ᴊᴜɴᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ʙʟᴏɴᴅ ʙᴏʏ
"Ya know," Tracy began, shutting the oven door and pulling the mitts off her hand. "I'm really glad you and James are talking again."
She leaned against the counter, looking at me with a soft gaze as I cut up vegetables. "It's a real shame what happened with Hayden. I know you two were close."
I frowned, nodding in agreement. "Yeah, it is. I just can't be friends with someone who could do that to my best friend— or anyone."
Aunt Tracy and I were preparing dinner in the kitchen. James and Taylor were in the living room chatting about football while a game played on the TV. I glanced at the blond boy just as his head fell back with warm laughter after a joke Taylor made. I felt my lips tug into a smile, and Tracy let out a quiet laugh.
I looked at her with furrowed brows as she shook her head at me. "What's funny?"
"You are so whipped for that boy." she said quietly. My shoulders slumped. "Hey," she said, noticing my frustration.
"It's not bad." she came closer to me, pulling the trash can over so I could swipe the scraps off the counter. "But... are you gonna tell him? I mean.. you can't keep your feelings to yourself forever, right?"
I sighed, picking up the knife again and slicing a cucumber.
To my silence, Tracy sighed and moved around the counter again. "If you don't, I just might have to."
Her absurd words caused me to whip my head in her direction, the movement causing the knife to slip and inevitably cut my left index finger. "Ow!" I cried, dropping the knife and inspecting my finger.
In a second, Tracy had disappeared, muttering something about finding more eggs in the garage refrigerator. But as quick as she was gone, someone else was here.
Directly behind me, his chest against my back as he leaned over to see and grab my hand. James sighed softly, still not saying a word.
"You okay?" Taylor was in the kitchen a moment later. "I'll go get the first aid kit."
"Um— yeah," I shook my head in confusion as James lead me over to the sink. I was so caught up in the feeling of his skin on mine that I couldn't even control my own movements. He was doing it for me. He held my hand still, flipping on the sink and guiding my hand under the warm water.
I let out a hiss, instinctively pulling my arm back. "Yeah, yeah, I know." James muttered, probably rolling his eyes. Reluctantly, I put my hand back under the water.
"You gotta be more careful, Junior." he scolded lightheartedly. I could feel his breath against my neck as he sighed again, shaking his head.
I apologized for my clumsiness. "It's fine," he laughed softly, "'long as you want little scars all over your hands."
I sighed in frustration, pulling my hand away swiftly when the water grew too hot. The fast movement caused my elbow to go straight into his rib. He doubled over, groaning quietly. "Sorry," I gasped.
He mumbled another breathless "it's fine." as I stepped back.
As if the universe was a puppeteer and I was its puppet, I stepped on his foot. His sock covered foot, with my Doc Marten clad foot. "Shit!" he jumped back, limping away.
"Sorry!" I cried, my face burning hotter than the sun as I scurried to the bathroom in search of a band-aid.
"It's fine!" I heard his distant shout as I continued down the hallway. I gasped as I bumped into Taylor who was exiting the bathroom with the first aid kit.
"Oh," I smiled awkwardly, taking a breath.
"Told you I'd get it." Taylor mumbled, walking past me towards the living room. I followed behind him, taking a seat on the couch so he could fix up my hand.
James sat on the other couch, looking at me with a silly smile, although his expression was sort of unreadable. I stared back, one hand in my lap and my other in my uncle's hand while he bandaged it up.
"What're you looking at?" I grumbled, glancing between my hand and James. He shook his head, the smile on his face only growing larger.
I shook my head, letting my uncle continue.
After he was finished, I went back into the kitchen— where Tracy had re-appeared, conveniently after I wasn't bleeding out anymore.
"Oh my, what happened in here?" she feigned surprise as she cut up more vegetables. Taylor snorted. "June happened."
Tracy hummed. "No, June's mother happened. She was just as clumsy as you are." she shook her head with a laugh, pointing her finger at me.
"Seriously?" I laughed softly. James entered the kitchen to stand beside me, now that everyone else was in here.
"Oh yeah." Tracy nodded with raised eyebrows. "You don't remember that one year at your birthday?" she looked at me.
"Happy birthday to you..." everyone sang, as Loren walked into the dining room, and in her hands, in all its glory was June's homemade birthday cake.
The cake had three whole layers, as if they were celebrating someone's marriage, and grandma Whitlock's one of a kind frosting— that she only made during June's birthdays.
"Happy birthday, dear June.." they sang.
"Careful, Lor." Tracy mumbled. June was too stunned by the beautiful chocolate cake being brought towards her to notice what she meant.
"Loren, careful!" Tracy repeated, louder this time. It still didn't gain anyone's attention, but what did, was Loren tripping over an extension cord that was connected to a fan. The fan toppled over, along with June's mother, and all three layers of the cake.
Gasps, silence, then laughter came as cake fell sideways onto the table, smushing the entire side.
"Well, there goes the cake." An annoyed voice from behind June along with a sigh. "Can we go now, mom?" she turned to see the neighbor boy, a scowl painted across his face as he waited for his mother's answer.
"I don't remember that." I mumbled after Tracy told the story. "How old was I turning?" I blinked.
"I remember it." James said. "It was your eleventh birthday." he nodded, even when I went wide eyed. "My mom dragged me to it." he smiled at the memory of his mother.
"That's— that's.." I shook my head. "Wow, I can't believe you remember, but I don't." I laughed. James shrugged. "Just one of those memories that stick with you. It was pretty funny, y'know.." he said, walking over to my other side to help prep dinner as well.
I knit my brows together, waiting for him to continue. "Seein' the look on your face when the cake fell. Your smile dropped so fast." he laughed.
I scoffed, smacking his arm softly. Tracy joined in again. "Oh, James, the look on your face was even funnier. You'd been eyein' that cake the whole time and when it got ruined you wanted to get the hell out of there."
James shook his head with another soft laugh. The four of us continued making dinner until all that was left to do was wait for it to finish cooking.
The three others flopped onto the couches to watch whatever was on TV, while I straightened out his shoes by the front door that I randomly noticed were crooked. I thought it'd be best to take my boots off as well, so I could avoid breaking his toe. After I slid them off and stood back up, I felt a poke at my side.
I whirled around to see James. "Whaddya' wanna do?" he muttered. I shrugged.
"Oh!" an idea came to mind. "Do you wanna watch Over The Edge?"
James sighed, dropping his head back to look at the ceiling. "Haven't you watched that, like, five times already?"
"Uh, no, only once." I moved past him to the living room to shuffle through the movie tapes until I found the one I was looking for.
"And you promised you'd watch it with me." I smile at him when I approach him again, shoving the VHS against his chest before zooming up the stairs.
"Uh, hey!" I heard his shout from behind me before his loud footsteps came rumbling up the stairs. I was in my room already, readjusting my pillows to a nice, comfortable spot when he entered.
"I did not promise you anything." he said with a huff, tossing the tape onto my bed. "Yes you did! You just have really bad memory." I shrugged. His face fell like he'd seen a ghost.
"Did you really just say I have bad memory after I reminded you of your birthday party?!" he blinked at me in complete disbelief.
"Whatever!" I whirled around, avoiding his eyes that said 'you know I'm right'.
"It's not even a good movie!" he grumbled, stomping over to my bed.
"So what? The main character is cute." I shrugged, flopping onto my back and grabbing the TV remote off the nightstand.
I LITERALLY DID NOT KNOW WHERE TO END THIS IT JUST KEPT GOING MY FINGERS KEPT TYPING THEY KEPT YAPPING ok hope u liked it ❤️
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