The Cliche Gone Wrong

Chapter Twenty-six

She looks at me disgustedly. "Shills you have no idea how expensive it is to buy lunch for 5 kids. And besides, you already made breakfast. You don't have to take care of lunch, too."

"It's honestly no problem," I shrug as I smile easily at her. "Think of it as me apologizing for scaring you so much this morning. And besides, Five Guys sounds fire right now."

She glowers at me, her eyes narrowing as Bear continues to use the most adorable expression to convince her to go along with my plan. "Fine."

The boy jumps into the air, howling in delight before he jumps onto me, hugging me tightly. I freeze again, definitely not expecting the touch this time. I look to Killer for help, but she is just as surprised as I am. Her eyebrows almost kiss her hairline as she stares incredulously at the boy.

"Thank you..." The boy pulls back to look at me, his face screwed up as she struggles to figure something out. "Ummm... Skills."

I bark out surprised laughter, my hands naturally reaching up to hug him back. He giggles as I accidentally tickle his sides, before he squirms out of my grip, dancing backward a few steps and knocking into the coffee table in the process.

"You can call me Jude, little man."

Bear nods as kneels down to grab his DS. "I don't like tomatoes or mustard on my burgers. Drive fast, I'm hungry."

Rowan takes this opportunity to pipe in, a sweet smile on her face as she remains in Killer's lap. "I don't like pickles."

Killer laughs as she pushes Rowan off of her lap and stands up, stretching once again. The bottom of her stomach peeks out underneath her t-shirt, and my eyes lock onto the expanse of chocolate skin. After she finishes stretching she walks around the couch, heading toward the stairs.

"Let me get dressed." She tosses over her shoulder. "I'll be back down in a minute."

I say okay, but she is already out of the room, with Bear following her up the stairs. Rowan remains on the couch, her focus already trained back on the cartoons playing on TV. It's then that my phone starts vibrating, showing someone is calling me. I stand up from the couch as I pull my phone out of my pocket, and walk around the couch into the kitchen as I check whom it is. Connor's name ID shows up on the screen, and I decide to answer the call, knowing that he'll jus keep calling until I pick up.

"Yeah?" I grunt into the phone as I run a finger along the brown quartz countertop.

"Where you at bro?" He laughs; the sound of chatter in the background making me think he's hanging out with a bunch of people.

"I'm just chilling man," I reply nonchalantly, turning my back to the family room and speaking lower so no one can hear me.

"Then why are you whispering? Are you at your house?" He asks. "Well I just got to Alan's and some of us are hanging out. Walk over!"

I groan at the invitation, not wanting to hang out with them again. "Nah man, I'm cool."

"No, no, no," he scolds lightly. "You may have ben acting weird lately but you're not getting out of this! You live down the street, right? I'm driving over right now to get you! We haven't even broke out the vodka yet, so you haven't missed much."

"No!" I blurt out, before I take a deep breath and try channel the douche I normally am at school. "I'm not at home right now. I, uh, I'm actually hanging out with a friend right now, if you know what I mean."

"Oh a friend huh?" He laughs boisterously, holding the phone away from his mouth as he yells out to the rest of the group he's with. "Yo, Jude is getting some ass right now!"

Hollering emanates from the background, and I can't help but roll my eyes at some of the inappropriate comments that are yelled back to me.

"Well I can't exactly do that if I'm on the phone with you, can I?" I laugh cockily as I lean back against the counter with the sink. "So do me a favor and don't call back!"

"Fuck her shit up boy!" Connor laughs before I hang up on him.

I walk back into the family room just as Killer bounds down the stairs, jumping onto the main floor as her bun bobs up and down. She smiles boldly at me, her hip cocking out to the side as she wiggles her eyebrows.

"I got everyone's orders." She takes a step in the direction of the door, but then stops and looks back at me over her shoulder. "You're driving."

My heart skips a beat as I fight the urge to look down at her ass, but all I can do is laugh as I start to follow her toward the door. My phone starts vibrating in my hand again; I look down at the screen, this time seeing Alan's contact info pop up. I ignore the call, sliding my phone into my back pocket as I follow her out of the house.

"Are you sure it's okay to leave them by themselves?" I ask her as she shuts the door behind us. "What if something happens?"

"Jaz is here." She shrugs as she locks the door and starts walking to my car that's parked in the driveway. "Besides, what's the likelihood of two random people breaking into my house on the same day?"

"I didn't break in!" I gasp as I unlock the car and drop in, getting comfortable in my seat as she does the same.

"Suuure you didn't," she giggles as she gets in as well, clicking on her seatbelt. Her laughter is unlike anything I've heard from her before.

I pause at the sound, turning to take in the carefree and genuinely happy expression on her face. "Look, about earlier—"

"Don't," she interrupts, shaking her head as she smiles at me. "I don't know what's going on with you, but I'm not going to force you to tell me."

Her left hand reaches out to grasp my right one that rests on the gearshift between us. I turn my palm up to grasp hers tightly, wanting to prolong the moment for as long as possible. Her thumb rubs small circles on the back of my hand; the soothing motion makes my heart beat just a little faster and my eyes jump around the car as I'm unable to meet her intense gaze.

"What I'm about to say will probably sound as weird as it feels to say it," she shudders dramatically as she giggles again, "but I'm here if you need to talk, or anything."

I hold onto her hand for a few more silent seconds before I finally let go, pressing the button to start the car before I put it in reverse and back out of the driveway.

I sigh as I start to navigate to the downtown area. "Someday I just might take you up on that offer."