Chapter Eleven.

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Not for the first time these past couple days, the house was empty and I was the first one home. I didn't mind, though, because I had peace and quiet.

Walking into the kitchen, I spotted a note with sloppy handwriting that belonged to Reese. I picked it up and leaned against the counter.

Be back later. Love ya loser -Reese

I rolled my eyes at his name for me and crumbled the paper up in my hands. After tossing the paper in the trash can, I walked back to my room and grabbed my phone out if my pocket, deciding to call Lilly.

"Hello?" She answered. The background had a bunch of people yelling and talking louder than they should. My first guess was a party, but with Lilly, who knew.

"Where are you?" I asked her as I laid back on my bed, letting my head hang off upside down.

"My parents forced me to go Christmas shopping! You'd think it was Black Friday- hey, watch it!" She yelled at someone and I heard them mumble a sorry. I laughed at that.

"You better be sorry." Lilly mumbled. "So, how has your day been?" Her voice went from loud and dangerous to sweet and loving in less than two seconds.

"Oh, fine. I was at Hunter's-" I was cut off by Lilly squealing in the phone no doubt attracting everyone's attention around her. I even felt my face heat up.

"Jasey! Tell me everything!" She demanded and I sighed heavily. I should've kept my mouth shut.

Instead of arguing, I cut to the chase. "We found a kitten the other night and I made Hunter take him because I'm pretty sure Amanda's allergic, so I went to check on him. I brought breakfast and then I told him I needed his number since I'm going to my mom's for New Year's." I explained and the line went silent.

"Lilly?"

"Oh my gosh!" She yelled. I held the phone away from me so I wouldn't go deaf from her piercing scream.

"It's really nothing-" I didn't want her freaking out over something like that.

"You like him, don't you? Don't you dare like to me!" She told me. I closed my eyes for a moment.

"Of course not. I don't like him at all. He almost ran over me, was rude about it, and won't give me my bandana back. How could I like him?" I argued, flipping around to my stomach.

"That's how it all starts. You hate each other and then you end up living each other." She laughed.

"Whatever..." I mumbled. Yawning, I decided I'd take a nap while everyone else was gone. It'd be nice and quiet.

"I'll talk to you later, Lilly. Bye." We hung up a minute after and I tossed my phone on the carpet beside my bed. It needed charged, but I was too lazy to get up and plug it in.

I stripped out of my jeans and put on a pair of cotton shorts before climbing under the covers of my bed. As I stared at the wall of my bedroom, I couldn't help but wonder if Hunter liked me. I know that he might give me butterflies, or whatever they are, but that doesn't mean a thing. I was strictly over there for Shiloh. If I could bring him home, I would.

All those thoughts were making me tired of thinking. So I let my eyes shut and cut me off from the outside world. Dreaming was always more fun than reality.

*****

"Jasey, honey, wake up." I twisted myself around to see Amanda standing next to my bed. Rubbing my eyes, I sat up and yawned.

"I made dinner. Come down before it gets cold." She said with a smile and walked to the kitchen.

I slowly got out of bed and realized that I was hungry since I slept through lunch. The smell of hamburgers filled my nose and I started walking to the kitchen. My stomach growled loudly, earning a giggle from Amanda.

"How was your day?" She asked me. I sat down at our table and sighed.

"It was pretty good." I mumbled. She smiled back at me as she made a burger for me. I guess she wanted me to ask her the same question.

"How was yours?" I asked, smiling slightly. Amanda beamed and sat down across from me, handing me a burger and sitting one in front of her as well.

It was silent as we ate and I hated it. But during that silence, I started to think about the girl sitting in front of me. She had a frown on her face as she are and couldn't help but think I was the cause of it.

"Are you okay?" I asked suddenly.

"What do you mean?" She forced a smile on her face.

"I mean: are you okay?" I asked again.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Amanda, I'm sorry." I put a hand on my cheek and held my head up.

"For what?" She asked with her full attention on me.

"I've been mean to you. It's just that... I don't like change. But I've realized that you are the best thing to ever happen to this family. And I'm sorry for being mean." I took a deep breath and was happy that I finally got that off my chest. Amanda looked at me for the longest time before she finally decided to speak up.

"Honey, I understand that you don't like change. That's fine with me. I just hope I'm not doing anything wrong to make you uncomfortable." She said genuinely. I sighed.

"No, you're doing everything right. I guess I just have a bad attitude sometimes and Reese is a suck up." I chuckled and Amanda laughed at that too.

"Well, do you want to go pick up some Christmas cards for your friends at work?" She asked as she stood up and took both of our plates to the kitchen. I followed behind her and stood close while she washed the plates.

"Sure. I need to get some anyway." I ran back to my room and grabbed my jacket before slipping on the pants I had on earlier. Climbing into the passenger seat of Amanda's car, I buckled up and waited for her to back out of the drive way.

*****

"Reba?" I asked when I saw Grant, Reese, and my dad on the couch watching our family TV show. Grant was the only one to look over at me and he smiled. His eyes landed on Amanda behind me carrying a few bags of things.

"Hey, ladies. Go shopping?" Grant heaved himself up off the couch and walked over to us, grabbing me up in a bear hug. My arms were pinned to my sides now.

"What's this for?" My giggle came out strangled. Grant put me back on my feet and smiled at me.

"Can't I hug my sister without being questioned?" He raised and eyebrow.

"Of course." I smiled and punched his arm. I ran over to the couch and collapsed on the spot beside Reese where Grant had been sitting. He smiled down at me before sitting in a near by rocking chair.

Amanda joined us after she put everything in my bedroom since it was mostly for my co-workers.

With Amanda sitting in front of my dad on the floor and him playing with her hair, my feet thrown across a snoring Reese's lap and Grant watching Reba intently, I knew that this was the best family time I've had in a while.

_______

Comment some of your favorite slow songs, please? I'm in need of a few!

Okay, so this is a really sucky chapter. I guess you could call it a filler. It's super short.

The point of it was mostly for Jasey's family!

You're definitely gonna want to read the next chapter! It'll be so much better!

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