Being a Banner [ 1 of JA ]

16

Friday and Saturday passed quickly. This is Dad's last day before he leaves me alone... Again. I keep on getting texts from Levi asking if I want to hang out, but of course I keep telling him that it's Dad's last day, and I want to spend time with him. My eyes are still green. I'm thinking of getting it checked by a doctor.
Dad and I have been hanging around the apartment so far, and it's only noon. I was sitting on the couch when Dad came in and says, "Why don't you go hang out with Jax and Levi?"
I looked at him. "Well, I don't know, I'd rather stay here."
"You can invite them over if you want." Dad says.
I thought about it. "Okay, but what about you?"
"What about me?" Dad asked.
"I don't want to feel like I'm ignoring you or something," I say.

Dad smiled. "Please I've already had enough of you for one week,"
I giggled.
Dad was heading to his room. "You know where to find me."
In your lab. I thought. It sounded rude, but it was true, the place I'd find him is in a lab.
Pulling out my phone, I texted them both. Levi was the first to respond. It was funny, like I said he'd been texting me to hang out, and now he's saying that he's going to a baseball game with Darrel and his family. Jax texted back saying he'd be over. I smiled and turned off my phone. Was it weird that only Jax was coming over? If Levi isn't here, then who are Jax and I gonna pick on?

I think Dad's right, we do pick on Levi a lot.
About 10 minutes later, I hear a knock at the door. I get up, but the door opens by itself, and Jax comes in. "I'm home!" He says.
I laugh. "Hey,"
Jax looks around. "Where's Levi?"
I brush my hair behind my ear.
"He said he was going to a baseball game with Darrel and his family." I explain.
"Oh," Jax says. He sat on the couch, and I followed sitting at the other end.
"Let's watch Once Upon A Time," I say, grabbing the remote.
"No! That show is too confusing!" Jax whines.
I rolled my eyes. "Don't be like Levi,"

"Let's watch Taken," Jax says.
I grunt. "We've seen that about a gazillion times! Not to mention the second!"
"But I hear the third is good!" Jax points out. I haven't seen the third yet. Jax searches through my box of movies until he finds Taken, and Taken 2. "Don't you just love it when I choose the movies?" Jax asks with a smirk.
"I will smack that smile right off your face." I say, not being able to hide the smile.

We were at the part in the car right after that pop star almost got attacked, and now she's crying on Liam Neeson's shoulder.
"He doesn't seem like the guy to comfort you..." I say. Jax scoffs and looks to me.
"It's Liam Neeson! He can kick a guy all the way to the moon and back!" He says.
"No, I meant that he doesn't look like the person you want to go to be comforted." I explain.
"Ha! I see," Jax says. When the first movie finished, we went on to the second one. We were deep in the movie at the part where Liam Neeson's character and his wife where taken in a van and, he started counting.

"I like that technique," I say.
Jax looked confused at the TV. "Why is he counting?"
I shifted in the couch to straighten my posture.
"He's like... Counting and listening to where he's heard the noises outside the van or something. My uncle had to explain it to me too." I explain.
"Oh," Jax nods. There was a short silence. It was a nice silence, but it needed to be broken.
"What if you got taken, and, including my Dad — Lord only knows where he is — would you think our dads would find us?" Jax asks. "I mean, not be exactly like Liam Neeson, but, to go through stuff like that." To me, for some reason, this question seems hard when I already know the answer.

"Of course my Dad would find me," I say, "He can't live without me."
Jax smiles and laughs. "I'm sure my Dad would find me. I mean, if he was around today..." I'm lost in thought. What if Dad was at work? This is probably a very dramatic question, but would he stop work to find me?
Shut up.
Would he risk everything to find me? Would anyone?
Of course he'd risk everything to find you!
"Kerry?" Jax asks. I look at him. "Are you ok?"
"Yeah... Yeah! I'm fine." I tell him. Jax brings his feet down from the couch from the position he had been in. He looks directly across from me and says, "You say 'I'm fine' a lot."

BOOM!
I sit there, blinking, trying to make an excuse or anything. "Okay... Is that a problem?" I ask. I noticed I'm hugging my knees close to my chest.
Jax licks his lips.
"I don't know if that's a problem, because it's not mine," he says.
"Are you saying that I have a problem?" I ask. Jax's eyes widen a little.
"No! Not at all! I'm just... Saying that... It looks like you have a problem, and — "
"Jax," I interrupt. He looks up at me, then nods.
"I'll... Stop." he says. He turned back to face the TV. I have never told Jax or Levi — or anyone (of course) — that I fake my smiles. Sometimes my emotions too. He was close to confronting me at my own game. But he's right. He's all too right. I can't confess.

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Ok just to get this to be clear: but I will have some parts like the movie Incredible Hulk, mostly because the movie is written very well
Thanks guys! ✌🏻️