Everything Has Changed || 3

Chapter 20 Revelations

The following days, Kayce took down the girl's bedroom door and put up a beaded curtain. As Rose was still recovering from the pills, Kayce and Olivia barely talked to each other. They barely even talked to the girl. Everyone was on edge with each other and afraid to say the wrong thing. So, she spent most of her time at Jonathan's. He was the only one that didn't make her feel like she was walking on eggshells.

"You gonna get that?" Eli says as the phone rang.

"No." Jonathan tells him as he stood at the island chopping something up.

"Do you think it's her again?" Shawn asks as he and Rose were sharing a bag of chips.

"Hi, it's me again." A woman's voice says from the phone.

"And we have an answer." Shawn says making Rose chuckle as Jonathan walked to the phone.

"John, I'm not saying you're avoiding me. Maybe you're still at work, maybe you're out of town, or maybe you and Eli are standing there right in front of the phone and you're doing that thing with your hand covering your mouth." The woman says making Jonathan look at Eli as he dropped his arms and put his hands in his pockets.

"She always did give me the willies, man." Eli tells him as Rose watched the two men, amused.

"Anyway, I'm in town until Sunday and I just think we owe it to each other to sit down and talk. No pressure." She says as Rose bite back her smirk. "Bye." She says before the phone beeps again.

"Man gets a call, hey, lots of calls, from what sounds to be a very attractive lady." Shawn says as he stood up and Eli got himself a soda. "Man doesn't speak a word of it to his
little buddy, Shawn. Hm. Interesting." He tells him as he sat down in front of the man at the island.

"Shawn, there's nothing to tell or I would've told you." Jonathan tells him as he went back to chopping.

"Man gets all squirrelly every time this girl calls." Shawn continues making Rose laugh. "Makes a guy think man's keeping secrets from him."

"Okay, Shawn, do you wanna stop with the whole man thing?" Jonathan tells him getting annoyed.

"Man seems a little irritated lately."

"It's no big deal. It's a girl I dated a long time ago and it's over." He tells the boy nonchalantly.

"Uh huh." Rose says not believing him.

"Don't you dare start the next sentence with man." Jonathan tells the boy.

"Dude's got a problem with the word man." Shawn says making Jonathan drop the knife.

"Shawn!" He says with clear annoyance.

"Come on, John, give him something." Eli tells him even though he and the girl were very entertained by the exchange between the two.

"Okay. Okay." He says picking up half the stack of plates as Rose picks up the other half. "All right, Shawn, you know those three little words that are very difficult to say to a woman unless you really mean them?" The man says as they walk over to the coffee table with Shawn following.

"Is father home?" Shawn asks making Rose roll her eyes.

"No, Shawn." Jonathan tells him as he turned to face him. "I love you."

"Oh, you're just a little vulnerable right now." Shawn tells him making the girl chuckle.

"Man needs to take a little walk." He tells the boy handing him the plates.

"Ooh, my turn." Rose says setting the plates down before following Jonathan and jumping on his back making Eli bust out laughing as his friend almost fell.