Kendall & Me [discontinued]

13 | Interesting

“Ty!” Falice greeted, leaning against the doorway and crossing her arms lightly over her chest.  She smiled brightly.  “What brings you to my humble abode, my good sir?”

“I found your fellow CIA agents in your next door neighbor’s bushes.”  Ty’s eyebrows rose and that same goofy grin plastered itself on his face.  It was swiftly becoming one of the things I associated with him.  “You guys are getting sloppy.”

It was then that Falice noticed the rest of us.  “Isabel, hey!” she exclaimed.  Her eyes drifted to Diana and Elijah, and a small smile formed on her face.  “Diana and Elijah, right?”

They nodded.  From the corner of my eye, I could see Kendall cross her arms over her chest.  I wondered how exasperating it must feel to always be excluded from introductions. 

“Well, you guys can come in if you’d like,” Falice said, pushing away from the doorway and stepping into the house.  “I was just Skyping with Will.”

I glanced back at the others before nodding, saying a soft thank you, and stepping into the house.  We followed Falice into her kitchen, where I spotted her sister sitting on top of the island, a jar of peanut butter in her hand.  Her eyebrows rose as we entered.  “I heard you were here,” she said to Ty, eyebrows lifting further.  “Summers weren’t enough for you, huh?”

“Jessica II,” Ty greeted with a nod.  It was entertaining to watch as he tried to suppress an amused grin.

“Oh god, I have so not missed being called that.  I’ll have you know I was born first.”  She rolled her eyes and hopped off the island, eyes veering toward us.  If I thought she was going to greet us, I was wrong.  Her gaze just flicked over to Falice, who was now heading for a drawer next to the sink.  “Inviting friends over without Dad’s permission?  Look at the rebel you’ve become.”

Falice rolled her eyes.  “Shut up and give me some peanut butter.”  She grinned, stealing the jar from Arabelle’s hands and taking some for herself.  “Thank you,” she said, smiling mischievously. 

“Just a warning: never steal their peanut butter,” Ty told us conspiringly.  “They will kill you.  I took a scoop once at camp and got put on probation.”

“You’re still on probation, buddy,” Falice called, laughing.  She turned to us.  “Well, I have to get upstairs before Will starts to think I’ve forgotten about him.  You guys are welcome to come if you want.”

“Like Will would forget about you,” Ty teased, shoving his hands in his pockets.  “That’s like me forgetting about Vanessa—cannot be done.”  After a moment, he snickered and raced out of the room, belting out a horrible rendition of The Lion King’s “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?”

“Ah crap,” Falice muttered, glancing over at me, Diana, and Elijah.  “He’s planning on abducting my boyfriend.”

“You know, I think maybe they should date instead,” Arabelle mused.

“Hey, hey.”  Falice placed her hands on her hips.  “Can you please not play matchmaker with the guy I’m seeing and his best friend?  Thanks.”

Arabelle scrunched her nose at Falice.  It was hard to believe that this was the same girl who’d bumped into me and snapped at me on our first day at Gardner High.  She seemed nice enough—here, anyway.  “Ugh, I miss having a boyfriend,” Arabelle complained before plopping some more peanut butter in her mouth.  She looked over at Elijah.  “Yo, are you single?”

Elijah looked baffled, while Diana snorted.  “I wouldn’t date this one if I were you.”

Arabelle’s eyebrows rose.  “I’ll take your word for it.”  When Elijah’s cheeks began to redden, she snickered.  “I was just kidding, dude.”