I stop in front of the Brooks' door for a moment, hand on the doorknob. I hesitate. Am I ready to spend a night with 5 teenage boys under one roof? Anything could happen, you know. They could set the house on fire or disturb the neighbors at 2 AM and the police might show up and arrest us. That's not needed. This will all stay in my past.
I take a deep breath and slowly push the door open. At first sight everything seems innocent - Daniel is on his phone, Luke and Beau are playing Xbox and James and Jai are watching some video on YouTube. Skip looks up, drops his phone and says, "Ariana!" Everyone is snapped from their activities and they all come hugging me on the door.
I laugh lightheartedly. "Guys, let me get inside first!"
Luke raises his eyebrows at Jai. "I didn't know Ariana was coming over. Did you invite her?"
"Why do you think it was me?" Jai looks uncomfortable.
"Because I know that you-"
"Does anyone wanna make some popcorn and watch a movie or something?" Jai suggests, sending Luke an angry stare. Luke raises his hands in defense. Other guys just shrug and head off to the kitchen.
Once alone, I whisper to Jai, "What's that all about?"
Jai looks down and bites his lip. "The night after we, you know, went to the movies, Luke heard me talking in my sleep."
My mouth forms an 'o' shape. "Jai, how could you let this happen?!" I hiss. "Now everyone's gonna find out!"
He shushes me. "C'mon. Luke's a sensible guy, he won't tell anyone about this. I know what I'm talking about, he's my brother."
I scoff. "Well, by the way he just almost blurted it out to others I'm not convinced!"
Jai's about to argue back but Beau's head pops out of the kitchen door, making us both shut up. "What's taking you guys so long? Popcorn is ready, come before Skip has stuffed it all!" We laugh and head into the kitchen with others.
***
"You know, my momma always used to say, 'Life's like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.'" I watch as Forrest Gump takes a last look behind and starts to walk steadily towards the horizon. The titles quickly roll past and the TV goes black.
I yawn and look around the room. Daniel's passed out in a sleeping bag on the floor, Beau's stretched out next to him, James has curled up in a ball in the armchair and Luke is mumbling something, his head over the edge of the couch. I look over at Jai, who's asleep next to me on another sofa. Just as I do, his eyelids flutter. He opens his eyes and looks at me, blinking. "Is it over already?"
"You missed the whole thing, silly," I giggle.
"Naww, such a shame," he jokes back. When I respond with nothing, he tries again. "What d'you think, is Tom Hanks a lovely guy? Mom's definitely got a crush on him," he mocks.
I grin, playing along. "Definitely not as lovely as you though, I mean how do you expect me to resist your glistening smile and perfectly done 'do?"
I peek at him to get a response, but his gaze has turned serious and thoughtful. He looks at me. "Ariana, you know why I've been avoiding you, right? Well, not exactly avoiding YOU, but you know... Uh. Whatever. Just acting like a complete dumbass even after our kiss. But you do know why it's necessary, do you?"
I try to shrug it off, shooting him an 'it's all cool' smile. "Of course. It's important for your career."
"AND yours," Jai points out. "Maybe mom and other guys would be okay with it if we... went out, but it wouldn't be good in the eyes of our fans and social media. They could blow it up a bit too much and that would be the end of Janoskians."
I just nod slowly, not really following the conversation. Jai sighs and takes my hands. "It's a bit hard to talk here, shall we go to my room? We can talk louder there."
I let him pull me off the couch and we walk to the twins' bedroom. Stopping on the doorway, I look inside. It's a rather small room with purple walls, carpeted floor and a single window. The only pieces of furniture are a bunk bed, a run-down desk with two office chairs, one low dresser with loads of picture frames on it and an electric fan buzzing quietly in the corner. Not exactly the expected bedroom of two teenage sensations.
