I TIPTOED TOWARD KLARISE, THE agony on my butt and my lower body still being an obvious torment as I move.
Klarise looked up from nursing Jackson's hair and at me. "Shh, he's asleep."
I nodded, finding a seat next to her where Jackson wasn't in the way. He had his head lying on Klarise's lap, eyes closed peacefully. This boy, despite how quiet and sometimes annoying he got, was actually pretty cute when he's asleep and not finding ways to ignore me.
"Are you feeling better now?" She asked me quietly as I rested my head on her shoulder. We were waiting for the rain to get better in a small cabin near the stables. It started raining right after we finished, or rather, they finished while I was getting my ass wrapped up. And the rain was too hard for us to drive back, adding on, it was getting really dark. There wasn't a place for us to really sleep, so we've made sleeping bags on the floor of this cabin. I guess, even if we were waiting for the rain to stop, it was too late to drive back. Although Juno was still insistent that he can drive back in any condition at all.
"Yes. But if you want the honest answer, no. I feel horrible and I think I probably won't be able to walk in a month."
"You're so dramatic. You just walked over here right now." She chuckled, pulling the hair that's in my face out of the way so she could land a kiss on my cheek.
"Hey," Cameron strolled toward us, voice soft too as Jackson was so sound asleep none of us wanted to wake him. He handed each of us a warm cup of hot chocolate. "The owner gave it to us as treats, on the house." He finds a seat next to me, smacking me lightly on the back. I wince in pain, even the smallest impact hurted.
"Cameron!" I hissed, and he just smiled evilly. Klarise laughed at the both of us as she finished her hot chocolate in a few big gulps, then looking at mine in a hopeful way. I give it to her gladly, not wanting anything so hot and chocolaty in my system.
"Well, it's official we're staying over here tonight. But Juno isn't giving up yet, he's having some talk with the local right up close to the rain." Mason came over, he has changed into a t-shirt and sweats instead of going back to his suit after the horseback riding outfits. He grinned and half shook his head when his eyes landed on me and Cameron, my arm half in his face and him doing the same. "Are you two fighting again?
"We're not fighting. Are we?" Cameron looked at me, his handsome smile devilish. People all called us the sweetheart couple. But before we even met, people were long since calling him the original sweetheart boy all daughters would want to marry and all fathers would give his blessing for. If only they saw how he really was without all that glamor.
"No." I crossed my arms, nudging him away with my foot. He scrunches up his nose when I stick my foot in his face. "Yep, we're definitely not fighting."
Mason and Klarise both laughed, Klarise pulling me away from Cameron and Mason doing the same with his lover. "Remember, we need to keep these two six feet apart or else they'll bite off each other's faces." Klarise says, Mason nodding in agreement.
When Cameron's at least a good distance away from me, Mason going through his phone while a child-looking Cameron fits his head in the crook of the gap between his upper arms, letting the rest of his back lay into Mason's warm embrace; I use this as a chance to snuggle up closer to Klarise. I end up causing Jackson to stir, possibly almost waking him up.
"Can you move him over so I can lay there?" Klarise chuckles at my immature suggestion, maybe because seeing Cameron turning into a child on Mason, I wanted to do the same with Klarise.
Gently, the two of us moved Jackson more to the side, covering him up with the blankets and sleeping bags we were offered. When that's all done, Klarise pats at herself like she was a pillow, ready to let me fall into. "Okay, now you can come lay down."
I smiled, forgetting about the soreness and sting on my body, and rushed over to her. I let myself sink into the lavender smell of her, smuggling my head into her arms. After a tiring day, I was glad to finally stop moving and thinking. Just the simple things in the present mattered when I am in Klarise's arms, when I am with her and she is hugging me. Job, press, all of that goes to bay. They don't exist in this universe where only Klarise and I are alive.
I look up at one point to see that Cameron was already asleep, him being the biggest of us all sometimes being more like the big baby in our group. You'd think Mason was more delicate since he was so quiet and didn't share his thoughts very often, but it was always Cameron in the end. My eyes moved up, where Mason was holding him, and I realized he had put down his phone and was just stroking Cameron, eyes in an admiring way I have always seen him look at Cameron with.
"They are perfect for each other," I murmured to Klarise, and I feel her nodding, chin resting on top of my head. Her arms around me grow tighter, firmer, safer.
"Now, go to sleep. You've had a tiring day." She leaned her face into my view so that I could see her smiling. She kisses me lightly, pats me on the head, and pulls the blankets over our shoulders.
Mason seems to follow protocol, he goes and turns off the lights. The world goes dark, yet it has never felt warmer.
Sometimes if I didn't have that terrifying experience of falling off a horse, I'd think that this never happened and was simply a dream. Because we were just so happy, it did not seem like my life. More like another person's life.
FOR AROUND HALF A year, we went on a daily routine of average people's lives, with Cameron and Mason moving into my place permanently.
Klarise's face and body was healing without even a doctor, and she blossomed like the flowers in spring. Her moods were better, and I felt the huge wound that has been carved into her healing, though still leaving a scar that will always be visible if you looked close enough.
Mason worked from home, the company was becoming more stable. He didn't talk a lot about it, but much was clear that things were coming along well. Besides work, when he wasn't always on the phone or doing business stuff, he spent time with Jackson. They discussed topics that would bore me and Klarise and Cameron, they sometimes even listened to that horrible screaming music I didn't even know Mason would like. With Mason's greying hair and mature eyes, and Jackson's same personality traits with Mason, you might confuse them for father and son. But seeing them get along made the rest of us go on with our lives with much more assurance than we thought we needed.
Cameron was taking on a movie, so he was usually away in the daytime, sometimes night. But he always managed to find time to spend with us, and of course, to piss me off from time to time.
I myself was also taking on some projects again, not just commercials and small stuff, but more long-term and actual films. Though I did, it wasn't as much load as I used to take, leaving just enough time for me to be able to spend time with the people I cared about. I liked acting, I never didn't like my career and fame, well wait, at least not at that age, so I wouldn't say going to work was a kind of dread. I was doing something I liked. But once I got home there was always a relief. A relief that I don't have to always be Maeve Sun Lively, that I can let my guards down from time to time. That fact made life so much easier and...simpler.
We still hadn't managed to find Jackson the right school yet, so Klarise and I took turns on tutoring him and making sure he caught up. It wasn't one day when I decided to sit down with her and have a proper conversation on it, because from my experience of never being able to finish school, I couldn't let Jackson just start slacking up. Even if we were tutoring him, it was not the same with an actual teacher with a teaching degree.
"There's so many schools in this country, Klarise, I'm sure if a lot of them aren't good, one of them will be good enough. He has to go somewhere, anywhere will be better than us."
Klarise was at the kitchen counter making something while I sat on the dining chairs, waiting for her to come sit down and stop avoiding this topic.
"Would you like some drink? I can make us something." She offers, turning back and smiling at me. Sometimes, seeing her new face, it confuses me and I forget who this woman in front of me is. But then with her voice, I will always be able to know and remember. Just because her outside changed doesn't mean she wasn't her anymore. Well...(Pause) I'm not too sure about that, but one thing that's fully true is I still loved her.
I grunted, rolling my head back in frustration. "Are you even listening to me? This is very important."
She started humming a little melody as she stirred something in a cup, and though it sounded good, my frustration remained unchanged.
"Jackson isn't even my brother, and I am more worried about him than you are right now."
That gets her attention. She turned around, setting down the cup she was stirring in front of me. Is there a word for slamming but not breaking the thing? I think it's just slamming. Well, that's what she did.
"Of course I care." She pulled the seat across from me and sat down, reaching forward for the paperworks of schools we've looked through a thousand times and flipped through them with as little enthusiasm as she could.
I looked in the cup of what she handed me, some lemon water with mint and honey. I had a cough coming along, and an itchy throat, but I didn't even tell her about it. She just notices stuff like that. One of the many reasons I love her.
I take a sip of the drink, and it breaks out into a small sting in the back of my throat. That's when you know it's working. When I recover from the taste, I look back at her flipping through the packets of papers. "If we wait any longer, Jackson might have to be held back a year."
She puts the papers down and let her forehead fall into her hand, elbow leaning on the table. "I just, you know, I want to give him the best education. And something...I don't know, something about the schools here doesn't feel right. I want something else for him."
I reach across the table, just barely, and take her hand off her face. "What is it?"
She looked uncertain, glancing at me and then at the table.
"You can tell me, if anything, he is your brother. And what you have for him should always be considered since you're his sister."
I let her hold my hand, and seeing her take in a deep breath, I knew this was something important. And then as her face looked worried and hesitant, I realized this might have been on her mind for a while.
"I want Jackson to...I want him to get an education in Beijing. Or Shanghai."
I was surprised by this, raising my eyebrows, I asked her: "Why do you want that?" But not in the tone of judgment, rather curiosity.
"It's just so much has happened here. With our parents' arrest...and you know, everything else. I'd want him to be able to have a fresh start."
I nodded, getting the idea. "We can arrange that. We can look into the boarding schools over in those two cities and then——"
"No!"
I stumbled a little at her, and she looked away. I took another sip of the drink she's made me, wincing from the sourness and sting again. When I finish I see she has recovered a little better from her interruption. I wait for her to explain what that was all about.
"Okay, fine. I don't just want an education for Jackson there. I want to go back there and make a life again."
I think she was expecting from me something against that, because she looked both relieved and scared when it was finally out of her mouth. But I was smiling.
"I'm sorry that I'm so selfish." She starts saying again, fidgeting with her hair.
I frowned, taking her hand again and giving it a squeeze. "You're not selfish."
She ignored me, continuing to fidget and not looking me in the eyes. "But I—it's not that I don't like your house. It's nice. It's...everyday, the more I'm here, in Los Angeles, in California, in the United States, I feel so trapped. Everything bad has started here, and I..." She finally looked at me, her fingers stopped in her hair. "I want to go back to...where it all started for us. Where we met. And see if we, if I can start to go back to my life properly." Klarise, though she's gotten better, I see her frown at times, I see her suddenly turn sad during random hours when she was really happy. I see her develop the habit of humming, new tunes, old tunes, and she starts singing when she thinks no one is listening. That's when it's all so clear, like me with acting and fame, she misses her own career.
My eyes softened at her, and I got up from where I was seated to where she was. I let my arms outstretched, waiting for her to come into my hug.
She stands up, not coming into my arms just yet. "You're not against this idea?"
"Why would I be against it?"
"Well, for a first, you're doing so well here in America right now I didn't want to ruin that. And back in China..."
She didn't finish, but I already knew. Though I was still called the sweetheart of China and America, having not gone back in so long and being very absent during the past year on the media, they don't talk about me as much. I used to get all kinds of offers from Chinese film companies in the mail, but they have suddenly dropped ninety percent of what used to be.
"Yes, back in China, I am not so good there as I am here." I finished for her, and she swallows, face tuning down. "But I want this for you. If you're not happy here, I don't think I can be happy even with my career shining brighter than ever."
"But—"
"No buts. It is what it is. And plus, if I'm not so good back there, shouldn't that give me a better reason to go back?" She frowned, not following. "Okay, like, if I'm not as popular as before, going back will mean also building my reputation back up."
"Okay, that makes sense but—"
"And like you said, didn't we meet there? It'd be nice to go back to where it all started, not just for you but for me. You're not the only one missing certain places. So if you have to say, it's a benefit for the both of us."
Klarise laughed, shaking her head, and then looked into my eyes in this way that makes me melt no matter how many times she's done it. "Your mouth is so smart sometimes." And she finally comes into my hug.
I pulled back, leaving only two inches between our faces, nothing further since we were around the same height. "Well...you should..." I bounce my eyebrows at her and it makes her smile wider.
"I should what?"
"Come on, you know, since you said my mouth is so smart, you should..."
"No, I don't know. Tell me, Maeve."
The way she says my name is so exhilarating. "On my lips and..."
She pecks my lips, barely one second, and leans back again, laughing. She was enjoying this. "Okay, yeah, there's your kiss."
I whined, like a little baby almost. "No! Not like that! I want...more."
"More? Oh, you can't be so greedy."
"You are so...whatever." I rolled my eyes, giving up and pulling myself off of her.
More laughter, and then, she pulled me back toward her, whispering into my ear. "Oh, I know what you want, you should just be more straight forward next time." It tingled, my body doing flip flops and not being able to handle the rush of hotness as her skin met everywhere against mine.
She pulled me up, leaving those school paperworks and my drink. We head our way to the bedroom, and on our way we bump into Cameron.
"Oh no, what am I about to witness here. Looks down and dirty." He says, being a hypocrite since he himself was shirtless and in only underwear, sweaty, hair like something more than just bed hair, but still managing to look like an all-time model.
In Klarise's arms as she carried me, I managed to stick my tongue out at him. "None of your business. Something you're not gonna get to witness."
He laughed, heading wherever he was headed and leaving us alone. I looked Klarise in the eyes, already kissing her and not being able to handle not having her. But between breaths, I managed to mutter:
"Let's make a life in China."