Fast Forward

Chapter 26: Without a Hitch

"You make it so hard for me to keep up my reputation of not hitting girls," he grumbles.

"I'm just saying...this is no place for commoners, riff-raff and tagalongs. It's not my fault that you happen to be all three and thus, need to be banished from my sight forever."

It looks like there's smoke billowing from his ears as he restrains himself from reaching out and potentially hurting me. "JT, I've had enough, reign her in already."

"Jay, I've also had enough, sweep out this trash already!" I jibe just after him.

"Two minutes, guys! Give me two minutes before spilling any blood," Jay brushes us off and continues his conversation with Lesley, apologizing on our behalf and clearly uninterested in our inevitable bloodbath.

"I can't believe that, after all these years, you still don't come with a muzzle," he jeers sullenly.

I hide my smile. "And I can't believe that, after all these years, you still don't come with a warning label."

He ignores me and glances around. "This room is disgusting."

I sulk, a pout forming on my lips. "You have completely thrown off the good vibes I had going on here."

"Good," he retaliates with a megawatt grin. "Job done."

"I'm finding your presence very superfluous right now," I mope. "In fact, I would rather face an apocalypse than look at you for a second longer. I would rather watch the earth burn than be in your company. I would rather—"

"Shut up, Lawson!" he interjects. "You're so annoying!"

"How dare you shut me up during my inappropriate outburst?! That's what I call real annoying!" I stand on my tippy-toes to seem more fearsome.  

He takes one look at me and sighs. "You're an idiot."

He usually doesn't give in this easily or in fact, ever.

"Whoa, Ferrot, uncool," I chastise him. "If I know Leila, and I don't, she's going to be extremely upset with you for treating me with such disrespect...but yeah...I don't know her...like at all...so I'm just assuming here."

At the mention of Leila, he gets this opaque expression on his face that I can't seem to read. His eyes even look a little doleful. He's never really been candor about her or anything important in his life. He's enigmatic and probably always will be but I still love him with all my heart even if he hates me with all his.

My heart drops into my stomach when he fails to respond. "Grey...are you okay?" I reach out and touch his arm. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have—"

"It's fine," he cuts me off, yanking his arm away from me. 

I shake my head. "It's not."

Before I can hound him on what the heck is going on in his life, he stands tall and changes the subject:

"You should really lay the attitude to rest since we're going to be seeing a whole lot more of each with me moving in and everything."

My eyes just about bulge out of my skull. "What?! Hold up, hold up, hold up...what?!"

"Yeah," he smirks again, buoyant with victory, "this tagalong, commoner, riff-raff, and everything else you called me in the span of five torturous minutes, is going to be living with you...day in and day out...24/7...every day of the week."

I recoil in horror, shocked. Purely shocked.

I angrily scrunch up my nose. "Oh, dip."

Jay happens to walk back over to us at the exact time. He sees my face and frowns in concern. "What's up? You look confused?"