at me. "Okay?"
The guy in the cart gave another big sigh. "This is such bullshit," he said.
Jake turned toward him. "What's that?" he asked.
The guy rolled his eyes. "Nothin'"
"I thought so," Jake said.
Jake gave me another smile. "Whenever you're ready," he said.
I walked toward the shopping cart and grabbed the handle with both hands.
"Don't chicken out on me," Jake said. "Alright?"
Nodding, I gave the cart a little push. It was a lot heavier than I expected, but I wasn't going to let that stop me. I leaned forward and pushed it as hard as I could. It moved faster, and I started to run.
I ran as fast as I could toward the bushes. The guy was holding on to the sides of the cart with both hands, and his long hair was flying behind him. When I got close to the bushes, I let go of the handle. The cart sailed forward, and the guy gave a little girlie scream. A split-second later, it crashed into the bushes and fell over. Muttering stuff under his breath, the guy crawled out and stumbled to his feet.
