Jake and I walked into The Dot and sat at a table in the far corner so that we weren't surrounded by people on all sides. I appreciated it, honestly. I often got anxious in larger crowds. Besides, it was nice to be able to sit back and just be an observer in a new place. We both looked through the small menu briefly before deciding on what to order. Unlike most first dates or date-like instances that I could compare this one to, I was far from nervous. But, I wasn't really sure if that was a good thing yet.
"So," Jake began to say to me once we ordered something to eat, playing with the edges of one of the white napkins on the table, "Why did you move out here? Is there a cool story that I don't know yet?"
I paused for a second after he asked me that. I had two options. I could either tell him the long and ugly truth or I could lie to him and prevent both of us from being uncomfortable. I straightened up in my chair just a little bit before I started talking to him again.
"Well, it's just me, my mom, and our dog. Basically, my mom decided that we should be closer to family since we never really had been before. And, the timing was perfect. She got a new job opportunity and I'm going to be going off to college soon anyway. I need to be in school so I came a few weeks before she did." I said, easily lying through my teeth in a way that I had a handful of times before.
"And here I was, thinking that a pretty girl like you had to be escaping from some evil ex-boyfriend or something." he joked and shifted in his seat before running a hand through his hair.
I faked a little laugh since he didn't know how right he was and I smiled when someone walked towards us, handing me my chocolate milkshake and French fries before giving Jake his over-sized sandwich. I thanked the waitress politely. The food, luckily, was amazing. I could definitely picture myself coming here again. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure if I felt the same way about Jake. Even though I knew that he was a really sweet guy, I also knew that I didn't share the same attraction that he held for me. The only problem was that I wasn't sure if that was because of my past or because Jake just simply wasn't my type. Either way, I decided that I'd just enjoy my time with Jake. After about an hour, Jake and I were walking towards my front door hand-in-hand.
"Well, I had a great time tonight on our 'not-date.'" he said as I leaned against the door and he moved in closer to me with his eyes focused on my full lips, his hand pressed on the wood next to my head.
"So did I." I said, blushing a bit and almost getting nervous due to how close he was to me.
I placed my hand on the back of his neck and we slowly inched closer towards each other. From what I could tell, he was about to close the distance between the two of us when the door opened and I was pulled in by Drew before I even realized what was happening.
"Why must you always ruin my fun?" I asked him jokingly, whining just a little bit.
"You're the one that made Adam and I promise that we would keep you away from boys unless you explicitly tell us otherwise. And, you haven't told me shit." Drew began to say matter-of-factly, making me roll my eyes, "Now I'm going upstairs to take a shower and FaceTime my girl. Please do us all a favor and keep your lips to yourself."
I smiled and shook my head as I watched him walk upstairs. Once he was at the top of the stairs and I knew that he couldn't see me, I slowly stepped towards the front door, only opening it when I heard the bathroom door shut closed and the lock click in the chamber. I pulled the now retreating Jake towards me by the back of his shirt and brought his lips down to my own.
"Goodnight, Jake." I said to him sweetly once we actually pulled away from each other.
When I looked back up at him, I could see that he had a blush on his cheeks. I walked back inside of the house and locked the door behind me. Then, I went upstairs. Drew was still in the shower so I'd have to use the second bathroom unless I was willing to wait for him to finish with whatever he was doing. I went into my bedroom and started to dig through my drawers a little bit. I grabbed something more comfortable than what I was currently wearing and kicked off my shoes before padding over to the bathroom on my bare feet. I locked the door behind me and then set my phone up so that I'd be able to hear my music while I was in the shower. I stripped down and got in the shower once the water was warm enough, putting my head under the warm water and smiled when the water turned dark. I had dyed my hair a darker brown a few weeks ago just in an attempt to do something that was a little bit more intense than my naturally soft brown curls. When the water turned cold because of Drew and I showering at the same time, I quickly got out and started drying off. I wrapped my hair up in a towel. Then, I did my skin care routine and cleaned my piercings. As of now, I had a little hoop in my nose as well as having my nipples and belly button pierced. I got into my pajamas and finally walked out of the bathroom with my belongings in my arms. I was just wearing a big purple tshirt that I had gotten for free at a school fair back home and my most comfortable cheetah print boy shorts.
"Why don't you ever have pants on?" I heard Adam ask as I walked to the basement with my dirty clothes in my arms to put them in the hamper.
Typically, we all hung out in the basement. Not only was the WiFi somehow better, but it also had the biggest tv and it had the boys' Play Station. I turned away from the hamper that was next to the washing machine to see him sitting on the comfortable brown couch alone watching TV and I plopped down next to him.
"Why are you watching this movie," I began to ask as I put a few pieces of his popcorn in my mouth, "You hated it last time I wanted to watch it with you. You barely got through it."
He shrugged his shoulders and moved me around so that my back was against the armrest and he was sitting between my legs with the back of his head resting on my chest and the bowl of popcorn was on top of his stomach. I grabbed my phone and started to scroll through Instagram.
"I have to write a paper about a movie from this genre. I kinda remembered it so I thought it would be easier than doing something new." Adam explained, flinching at something that jumped out during the movie.
"Why didn't you invite any of your friends over?" I asked him curiously, thinking it was weird that he didn't take advantage of the offer that his mother had made to him early this morning.
"Eli and Clare have a date tonight. He surprised her so they're going to a concert when she gets out of her internship thing. I'm not really sure." He explained briefly and grabbed the remote to add the subtitles to the movie since we were talking to each other too now, "Besides, I didn't think you would be that comfortable with a bunch of people in the house when you get home. I didn't want you to be unnecessarily overwhelmed or extra stressed on your first day."
"I guess but you still should have invited Eli over then, you know I wouldn't care. He's your best friend." I said to him in an attempt to reassure him, scrolling through something on my phone that my friend back home had posted.
Adam moved away from me a bit and so that he would be able to look up into my eyes. smirking at me and making me groan since I already knew where he was going with this.
"Adam, don't-" I started to say at the same time that he started to speak as well.
"Does someone have a crush on Eli?" he asked, playfully, teasing me, "Ooooooh, I'm gonna tell Jake. No, better! I'm gonna tell Clare."
I felt my face heat up and I shook my head quickly. He wasn't exactly wrong, but it's not like Eli and I were going to be going anywhere with that friendship or relationship anytime soon. He had a girlfriend that he was very committed to. And to make matters worse, I had literally just gone on a date with that girlfriend's step brother.
"Don't get me wrong, he's cute and all. You know that he's my type." I started to say before locking my phone and shrugging, "But he has a girlfriend and even if he didn't I think Jake and I could be going somewhere."
"He thinks you're hot." Adam told me, almost causing me to choke on the mouthful of popcorn, "He saw a picture of all of us that your mom posted on Facebook because she tagged all of us. The one from that lake we all went down to for your grandma's birthday."
"It doesn't matter if he thinks I'm cute. I don't care. What matters is-" I started to say to him before registering what he had just said and then stopping my current train of thought, "-wait. Do you mean the pictures where I have the braids and the red bikini? The one that my grandma got mad at me for wearing and made me cover up?"
"Yup. He zoomed all the way in on your ass too." Adam said, tossing popcorn in the air and catching it back in his mouth easily.
"I looked fantastic that day. What else did he say?" I asked Adam excitedly and shook him just a little bit with some urgency, making him laugh.
"I thought you said it doesn't matter and you didn't care." He told me which made and roll my eyes and nudge him slightly.
"You're just jealous because I'm so attractive that I even get attention when grandma is yelling at me."
Adam rolled his eyes too, a nasty habit that we had probably somehow developed from each other. I really didn't know how I felt right now. Well...that wasn't exactly true. I felt like I wasn't genuinely interested in Jake. I was bored, lonely, and felt like I wouldn't be able to get the attention that I wanted from the man that I wanted it from.
"What is Jake to you?" Adam asked me, shaking me from my internal debate when he moved back to his previous position and I started to play with his brown hair, "I mean, what happened to your big promise to yourself and all of us about not falling in love because of what happened?"
"I'm not going to fall in love with Jake, he's cute and he likes me. I think I deserve to have a small fling, just someone to fool around with that can make me happy. Please let me keep him." I asked him with a little whine. "I'll be good. I won't hurt him. Just don't make me stop talking to him."
"As long as I'm always your number one and you don't do anything stupid." he said before taking a drink of his soda, "Well, more stupid than Jake, I guess."
I smiled and placed a kiss on the top of his head, something that was pretty common with the two of us since I had always been a very affectionate person with my loved ones.
"You'll always be my number one. You know that you're my best friend." I told him honestly, knowing that it made him smile and that Adam sometimes needed a little extra encouragement from his loved ones.
I turned my attention back to the TV that we were supposed to be paying at least a little attention to. We watched movie after movie and around ten o'clock I felt my eyes slowly close and I was taken off to slumber land along with the snoring Adam that sat on the couch with me after we had reversed our positions. Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly the most comfortable position to fall asleep in. I'd definitely regret it in the morning.
"Wake the fuck up!" I heard a voice scream as the television was finally turned off.
The body behind me that was keeping me warm groaned and shifted slightly as I did the same thing. I pushed my hair out of my eyes and stretched out my limbs in front of me.
"Drew, get out." I mumbled sleepily.
"Mom and dad aren't back yet and since they left mom's car, I'm driving us to school. Get your asses up or you'll both have to walk to school." Drew's voice said commandingly was his footsteps retreated out of the basement and up the stairs towards the kitchen.
"Sometimes I really don't like your brother." I grumbled to Adam while still trying to actually wake my body up.
"That's fine." Adam said with a yawn as he sat up in the couch, "After all, sometimes I really don't like your cousin.
I finally officially moved out of my semi-comfortable position on the old couch. I grabbed my phone and the charger off of the floor before starting to leave. I walked back up the stairs to my room and quickly got ready. I did my makeup and fixed my hair before walking down the stairs to the kitchen where Adam and Drew sat, waiting for me. We all piled into the car, Drew driving, Adam in the back seat, and me riding shotgun. When we got to school, Drew went in search of Bianca and my hand found Adam's. I still kinda felt like I was half asleep. Last night definitely wasn't a good night for me at all.
"Why do I feel like this is going to be our everyday routine?" I asked with a calm smile as we stepped into walked up the stairs and made our way to our lockers.
"What," he began to say in a knowing tone, "Drew walking away and leaving you and I to walk into school and confuse the many many people that don't know we're related?"
I laughed a little before nodding my head, putting my combination in my locker. It was still a little hard to remember the combination and actually properly put it into the lock. But, I had been managing pretty well so far. I heard footsteps walking behind me and saw that Adam walked towards where they were coming from to greet his friends when hands moved over my eyes. I already knew who it was, of course, just like I knew it wouldn't last.
"Guess who?" A somewhat familiar voice asked me playfully.
"Someone that doesn't know I hate being snuck up on?" I responded in the same joyful tone that he had used with me just a brief moment ago.
The hands left my face and I turned my head around slightly to see Jake behind me with a smile. I smiled up at him and placed a chaste kiss on his lips, his arm wrapping around me from behind and pulling me closer to him. I heard a loud slap and felt Jake stiffen. I pulled away from his to see Drew walking away, hand-in-hand with Bianca.
"So, when exactly is he supposed to warm up to me?" Jake asked.
I smiled and shook my head.
"That's the thing, sweetie. He won't." I joked which made Jake laugh.
The bell rang above us and he intertwined his fingers with my own as he escorted me to class. We sat down where we did the day before and Jake took out his notebook with the half-done work he claimed to have finished the yesterday, making me raise my eyebrows when I saw how little he had actually completed. I would've thought that someone who had been taking this class with this teacher longer than me would've been able to get more work done.
"Mr. Martin," the teacher began to say to Jake just before the class was scheduled to start for the day, "Come up please. I'd like to speak to you."
Jake got up and walked over to the teacher's desk, a slight frown forming on his face while I sat patiently at my desk waiting for him to return. I obviously wasn't very sure of what exactly was being said. However, I was sure it had something to do with the effort that Jake had been putting into his work lately. When he finally made his way over to where I sat, he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. I assumed it hadn't gone well.
"What happened? Is everything okay?" I asked him curiously, mildly worried about him and what the teacher could've said.
"I think it's bad, honestly. Apparently I'm failing and it is being suggested that I get a tutor to help me pass the course." he said, answering my question, "If I do end up failing than I'm gonna have to take this again next year. Which means I'll be graduating later than my friends because I'll be behind."
"I can tutor you; in my old school I had straight A's. I'm sure I can help you out." I offered. "Chemistry wasn't ever my best class, but I'm sure I can help you bring your grade up enough."
"That sounds good. It sounds great, actually. Thank you so much. I'd really appreciate that." He told me honestly and let out a little sigh of relief. "Do you want to come over today after school? I have to finish the work from yesterday. She said she's going to be checking it the next time I'm in class to make sure I'm actually putting in the effort. It would be a lot easier for you to help me instead of me trying to copy whatever Clare has.
I nodded my head at him as the teacher began to talk and I moved to take out my notebook even though I doubted that I would need it since the lesson being given today was pretty simple. I sighed and moved to lean back in my chair and get more comfortable as my stomach grumbled and I frowned, I couldn't wait until lunch.