The weeks passed without a sign of the demon. Jake had a lot of peaceful sleep, and he had dreams of Aurora. He dreamed about the fun times they had together on his farm. He realized he missed it more than he expected to.
Luckily, with the money he was saving staying at the house instead of the dorm, he'd be able to get a ticket home for Thanksgiving.
Tony hadn't returned home as expected within a few days. He said he had business to attend to and would be home around Halloween.
Jake found he even missed Tony. He knew that everyone else did as well; although, they did not admit it, as Jake had not either. He felt it around him as eyes strayed over to the empty chair at the dining room or kitchen tables.
Emily had even taken down several bottles of wine, which were in the cabinet in the dining room, to Tony's room. Apparently, he had some sort of wine system down there for storing wine properly.
Jake learned another one of Tony's secrets from George. Tony wasn't from Rome originally as he had said. He actually lived in an area they called wine country, and he owned a huge vineyard.
The wine Tony always drank was from his vineyard. George said he had trusted people managing the vineyard while he was away, and Tony returned to Italy every few months to check on things.
Emily disappeared every Sunday morning for breakfast with Brian, as Raven said, but no one would say what was going on between the two of them.
Jake wasn't sure he liked what he thought it was. But who was he to tell Emily whom she should see. He was too nervous to tell her how he really felt about her.
His reasoning was that if she could read his thoughts then she already knew. And she hasn't done anything about it, so that told him how she felt about him.
Jake walked to the end of the path to the road to get the mail as no mailman would venture up the driveway to bring it to their door.
There was a letter from his mother telling him how much they missed him and how his little sister kept harassing her for his room.
Jake smiled; maybe he'd give it to her. He didn't think he'd be going back to Iowa to live. He was happy in California. He thought he could be here what he could not be there. Which was himself. With crazy dreams included.
Even with the comments and whispers from the locals here, Jake didn't care with his friends at his side. In Iowa, he felt so alone. Here, he was part of something. Something he couldn't yet figure out, but that didn't matter to him. All that mattered was that he was a part of something. A part of a friendship. He'd never had that before, unless you counted Aurora; and really how could he?
He looked at the rest of the mail as he climbed up the steps to the house. There was a small envelope with his name on it and other envelopes exactly the same with all his roommates' names on them. However, there was no stamp, so someone had just put them in the mailbox personally.
He opened his envelope up curiously. It read: You are cordially invited to dinner with the Airheart family. Friday night. 7pm. And there was an address below. He left the other envelopes on the hall table with the other mail for his roommates to pick up.
Family? Jake wondered. Brian was married? That really upset him that Emily would date a married man. Especially one with a family. She didn't seem like the type, although, he never knew anyone that had done that. So, he didn't know what type that would be.
"Hey," Emily said, coming into the kitchen carrying her envelope and opening it.
"Hi," Jake replied, pretending to read his mom's letter again.
Emily looked over at him and saw a brick wall. She frowned. It was unlike Jake to hide his thoughts from her. She had been trying not to try to read his mind as she always did. But it was hard to do when she felt something was going on. And with his cold hello, she knew something was going on.
"It's nice Brian's having us over for dinner," Emily said, seeing he'd open his envelope as well.
"Yeah," Jake muttered, not looking up from his paper.
"You're going, right?" she asked.
He shrugged, "I guess."
Emily went to the fridge and took out a soda. She looked at him puzzled as she walked out of the kitchen and headed upstairs. "What's with Jake?" she asked George as she passed him in the hallway.
"Don't know," he answered.
"Try to find out for me, please?" she said to him. "He's learned to block."
"Yeah. Ok, nosy," George tapped his index finger on the tip of her nose.
"It's Jake," she emphasized, "I'm worried about him. Please?" she gave him a pout.
George sighed. "Fine!"
He headed down to the kitchen, picked up his mail from the hallway table on his way to the kitchen. George opened his envelope as he walked in.
"Cool. Free food!" he exclaimed happily. He opened another envelope. "Yuck, bill," he said, tossing his mail on the table.
Jake was writing on a page of his notebook and hadn't looked up at George's shenanigans.
"What's up?" George asked him, heading to the fridge to see if he could find any goodies that Emily may have felt compelled to make, but scowled when he couldn't find anything. He grabbed a can of soda and then took out some commercially made cookies from a cabinet.
George sat at the table across from Jake. "Cookie?" He held out the bag to him, shaking it temptingly.
"Sure," Jake answered, pulling one from the bag.
"What's up?" George asked again, munching a cookie.
"Not much. Writing back my mom," Jake stood up and went to the refrigerator for some milk.
"Ever hear of email?" George frowned before chewing on a cookie.
Jake laughed, "Mom's old fashioned. She thinks handwritten letters are more personal."
"Everything okay at home?"
"Yeah. Fine. My sister's still after my room," Jake came back to the table with his glass of milk. He reached for another cookie. "I think I'll let her have it. I don't think I'm going back home to live."
"Staying in good ole Californie-ay?" George asked with a smile.
"Yeah, I plan to. Even if this life of luxury doesn't work out," he said, gesturing to the house around him.
"Why wouldn't it work out?" George asked him, puzzled.
"I don't know. I'm just saying. Just in case. I'd still stay around in California," Jake said, drinking his milk.
"You don't want to live with us anymore?" George asked him, confused.
"No. No. I didn't say that, George. Geez! I like it here. Really," Jake said defensively.
"Okay," George said, putting up his hands, "You just had me worried there for a minute."
After some mundane conversation about their classes, George made his way back up stairs to Emily's room.
"He's gone from denial to back to questioning."
"You sure that's it?" she asked, worried.
"Pretty sure. He's just trying to figure out where he belongs," George squeezed her shoulder reassuringly.
"He's never blocked me out before," Emily complained to him.
"He never knew you were listening before," George shrugged. "Jake's just learning to put up his blockers, so you don't pry your cute little nose where it doesn't belong."
"I know, I shouldn't pry. It's hard not to when I know something is wrong and he won't talk to me," she said, sitting on her couch, and crossed her legs yoga style.
George tilted his head and winced. "Doesn't that hurt?"
"Not after you've done it several times. Wanna try?"
"Uh, no. That's okay," George replied, and quickly bounded down her steps before she would make him try.